Pro-Palestine protesters at Trinity College in Dublin have shut down an event by an Israeli ambassador to Ireland amid alleged chanting of “genocidal slogans” and other security threats.
A campus student group called “Students for Just Palestine” held a protest prior the event at the university where Ze’ev Boker, an Israeli ambassador to Ireland, was scheduled to hold a Q&A session with another student group.
The protesters stood outside the lecture hall with signs and Palestinian flags chanting against the Jewish state. According to the ambassador, the event was cancelled for security reasons after the Irish police and the security staff on campus weren’t able to stop the protesters, the Times of Israel reports.
A short video from the protest can be seen below:
The Foreign Ministry of Israel claims it was “horrified by the vicious actions of the group,” and accused the protesters of chanting “genocidal slogans, which call for Israel’s destruction, while barring access to the lecture theater.”
The Ministry added: “They obviously have no interest in helping efforts to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but rather wish to ignite and inflame the situation.
“It is a pity to see such a small and extreme group denying academic thought, exploration and discussion from an Irish audience, but unfortunately these are the bullying, intimidating tactics of the BDS movement.”
Trinity College has put out a statement denouncing the activists. It said: “The university regards what happened as an unacceptable attack on free speech.”
“The ambassador has been a regular and welcome visitor to Trinity since his appointment. He had dinner in the university earlier the same evening and attended another event in Trinity last week,” the statement added.
The university provost, Patrick Prendergast, also slammed the Pro-Palestine group, saying the protest “represents the antithesis of what Trinity stands for.”
He added: “Universities should be able to facilitate the exchange of ideas. The protesters have violated that fundamental belief. Trinity will remain a home for debate and we will do everything possible to make sure that efforts to suppress the free exchange of ideas do not succeed. I look forward to welcoming ambassador Boker back to Trinity to speak again in the near future.”
