Earlier this month I posted about the SOAS student union's attempt to ban a speaker from the Israeli embassy, invited by the Jewish Society. The union was overruled by SOAS's director, Colin Bundy, and the meeting of the Jewish Society duly took place on February 22. Here's part of an account of it, circulated recently by email:
The SOAS meeting was rather a special event. Before the talk took place, about 30-40 anti-Israel protesters with... placards and flyers stood outside the building. Soon the protestors moved in to fill the lobby outside the lecture theatre. The lecture theatre itself was pretty full, and the speaker, Roey Gilad, entered the room. As proceedings were about to start, the fire alarm went off, whilst some protestors began shouting slogans. It was clear that the alarm had been set off by the protestors, but SOAS security insisted on evacuating the building and suspending the event, pending a visit by a fire crew. At the time, it was not clear that the event would be able to restart, and we filed outside rather angrily. The exit to the building has a large revolving glass door, and as we arrived at the exit, we saw that this had been smashed, with piles of glass lying around. It was not clear whether this was due to malice or as the result of an accident. It certainly made the atmosphere more tense. Outside the building were now about 300-400 people, including the anti-Zionist protestors...See also Melanie Phillips's post on this, which adds, from another participant in the meeting:[In] the melee, and quite unannounced, was Trevor Phillips, the chair for the Commission for Racial Equality. After about 25 minutes, we were able to go back into the building and settle in the lecture theatre again. The meeting now began once more, this time with a packed lecture hall, and a considerable number of people standing outside. Trevor Phillips was asked to give an impromptu address. He stressed the need for freedom of expression on campus, and told the audience in a direct and challenging way that anyone who prevented this through intimidation or interference would be answerable to him and to the powers of his commission. His tone seemed to genuinely disconcert some of the protesters. The meeting then continued with a short introduction from Gavin Gross, the Jewish society chair, including the problems he had encountered and overcome in getting the meeting to happen at all, and then the invited speaker, Roey Gilad began.
.....
The meeting came to an end pretty abruptly as the late start prevented the full 2 hours originally scheduled. However, by that time, SOAS Jewish Society members could leave with the sense of real achievement - not only getting the meeting to happen in the face of the appalling obstruction of SOAS student union and the petty sabotage of hostile protestors, but having the luck of hearing a very effective advocate of Israel's position...
Trevor Phillips made a powerful statement about the 'resurgence of overt anti-Semitism' in this country...Good for Trevor Phillips. Powerful statements on this subject are not so easy to come by.
