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January 22, 2017 8:22 am
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Panelist at Anti-Israel UK University Seminar Applauded for Accusing Jewish Students of Being ‘Propaganda Machine’ Operatives

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avatar by Lea Speyer

Queen Mary University of London campus. Photo: QMUL.

Queen Mary University of London campus. Photo: QMUL.

An academic participating in a seminar on Thursday at a British university accused Jewish students of being operatives of an “Israeli Propaganda Machine,” UK blogger David Collier reported.

Prof. Moshé Machover, an Israeli-born mathematician and philosopher known for his radical activism and founding of the socialist party Matzpen — who moved to the UK in 1968 — made this assertion and others at the Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) event, titled: “Right to Boycott: Should Queen Mary Endorse a Boycott on Israel?”

The seminar was hosted by the QMUL Friends of Palestine Society and sponsored by the British NGO Friends of Al Aqsa, which openly supports terror group Hamas.

Challenged by a “visibly Jewish student” about the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, Machover asserted that the student’s question was one that the “Israeli propaganda machine actually breeds its representatives to ask.”

“I know what briefing you get. I have been in this game before you were born, and I know what briefing you get. You always use the same formulations because you are singing from the same sheet of briefing,” Machover said.

“Long experience… leads me because I know what Shai Masot is up to,” he went on, referring to the Israeli Embassy official in London who was forced to resign from the Foreign Ministry after being caught on camera by Al Jazeera talking about “taking down” anti-Israel MPs.

In a video of the exchange posted by Collier, Machover’s comments are welcomed by audience applause. Off camera, a female student is heard protesting, “How dare you say that? We are students.” However, Collier said, any attempt by Jewish students to rebut Machover was met by organizers telling them to “let him speak.”

The event at QMUL came a month after Baroness Ruth Deech — a crossbench peer in the House of Lords who served as the first Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education — said that top British universities are becoming “no-go zones” for Jewish students, due to rising antisemitism on campus.

On Thursday, the head of the Jewish Society at the School of Oriental and African Studies told The Algemeiner that he will be submitting an emergency motion aimed at protecting his peers — “scared” to be recognized as Jews — from just this kind of atmosphere.

Watch a video of the QMUL panel exchange below:

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