Anti-Israel protestors, c. 2021. Photo: Matt Hrkac/Wikimedia Commons.

A London researcher known for using antisemitic tropes was invited to be a guest lecturer at University of Edinburgh, a Jewish advocacy nonprofit reported on Wednesday.

According to Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAM), Salman Abu Sitta, who has discussed “Jewish financial power” and likened Israelis to Nazis will speak during an event the university is holding on November 8 to commemorate the centennial of the British Mandate in Palestine.

In recent years Sitta has made numerous public statements which allude to an elite, global cabal of Jews conspiring to commit genocide against the Palestinians and control the media.

In October, he said, “Jewish financial power in the United States today, supporting AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee] activities, is a potent colonial force against Palestinians” and “the Israeli imposed blockade of Gaza is genocide.”

In another interview he called accused antisemite and British parliamentarian Jeremy Corbyn a “great, honorable man” and described Jews as “ghetto dwellers of Europe who came to take our land.”

On Tuesday, University of Edinburgh spokesman Andrew Moffat told The Algemeiner that the school is “committed to freedom of expression and academic freedom.”

“Staff and students should feel able to discuss controversial topics and that different views are respected,” Moffat continued. “Given the size of our community, it is inevitable that there will be differing views amongst its members. We encourage respectful debate and discussion whenever there are differences of view or opinion.”

In January, Jewish students at the university defended the school’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which has been adopted by at least 100 universities in the United Kingdom, against a faculty group’s effort to overturn the school’s adoption of it.

The faculty group accused the leading definition of antisemitism of having “the harmful and adverse effect of silencing critique of Israeli state practices and therefore protecting them from critical intellectual inquiry.”