The London School of Economics and Political Science. Photo: Wiki Commons.

The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) is rated as one of the best universities in the UK and globally — and the school often extols its academic mission and motto: rerum cognoscere causas (“to know the causes of things”). 

It is curious, then, that the LSE does not feel obliged, let alone willing, to share the knowledge presumably obtained at a book event it hosted about Hamas.

Readers may not be aware that the LSE recently hosted a discussion with an author about her book Understanding Hamas and Why That Matters. The discussion quickly attracted criticism and censure when it was announced.

First, LSE’s webpage for the event carried the blurb of the publisher, OR Books. The blurb claims that “the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has been subject to intense vilification. Branding it as ‘terrorist’ or worse, this demonization intensified after the events in Southern Israel on October 7, 2023.”

It is difficult — and incredibly radical – to sustain the idea that Hamas has been demonized.

Of course, this is no surprise for OR Books, which features a book called Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn, no fewer than six books by Norman Finkelstein, and — what else — a “Free Palestine Reading List.”

But the LSE has a reputation to maintain. Thus, following criticism, the LSE replaced the event’s description. Unfortunately, their promotional text remains problematic in other ways: it claims that the book set out Hamas’ “transformation from early anti-Jewish tendencies to a stance that differentiates between Judaism and Zionism.”

Efforts by Hamas members to slay the “Yehudis” surely refute this.

As the event neared, protests and counterprotests arose. The LSE was determined that the event go ahead, because “free speech underpins everything we do.”  What is more, “Students, staff and visitors are strongly encouraged to discuss and debate the most pressing issues around the world.”

However, perhaps anxious about security and reputational implications, the LSE decided that this “public” event would only be available to LSE staff and students. Indeed, there would not even be a livestream of the event. To date, the LSE has not put up a video of the event. So much for visitors being invited to “discuss and debate the most pressing issues.”

The LSE has somehow arrived at the worst possible decision. On the one hand, it chose to go ahead with hosting an event that could, on one reading of UK terrorism legislation, have allowed its speakers to commit the offense of inviting support for a terrorist organization. That the book was co-written by a Quaker who saw fit to promote the book on the “Nonviolence International” YouTube channel is certainly ironic, but this does not erase the fact that Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organization in the UK.

On the other hand, this is not a victory for academic freedom. The Jewish Chronicle, while criticizing the event, said that freedom of speech was fundamental for universities, and thus the LSE should proceed with the event (if only to reap the whirlwind later by losing out on state funding). Yet even here, the LSE has failed. By keeping the event closed only to LSE students and staff, and by refusing to put up a video of the event, the LSE is deliberately not sharing whatever was said at the event.

If, as The Jewish Chronicle remarked, light is the best disinfectant to bad ideas, then that cannot happen here — where everything that was said remains in the dark, away from public scrutiny. Again, the LSE said this was an opportunity for visitors to come and share in the process of debate. But the LSE instead kept it a closed debate, never to be televised. The LSE locked the door and has thrown away the key.

While we do not yet know the consequences of their decision — whether other talks supportive of Hamas will now be hosted, or if Jewish students will be at further risk of harm on university campuses — we can point to the LSE’s decision as having played a part. To quote their motto, we will “know the causes of things.”

Asher Abramson is a lawyer based in Edinburgh, UK. He is a BA International History graduate of the London School of Economics.