Pro-Israel students at UCL needed police protection when protesters from the Friends of Palestine Society trapped them inside a room and the situation became threatening.
By: Rachel Frommer, The Algemeiner
Police were called to University College London (UCL) on Thursday evening after anti-Israel protesters stormed an event organized by local pro-Israel advocacy groups, according to initial reports from the event.
Israeli activist Hen Mazzig was addressing a gathering at UCL hosted by CAMERA on Campus and the Friends of Israel student group, when anti-Israel protesters from the Friends of Palestine Society tried to stop the speech by loudly chanting, “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free.” They eventually trapped attendees inside of the on-campus event space where the talk was taking place.
According to footage taken by an attendee at the event and posted to the Sussex Friends of Israel (SFI) Facebook page, police arrived after “things got out of hand.” Officers are seen warning the event attendees not to leave the room without police protection, for their own safety, before escorting them through a crowd of anti-Israel activists shouting, “Shame! Shame!”
In another SFI video, the attendees at Mazzig’s speech are seen singing the Israeli national anthem, “Hatikvah,” and holding an Israeli flag, as they remain blockaded inside the event space.
According to information obtained by The Algemeiner, anti-Israel students first attempted to get UCL to ban Mazzig from speaking, and when those measures failed, they planned the mass protest.
Earlier this year, a similar event took place at Kings College, London where protesters violently disrupted a talk by Ami Ayalon — the ex-commander of the Israeli Navy and former head of the Shin Bet. One protester was later found guilty of assaulting a Jewish student at that protest.