Organiser: The Association of the Palestinian Community, CIMEL and the Sir Joseph Hotung Programme

Contact email: sh84@soas.ac.uk; vk1@soas.ac.uk

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Organised by: Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law , School of Law ,

 

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Anti-Israeli Activity at the School of Oriental and African Studies:

By Gavin Gross, JCPA. Published September 2008

http://www.jcpa.org/JCPA/Templates/ShowPage.asp?DBID=1&LNGID=1&TMID=111&FID=381&PID=470&IID=2628 Click to read full article

In addition, an academic centre at SOAS, the Sir Joseph Hotung Programme in Law, Human Rights and Peace Building in the Middle East, appears to lack balance in its coverage of Israeli-Palestinian issues. In October 2004, they cosponsored, along with the SOAS Palestine Society and others, a memorial conference for the Palestinian intellectual Edward Said titled "A Continuing Legacy." In November 2004, they invited the Palestinian advocate Dr. Hanan Ashrawi to present the annual Hotung Lecture. 

In January 2005, following the International Court of Justice's (ICJ) ruling against Israel's security barrier, Prof. Iain Scobbie, head of the Hotung Programme, spoke at three different events at SOAS regarding the alleged illegality of the barrier. One of these events at which Scobbie lectured, along with Arab Member of Knesset and fierce critic of Israeli policy Dr. Azmi Bishara and others, was held at the Brunei Gallery Lecture Theatre, the largest venue on the SOAS campus. The overall event was titled "Sealing Their Fate: The Wall's Implications for Palestinian life" and was presented by the Friends of Birzeit University, the SOAS Palestine Society, and the London Middle East Institute at SOAS.  

In a talk attended by this author on 18 January 2005 at SOAS, titled "The Wall: Material Facts, Legal Arguments and International Court," Scobbie and Hotung research fellow Stephanie Koury gave lengthy presentations detailing the barrier's route, the hardship it causes Palestinians, and the illegality of its construction according to the ICJ. However, they made no mention in their prepared remarks of the nine hundred Israelis killed over four years in suicide bombings. 

To date, there have been no law seminars about the illegality of suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians. Later in January 2005, though, the Hotung Programme advertised a meeting with the SOAS Palestine Society titled "The Peace Process and Palestinian Refugee Property Claims." In November 2005, Dr. Menachem Klein, a board member of the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, was brought in to speak about Jerusalem. He considers Israeli policy in the city to be one of apartheid.

In March 2006, the Hotung Programme presented a seminar with Israeli-British lawyer Daniel Machover titled "Practical Problems Prosecuting War Crimes in the English Courts."[35] Machover attempted to have retired Israeli general Doron Almog arrested in Britain for alleged war crimes. He is also the lawyer for Ahmed Saadat, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) leader captured by the Israelis from a Palestinian jail. The European Union considers the PFLP a terrorist organization.