A group of pro-Palestine students interrupted a talk hosted by the King’s Geopolitics Forum (KGF) at King’s College London (KCL) yesterday in protest of an Iranian speaker who, they claim, “promoted Zionist behaviour”.
The speaker, Iranian activist Faezeh Alavi, wrote on X before the event that a conversation about “Iran’s situation, people’s views on Israel & their vision for the region’s future” represented “an opportunity to reverse the course of history in Iran & the Middle East”.
Scheduled to start at 6 pm at the Nash Lecture Theatre, the talk with the title “From Conflict to Connection: Israelis and Iranians in Dialogue” was attended by some 40 people. Among them, there were about a dozen pro-Palestine protesters.
Twenty-five minutes into the event, one heckler stood up to question Alavi: “There has been a genocide happening for 15 months. How are you not going to talk about that?”
Security was called to the venue and Alavi exited the room.
“Tonight at King’s College, I felt as if I were under Islamic regime occupation again,” Alavi wrote on X after the event. She continued: “At an event where I, as a Muslim Iranian, voiced Iranians’ will for regime change, a pro-Palestinian mob shut it down when I mentioned Iran Lion & Sun flag.”
After Alavi left, the pro-Palestine protestors started shouting “Shame!” and “Free Palestine,” causing all attendees to leave the venue mid-event. Some members of the audience shouted back at the protesters.
A KCL spokesperson said: “We are investigating the disruption at a student society event last night in line with our policies and procedures for protest.”
“My blood is boiling. I am absolutely fed up,” said a senior committee member of the KCL Jewish society, which was among the main organisers, alongside other Jewish societies from across London.
Alavi has also voiced her support for Israel on X in the past.
She told Roar:
“I hope what happened at the event makes one thing clear: there are extremists who are silencing the voices of Muslims and do not want to see a prosperous Middle East. They once came after the Iranian nation in 1979, and now they are coming after Israel.”
In their statement, KGF claimed the speaker was “aware of the faces of various audience members and communicated that something is likely to happen.”
“KGF warmly welcome guests to challenge views that they may disagree with. Unfortunately, the several guests preferred to resort to the oldest form of hate, antiemitism, under the guise of being anti-Israel.
This was an antisemetic incident. KGF affirms our total rejection of the rhetoric shouted in the event and stand firmly committed to the safety of ourselves, our speakers and our audience.”— A spokesperson for KGF
Sami, the President of KCL Students for Justice for Palestine (SJP), denounced the hecklers. He said:
“I’ve been made aware of the disruption and honestly I was quite shocked and ashamed with what I saw.”
He continued: “I had encouraged our members to attend this event and to voice their concerns through engaging with the speakers directly and asking meaningful questions.”
According to him, the hecklers were “mostly external” and not affiliated with KCL SJP but with other London universities. The organisers of the event claim the opposite.
This demonstration comes two days after a large protest against Professor Rana Baker, who has been accused of using “Hamas material to ‘indoctrinate’ students” and has been subject to an ongoing investigation by King’s. Counter-protestors gathered in support of Baker.
Speaking about bringing media attention to yesterday’s disruption, the senior member of JSOC said:
“You would be surprised at how much force these people are going to experience after this. This is blatant anti-semitism. As a Jew who has experienced this in unprecedented amounts in the past two years – I’m exhausted.”
The topics to be discussed at the event included the difficulty of living within the Islamic Republic of Iran, the treatment of women there, the line between safety and freedom of expression, and Iranians’ view of Israel.
The Pahlavi era flag with a Lion and Sun emblem, mentioned by Alavi, was replaced by an Islamic emblem with the Takbir written across the flag after the Revolution of 1979.
In their statement, KGF wrote: “In an event that is supposed to foster unity and conversation between two opposing sides – Israel and Iran – the instigators have shown their true colours through an aggressive form of silencing.”
Alavi recognised a bigger threat. She said: “Unfortunately, this destructive ideology has already reached the UK. I am frequently attacked by these people even here. This should alert the West to how dangerous it could become.”
This article was amended at 12:07 to include a statement from Faezeh Alavi.
