From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, January 20, 2016
Pro-Palestinian protesters riot at London event with ex-Shin Bet head
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleA protest at a pro-Israel event at a London university Tuesday turned violent, with pro-Palestinian activists smashing a window, throwing chairs and reportedly assaulting an organizer.
Police had to be called to quell the melee at the King’s College event where former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon was scheduled to give an address, and a British government official has called the riot “totally unacceptable.”
Protesters reacted to being shut out of the overcrowded conference room where the event was being held by banging on windows, chanting “free, free Palestine” and setting off fire alarms across the building, the Jewish Chronicle reports.
Esther Endfield, one of the organizers of the event, says on Facebook that she had also been assaulted during the protest.
https://www.facebook.com/esther.endfield/posts/441213496083726?pnref=story
Endfield also posts a video showing the scrum.
No arrests were made. Police say one woman was hit by a protester but there were no injuries.
In a tweet, Baroness Susan Williams, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the UK’s Department of Communities and Local Government, says she’s “appalled to hear reports of violent protests at Kings College Israel Society meeting yesterday. Totally unacceptable.”
The Israeli Embassy in London tells the Chronicle the incident was “shocking and shameful.”
The university launched an investigation into the incident, according to the paper.
The Times of Israel Community.