Escalating Antisemitsm Rocks London
Masked Protesters Threaten to Kill Israeli Prof at London University
Masked protesters storm a London university lecture, hurling death threats at Israeli-Jewish professor Michael Ben-Gad in a shocking antisemitic attack that has rocked the campus and ignited outrage across the UK.
Yesterday, a group of masked pro-Palestinian protesters from a student collective called "City Action for Palestine" stormed into the lecture hall at City St George's, University of London (formerly City University of London), disrupting an economics class taught by Israeli-Jewish professor Michael Ben-Gad.
Approximately twelve activists, numbering around a dozen, chanted slogans accusing Ben-Gad of being a "war criminal," "terrorist," and "genocidal maniac" due to his past service in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and they demanded his resignation while holding signs and filming the incident.
According to Ben-Gad and reports, one protester allegedly threatened to "slit his throat" or "behead" him, escalating the disruption into what he described as a targeted act of intimidation reminiscent of Nazi-era tactics by Hitler's Brownshirts.
The incident lasted about 10 minutes before the protesters left, and no arrests were immediately reported, though the university has launched an investigation and condemned the behavior as unacceptable.
Ben-Gad, who has taught at the university for over 20 years and previously served in the IDF as a reservist, stated he would not be intimidated and plans to continue his classes, emphasizing that the protesters "picked the wrong professor at the wrong university."
The group has been harassing him for months, including through posters and online campaigns labeling him a "war criminal" over his IDF background.
Jewish community leaders and organizations, such as the Union of Jewish Students, have expressed outrage, calling it a "vile antisemitic attack" amid rising concerns over campus safety for Jewish staff and students in the UK.