Howard Davies,

We are writing to protest your decision to invite Israel's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Daniel Ayalon to speak at LSE on Monday. We urge you to revoke his invitation on grounds of inciting racial hatred. As you may be aware, Daniel Ayalon was elected to government on a racist platform. His party, Yisrael Beiteinu, has consistently made vicious threats to revoke the citizenship of 1.5 million Palestinian citizens of Israel unless they swear allegiance to a Jewish state. This is tantamount to asking British Blacks to swear allegiance to a White Britain. Furthermore, there are numerous recorded instances when he incited against Palestinians, including the threat made by his party to "execute" the Palestinian Members of the Knesset if they establish contact with Palestinians in the occupied territories. Commentators are unanimous in classing Ayalon and his party as racists. His anti-Arab and bigoted views threaten the physical safety of LSE students originating from the region and will inflame tensions on campus.

To add insult to injury, LSE sent an e-mail to all students and staff advertising this event. Prominent in his biography is his involvement with University Center, an institution of state propaganda built on stolen land in the occupied West Bank. The university has been grey- listed by the University College Union for its role as an ideological incubator for Israel's violent and racist policies against Palestinians. LSE is in this way legitimizing the settlement enterprise while ignoring the costs associated with the suppression of Palestinian academic freedom.

As the Goldstone report states, Israel committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza last winter. Ayalon will most likely be whitewashing those crimes in his lecture, gaining legitimacy in doing so using the good name of LSE. War crimes should not be privy to free expression and if Ayalon indeed wishes to put forward Israel's case, there is a forum waiting for him in the Hague. The LSE should not provide a platform to racists and war criminals. It is a disrespectful to the memory of the thousands murdered by Israel's bombs and will incite hatred against student at the LSE on the basis of their ethnicity and religious belief.

Finally, we would like assurances from LSE that audiences for such events are not racially profiled as is required at venues where Israeli officials talk. We are worried that this may have happened already in the allocation of tickets for this event.

As you are ultimately responsible for the safety and wellbeing of students on campus, we ask you to reconsider your decision and immediately revoke the invitation of Ayalon.


Palestine Solidarity Initiative
LSE SU Palestine Society