Protests Against Charlotte Korchak Visit to University of Bristol

Students at the University of Bristol protested the decision of the Free Speech Society to host Charlotte Korchak, educator and representative of the anti-Palestine group StandWithUs.

Charlotte Korchak had previously said, “that being anti-Zionist goes hand-in-hand with being anti-Semitic”.

In response to her visit, Friends of Palestine issued a statement and organized a protest at the University of Bristol. In the statement, they mentioned: “We strongly condemn the Free Speech Society for inviting Charlotte Korchak and the University for approving the event, showing absolute disregard towards the dignity, equality, and well-being of their Palestinian students.”

They have also mentioned the role of StandWithUs “a long-established anti-Palestinian lobby group which claims to ‘educate the public about Israel'” as it publically supports the Israeli oppression of Palestinians.

In the statement, the group says: “The Free Speech Society has invited somebody that denounces Palestinians’ right to exist. This is somebody who engages in rhetoric that whitewashes and justifies Israel’s apartheid regime.”

“This is a dangerous and hateful voice against Palestinians that should not be permitted to speak on our campus.”

They then ended the statement by confirming that “the Palestinian struggle is not an abstract issue to be debated. It is a real, ongoing struggle that has cost thousands of lives. The Palestinian cause is the cause of all oppressed peoples. We sincerely condemn all those who actively participate, directly or indirectly, in our erasure.”

The University of Bristol Friends of Palestine Statement on Protest against Charlotte Korchak and StandWithUs:

University of Bristol Friends of Palestine would first like to thank all who mobilised in support of Palestinian rights and in peaceful protest this evening in opposition to the decision of the Free Speech Society to host Charlotte Korchak, a representative of the anti-Palestinian lobby group StandWithUs, and the Student Union’s decision to accept her presence on our campus. We strongly condemn the Free Speech Society for inviting Charlotte Korchak and the University for approving the event, showing absolute disregard towards the dignity, equality, and well-being of their Palestinian students. The decision to platform speakers from an ostensibly racist organisation undercuts the function of campus as a safe space for Palestinian students and the university’s moral and legal obligations to equality and shared values. This decision sets a dangerous precedent, displaying that students from marginalised groups do not have guaranteed safety on campus.

Charlotte Korchak is the Senior Educator and Director of International Student Programmes at StandWithUs. StandWithUs is a long-established anti-Palestinian lobby group which claims to ‘educate the public about Israel’. It publicly supports the oppressive regime that is responsible for brutalising Palestinians daily. The organisation routinely shares misinformation and racist rhetoric regarding occupied Palestine and its inhabitants.

The Free Speech Society has invited somebody that denounces Palestinians’ right to exist. This is somebody who engages in rhetoric that whitewashes and justifies Israel’s apartheid regime. This is somebody who is a self-professed Zionist. Zionism has meant profound trauma for generations, systematically separating Palestinians from their homes, land and each other.  This is somebody who actively contributes to the erasure of Palestinian culture, to the denial of our inalienable right to exist, and ultimately, to the dispossession of our people. This is a dangerous and hateful voice against Palestinians that should not be permitted to speak on our campus.

We were contacted by the Treasurer of the Free Speech Society with the offer of debating with Charlotte Korchak and to make our voices and perspectives heard to her. To that, we responded that, to us, the grandchildren of refugees and representatives of an oppressed nation, it is not an abstract issue to be debated for intellectual exercise. A debate implies there are two legitimate views, that they are a normal set of opposing views held in our society. That it is equally normal to support apartheid as it is to oppose it. In reality, it is unacceptable to debate apartheid and ethnic cleansing in Palestine. It is not simply that Charlotte Korchak’s supremacist positions are wrong, but that they are fundamentally illegitimate.

The SU’s initial response to the invitation of Korchak and StandWithUs was inadequate and demonstrated a lack of urgency and care in addressing anti Palestinian racism. Offers of wellbeing support are tone deaf and lack sincerity. Wellbeing support locates the problem within our Palestinian students who are forced to be ‘resilient’ to overcome racism targeted towards them. Palestinians do not need extra wellbeing support – what we need is a campus that is free from anti-Palestinian racism. A campus in which we feel safe and heard. Hollow sympathies from the SU do not cut it. In response to our frustration, two SU officers have reached out to us to offer their support and have agreed to take measures to commercially blacklist StandWithUs on our campus as well as issue a statement of solidarity with our cause. We commend this positive step but maintain that this is not an adequate compensation to allowing Charlotte Korchak on campus.

Unfortunately, the recent history of similarly anti Palestinian speakers such as Colonel Kemp and ex-Israeli officers in 2019 as well as Yaron Brookes earlier this year shows how the current external speaker policy is incompetent in addressing and protecting its Palestinian students. Palestinian students should not have to go through continuous trauma, forced to see displays of constant erasure, on their university campus. We therefore call for a serious reform of our external speaker policy.

Finally, we would like to stress that we held a peaceful student protest which was organised and controlled. Prior to the event, we sent an email to protestors outlining strict guidelines to ensure everything was orderly. These guidelines included strict guidelines against hate speech and incitement to violence.

The Palestinian struggle is not an abstract issue to be debated. It is a real, ongoing struggle that has cost thousands of lives. The Palestinian cause is the cause of all oppressed peoples. We sincerely condemn all those who actively participate, directly or indirectly, in our erasure.

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