- Ely Lassman was due to speak at a panel event discussing the Israel-Palestine conflict
The Israel society at one of Britain’s top universities has been forced to cancel an event where a former IDF soldier was due to speak after he was bombarded with death threats.
Ely Lassman was due to speak at a panel event discussing the Israel-Palestine conflict organised by King’s College London’s (KCL) Israel Society on Wednesday. However, the event was cancelled for security reasons.
Mr Lassman now runs an educational charity called Prometheus on Campus. His last record of military service for the IDF was in December 2017.
The ex-soldier said the event was supposed to be a small-scale discussion about different perspectives on the conflict with another speaker Kiyah Willis.
Ely Lassman was due to speak at an event organised by King’s College London’s Israel society
The last record of the charity boss’ military service for the IDF was in December 2017 (pictured second from the left in the second row)
The Israel Society said they were shocked at the ‘unfathomable levels of hostility within the King’s community regarding anything remotely Israeli’
Speaking to the Jewish News, Mr Lassman said ‘made up information’ about himself was posted online prior to the event. He was described as the ’embodiment of evil’ and was branded a ‘war criminal.’
He also said a social media post ‘called for anyone who is up for it’ to harrass him.
Meanwhile, Ms Willis describes herself as an ‘Advocate for the Secular Liberal Right’ and works for the Objective Standard Institute.
In a post on X/Twitter, Ms Willis said she had also received death threats and that ‘vicious lies’ were spread about her prior to the event. She also claimed she had been banned from speaking at KCL.
In a statement to King College’s student newspaper Roar, the Israel Society said there were dozens of threats to Mr Lassman’s life and they were saddened at the ‘unfathomable levels of hostility within the King’s community regarding anything remotely Israeli.’
Aurele Tobelem, president of KCL Israel Society said that the society had had multiple meetings with the student union as well as the security team to protect the speakers but ultimately the pair had received too many death threats for it to proceed.
Dilly Hussain, a prominent journalist and contributor to Al Jazeera English, posted on X/Twitter that Mr Lassman had committed war crimes but he later deleted the post and issued an apology stating that this was untrue.
Comments on the original Instagram post advertising the event included people calling Mr Lassman a war criminal
Kiyah Willis, who was also due to speak, she had also received death threats and that ‘vicious lies’ were spread about her
The society had had multiple meetings with the student union as well as the security team to protect the speakers but the security concern was too high
However, he followed his apology by saying: ‘Does this mean that King’s College students and pro-Palestine campaigners were wrong to peacefully protest against his planned event today to discuss ‘conflict resolution’ with the Zionist genocide enabling @kiyahwillis? Absolutely not.’
He also criticised the London university for allowing the event ‘given the death and destruction meted out by Israel in its collective punishment of Palestinians in Gaza.’
Mr Lassman and Ms Willis later decided to host an online discussion event.
It comes as London was declared the most anti-Semitic place in the West by Israel’s diaspora minister.
Amichai Chikli said that a combination of the far-Left, Islamic extremism and open immigration meant the capital was too dangerous for Jews.
‘The anti-Semitism we see today in the West is the worst since the 1930s and it is because of a ‘red and green’ alliance – the combination of the radical Left and the radical Islam groups that work together,’ he told a press conference of European journalists in Jerusalem.
MailOnline has approached Mr Lassman and Ms Willis for further comment.
