A King’s College London lecturer led a seminar earlier in which she used a Hamas propaganda document and encouraged students to think of the terrorist organisation as a liberation movement.
Dr Rana Baker, a lecturer on Middle Eastern history, handed out the Hamas text titled “Our Narrative: Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,” which was originally published by the Hamas Media Office in January, as part of a seminar on the 1948 war and “Palestinian Arab identity-formation.”
The 18-page document refers to the October 7 massacre as a “necessary step” and a “normal response” to Israel’s actions.
Baker also made remarks comparing Zionists to Nazis and the “deployment of the Holocaust as a justification to build an exclusive Jewish state.”
Additionally, Baker’s preparation for the seminar included an extract from “A Reminder to the World, Who is Hamas?”, the fourth section of Hamas’s 2024 document.
A student recorded and delivered a recording of the seminar to university authorities, launching an investigation.
The anonymous student described the classes as “hostile” and an example of “indoctrination.”
Additionally, the student said that they and at least one other person felt pressured to present Israel in a negative light in order to succeed in the course.
