Palestinian ambassador will make Union appearance

PalSoc welcomes ‘opportunity for a Palestinian voice to be heard’, but accuses Union of ‘failing to provide the Israeli Ambassador with an effective challenger’

Hassassian appeared at the Oxford Union last yearYouTube/OxfordUnion

by Daniel Gayne

This article is 9 years old

Thursday October 20 2016, 1:56pm

Following their announcement this morning that the Israeli ambassador will be coming at the end of the month, The Cambridge Union has announced today that they will also be hosting the Palestinian ambassador in November.

Born in Jerusalem in 1953, the diplomatic representative of the Palestinian Authority, Professor Manuel Hassassian, will attend the Cambridge Union just under a month after Mark Regev, his Israeli counterpart.

The ambassador will address Union members for 15 minutes, followed by a 40-minute question-and-answer session.

Reacting to the announcement, a spokesperson for Cambridge University’s Palestinian Society (PalSoc) told Varsity that the group was “not surprised” by the announcement.

“This is exactly the same tactic that the union employs year on year: they invite the Israeli Ambassador to speak but fail to provide him with an effective challenger.”

“Whilst we welcome an opportunity for a Palestinian voice to be heard, hosting him weeks after the Israeli Ambassador clearly shows that the Union have once again not made a conscious effort to challenge the Israeli Ambassador on the illegal occupation of Palestine and their grave human rights violations in the country,” they added.

The spokesperson continued by accusing the Union of allowing the Israeli Ambassador to “speak unchallenged,” a move which they claimed “[denies] the reality of the situation in the region.”

“Though the Union started up communication with us about this event, they failed to respond to any of our emails and we were not informed of either Ambassador’s invite.”

Like Regev, Hassassian has recently appeared at the Oxford Union. The two also clashed on air last month, as part of LBC radio’s Middle East Debate.

Professor Hassassian has been a visiting academic at several international universities, including a tenure at the University of Bethlehem.

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