The Moral Collapse of Academia and the Silence Over Jewish Blood

On 10th March, the London School of Economics (LSE) will host an event so morally perverse, so intellectually bankrupt, that it beggars belief. Cloaked in the veneer of academic inquiry, they will launch the book “Understanding Hamas”—a title so insidious, so grotesquely misleading, that it could have been penned by Hamas’s own propaganda machine. Understanding Hamas? The sheer audacity of the notion is obscene. It is akin to organising a seminar on the misunderstood virtues of the Ku Klux Klan or hosting a panel discussion on the humanitarian impulses of ISIS.

This is not about academic freedom. It is not about intellectual curiosity. It is about whitewashing terrorism, about sanitising the reputation of a group that glorifies death, that deliberately uses its own civilians as human shields, and that explicitly calls for the murder of Jews worldwide.

Let’s not mince words. Hamas is a proscribed terrorist organisation under UK law, designated as such by the United States, the European Union, and every civilised nation that recognises the sanctity of human life. Its charter is unambiguous: it demands the eradication of Israel, it invokes medieval antisemitism, and it calls for the killing of Jews “wherever you find them.”

Yet, at LSE, terrorism is to be “understood,” hatred is to be “contextualised,” and murder is to be explained away as “resistance.” This is not merely intellectual dishonesty. It is moral depravity.

Imagine, if you can bear it, a conference titled “Understanding Al-Qaeda” or “Understanding ISIS”, framed as explorations of how Western imperialism “forced their hand.” Picture a panel dedicated to “humanising” the 9/11 hijackers or “contextualising” the beheadings carried out by ISIS executioners. The outrage would be swift and ferocious. Politicians would rush to condemn it, newspapers would call for resignations, and the public would rightly demand accountability.

But when it comes to Hamas—a group whose charter explicitly calls for the annihilation of Jews, whose operatives butcher civilians and parade their bodies through the streets—LSE sees no problem. Here, terrorism is whitewashed as “resistance,” antisemitism is softened into “cultural grievance,” and cold-blooded murder is reframed as “misunderstanding.”

Where is this empathetic curiosity when it comes to the victims of Hamas? Where are the academic inquiries into the lives shattered by suicide bombings, the communities traumatised by relentless rocket attacks, or the children forced to grow up in bomb shelters? Why is it that the only narrative explored is one that justifies the perpetrator while dehumanising the victim?

This conference is being held a mere month after the world learned of the brutal murder of Shiri Bibas and her two tiny children—whose only crime was being born Jewish. Yarden Bibas, who lost his entire young family to Hamas terrorists, survives to bear a grief that is unimaginable, a pain that is forever.

Where was the world’s outrage? Where were the candlelight vigils, the hashtags, the impassioned op-eds denouncing such barbarism? Where were the political statements of solidarity, the speeches of compassion, the tears of the so-called “progressive” advocates of human rights?

Yes, some Western capitals lit their landmarks in orange to mourn the loss. Social media offered messages of support, but from the British government, there was only a pathetic murmur—a perfunctory acknowledgment devoid of empathy or urgency. London was silent. The city that claims to stand against hate and extremism could not find the courage to mourn murdered Jewish children.

Why? Because the victims were Jews.

This is the brutal truth: Jewish blood is cheap. When Jewish babies are murdered, the world looks away. When Jewish families are slaughtered, there are no moments of silence, no public displays of grief. The death of a Jewish child is reduced to a footnote in international reporting, a minor inconvenience in the grand narrative of “resistance.”

This is not merely hypocrisy. It is a moral fraud. A grotesque exercise in selective empathy. Would LSE dare to host an event exploring the motivations of white supremacists, framed as misunderstood social justice warriors? Would they give a platform to those justifying the Christchurch mosque shootings as a reaction to Western decadence? Of course not.

Yet Hamas—a group whose ideology is built on violent antisemitism, misogyny, and religious extremism—is granted academic legitimacy. The same progressives who would rightly recoil at a neo-Nazi rally will nod thoughtfully as Hamas is presented as a misunderstood victim. This is the academic left’s favourite trick—turning murderers into martyrs, twisting terrorism into activism.

This event is not just an insult to the memory of Shiri Bibas and her children. It is an endorsement of antisemitism. It is the normalisation of hate, cloaked in the respectable language of academia. By granting legitimacy to Hamas, LSE is effectively saying that Jewish lives are less valuable, that the murder of Jews can be contextualised, that hatred of Jews is not racism but “political critique.”

This is how antisemitism thrives in the 21st century—not with swastikas and Sieg Heils, but with lectures and panel discussions. It is antisemitism with a PhD, bigotry with tenure.

This disgraceful event must be condemned, not in the name of censorship but in the name of truth and integrity. This is not about silencing voices but about refusing to whitewash terrorism. It is about demanding that British academia hold itself to the same moral standards it applies to every other form of extremism.

LSE must be made to answer for this. They must explain why they are providing a platform to antisemitic murderers. They must justify why Jewish lives don’t seem to matter. They must be held accountable for this grotesque moral lapse.

This is a moment of moral reckoning. A line must be drawn. Either we stand against terrorism without exception or apology, or we surrender to moral chaos. Either we value Jewish lives as we value all human lives, or we expose ourselves as hypocrites.

There must be no more excuses. No more euphemisms. No more understanding. It is time to confront the moral bankruptcy of British academia. It is time to end this shameful silence over Jewish blood.

If this event is allowed to proceed unchallenged, it will mark a new low in Britain’s moral and intellectual history.