University College London has barred an academic and suspended the campus chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine after video footage showed the academic repeating antisemitic conspiracy theories in a lecture to the group.
Samar Maqusi was speaking to the SJP chapter on Tuesday when she made the comments, according to footage shared by the U.K. branch of the pro-Israel advocacy group StandWithUs, which said one of its members had been filming. The lecture, titled “The Birth of Zionism,” was the first in a planned five-part series called “Palestine: From Existence to Resistance.”
In one comment, Maqusi says, falsely, that “the Jews pretty much controlled the financialization structure” during Napoleon’s time and that he advocated for Jewish control of Palestine because he was paid by French Jews to do so.
In another, she repeats the allegation that Jews require the blood of gentiles to be used in the making of their “special pancakes.”
Maqusi was describing the Damascus Affair, the widespread persecution of Syrian Jews in 1840 following allegations, and a confession under torture, that Jews had killed a monk to use his blood to make matzah. The allegations iterated on the blood libel, an antisemitic conspiracy theory that originated in medieval England, and spurred what are believed to be the first protests by American Jews on behalf of Jews abroad.
“So the story is that a certain investigation was undergoing to try and find where Father Thomas is – he was found murdered and a group of Jews who lived in Syria said they admitted to kidnapping him and murdering him to get the drops of blood for making the holy bread,” Maqusi said.
She hedged on whether she herself believed the story, saying at one point, “These are things that you read, and again, as I said, do investigate. Draw your own narrative.”
The footage drew immediate condemnation from a range of Jewish groups. “By failing to clearly refute this centuries-old falsehood, the audience is left with the impression that such a claim could be true, thereby perpetuating one of the most dangerous and long-standing antisemitic myths,” the Campaign Against Antisemitism, a British advocacy group, said in a statement.
The footage has also spurred a reckoning at University College London, which has more than 50,000 students in the city center. President and Provost Michael Spence said in a statement issued late Thursday that a “full investigation into how this happened” was underway and that the incident had been reported to the police.
“I am utterly appalled by these heinous antisemitic comments,” Spence said. “Antisemitism has absolutely no place in our university, and I want to express my unequivocal apology to all Jewish students, staff, alumni, and the wider community that these words were uttered at UCL.”
He said the SJP group would not be allowed to hold any events on campus until the investigation was complete. He also said the lecturer had been barred from campus, while noting that she was not a current member of the faculty.
Neither the group nor Maqusi has commented publicly about the incident. According to a biography page on the school’s website, which was removed in the wake of the incident, she is a longtime employee of UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees that is much maligned , and an architect studying “the spatial politics of the Palestine refugee camp and its impact on the potential to self-‐emancipation.” (UNRWA has drawn criticism over the alleged involvement of employees in attacks on Israel, including Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre.)
The incident comes as large-scale pro-Palestinian protests have dimmed following a ceasefire suspending the two-year Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. In the United States, several schools have suspended or banned their chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine over incidents or practices during the war.
It also comes weeks after Britain’s education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, told universities they had her “full backing to use their powers” to fight antisemitism on their campuses, following a deadly attack on a Manchester synagogue.
“Regrettably, like many UK universities, we continue to confront incidents of antisemitism and are committing to banishing this from our campus. We have initiated disciplinary proceedings against a number of students in relation to antisemitism and reported incidents to the police where appropriate,” Spence said, adding, “Freedom of speech and academic freedom are fundamental to university life, but they can never be misused as a shield for hatred.”
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