Written by Alba Azzarello
Protests erupted outside the Marshall Building on Thursday October 16th, in response to an invite-only event hosted by LSE in conjunction with The Dinah Project. The event was titled A Quest for Justice – October 7th and Beyond. Students moved from the Marshall building and mobilised in front of the Cheng Kin Ku building, where the event was being held, touting ‘Viva Palestina’ and ‘LSE Manufactures Consent for Genocide’ banners.
The Dinah Project is an Israeli organization made up of academics, legal experts, and former civil service members. It aims to raise awareness and calls for justice for victims of sexual violence on 7 October 2023, through reports calling on the UN to blacklist Hamas. The report aims to set out a new legal basis to prosecute Hamas for conflict-related sexual violence. The Dinah Project calls for a changing of the evidentiary threshold to prosecute conflict-related sexual violence, including “additional ways to build the evidentiary bases beyond those typically relied upon in domestic criminal law”.
LSESU Justice for Palestine argues that The Dinah Project’s reports have been criticized for flawed methodology. In response to the most recent report, Reem Alsalem, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, emphasized that reports of such violence must be independently verified and investigated, and that perpetrators must be held accountable. Alsalem also emphasized that, while the special commission appointed to investigate has found “patterns indicative of sexual violence against Israeli women at different locations”, the commission has been “unable to independently verify specific allegations of sexual and gender-based violence due to Israel’s obstruction of its investigations”.
Alsalem also wrote that “neither the Commission nor any other independent human rights mechanism established that gender-based violence was committed against Israelis on or since 7 October 2023 as a systematic tool of war.”
On 12 October 2025, LSESU Justice for Palestine released an open letter calling for the cancellation of the event, stating that the event was being hosted despite concerns over the flawed assertions and methodological shortcomings presented in the report. They claim it “undermines both academic freedom and the standards of rigorous academic research that LSE so proudly claims to uphold”.
LSESUJP further asserts that: “The spurious, one-sided analysis of sexual violence that this event presents, fundamentally ties a narrative of sexual violence to a colonial ideology rather than advancing a systemic understanding of it.”
The open letter received hundreds of signatures, from students and staff alike. However, the event continued with little publicity.
An LSE spokesperson said, “This event was organised by a group of faculty from different departments. It was chaired by an LSE academic, and featured a Q&A session with the audience after the main lecture.” The spokesperson also clarified that “the event was not hosted by LSE Communications,” as the open letter alleges.
Demonstrations against the event continued well into the evening, with the LSESUJP reporting ‘agitators’ spitting on students. In a post on Instagram since, the society stated that LSE failed to protect student protestors from these ‘agitators’ present on campus.
Multiple students criticised LSE’s hosting of an event about sexual violence against women in Israel, arguing that LSE has failed to effectively address misconduct claims against its own professors. One student stated: “We know LSE does not care about women, or it would not protect professors who are sexually violent on campus, so this is not about women. This is to push Zionist ideology on campus.”
Onlookers at the protest had mixed emotions, with one stating they “felt proud” to see students standing up to the event, whilst another stated that “This should be the least controversial speaking event at LSE.” The student further explained that “The entire facade of this protest is dishonest; it’s not about apartheid or genocide or whatever else they claim; they are protesting an event of an organisation that supports victims and survivors of sexual assault.”
Another student involved in the protest remarked: “Our institution is a prestigious institution, its name has value to be put on things, and we can’t be throwing that around.”
While protests around the event have subsided, controversy remains. In a post on Instagram, the society (LSESUJP) reiterated its opposition to the event, stating: “We stand firmly against the manipulation of sexual violence discourse to justify Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza. This instrumentalisation of survivor justice is both unethical and complicit in colonial violence.
They point out that the event “was hidden from public view, not listed on LSE’s website, and closed to students and staff. Why are members of our own community excluded from knowing who is being platformed on our campus?”
An LSE spokesperson told The Beaver:
“Freedom of academic enquiry, thought, and speech underpins everything we do at LSE. Our Code of Practice on Free Speech is designed to protect and promote lawful freedom of expression on campus, including the right to peacefully protest.
“The Act includes a legal duty to secure and promote freedom of speech within the law as well as academic freedom for faculty. If an academic wants to host an event, showcase research, or enable other forms of engagement for the free and frank exchange of views lawfully, we must seek to assist this to the best of our ability while ensuring our health and safety responsibilities.
“This was a private research-related event organised by a group of academics from different departments. It was chaired by an LSE academic and featured a Q&A session with the audience after the main lecture.
“A range of events happen at LSE each day, covering many viewpoints and positions, including on controversial current issues. LSE does not, however, endorse speakers or views at our events.”
