University College London, a prominent UK university, said on Thursday that it had launched an investigation and banned a researcher who taught an antisemitic blood libel in a lecture.
The researcher, Dr. Samar Maqusi, shared the libel with the campus branch of Students for Justice in Palestine on Tuesday.
The blood libel is an age-old anti-Jewish myth that falsely says Jews murder non-Jews to bake their blood into Passover matzah. The libel is one of the most notorious antisemitic falsehoods and has caused repeated violence to Jews in Europe and elsewhere.
Maqusiâs lesson centered on the Damascus Affair, an incident in Syria in 1840 during which a monk disappeared and the Jewish community was falsely accused of murdering him to use his blood for Passover ceremonies. Eight leading members of the Jewish community were tortured into confessing.
Maqusi said the monk, Father Thomas, had disappeared during a âJewish feast,â which she identifies as Sukkot, apparently confusing the holiday with Passover. She also misstated the date of the incident, saying that it took place in 1838.
âDuring this feast, they make these special pancakes, or bread, and part of the holy ceremony is that drops of blood from someone whoâs not Jewish, which the term is âgentile,â has to be mixed in that bread,â Maqusi said, according to an audio recording shared by the advocacy group StandWithUs. The group said one of its members went to the event and recorded the lecture.
âThe story is that a certain investigation was undergoing to find out where Father Thomas is. He was found murdered and a group of Jews who lived in Syria said that, admitted to kidnapping him and murdering him to get drops of blood for making the holy bread,â she said, without mentioning the torture.
âDo investigate, draw your own narrative,â she said.
The campus branch of Students for Justice in Palestine had advertised the Tuesday event as part of a lecture series called âPalestine: From existence to resistance.â Maqusiâs talk was called âThe Birth of Zionism.â
