Furious MPs have hit out at George Osborne after the British Museum postponed a lecture on the kingdoms of ancient Israel and Judah. The talk was scheduled to go ahead today as part of Jewish Culture Month, but was pulled amid ‘security concerns’ over possible ‘disruption’.
Last night, the museum said a ‘significant number’ of those registered for the event were plotting to ‘deliberately disrupt’ it. The institution insisted that postponing the lecture was necessary to ‘protect the event – not to diminish it’.
MPs and Jewish community leaders, however, slammed the move as caving to extremists. Their ire was aimed at Osborne, the museum’s chair, who defended the decision on social media. Reform’s Suella Braverman said: ‘Wrong call. You’ve given in to the bullies, to the mob and to the extremists. More weakness from the establishment elites- just like the Met Commissioner, the universities and the BBC.’
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said: ‘Jewish Culture Month is meant to promote awareness of and celebrate Jewish culture in the UK. This decision achieves precisely the opposite.’ Richard Ferrer, Editor of the Jewish News, asked the former chancellor: ‘The solution to intimidation is to reward it?’ The American historian Deborah Lipstadt chimed in:
The protestors won and they did not even have to show up.
The museum has said the talk will be moved to a ‘later date when it can take place in an environment that properly safeguards both the audience experience and the integrity of the programme itself’. What a sorry state of affairs when such stringent measures are deemed necessary for a mere lecture on ancient history.
But Mr S is hardly surprised that ancient Israel is of particular concern to Palestine extremists. They wouldn’t want their ahistorical mantras about ‘white settler colonialism’ being challenged by historical facts. It might just disturb their made-up narratives…
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