A lecture by pro-Israeli speaker Rawan Osman at Radboud University caused a lot of unrest today. A demonstration against Osman's presence on campus took place just outside the building. Security guards and the police had to intervene several times.

As Rawan Osman thanked her listeners for attending and prepared to start her lecture, the first protester present shouted loudly ‘Rowan Osman you are a sellout’, followed by ‘Palestinians are being genocided, they don’t have food, they don’t have water or electricity.’ After a few minutes, the protester left the room accompanied by security. But that was not the only disruption.

Rawan Osman’s presence on campus is not uncontroversial. The Syrian-Lebanese/German activist was long an anti-Semite, before eventually becoming a Zionist. Since the 7 October 2023 attack, she has spoken out publicly in favour of Israel. She recently gave a speech to the United Nations in which she argued that Israel is not the main culprit in the Gaza situation, and pointed the finger to a number of other Arab countries and Hamas. According to the flyer, she was invited to Radboud University to speak about her ideological transition from anti-Semite to Zionist.

The lecture on the Nijmegen campus was organised by StandWithUs Netherlands, a pro-Israeli advocacy organisation. Having previously spoken in Delft, Osman is expected at Maastricht University tomorrow. Both students and staff were involved promoting the event and organising a venue.

However, the 40 or so protesters standing outside the building believed Osman should not have been given a stage at the University. ‘Say it loud, say it clear, Zionists not welcome here,’ they chanted. They also brought drums and a cowbell and were continuously banging on the windows of the building to disrupt the lecture as much as possible.

Additional security

It was clear beforehand that the event would not go smoothly. On social media, supporters and opponents of the lecture were already going at each other. This explained the presence of extra security at the Spinoza building: both in uniform and in plain clothes. Police were also present at the start.

The building was locked, and anyone wishing to enter had to show an ID. Note was taken of the U or S number of students and staff. External guests were only welcome if they had registered in advance.

It was initially announced that the lecture would take place at the Radboud university medical center, at the Medicine Study Centre. But in response to questions from Vox, the university medical center decided against it. The hospital spokesperson did not clarify whether this decision had something to do with the security measures. ‘Our responsibility lies with patient care, education, and research,’ he said. ‘We are not the right partner to facilitate this event, so we asked the initiators to move the meeting to another location, outside the Radboud university medical center premises.’

Despite the strict measures, some protesters still managed to be present at the lecture. A few minutes after the first activist left the room, another stood up to read out a factual account of the situation in Gaza.

When security failed to get the activist to leave the hall of his own accord, other attendees, including Osman, began shouting ‘bring them home’ and ‘let them go’ to drown out the activist’s words, referring to the Israelis held hostage by Hamas.

Some 10 minutes later, this activist too was escorted out of the venue, this time under police escort. Four more times activists rose to protest against the presence of Osman, who was visibly surprised that the activists were allowed to go on for so long before the police intervened. But the speaker did not buckle under the outcry against her, calling the actions ‘monkey business’ and the activists losers and liars. Outside, people could be heard chanting the slogan ‘Free Palestine’, to which Osman responded with: ‘Palestine was freed in 1948. Palestine does not exist. It is a project. An illegitimate project. Israel was a project and it became a country through perseverance and a lot off hard work.’

‘Palestinians are the losers’

Through all the commotion, Osman failed to produce a coherent story. It did, however, become clear that her sympathies did not lie with the Palestinian cause. ‘I don’t know why it is so difficult for Palestinians to understand that they have made so many bad decisions. Their political leaders were always corrupt or involved in terrorism, or both,’ she said, among other things. ‘We cannot erase history. When you wage a war, anywhere else in the world, you either win the war and you dictate the rules, or you lose. So the Palestinians with this attitude are losers, this is why they are suffering.’

Meanwhile, the group of protesters outside had grown to include some business administration students who were supposed to attend a lecture in the Spinoza building – they were not allowed inside either. Following much deliberation between security guards, the lecturer eventually took them to a location elsewhere on campus. Some latecomers were sent the same way by security guards.

Although Osman was eventually able to finish her story, not all present in the room were satisfied. ‘It is okay to disagree with someone. And people are allowed to be angry. But in that case, engage in debate instead of disrupting a lecture,’ said one of them afterwards. ‘She was not asked anything, she was mostly just yelled at. And look what it required in terms of security and police. It’s crazy, isn’t it?’

After the lecture ended, the commotion at the Spinoza Building continued, as apparent from images in De Gelderlander. Security guards and police had to stop protesters in order to allow Osman to get into her car safely. As she tried to drive off, her car was stopped several times. No one was arrested.