Events

Pears Symposium: Protecting and Offending Jews

June 2016

On 28 June in the Jubilee Room in Westminsert Hall of the House of Commons, the APPG Against Antisemitism hosted an event with the Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism, Birkbeck, University of London. Entitled Protecting and Offending Jews: Speech, Law and Policy the event sought to explore the limits of free speech, offence and definitions of antisemitism amongst other issues. Following introductions from John Mann MP, Chair, All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism and Professor David Feldman, Director of the Pears Institute for the study of Antisemitism there were three sessions.

Session one, Giving and Taking Offence was introduced by Lord Alderdice (Liberal Democrats) and featured a keynote speech from Rt Revd and Rt Hon Lord Dr Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge. Session 2 chaired by Lilian Greenwood (Labour) was entitled Zones of Controversy Social Media and BDS and featured contributions from Paul Iganski, Lancaster University and Brendan McGeever, Birkbeck, University of London. Finally session three was entitled Race, Religion and the Law and featured contributions from Omar Khan, Director of the Runnymede Trust and Rebecca Hilsenrath the Chief Executive of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Parliamentarians other than the chairs and speakers that attended included: Lord Haskel, Lord Beecham, Baroness Deech, Lord Dubs, Lord Boswell and Caroline West.

The speeches are available online here.