Institute of International Relations cancels Israel webinar

The Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies’ In­sti­tute of In­ter­na­tion­al Re­la­tions (IIR) has can­celled a we­bi­nar fea­tur­ing for­mer Is­raeli am­bas­sador Ephraim Ben Matityahu, cit­ing the on­go­ing Is­raeli-Pales­tin­ian con­flict and the in­tense emo­tions it has gen­er­at­ed.

The we­bi­nar, ti­tled “The Unit­ed Ob­ses­sion with Is­rael: The Strange Coali­tion of Con­tra­dic­tion”, was sched­uled for Mon­day.

In a no­tice is­sued on Fri­day, the IIR apol­o­gised to peo­ple af­fect­ed di­rect­ly and in­di­rect­ly by the con­flict and said it re­mained com­mit­ted to aca­d­e­m­ic free­dom and re­spect for hu­man rights.