By Ben Freeman

In our noble pursuit to safeguard the right to free speech and the right to assemble for all, our goodwill is being taken advantage of.

In turn, it is the rights of those seeking to prevent free speech and debate which are prioritised at the expense of those committed to open discussion and mutual respect.

At King’s College London last week, Jürgen Hardt, the foreign policy spokesman for the CDU-CSU (Germany’s governing political party), was disrupted from speaking at an event on German foreign policy.

Protesters demanded to know whether he ‘stood with the people of Palestine’ whilst chanting the genocidal slogan of ‘From the River to the Sea’.

Over the weekend, police had to intervene to prevent protesters from demonstrating outside a synagogue. A few years ago, this would have been unthinkable, but failure to act has emboldened agitators.

Almost simultaneously, there are people defending the actions of those who are alleged to have assaulted a police officer with a sledgehammer after breaking into a UK factory belonging to an Israeli company, in the name of Palestine Action - a proscribed organisation. We must be prepared to call out when protest becomes a tool for intimidation, or worse still,........

© LBC