Revealed: British campuses the place Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar who masterminded October 7 assaults is being hailed as an excellent martyr

The messages on social media were unequivocal in their praise for the dead Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar. 

The terrorist butcher who, on October 7 last year, masterminded the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, was ‘a leader, a fighter, a martyr’, they declared. ‘While all the global forces of evil demanded Yahya’s head, he made them work for it.’

Warming to their theme, the posts continued: ‘[He launched] the blessed Flood [the October 7 terror attack] out of a deep love and care for his people. Through sacrifice, Yahya changed the world . . . Yahya, you live in every heart.’

These words of adulation appeared within days of Sinwar’s assassination by a troop of Israeli soldiers after he was unexpectedly discovered in the war-ravaged wasteland of Rafah in southern Gaza.

But who was behind them? Fellow Hamas terrorists lamenting the loss of their murderous leader? Iranian ayatollahs, reeling following a major blow to their proxy forces?

No, the answer lies thousands of miles away on British university campuses where radicalised students and professors are sharing messages of condolence for the 61-year-old known by Israel as ‘The Face of Evil’.

Specifically, these messages hailing Sinwar as a hero were shared on Instagram by the Student Federation for a Liberated Palestine (SFLP), which claims to represent 21 different student societies across Britain, including Cambridge, Bristol and Warwick universities.

Alongside these posts, the SFLP urges its supporters to buy Yahya Sinwar’s book The Thorn and the Carnation, which proclaims his responsibility for the October 7 attacks, admiringly calling him their ‘architect’.

The SFLP also urges people to follow the Resistance News Network through the Telegram messaging app, explaining that the network offers ‘unbiased information . . . from the voices of the Resistance on the ground’.

Never mind that the Resistance News Network is a radically antisemitic English language news channel which frequently promotes the activities of proscribed terror groups including Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen.

No matter that, under the Terrorism Act (2000), it is illegal in Britain to ‘invite support for’ or express a ‘supportive’ opinion towards these organisations, or that doing so can lead to a maximum prison sentence of up to 14 years.

Indeed, when I contacted the SFLP to ask why members were flooding campuses with these messages in support of terror groups, it responded with a laughing face emoji.

But this odious material is no laughing matter.

Since students returned from their summer break, I have been investigating how extremism has developed a chokehold on students and lecturers alike. What I discovered was terrifying, both in terms of the content and the volume of material being shared on social media. And, as it circulates and stirs hatred in the universities of Britain, it is leaving many – especially Jewish students – paralysed with fear, as we shall see.

One of the most shocking aspects of my investigation is that the issue is so widespread. At the University of Cambridge, pro-Palestine students shared a post from the SFLP featuring a picture of Sinwar speaking to a crowd, alongside the infamous quote: ‘The greatest gift the enemy and occupation can give me is to assassinate me… I prefer to die a martyr than die a meaningless death. Glory to the resistance.’

The post was also shared by the caerdyddstudents4palestine Instagram account, which claims to represent students from Cardiff, as well as the londonstudentspalestine Instagram, which says it represent the universities of London, including the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University College London and Imperial College London.

At the University of Oxford, members of the Socialist Worker Student Society shared an article announcing the death of Sinwar, alongside the caption: ‘Israel murders Yahya Sinwar, but Palestinian resistance remains undefeated.’ Meanwhile, the University of Kent’s Ahlulbayt Society (AbSoc) – a Shia Islamic society – shared a post by Islamic content creator Hussain Makke on the day Sinwar’s death was announced, which read: ‘In Arabic, Yahya means to live on.’

Support for ‘martyred’ terrorists on campus is now a regular occurrence. Following the killing of Hezbollah boss Hassan Nasrallah by an Israeli bomb last month, there were further outpourings. The University of Liverpool students associated with the AbSoc shared a black and white photograph of Nasrallah, alongside the caption: ‘We belong to Allah and to him we shall return. Congratulations, Sir.’ The University of Hertfordshire’s AbSoc – also affiliated with the Students’ Union – shared a post depicting the empty chair in which Nasrallah had given televised addresses. It was captioned ‘The Martyr lives for ever’.

Authorities at Hertfordshire insist they will crack down on illegal extremism. A spokesman said: ‘The University of Hertfordshire and Hertfordshire Students’ Union take matters related to extremism and our Prevent duty very seriously. We are working closely with our University Police Team to investigate these posts and will not hesitate to take action if we find illegal activity has been conducted by a Herts member.’

Professor Richard Black, Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool, said: ‘We are clear with our whole community that the right to freedom of speech also carries responsibilities and that there is no place for any form of harassment, hate crime or discrimination at our university.’ The Muslim Student Council, which claimed to represent the AbSocs, was defiant, however: ‘Muslim students will not be dictated to about whom we can and cannot mourn for.’

Most alarmingly, lecturers working at some of Britain’s most prestigious institutions have also expressed support for violent resistance.

R ana Baker, a lecturer in the History of the Middle East at King’s College London, who has written for the Guardian, is seemingly behind a series of appalling tweets on X. In September, an account called @RanaGaza wrote: ‘A decent world would not tolerate the existence of Israel. The existence of this monster is predicated on death and destruction.’

After the death of Yahya Sinwar, the account retweeted a post which described Sinwar’s death as ‘too perfect, too epic’. Previously @RanaGaza had posted: ‘Long live the Palestinian armed resistance. Long live the fighters.’

But then this account has a long history of glorifying terrorists. In 2012, this message appeared: ‘Woke up to the news of an Israeli soldier shot dead by Palestinian resistance fighters. Good morning :).’

When I contacted Dr Rana Baker, she initially implied it was not her account. Yet she was unable to explain why @RanaGaza is mentioned on her profiles on multiple news sites, including the Guardian, and why there was a picture of her on the account with a friend, alongside the caption, ‘Martin and I’.

In her emailed response she did not deny being behind the account, stating: ‘I support the right of all colonised, occupied and dispossessed people to resist.’

Elsewhere, Dr Ashok Kumar, a senior lecturer of political economy at Birkbeck, wrote on October 7: ‘Sometimes partying on stolen land next to a concentration camp . . . has consequences.’

A year later, on October 8, 2024, he followed it up with another tweet on the subject: ‘Occupied people have the right to resist their occupation.’ Then, on the day Yahya Sinwar was killed, he tweeted: ‘Martyrs never die.’

When asked about his messages, he appeared utterly unapologetic: ‘My tweets are correct, awesome, and always speak for themselves.’

The list goes on: Lucia Pradella, a lecturer in international political economy at King’s College London, posted a tweet on October 13, 2023, comparing the October 7 terror attacks, in which more than 1,200 people were massacred, to ‘Africans rebelling against slavery’.

Students may or may not be influenced by their lecturers’ views, of course. And many, if not all, of these lecturers might argue they are not actually antisemitic, and simply expressing solidarity with Palestinians.

But what is undeniable is the growth in anti-Semitism among student societies, dozens of which have expressed support for ‘armed’ violence against Israel.

Some 25 student groups linked to the Student for Liberation in Palestine page have pledged support to the Thawabit – or the ‘fundamental cornerstones’ – of the Palestinian national struggle, as stated by the Palestine Liberation Organisation. One key principle stated in this document is the right to ‘armed struggle’. An Instagram post endorsing ‘armed resistance’ was shared in August by students from Liverpool, Birmingham, Lincoln, York and universities.

Last week, students associated with Bristol AbSoc attended a speaker event which included talks from Chief Mandla Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela, and propagandist Latifah Abouchakra of the Iranian state-owned news network Press TV.

Students filmed sections of the talk and posted it on to the Bristol AbSoc Instagram page.

M andela, who addressed the room via Zoom, has been denied entry in the UK due to his explicit support for Hamas and the October 7 attacks. In November 2023, in a speech in Cape Town, he said: ‘We call on all resistance formations to support operation Al-Aqsa Flood and intensify the struggle on all fronts.’

The former African National Congress MP, welcomed Hamas officials to the anniversary memorial of his grandfather’s death in Pretoria and eulogised Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander, killed in a US drone strike.

Latifah Abouchakra, who was recently referred to the government’s Prevent programme, was also criticised for celebrating the October 7 massacre in a post on Instagram last year.

At the event in Bristol on October 17, she asked in reference to the October 7 terror attack: ‘What price would you pay to lift this dirty boot off your neck? Do we not see the Palestinians? How proud they are of the resistance?’

Understandably, Jewish students across Britain are terrified by such strident and relentless extremism. Responding to the findings of my investigation, a spokesman for the Community Security Trust, which provides security for British Jews, said: ‘There ought to be no place at any university campus for the support of extremism or terrorism, and the fact these incidents are taking place on British campuses is an affront to the fundamental principles and values of university life.

‘University institutions must take decisive action to clamp down on this hateful extremism, ensuring that those responsible are held accountable.’

The fact is that Jewish students around the country are being threatened on a daily basis.

At the University of Cardiff, Jewish student Ava Rosenberg required police patrols around her home in the city following a sustained campaign of intimidation.

Last year, the daughter of Jewish radio host Sid Rosenberg, was forced to temporarily flee back home to America due to harassment and false accusations that she had endorsed genocide.

Earlier this month, on the anniversary of October 7, hundreds of students across dozens of campuses demonstrated, not in sympathy with the Israeli victims but in celebration of the murdering perpetrators of the massacre and of Palestinian ‘resistance’.

Draped in fashionable keffiyeh scarves and waving Palestinian flags, masked protesters chanted, ‘Intifada. Intifada’, the Arabic for uprising, and, ‘Resistance is glorious if a people are victorious.’

Dov Forman, a student at UCL and the great-grandson of Holocaust survivor Lily Ebert, said: ‘Since October 7, Jewish students have endured relentless abuse and vile racism, and the protests around this anniversary only made it worse. The chants and glorification of violence make it clear that we, as Jewish students, are not welcome on campus.’

At London’s Queen Mary University, a handful of Jewish students gathered on October 7 in Library Square to hold a peaceful vigil on the painful anniversary.

Around 30 minutes into the ceremony, hundreds of pro-Palestinian students arrived to ‘counter-protest’. As the Jewish students sang songs of remembrance and held up pictures of the remaining 101 hostages in Gaza, the growing crowd of pro-Palestine demonstrations began to chant at them.

‘They encircled us while holding banners about globalising the intifada,’ Ayala Rosenstein, a fourth year, Jewish biochemistry student told me. The second Intifada, which took place between 2000 and 2005, refers to a series of deadly suicide bombings in cafes and buses which killed hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians.

‘It got to a point that it was so bad and incited so much violence that security had to help us leave,’ she added. ‘It was outrightly hateful against Jewish students.’

Footage from the protest shows the pro-Palestine crowd erupting into chilling cheers and applause as the Jewish students were escorted out the square.

The Department for Education acknowledges the problem: ‘It is entirely unacceptable that Jewish students feel unable to fully participate in university life due to the abhorrent rise in antisemitic abuse,’ a spokesperson said.

‘We have pledged £7 million to combat antisemitic abuse in schools, colleges, and universities, with £500,000 already allocated to the University Jewish Chaplaincy to support student welfare.’

At the University of Liverpool things have been particularly tough. One Jewish student, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, has received threatening calls from withheld numbers, causing them to suffer panic attacks.

The local rabbi has been subjected to verbal harassment on campus on multiple occasions. In one instance someone screamed ‘Allahu Akbar’ (God is great) at him.

A spokesperson for the University of Liverpool said: ‘We are incredibly shocked by the appalling phone call reported by one of our Jewish students. We are also deeply concerned that one of our local rabbis has been subject to verbal harassment while on campus and have been in touch to offer our support.

‘Together with our Guild of Students, we supplied CCTV footage to our campus police officer to try to identify the perpetrators.’

All well and good, yet everywhere the extremism and anti-semitism continues, unabated.

On many campuses, students are vandalising and ‘occupying’ university buildings in the name of Palestinian justice.

Lessons are being cancelled and buildings rendered unusable by extremist activists egged on by their Leftie lecturers.

Universities have indulged extremism for too long and groups and individuals with dangerous views have been emboldened.

Unless a zero tolerance approach is adopted against those who openly support terrorism on our campuses, the intimidation and violence will spin terrifyingly out of control.