Kings College, one of the UK’s most prestigious colleges, has been offering a course on counter-terrorism based on political biases and misinformation about Israel.
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According to a report in Fathom, a journal by the pro-Israel advocacy group Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, the prestigious institution offers a course for civil servants called “Issues in Countering Terrorism."
“The civil servants were given presentations by Kings College lecturers. These included those formerly holding positions such as Permanent Secretary of the Home Office and Director of GCHQ, Defence Minister and Foreign Office Director,” reads the article by Anna Stanley, a former civil servant who attended the course as part of her studies.
According to Stanley, the course amounted to “indoctrinating,” the students. “It confirmed my fears – that extremism and terrorism are misunderstood by civil servants to the point of being a national security risk.”
“The course began with the issue of definitions. What is Terrorism? Without anyone providing an opposing standpoint, we were taught the adage, ‘One man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist,’” she added.
According to Stanley, when she tried to argue that an objective definition of terrorism could be reached, the rest of the class failed to answer.
As the course continued, Stanley described classes talking about terrorism or terrorist organizations such as ISIS focused on the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy – with some students arguing that the state’s prevention attempts were “racist because it focuses on Islamist extremism. The mere mention of Islamist extremism makes Muslims ‘feel uncomfortable’, someone in the class argued.”
According to Stanley, Israel was named throughout the course as a prime example of the question of whether a state can commit acts of terrorism while emphasizing that some would consider Hamas terrorists to be freedom fighters. Stanley added that one of the slides in the presentation read, “Condemning terrorism is to endorse the power of the strong over the weak.”
“Thus, the Palestinians are inherently oppressed an axiom that fuels the view that Israel is a terrorist state and Hamas’ atrocities are justifiably ‘contextualized,’” Stanley added.
In another slide, it was written that “Terrorism is not the problem, rather the systems they oppose are terrorist,” claiming once again that terrorism is a subjective matter to be scrutinized and debated over.
Stanley noted that should the course have taken place following Hamas’ October 7 attack, the author was certain it would have been “contextually justified as ‘merely the oppressed countering the oppressor.’”