Speaker: Tanzil Chowdhury

Israel has constructed a systematic policy of propaganda, ‘hasbara’, which its citizens and supporters use to deflect criticism of the state’s actions. Well-known ‘hasbara’ phrases include “Israel has a right to defend itself”, “The real crisis is in Syria and Iraq”, “Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East”, and “If there have been war crimes, we’ll investigate it”.  Underlying all these statements is the accusation that any criticism of the State of Israel is anti-Semitic.

Tanzil Chowdhury, will debunk ‘hasbara’ in what promises to be an informative presentation. He  is  a Doctoral Scholar in the School of Law, University of Manchester. His current Ph.D research is in the field of Critical Legal Theory but he maintains an interest in current affairs. He is also a co-founder of the Northern Police Monitoring Project (www.npmp.org.uk) and co-ordinator at Manchester Palestine Action (www.manchesterpalestineaction.org)