Inside Zionist activist Rawan Osman’s lecture amid a pro-Palestine coordinated protest

Pro-Palestinian protesters disrupted a lecture by multinational, Zionist activist Rawan Osman on Wednesday evening, accusing her of justifying Israel’s actions in Palestine as she concluded a three-day Netherlands tour on Maastricht University (UM) premises.

Coordinated by right-wing, pro-Israel nonprofit StandWithUs Netherlands, the lecture aimed to present how Osman, who was born Lebanese-Syrian, came to support Zionism – a movement that pursued the colonization of Palestine to establish a Jewish state. The organizers argued they aimed to foster the power of dialogue. Activist group Free Palestine Maastricht (FPM) said the event gave “a stage for Zionist propaganda” in a statement via Instagram while condemning UM for compromising critical thinking. 

Autonomous group Maastricht Encampment called for protest action via Instagram, adding that Osman’s intentions were “not to educate but instead, to indoctrinate” and calling her a “genocide justifier.” 

This came after Osman gave her lecture in two other locations in the Netherlands. She was also met with a pro-Palestinian demonstration at Nijmegen’s Radboud University on Tuesday. Protesters blocked access to her car before the police intervened without proceeding to arrestations, Omroep Gelderland reported.

A tense atmosphere

Inside Building Z on Wednesday, Rawan Osman opened her speech with an invitation to open dialogue, telling about a “decent” conversation she had with a Palestinian-Dutch person at her first lecture in Delft.

Pro-Palestinian activists outside split into two groups, one covering the entryway and the other standing behind the panel windows lining the left-hand side of the building. Chanting and banging heavily on the windows, the diverging points of attention created a tense atmosphere inside. “Unlike those monkeys outside, I grew up in war,” Osman asserted, referring to the protesters, as she reminisced her childhood in Lebanon under Israeli bomb raids. “I know what it’s like to hate [Israel] and to be targeted because your political leader behaves this way.” 

Controversy arose as Osman doubled down on a comment she made in Nijmegen that “Palestine does not exist,” criticizing the “corruption” and “terrorism” in the occupied Palestinian territories and calling Palestinians “losers.” This sparked the first of several internal protests and disruptions that altered the course of the lecture. Pro-Palestine activists inside the room first chanted “Free, free Palestine!” to which Osman replied, “Palestine was freed in 1948.” As she was interrupted a second time, Osman uttered, “I can’t hear you. I can’t hear you, and I could not care less. I can’t hear you. I don’t know what you say, and I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care.”

Tensions mounted first as a physical altercation occurred between a protester and an attendant cloaked in the Israeli flag. Another activist, close to the stage, was dragged to the exit by a police officer. Osman, stirred by the multiple disruptions, advised the protesters to respectfully wait out for the Q&A session. With intensifying anticipation, she stated, “I think we're waiting for the next group to jump in. The next hero.”

Culture clash

While the chanting and slamming on the windows intensified, Osman held her phone to the microphone and played Israel-solidarity songs. A group of attendants banded together, singing and clapping along. The ambiance of the room during this internal still phase was characterized more by external commotion and expected disruptions than any attempt at establishing calmness. 

“The average European is not sophisticated enough in their brains” to understand the reality of the conflict, Osman opined, before being heckled again. “Oh, I could tell from your hairstyle that you’re cool,” she told one protester. “Frustrated, privileged, spoiled children. […] He doesn’t seem Lebanese or Israeli, this is why I can confidently say: spoiled Westerner.”

Calling for the protesters to be sanctioned, she compared their behavior to that of pro-Hamas mobs in Gaza and criticized the alleged laxity of authorities. “In the USA, they would be beaten up. In Germany, in Berlin, they would be beaten up,” she said, adding that if new laws aren’t implemented, Europe will be “taken over by mobs.” 

Impossible conversation?

Opening the Q&A session, Israeli-born UM professor Eli Saphir handed the microphone off to a student presenting himself as “Jewish-Zionist.” 

“I want to remind you that [the protest] is propagated by Free Palestine Maastricht; these are the people you wanted us to keep in touch with,” he pressured the university, in an intervention shared on StandWithUs NL’s social media channels. “We were not the ones not willing to talk, this is your conversation. So I’m asking you one simple question: how much longer are you asking your Jewish students for a ‘civilized’ talk with these people?” This was left unanswered by faculty members.

As Sapir called for more questions, a staff member informed them that they had been advised to conclude the lecture due to police concerns. In a brief, uneasy exchange, Sapir took possession of the microphone, defying the order given to him, and attempted to resume the Q&A. The faculty member regained control of the mic and asserted that he was the one “in charge” before allowing Osman to offer “final words.”

Eli Saphir attempted to continue the Q&A portion of the lecture.

“Israel and Zionists are not the problem,” Osman stated. As she suggested more questions from the audience, the space coordinator discontinued her speaking privileges by cutting the power to her microphone. 

Following this, remaining activists stood up and, as Osman had stepped aside from the stage front, hurled “Free Palestine” and “Shame on you” at her. One reminded that “more than 50,000 people were killed” in Gaza, including 18,000 children.

Taking to Twitter/X in the aftermath of the events, she wrote, “Only in Maastricht the Pro-Palestine mob could get enough people to prove us right: THEY behave like criminal zombies not because ‘they were provoked by Israeli football hooligans’ in Amsterdam, but because they can behave that way and get away with it.”

Maastricht Encampment also took to Instagram, posting videos from both sides of the venue. One story showcased their blockade in front of the window, with text reading, “Hope the message was clear for hard-headed zionists: we don’t want you here!”

UM communications advisor Koen Augustijn told Observant it was “unacceptable” that the debate was made impossible. He added that the university will examine whether sanctions are needed against the protesters for breaching UM’s code of conduct.

Overall, the speech segwayed into charged territory, altering the lecture’s topic from Osman’s journey between polarized positions – Hezbollah supporter to Arab Zionist – to a fraught critic of pro-Palestine demonstrators.