Before October 7 or campus threats, Dr. Amira Halperin ventured into unfamiliar territory to understand how Palestinian communities in the UK live, connect, and shape their sense of self. She traveled across the country, spent time in people’s homes, and listened closely. What she brought back is something we all need to hear.
Understanding how the other side uses media, builds narratives, and mobilizes politically isn’t a luxury. For anyone who cares about fighting antisemitism effectively, it’s a necessity. You can’t counter what you don’t understand.
Your 2018 book examines how the Palestinian diaspora in the UK uses new media. What drew you to this community and this question? And what finding surprised you the most?
My PhD research, published as a book in 2018, is pioneering work recognized by both sides of the conflict. I began this research after working as an investigative journalist for BBC Panorama, and I wanted to apply the tools I had acquired while investigating both the moderate Muslim community in the UK and radical extremists.
The fieldwork was fascinating. I traveled across the UK and interviewed Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank who had settled in Britain. I was drawn to researching the Palestinian community because everything I knew about them had been filtered through news coverage, political rhetoric, and other people’s accounts. I wanted first-hand knowledge. Most researchers who study this community belong to it or come from the broader Arab world. Publishing my book as an “outsider” researcher was a breakthrough in how the Palestinian community in the UK diaspora is understood.
What I learned is that this is a highly politicized community, centered on the refugee narrative and the idea of the Right of Return, though they would not necessarily leave the UK if a Palestinian state were established. The Palestinian community creates social media platforms and uses them extensively to tell their stories, maintain links with Palestinians in the Palestinian Territories, and mobilize politically. Here is something that may surprise our readers: they prefer Israeli media for news consumption rather than Palestinian media because they consider it more reliable.
Most universities have formal policies on discrimination and harassment, yet Jewish students and professors consistently report that these are not applied equally. From your own experience, where exactly did the system break down, and who is responsible for fixing it?
I agree. Discrimination and threats against Israeli and Jewish students and professors are major problems that require urgent solutions. UK campuses have been bound by the Prevent Duty since 2015, a core component of the UK’s counter-terrorism strategy. Between 2009 and 2014, there were cases of radicalized foreign fighters who had studied in the UK, as well as students committing terrorist-related offenses while at university. The Prevent Duty aims to stop people from being drawn into terrorism or supporting terrorism.
But the implementation of Prevent was challenged by students long before October 7. In 2018, for example, students at SOAS (the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London) occupied management offices and demanded what they called “free and liberated education.” One of their demands was to end institutional compliance with the Prevent Duty. Another alarming development was that 18 UK student bodies formally supported a legal bid to remove Hamas from the UK’s proscribed terrorist list. Many others support this informally.
It is the responsibility of government and the leadership of academic institutions to ensure the safety of Jewish and Israeli staff and students and their full integration into academic life.
The picture Dr. Halperin paints across these two questions is sobering. On one hand, her research reveals a Palestinian diaspora that is deeply connected, politically mobilized, and sophisticated in its use of media. On the other hand, the UK institutions that should be managing the tensions from this mobilization, such as universities, counter-terrorism frameworks, and regulatory bodies, are failing to protect Jewish and Israeli community members caught in the crossfire.
Don’t miss what’s next: Dr. Halperin on AI disinformation, the path from online anger to real-world violence, and whether the information environment can improve.