Well, well, well. On Thursday it emerged that Israeli forces had killed Hamas’s leader Yahya Sinwar in a ‘chance’ hit, according to Israel’s Kan Radio, after the IDF opened fire on a group of men running into a building. The leader was behind the horrific 7 October attack last year, in which over 1000 people were killed and hostages were kidnapped by the terrorist group. After Israel confirmed Sinwar had been ‘eliminated’, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer released a statement, declaring: ‘The UK will not mourn his death.’ But it seems not everyone is thrilled by the news that Hamas’s leader has been taken out…
Dr Ashok Kumar of London’s Birkbeck Business School has taken to Twitter today to tweet a screenshot from a video thought to be of Sinwar. Kumar captioned the image with the names: ‘Singh, Lumumba, Biko, Guevara, Sinwar’ – classing the terror group chief alongside the leaders of revolutionary movements in a tribute to the Hamas boss. Good heavens.
And that’s not all. The post sits alongside a number of Kumar’s rather questionable retweets on the matter. The academic has shared posts from previous interviews with the terror group leader – and has even retweeted Hamas’s statement on Sinwar’s death, in which the terror group refers to itself as a ‘liberation movement’. The comment from Hamas’s Dr Basem Naim reads:
It seems that Israel believes that killing our leaders means the end of our movement and the struggle of the Palestinian people. They can believe what they want, and this is not the first time they said that. Hamas is a liberation movement led by people looking for freedom and dignity, and this cannot be eliminated.We believe that our destiny is one of two good things, either victory or martyrdom.
Crikey. It’s one thing to have a stance on the conflict in the Middle East, and quite another to pine for the leader of a terrorist organisation. Steerpike has approached Dr Kumar for comment, but has had no reply so far. Mr S wonders just what Birkbeck University bosses make of its senior lecturer’s social media of late. Hardly a model teacher, eh?
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