UC Santa Cruz to Host Academic Who Spoke at Terror-Tied Conference
Dr. Lana Tatour, scheduled to speak Jan. 28, previously shared platform with individuals connected to terrorist organizations, called for the end of Zionism, and cast doubt on Hamas rape allegations
Dr. Lana Tatour, a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales, is scheduled to speak at UC Santa Cruz on January 28, 2026, as part of the university’s Winter Colloquium Series. The event, co-sponsored by the Center for the Middle East and North Africa and the Center for Racial Justice, will focus on her recently published book “Race and the Question of Palestine.”
Event Framing Assumes Israeli Culpability
The UC Santa Cruz event description states it “will delve into the rich and often-overlooked tradition of theorizing race within Palestine studies” and address “how these frameworks help us understand Israel’s ongoing violence in Gaza and the wider global landscape of solidarity, resistance and struggle.”
Tatour’s book is published by Stanford University Press, and her academic credentials include positions at UNSW Sydney and a previous postdoctoral fellowship at Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies. Her co-editor, Ronit Lentin, is an emeritus professor at Trinity College Dublin.
Inflammatory Social Media Rhetoric & Writing
On social media, just four days after the Hamas-led October 7th attack, Tatour posted that “support for Israel’s actions in Gaza is a support for genocide.”
In November 2023, she also posted that “there is no justice for Palestine and no humane future for all without the end of Zionism.”
Dr. Tatour appears to have cast doubt on sexual crimes committed by Hamas during the October 7, 2023 attacks. In an article for Mondoweiss, Tatour wrote that reports on the allegations are "based on speculations rather than evidence and a flawed methodology that amounts to unethical conduct." She also criticized organizations like Physicians for Human Rights-Israel and Human Rights Watch for applying what she deemed to be lower evidentiary standards when investigating allegations against Palestinians.
Previous Controversy at UNSW
According to The Australian, in 2023, the University of New South Wales dismissed a complaint lodged by the Australian Jewish Association after Tatour tweeted that “Palestinians have the right to resist Israeli occupation, colonisation and apartheid” on June 21—the same day Palestinian gunmen killed four Israelis at a roadside restaurant near a West Bank settlement. Robert Gregory, public affairs director of the Australian Jewish Association, filed a formal complaint demanding a retraction and apology, but UNSW cleared Tatour after review, stating the university “protects academic freedom and freedom of speech.”
Featured as Speaker at Terror-Tied Conference in Turkey
Tatour was a featured speaker at the Gaza Tribunal’s Istanbul conference in October 2025, where she shared a platform with individuals who are affiliated by terror-tied organizations.
At the Istanbul conference, Tatour delivered testimony arguing that “settler colonialism, apartheid, and genocide do not exist outside the grammar of race, which in Palestine is the grammar of Zionism.” She called on the jury to “address Zionism as a colonial project and a form of racism” in their consideration of what she termed “Israel’s genocide in Gaza.”
The Gaza Tribunal featured Sami Al-Arian, who was convicted in 2006 for providing material support to Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. Al-Arian was subsequently deported from the United States and now leads The Turkish Center for Islam and Global Affairs. Al-Arian served as a member of the Tribunal’s “Jury of Conscience” and signed the organization’s final statement.
Furthermore, according to an investigation by Jewish Onliner, the Gaza Tribunal’s advisory council includes Ramy Abdu, whom Israel designated in 2013 as one of “Hamas’ main operatives in Europe.”
Abdu, who chairs the Geneva-based EuroMed Monitor, has publicly disclosed that he is the brother-in-law of deceased senior Hamas official Muhammad Daoud Ismail al-Jamassi and childhood friends with Assad Abu Sharia, founder and leader of the Mujahideen Brigades, a Hamas-affiliated terrorist group involved in the kidnapping of the Bibas children during the October 7 massacre.
Questions About University Vetting Process
The event raises questions about university platforms and speaker vetting processes. While academic freedom protects controversial speech, critics argue that universities should inform attendees when speakers have participated in events alongside individuals with documented terrorism connections, allowing students and community members to make informed decisions about attendance.
UC Santa Cruz did not respond to request for comment by press time.
Let’s not forgot that those with advanced academic degrees were over-represented amongst mid/high ranking Nazis officials.
If you’ve ever wondered how the attempted institutional wholesale extermination of the Jewish people could have happened, now you know.
Zionism is terrorism.
Silly cunt.