The other day we reported on a Cambridge University debate about whether Israel is a rogue state in which one of the students arguing the affirmative acted as a proponent for Israel. Well, the student, Gabriel Latner, has been banned from debating for life (who says the west doesn’t have fatwas) by Cambridge Union president James Counsel, according to the newspaper, the Varsity:
Gabriel Latner, a second-year Law student at Peterhouse, was handed the ban after he refused to apologize to fellow proposition speaker Lauren Booth for making a comment that was deemed inappropriate last Thursday at the Union debate, “This House believes Israel is a rogue state.”
According to Latner’s account, the incident began when he told Booth that he was Jewish and had volunteered with the Israeli Army. Latner believes this information contributed to Booth’s unease with him speaking for the proposition.
On Booth’s request, Latner was moved from first to second speaker for the proposition. Before getting up to speak, he turned to Booth and said, “I am going to nail you to the fucking wall up there.”
Booth later complained about Latner’s comment to Counsell, who then confronted Latner, and requested that he apologise to Booth. When Latner refused to do so, Counsell had Latner escorted off the premises and told him he was banned for life for disrupting a Union event and verbally abusing a guest on the Society’s premises.
Speaking to Varsity, Counsell said, “Gabe had ten minutes to address an audience of 800, during which time he was representing the Union and all its membership to our guests and the wider world watching. His decision to verbally abuse one of our female guests using sexual language has done enormous levels of harm to the reputation of our Union, as well as crossing all boundaries of basic human decency.
“I should remind our members that our speakers participate for free because of our reputation, and that anybody personally connected to Lauren Booth will now almost certainly avoid us like the plague. This includes, amongst many others, Cherie Booth and Tony Blair….”
Latner further told Varsity, “I’m not saying I acted without fault. Did I offend Ms Booth? I have no doubt that I did. But I don’t know if what Ms Booth found offensive was my (private) comment to her, or the fact that I actually ‘nailed her to the wall’ in my (public) speech. I can guess though.”
