An event featuring controversial Palestinian American poet Remi  Kanazi, due to take place in South London, has been cancelled.

This follows a letter from UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) to the venue, pointing out that Remi Kanazi has posted a series of threatening, abusive and insulting messages on his X account, displaying a visceral hatred of Israelis and Jews and incitement to violence against “Zionists”.

His recent X posts included the following statements:

“Fxxk the Israeli state. Burn the genocidal regime to the ground”.

“The state of Israel has no right to exist. The state of Israel should not exist. The existence of Israel is genocide against Palestinians.”

“Israel is a legitimate target”

The event, which would have taken place on 30 October, was organised by Lewisham and Greenwich CND, and was called “Conflict in the Middle East: Palestine, Israel and events that led up to October 2023”.  It was to have been an evening of “information sharing”, which included  a film by the Balfour Project on origins of the Balfour Declaration, a talk by Sami Ramadani, lecturer on Iraq and Middle East current affairs, and poetry by Remi Kanazi.

UKLFI pointed out that if Remi Kanazi appeared at the event, and expressed his views on the conflict in the Middle East, it was likely that he would repeat some of the sentiments he had expressed in his X account.

Since it was likely that he would be using “threatening or abusive words” and people were likely to be caused distress thereby, he could be guilty of an offence under Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.

If he used threatening, abusive or insulting words and intended to stir up racial hatred, or racial hatred was likely to be stirred up by his words, then he could be guilty of an offence under section 18 of the Public Order Act.

A spokesperson for UKLFI commented:  “It is a relief that such someone who spouts such hatred online has not been given the opportunity to speak at this event, as it is highly likely that he would have stirred up racial hatred amongst the audience and had a divisive impact on the community.”