Anti-Israel student guilty of King’s College assault
Politics graduate Ivana Bevilacqua was told to pay £100 to Jewish student Esther Endfield after knocking her phone from her hand whilst she filmed
One of the students who stormed King’s College London earlier this to protest against an Israeli speaker has been found guilty of assault by beating and ordered to pay compensation to the victim.
Politics graduate Ivana Bevilaqua, 25, was told to pay £100 to Esther Endfield, who was trying to film the protest against Ami Ayalon when Bevilaqua knocked the mobile device from her hand.
Ayalon, the former head of Israel’s internal security agency Shin Bet, had been due to speak on the peace process before a “mob” descended on the premises, throwing chairs and banging on walls, while shouting: “Free Free Palestine.”
At Westminster Magistrates Court this week, Bevilaqua was given a conditional discharge for 28 days and ordered to pay costs and compensation. She said: “I just wanted to speak to this war criminal.”
Ayalon was an elite soldier who rose to become the highly-decorated former commander-in-chief of the Israeli Navy, but since retiring from the military in 2000, he has sought a career in politics, and pursued several peace initiatives with Palestinian partners.
Responding to the court’s judgement this week, the Jewish Leadership Council said: “We welcome the guilty verdict against one of the violent anti-Israel protesters at KCL earlier this year.”
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