London PhD student cuts down yellow hostage ribbons, claiming they condone genocide

A woman who sparked widespread outrage by cutting down yellow hostage ribbons across Muswell Hill on the eve of the second anniversary of the Hamas 7 October atrocities, has been identified as a PhD researcher at the University of Westminster in London.

Online investigators @GnasherJew revealed that Nadia Yahalom-Switat (also known as Nadia Yahlom and Nadia Jaglom), is a self described Palestinian-Jewish arts and humanities research council funded student at the University’s Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media, whose thesis focuses on the supernatural.

Yahlom was captured on film on Fortis Green Road in north London “‘methodically” cutting down the yellow ribbons, a global symbol of the ‘Bring Them Home’ movement to highlight the plight of the remaining hostages in Gaza.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Miranda Levy, who captured the footage said:  “Immediately I was furious. It was like an instinct and I just said: ‘What are you doing?’

Yahlom ignored her and continued snipping them down whilst shocked bystanders tried to intervene.

In video footage she can be heard saying: “No, you are not going to do this. Because I’m not committing a crime.”

When bystanders told her she was breaking the law, she told them to “call the police and then let them know that you have an issue with this”.

A man was then heard calling her a ‘disgusting little human being’.

Yahlom responds: “I think condoning genocide is disgusting… yeah, because that’s what this is.”

Yahlom has since deleted her Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Levy told the Mail: “As a Jewish person I felt that pull to do something. It feels personal. These ribbons are to remember all the people who were kidnapped and those who are still there.

“There is a climate that it’s acceptable, you can get away with it and even more than that, that people applaud it. People think [they] are on the side of the good, the side of the righteous by standing against Israel and the Jewish people. Frankly what she was doing was anti-Jewish, anti-Israel and anti-humanity.”

Switat studied at Cambridge University and Goldsmiths and is the co-founder of the Sarha Collective, an artists’ organisation for experimental works from Palestine and the broader Southwest Asia and North Africa region, whose website is no longer functional.

Her biography says she specialises in “using film, sound, photography and other mixed mixed media to explore how jinn (ghosts, spirits, witches, demons and other forces of the al-ghaib or ‘unseen’ world) are experienced, embodied and described by different Palestinian communities”.

She is believed to be married to Palestinian actor, film maker and activist Mo’min Swaitat, born in the West Bank, who moved to London in 2011. Within the last 24 hours, he has closed his Facebook account and made his Instagram private, both of which referred to Israel as the “military colonial settler state”.

Stopping short of condemning the actions, a University of Westminster spokesperson told Jewish News: “Our values define who we are. At the University of Westminster, diversity, inclusion and equality of opportunity are at the core of how we engage with students, colleagues, applicants, visitors and all our stakeholders.

“We are fully committed to enabling a supportive and safe learning and working environment which is equitable, diverse and inclusive, is based on mutual respect and trust, and in which harassment including antisemitism and discrimination are neither tolerated nor acceptable.

“As a University, we believe it is important that we nurture an environment in which all members of our community, including Jewish students and colleagues feel welcome, valued and supported. There is no place for any form of discrimination at our University.”

Police are now investigating the footage.