Pro-Palestinian students staged a protest outside a talk with tech entrepreneur Peter Barrett yesterday at King’s College, (23/10) accusing the College of platforming an “investor in genocide”.

The event, hosted by King’s Entrepreneurship Labs, was an “in conversation” with Barrett on “boundaries of deep tech and hard science,” who activists accused of having “direct ties to war crimes”.

Students gathered outside of the College’s Provost’s Lodge where the talk was scheduled to take place, accusing King’s and Barrett of “investing in genocide” and having “blood on your hands”.

The group responsible, King’s Cam for Palestine (KC4P), released a statement on Instagram last week condemning the talk for inviting “a board member of a company so closely affiliated with the genocidal aims of the Israeli apartheid regime”.

One speaker took aim at the College for hosting the event, stating that: “For King’s College, funding genocide is not enough. Today they have chosen to platform Peter Barrett, an investor in genocide and known affiliate of ex IDF soldiers.”

“Peter Barrett invests in and sits on the board of an Israeli based company NextSilicon, that is currently working with the Israeli government to develop artificial intelligence,” they continued.

Peter Barrett is a board member of NextSilicon, an Israel-based AI company that recently received part of a $30 million investment from the Israeli government to develop their AI capabilities.

He is also the co-founder of Playground Global, a venture fund that has raised over $1.2 billion in tech investments.

Students claimed that the technology being developed by NextSilicon “could be being used” for face recognition technology for the IDF. This comes after protesters disrupted tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s talk at the Cambridge Union over allegations that face ID technology developed by his company was “aiding genocide,” due to their ties to the IDF.

The protesters also criticised Next Silicon’s CEO and co-founders, Elad Raz and Eyal Nagar, over the fact they “both held senior positions in Israeli military agencies,” and labelling them “experts in genocide”.

Last term KC4P disrupted a panel discussion on women in cybersecurity held by Provost Gillian Tett. The panel included the director of GCHQ, whom protesters accused of having “reprehensible involvement in the genocide on Gaza”.

King’s had also previously been criticised over their ties to the arms industry, holding £2.2 million in indirect investments in arms and defence.

Following pressure from students, the College commissioned a review of arms investments last term, after a student-proposed paper urging King’s to cut ties with the arms industry was co-signed by the College’s students’ union (KCSU), before being taken to the College’s governing body.

The review of investments will be published this term, with recommendations to be implemented by the end of the academic year.

King’s College, Peter Barrett, and NextSilicon have been contacted for comment