The Academic Friends of
Israel
Please sign the petition opposing the 'Antisemitic' Israel
conference at Southampton University
Southampton
University, one of 24 members of the British Russell Group of
Institutions which have distinguished themselves as research-led universities
of international quality is to hold
a conference on the 17-19 April 2015 questioning both the legal and moral right
of the state of Israel to exist.
The conference "International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy,Responsibility and Exceptionalism" is described by the organisers as “the
first of its kind and constitutes a ground-breaking historical event ... it is
unique because it concerns the legitimacy in international law of the Jewish
State of Israel.”
The event
will be addressed by over 80 academics from Universities around the world,
including the USA, Britain, Australia and Israel. The organisers, who include Southampton law professor Oren
Ben-Dor and George Bisharat, professor at the University of California Hastings
College of Law; have said that the conference
will “engage controversial questions concerning the manner of Israel’s
foundation and its nature, including ongoing forced displacements of
Palestinians and associated injustices.” Ben-Dor and Bisharat have
committed themselves in the past to the delegitimisation of the State of Israel
and its replacement with a Palestinian State.
The majority of speakers at this one-sided conference support a boycott of Israel include
Richard Falk, the former United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in
the Palestinian territories and
anti-Zionist Israeli academic Ilan Pappe.
Criticising
Israeli policies is acceptable in debate, but denying its right to exist veers
into Antisemitism. As French Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared:
“Antisemitism, this old European disease…hides itself behind a fake
anti-Zionism.” It discriminates against the Jewish people, denying them
the right to self-determination which is enshrined in international law. Such
historic prejudice lies behind much BDS activity.
In deference
to the principle of freedom of speech, The Academic Friends of Israel are not
calling for cancellation of the conference. Nor are we calling for a more
balanced program. Such bigotry cannot be balanced.
Please
sign our petition which calls on the University of Southampton to distance
itself from the upcoming conference by removing it from campus, in order to
avoid giving the event credibility and official approval to bigotry and
Antisemitism.
