tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81964017472591561282024-03-13T20:49:40.534-07:00The Academic Friends of IsraelAcademic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-27157687136405203902017-06-11T07:54:00.000-07:002017-06-11T07:57:39.861-07:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: red; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I fear for
the future but the future has arrived.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Labour’s success at the recent General election has produced
various analyses, the most pertinent so far I have seen has come from Stephen
Pollard, who writing in the Daily Telegraph, wrote that the millions of people
who voted for Jeremy Corbyn, a man who tolerates antisemitic hatred, scares him
because the wall to wall coverage of the Labour leader’s views and alliances
with Hamas, the IRA, Stop the War as well as antisemitism in the Labour Party in
the election campaign had no effect on the final outcome. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is not as if people, young in particular didn’t know. Many
of the constituencies which swung to Labour and Corbyn in particular were university
towns like Canterbury. These are not uneducated people, the very opposite in fact,
these are educated University students, who while admittedly would like a ‘no
fee ‘education are intelligent to know that Corbyn’s sums don’t add up. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I have been working within my union, the University and
Lecturers Union (UCU) since 2002 trying (and failing) to stop the pro-Hamas,
pro-BDS, and anti-Israel rhetoric. The UCU disagreed that our definition of
antisemitsim, which is now called the IHRA definition was the ‘real deal’ and substituted
a mishmash of platitudes, which they have no intention of acting upon anyway
since they hold similar views to Jeremy Corbyn especially when it comes to
Israel and Hamas. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What has worried me and I have said it many times is that the
young people at Universities whose lecturers peddle falsehoods about Israel are
infecting the politics of Britain which will lead to an increase in
antisemitsim. How right I was, these young
people at our universities who man the anti-Israel mock wall during ‘Israel Apartheid
Week’ with pretend guns, dressed in battle fatigues pretending to hold ‘poor
Palestinians’ at ‘mock gunpoint’ are now saying <i>‘yeh, Jezza, lets overturn the stale boring Tory politicians and grab
the future’</i> Of course Jezza didn’t do it on his own, he had Teresa May
helping him by denying older wiser people their triple lock pensions as well the
‘dementia tax’ - together they have made very worrying times ahead.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One final thought, I have frequently said that the current
generation of students are being brought up on a diet of ‘Israel is a racist
apartheid state’ and that we will have a problem in 20 years’ time when they
will be in positions of power and influence as the opinions and attitudes they
form now will be with them for the rest of their lives. Clearly I was wrong because they are already influencing
our lives right now, this week. Can we change things or is it already too late?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Dr. Ronnie Fraser<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Director</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Academic Friends of Israel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-29261950525680366532017-04-27T02:33:00.001-07:002017-04-27T02:37:44.945-07:00<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="color: red;">UCU can’t reject antisemitism definition and claim to be
anti-racist</span></span></b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The British Government’s Prevent counter-terrorism strategy
for our schools and universities defines extremism as: <i>“Vocal or active
opposition to fundamental British values, including democracy, the rule of law,
individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of different faiths and
beliefs.”</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Next month the University and College Lecturers Union (UCU)
will debate at its annual congress a <a href="http://www.ucu.org.uk/circ/html/UCU789.html" target="_blank">motion </a>re-affirming <i>‘the
UCU’s condemnation of all forms of racial or religious hatred or
discrimination’</i> as well as congratulating the UCU on its <i>“exemplary
anti-racist work”</i>. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">It then </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;">“resolves that UCU dissociates itself from
the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of
antisemitism”.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">They can’t have their cake and eat it: on the one hand they
say they oppose racism and then pat themselves on the back for all their good
work and immediately follow it up with <i>“We don’t want to have anything
to do with the IHRA definition” </i>which has been adopted by the British
government in the fight against antisemitism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This is hypocritical extremist and racist behaviour which
shows no respect and tolerance for the views of British Jewry. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The union should be ashamed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This offensive anti-Israel, anti-Zionist behaviour is nothing
new to the UCU or its predecessor unions NATFHE and the AUT,
which were first warned 15 years ago by the Board of Deputies that
“those who engage in anti-Israel rhetoric should have regard to the
anti-Semitic consequences.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Since 2007 the UCU has adopted 24 resolutions which have
criticised the actions of the State of Israel and its policies towards the
Palestinians.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">These motions have focused mainly on the academic boycott of
Israel and BDS, several of which were declared void and of no effect due to
legal advice the union received. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In 2011 the union caused a great storm of protest when
Congress overwhelming voted to disassociate itself from the EUMC working
definition of antisemitsim.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The UCU has an unenviable record as no other trade union in
the UK comes anywhere near their number of anti-Israel resolutions. There
probably isn’t another union anywhere in the world that matches this total.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Over the last 10 years the ‘boycott Israel’ lobby within
the union has caused the union to spend large sums of money on human resources
as well as legal advice. It continues along this path like a dog with a
bone and can’t let go.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I agree with the UCU when they say that in the context of
‘Prevent’, <i>“it is perfectly legitimate to express support for
Palestinian rights or to express either support for or opposition to Israel.”</i> But
this motion is not primarily about the Israel/Palestine conflict it is about
the denial of Jewish human rights, the right to live without discrimination as
well as our definition of antisemitsim.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If the UCU adopts this motion then it will be guilty of
racism towards the Jewish people and should be labelled as such.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-44111118531648922062016-07-18T15:04:00.000-07:002016-07-19T14:02:47.618-07:00<div align="center" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Anglo-Jewry
adopts IHRA definition of antisemitsim</span></span></b></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While we were
all busy last week worrying about Brexit and our new Prime Minister, it seems
that Anglo Jewry has adopted <a href="https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/sites/default/files/press_release_document_antisemitism.pdf" target="_blank">the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of contemporary antisemitism</a>. </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/home-affairs-committee/antisemitism/oral/35121.html" target="_blank">Chief Rabbi Mirvis told the Parliamentary Home Affairs committee, </a>who are investigating the rise of antisemitism
in Britain, that:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">‘I would love it if this
group referred to the European Union Monitoring
Centre definition, linked to the International Holocaust Remembrance
Alliance’s definition, as the guideline: This is what we would like everybody
to follow. This is how we want authorities to apply the rules for anyone who
steps out of line.’</span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">When
the Chief Rabbi says ‘we’ is he speaking on behalf of the 300,000 Jews who live
in the UK. He was not acting alone in
endorsing this definition because <a href="http://data.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/committeeevidence.svc/evidencedocument/home-affairs-committee/antisemitism/written/35045.html" target="_blank">Sir Mick Davis, in his written submission to the Home affairs Committee stated:</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘It is my position, as well as that of the Jewish Leadership Council and the
Community Security Trust, the British Jewish community’s authoritative voice on antisemitsim
and community security, that this committee uses the International Holocaust
Remembrance Alliance’s definition
of antisemitism as its guide as well.’<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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</div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">Would
the Chief Rabbi, Jewish Leadership Council and the Community
Security Trust all recommend that the Home affairs Committee use the IHRA
definition unless they intended to use it themselves in future? </span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If
so, they should all be congratulated in making this decision because it now allows
us to say to the Universities, politicians and trade unions, this is our community’s
definition and if you cross the line, especially when discussing Israel, we will
not have a problem calling you an antisemite. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: -0.05pt; line-height: 150%;">The</span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: 1.2pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">International Holocaust Remembrance
Alliance (<span style="letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">IHRA) is an
intergovernmental body comprising of thirty-one countries, including the United
Kingdom.</span> Although the Community Security Trust recommends that we no longer use <a href="https://antisemitism.uk/definition/" target="_blank">the European Monitoring Centre (EUMC) working definition of antisemitism</a> as that organisation no longer
exists, the IHRA’s definition of antisemitsim is just a refined version of the EUMC definition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Chief Rabbi Mirvis also
explained to the committee why anti-Zionism was antisemitic saying:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">'Zionism has been an integral
part of Judaism from the dawn of our faith.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>The very first imperative given to the
founders of our faith, Abraham and Sarah, by God, as recorded in the book of
Genesis, was to uproot themselves from Mesopotamia and go to live in Canaan.
Ever since that time, that part of the world has been the centre of our
spiritual universal. We have prayed towards Israel. Open any prayer book and
you will find Israel jumping out at you. It is the centre of what we are.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">As a result—further to a political
development in the latter part of the 19th century through which Zionism gained
an added dimension, spelling out the right of the Jewish people to live within
secure borders with self-determination in their own country, which they had
been absent from for 2,000 years—that is what Zionism is. If you are an
anti-Zionist, you are anti everything I have just mentioned. If you want to
criticise a Government, that’s fine.'<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.05pt;">Anglo Jewry have been reluctant in the past
to adopt a definition and </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">only
two years ago, <strong><span style="background: white; font-weight: normal;">the All-Party
Parliamentary Inquiry into Antisemitism reported that:</span></strong><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">‘<i>There is little if any pressure from the
established representative bodies in the Jewish community to pursue the
adoption of a definition of antisemitism.’<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif";">However
when you read what the Chief Rabbi Mirvis told the committee as to why we why need a definition, you wonder
why it has taken so long for Anglo-Jewry to adopt one. He said:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘A definition is so crucial
because, if not for a definition, you could have a person who is guilty of
antisemitic comments and who goes on to say that in his 47 years of being a
member of a party he has never seen any antisemitism. If you don’t have a clear
definition, anybody can say anything about what is or is not, which is why it
is so important for there to be that clear definition.</span>’<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">There
are some groups who will oppose the adoption of a definition. In their
submission to the Chakrabarti inquiry into antisemitsim in the Labour party, t<a href="http://www.palestinecampaign.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/Evidence-from-PSC-to-Chakrabarti-inquiry-final-June-2016.pdf" target="_blank">he Palestinian Solidarity Campaign (PSC) wrote</a> that they consider:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘Antisemitism hatred of or
discrimination against Jewish people on the basis of their religion or
identity’,</span></i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">and that
criticism of the Israeli Government’s policies and actions or Zionism is not
antisemitic. They also stated that Zionism is a political ideology rather than:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 2.65pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘<i>the
right to Jewish self-determination in a land that has been at the centre of the
Jewish world for more than 3,000 years</i>.’ <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 2.65pt;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
PSC along with other anti-Israel submissions condemned the use of the EUMC
definition of antisemitsim saying it denied their right to challenge <i>‘the racism of the Israeli state’</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">It
is of some comfort to me personally that five years after I lost <a href="https://www.judiciary.gov.uk/judgments/fraser-uni-college-union/" target="_blank">my legal action against my trade union, the UCU,</a> the community now has an agreed definition of
antisemitism to refer to. If there had been a definition in place then, would
the outcome have been different?</span></div>
<div align="center" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 10.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;">
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Ronnie Fraser</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Director</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px;">Academic Friends of Israel</span></div>
Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-54390860769451543202016-02-28T10:22:00.001-08:002016-02-28T23:27:04.515-08:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Extremism in British Universities: A Kingston Perspective</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Professor
Julius Weinberg, the Vice-Chancellor of Kingston University, was invited by Kingston Synagogue to address a
meeting last week on this topic. He
appeared to be very happy and comfortable to discuss the difficulties facing Muslim
students and expressed concern that Sunni and Shi’ite Muslims are likely to
cause friction for each other in the months and years to come. His delivery was light, jokey and at times
verging on the slightly dismissive of people with what might be described as
‘radical’ views, calling them 'mad idiots' at times.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">To
be fair to him Professor Weinberg’s lecture was really focusing on extremism as
it related to Muslim students and Prevent, the Government’s strategy for dealing
with extremism in educational establishments. His major concern was freedom of
speech: the right not to be offended is not paralleled by a right to be
offensive; the relevant question, he said concerns the limits of tolerance and
he related back to these themes throughout.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">All
this was well and good, however, but his audience, which contained several
academics who lecture at Kingston University was more concerned with anti -Jewish
feeling at his University and he didn’t say how tolerant he expects Jewish
staff and students to be. Asked by many
people about anti-Israel/pro-Palestinian sentiment on campus and harassment of
Jewish students at Fresher's week he consistently changed the subject to
discuss the feelings of Muslim students, many of them, he assured us came from
poor backgrounds. When confronted with a
photo of an antisemitic banner held up at Fresher's week last year, he denied
all knowledge of it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">His
attitude was consistent at least. He
really didn’t see a problem. His
dismissive approach continued. When
asked if a Holocaust denier like David Irving would be welcome to speak at
Kingston, his reply was an emphatic ‘certainly’. His main focus was on freedom of speech. He made it quite clear that as long as a
person stayed within British law they are welcome to express their views at his
University. It was pointed out that
David Irving is a convicted Holocaust denier and his response was that since
Holocaust denial is not illegal in this country it is just a debating topic and
people who find his views offensive should be more concerned with the debate;
after all, he said, Kingston University is a place of learning and people need
to be free to debate all topics. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘Did
you know,’ he asked ‘that Kingston University offers a degree in Holocaust
studies?’ He was right, we didn’t know and after researching the University’s
web site, I still don’t know. All I
could find on their website was a MA in Human Rights offering a module on genocide
and crimes against humanity, therefore not Holocaust Studies. It is possible that the module has been
omitted for some reason from the web site or he is being disingenuous about the
module. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">He
was also asked several times as to what he understood to be antisemitism but
flatly refused to answer the question,
the reason for this we can only wonder at. It was therefore no surprise that when asked
about contemporary antisemitsm and the call for the delegitimisation of the
State of Israel he said he had no problem with a debate at Kingston on
discussing Israeli's right to exist. Prof Weinberg was asked if he would allow
a debate on the delegitimisation of the State of Israel. He said he has a problem with a State which
is based on a religious ideal.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a> He did not mention if the
State concerned was Israel, Vatican City, ISIL (Daesh) or the United States of
America.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
was not surprising that he made no mention of the fact that last September, Kingston
University was named by the Prime Minister along with King's College London, University of London's
Queen Mary and School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) as the leading
universities to give a platform to extremists and hate speakers. <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Mr
Cameron said:<i> <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/education-news/universities-to-be-legally-required-to-implement-anti-extremism-measures-10504541.html" target="_blank">"All publicinstitutions have a role to play in rooting out and challenging extremism. Itis not about oppressing free speech or stifling academic freedom, it is about making sure that radical views and ideas are not given the oxygen they need to flourish." </a><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">So
it would seem that he clearly disagrees with Mr Cameron since when asked about the National Union of Students “no platform” policy, he said that while
people should always be safe, ideas should not be. It is essential to allow
speakers with whom one disagrees to have their ideas tested and challenged<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
default position at Kingston University is to allow any speaker as long as he
or she does not have links with any organisation on the government's banned list
and had previously signed a declaration not
to break the law and agreed to take questions. Gender segregation is not
allowed and all meetings must be open to all members of the University.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
is clear from the Professor's views that in his eyes freedom of speech trumps
hate speech as long as it doesn't break the law. It would appear therefore that
he considers those of us who believe that students of all races and ethnic
backgrounds have a right to walk around university campuses without fear of
being targeted for either their religious or cultural practices, or their views
on Israel are wrong since any offence requires, in his view, more tolerance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">It
would appear that Jewish students and Faculty members are being expected to
tolerate offensive antisemitic rhetoric and for there to be no limits to their
tolerance. Isn’t this reminiscent of
Europe in the 1930’s? ‘It’s just talk’. ‘It will come to nothing’, German Jews said ….<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Ronnie Fraser</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Director</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Academic Friends of Israel</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-82264900781595957602015-11-30T14:24:00.001-08:002015-12-01T02:36:23.106-08:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: red; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Freedom of
speech and antisemitism on Campus<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 115%;">Britain's </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Universities
have a long standing commitment to freedom of speech within the law for their
students, employees and visiting speakers. But what do we mean by freedom of
speech? - Whose freedom? -Does one person's freedom of speech impinge on another
person's freedom of expression? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Last Thursday <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201516/ldhansrd/text/151126-0001.htm#15112628000548" target="_blank">the House of Lords held a two hour debate </a>on this
very topic, freedom of speech in our universities. The debate was initiated by Baroness Deech and the speakers included a number of a
number of University professors and a former Secretary of State for Education.
Although their discussions took a wide ranging approach to the current problems
on campus, several speakers used the opportunity to highlight the problems
facing Jewish students on campus and the academic boycott Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Over the years my freedom of
speech has been threatened several times
and as a result I have had to deal with a great deal of criticism and harassment. It was therefore
very pleasing to read Lord Leigh's positive comments about the Academic Friends
of Israel in the Lord's debate. When talking about the conference at University
of Southampton which questioned Israel’s right to exist he said: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">..."the Academic Friends of Israel.....in refusing
to call for the conference to be cancelled or even for balance to be added to
the programme. Instead, they simply chose to exercise their own right to free
speech, to publicly criticise the one-sided nature of the programme, and to expose the questionable
biographies of some of the speakers." </span></span></i></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><i><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Opening the debate Baroness
Deech said that:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Free
speech is under attack because of a widespread culture of victimisation and grievance.
People are fearful of the consequences if they express unpopular views and so
they stay silent. Academic freedom and freedom of speech are the poorer for it.
There is a pincer movement between students blocking speech<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="column_834"></a>
they disapprove of and the operation of the many laws imposed on universities
to promote and control speech." <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="151126-0001.htm_para75"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="stpa_75"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="15112628000180"></a><o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She continued that although
our Universities legally have to provide external speakers a platform:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"Extreme
but lawful views should not be repressed but challenged. But extremist speakers
are not being challenged because the students themselves are silencing the challengers."<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">She then had harsh words for
the <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="151126-0001.htm_para76"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="stpa_76"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="15112628000181"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="151126-0001.htm_para78"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="stpa_78"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="15112628000183"></a>National Union of Students (NUS) which she said:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"have
invented a safe space policy, the gist of which is that students should always feel,
“comfortable and safe”. Any idea that has the potential to upset students or cause
discomfort is seen as a problem. Some beliefs are branded as dangerous and to
be repressed. So the protection of safety for some students means that others
are labelled as dangerous and hateful. The NUS wants all campus speech to be empowering,
non-judgmental and non-threatening. If it is not, it will be shouted down,
obstructed or banned."<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The main thrust of her
argument was that there are many examples of students closing down academic freedom
and that lecturers and the University managements are bowing to students’
whims. In particular she noted that: <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">"some
Israeli or Jewish students do not get to enjoy the safe space that the NUS guarantees
to others."<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">While Jewish students are
being denied the right of reply we know that University authorities are failing
to block or even question the suitability of extremist speakers. <a href="http://henryjacksonsociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Preventing-Prevent_webversion3.pdf" target="_blank">StudentRights </a>logged 132 of these events in 2012, 145 in 2013, and 123 in 2014. The
speakers featured have suggested that there is a Western war against Islam; supported
individuals convicted of terrorism offences; expressed intolerance of
non-believers and minorities; and espoused religious law as a method of
socio-political governance – opposing democracy in the process.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What has happened the
concept of learning respect for other people’s views, even when one strongly
disagrees with what is being said, why is this
principle no longer acceptable on campus?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To quote David Cameron, our Prime Minister:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="brev_3"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="15112628000338"></a><i><span style="line-height: 115%;">“It
is absolutely right that in Britain's universities, students and faculty should
be able to criticise Israel, just as they can criticise any country … But it is
absolutely wrong that in any of our universities there should be an environment
where students are scared to express their Judaism or their Zionism freely”.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></i></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is not a new problem as
back in 2008 the then Chief Rabbi,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span> Lord Jonathan Sacks
urged University Vice-Chancellors:<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">“to take greater action to defend Jewish students who are made to
feel like pariahs on campuses around the UK.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> <i> </i></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Rather than
things getting better things are worse as </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">Britain's University
campuses have become a breeding ground for contemporary antisemitism as some
student societies who identify strongly with the Palestinian cause, express
their opposition to Israel by using anti-Israel rhetoric which often invokes
and perpetuates antisemitic tropes. Although they may not intend to be antisemitic,
the effect of their rhetoric is often to harass those students who support
Israel, many of whom happen to be Jewish and closes down debate. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The trend over the last 12
months has been for some anti-Israel speakers to make outrageous and
unsubstantiated claims about Israel and Jews, some which cross the line into
antisemitism yet when Israeli activists complain they are accused of attempting
to shut down discussion of Israel.
Academic freedom on these terms is a one way street; it's okay for me to
criticise Israel but it's not acceptable for you to defend the state. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When the issue of antisemitism is raised,
boycotters and anti-Zionists are inclined to respond by accusing the person who raises the issue of
antisemitism of doing so in bad faith, not because they are really concerned,
but in a dishonest attempt to frighten people and stop them from criticising of
Israel. This is known as the Livingstone Formulation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the criticisms of the
academic conferences at Exeter and
Southampton was that there was a lack of balance amongst the speakers.
Although two pro-Israel activists were parachuted into Exeter, Universities do
not have a legal obligation to provide balance at an academic conference.
Although the authorities at Southampton were assured by the organisers that it was going to be quality academic and
balanced conference it turned out to be nothing more than a thinly veiled
attempt to give academic approval to the Palestinian narrative that the Jewish
people have never had a connection with the land of Israel. That tenured
academics could seriously suggest that the anti-Israel fest that was proposed
had the credentials to be considered as a serious academic conference is a
misuse of academic freedom. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Our Universities have a
legal duty to take all reasonable steps to prevent campus rhetoric and freedom
of speech not to be polluted by antisemitism. One of the problems facing both Jewish students and University
authorities is understanding when freedom
of speech crosses the line into antisemitism? When does criticism of Israel
cross the line into </span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">antisemitism</span><span style="line-height: 115%;">? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">We all know when the line
into antisemitism is crossed. The Community Security Trust, pro-Israel activists
and the Jewish community all know but cannot agree on a </span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">definition</span><span style="line-height: 115%;">. Ten years after its inception the EUMC working definition antisemitism may be the best that is available
but unfortunately is not the answer. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why is it so hard to
convince people this latest form of antisemitism, a mixture anti-Zionism and anti-Israel
sentiment is the real thing? Why are people, especially those on the Left not willing to accept our word for it when we tell them that they have crossed that line?
Is it because it's not against the law to be an antisemite and there is no
definition to stop them?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One of the irony's of campus
life is that the National Union of Students (NUS), whose actions have created
an environment of hostility and intimidation towards Jewish students by
supporting BDS, adopted the EUMC definition of antisemitism at their 2007
Annual Conference and reaffirmed their support for it at their 2010 and 2013
Annual Conferences. At their Conference
in 2015, NUS pledged to fight antisemitism on campus. The reality is that it is
a worthless pledge because NUS cannot on the one hand support BDS directed at
Israel and on the other hand say this action is not directed at British Jews.
The outpouring of hatred directed at British Jews over Israel's actions the
2014 Gaza war make a nonsense of this claim. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Trying to fight antisemitism
on campus without the use of an accepted definition of modern </span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">antisemitism</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> only makes the job harder than it needs to
be. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I would suggest that if Anglo-Jewry
had a definition which it was comfortable with then the government, the media,
the Universities and the unions, would
be aware what we consider to be modern antisemitism. We would then be entitled
to say that if you cross that line and it must be reasonable for us to consider
that you are an antisemite. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Since there isn't a
consensus on what constitutes modern </span><span style="line-height: 18.4px;">antisemitism</span><span style="line-height: 115%;"> how do we persuade University authorities what antisemitism is? In the meantime
the anti-Israel activist will continue
to say that I am not an antisemite because I say so, and I should know because
I oppose antisemitism and I also know that anti-Zionism and anti-Israel sentiment
are not antisemitic.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Dr. Ronnie Fraser<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Director</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span>
</span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Academic Friends of Israel </span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-45407308409893128122015-08-03T05:00:00.000-07:002015-08-04T02:02:42.307-07:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Extremism leads to Terrorism.
Are Jewish schools exempt?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Recent press articles have equated
Jewish schools with radical Muslim schools some of which promote segregation
from the wider society. This is worrying but unsurprising. About 18000 children aged 5 to 16, attend
Jewish schools in the UK. The schools
range from those who describe themselves as having a <i>‘Jewish Pluralist Ethos’</i> like JCOSS to Talmud Torah Tiferes
Schlomoh which ‘<i><span style="background: white;">has been branded a failing school by Ofsted, which judged it spends too
much time teaching Jewish religious studies’</span></i><span style="background: white;"> <a href="http://www.hamhigh.co.uk/news/education/ofsted_fails_orthodox_jewish_talmud_torah_tiferes_school_in_golders_green_1_4026611" target="_blank">(Ham and High, 9 April 2015).</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">All
sensible people would applaud
t<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97976/prevent-strategy-review.pdf" target="_blank">he Government’s new, revised Prevent strategy on Extremism and Terrorism </a>and would do whatever they can to support
it. Prevent <span style="background: white;">concludes that extremism leads to terrorism. We may think nothing like this would happen
in our schools but recently in Israel an alleged ‘terrorist Jew’ fire bombed a
Palestinian house in Duma killing a small child. It is too easy to say it
simply would not happen in Britain. We cannot be complacent: firstly it might
happen here, and secondly even if it doesn’t, our detractors are starting to
tar us with the same brush as the Muslim extremists as was shown in a <a href="http://goo.gl/efDI4c" target="_blank">Sky News report </a>on this subject last week by a National Secular Society spokesman <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Most of our Jewish
schools strive to teach our children the value of tolerance and respect for the
wider community, indeed in many Jewish schools there are non-Jewish students
learning alongside the Jewish students in harmony and respect. However the Prevent strategy has gathered
evidence which shows worryingly a different picture both globally and in the
UK:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">‘There have been allegations that a minority of independent
faith schools have been actively promoting views that are contrary to British
values, such as intolerance of other cultures and gender inequality. There have
also been reports that some independent faith schools have allowed extremist
views to be expressed by staff, visitors or pupils..’ (<a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97976/prevent-strategy-review.pdf" target="_blank"> </a></span></i><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97976/prevent-strategy-review.pdf" target="_blank">Prevent Strategy
Review 10.32</a><i><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97976/prevent-strategy-review.pdf" target="_blank">)</a><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Can we in the Anglo
Jewish community be certain that this does not apply to any of our independent
faith schools?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The problems begins
to arise in those Jewish schools, some
of which are state funded, which do not wish to teach the children to mix with
the general population, often insultingly referred to as ‘goyim’. Their
curriculum is limited, not including for example sex education, or Science,
Music or Art in full. The School’s view is these subjects are not deemed
suitable or necessary for its children. The result is that children in these
schools are not being exposed to British society. Would it not be better for
the children from these so called ultra-orthodox schools to be taught about all
that society can offer and then educated,
having that knowledge, that as Jews they need to be circumspect as to
how much it is proper for them to avail themselves of?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">What is required is a
dialogue with the Rabbis who run these schools, explaining just how dangerous
and potentially disastrous this blinkered approach could be. Isn’t there a
profound risk that extremism in the Jewish world will turn into terrorism, and
then fuelled by media reports, become anti Semitism?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Our non-Jewish
friends may believe us when we tell them that it is only a minority of schools
who act in this way. However the figures show that as much as one in four of
the 10000 primary school children in Jewish school do in fact go to schools
which the majority of Anglo Jewry would consider right wing; the schools with
these limited curriculums are thus failing to teach pupils all that society can
offer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Indeed such is the
concern in the wider community that
the Government’s Chief inspector
of schools has only this week said that he will ensure that all schools teach
the importance of British values as a “top priority” and he referred
specifically to those with a large
Jewish and Muslim intake. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">We need to face up to
the potential dangers and help ourselves. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Lola
Fraser<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Academic
Friends of Israel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-1713262923049700892015-07-09T07:29:00.000-07:002015-07-09T07:29:18.765-07:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Pro-BDS does not mean Pro-Palestinian<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
international <span style="background: white;">Boycotts, Divestments and
Sanctions (BDS) movement directed at Israel has probably found more support in
Britain than in any other Western democratic society</span>. Directed at Israel, the world’s only Jewish state,
BDS is in effect antisemitic, even if that is not the intention. The long term aim of the BDS campaign is the
replacement of the Jewish state with a Palestinian one. They are no
different in this respect to the Arab nations who have always been unwilling to
accept a Jewish presence in the region.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Since 2002 British activists have been party to this aim by
initiating calls for academic, trade union, media, medical, architectural, and
cultural boycotts of Israel. Britain's trade union movement which is mainly
controlled by the Left, works closely with the Palestine Solidarity Campaign
(PSC) and is a key member of their British BDS campaign. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Unions
which are affiliated to and fund the PSC include Unite, Unison, the GMB, the
RMT, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the UCU.
The NUT is just one of several British unions using their considerable
influence in the global labour movement to persuade unions in Europe and around
the world to adopt BDS. As a result relations between the largest British
unions and their Israeli counterparts are probably now at their lowest point
for many years because of British support for the Palestinians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">It therefore came as a nice surprise to hear that a delegation
from the Israeli union for government employees, which is part of the
Histadrut, paid a short visit to Britain at the end of June and met with
the TUC as well as their opposite numbers in the First Division
Association, the union for senior civil servants. Unfortunately a meeting with
the GMB had to be cancelled at the last minute. The outcome I am told was good
and further visits and meetings and now planned both in UK and Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Visits such this are very unusual nowadays because of the
anti-Israel stance of the British unions, yet it in the late 1960s and early
1970s it was commonplace for union delegations to visit Israel and their
Israeli counterparts to travel to Britain every couple of months.
Leading Left wingers of the time, Franks Cousins and Len Jones along with TUC
General Secretary Len Murray all believed that the role of the British trade
unions was to help the peace process by building relationships between the
Israeli and Palestinian trade unions and not just support one side against the
other as is the case today. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Although the TUC is affiliated to the
PSC and supports the boycott of Israeli settlement goods it is committed to a
two-state solution with an independent Palestinian state living side by side
with a secure Israel . <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Britain's two largest unions Unite and Unison were also invited to
meet the Israelis. Since they both have a long history of anti-Israel,
pro-Palestinian rhetoric and conference resolutions condemning Israel
their failure to reply to the invitation may have been more than just an
administrative oversight. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Maybe they value their support for BDS
and the PSC more than they do for the opportunity for dialogue to try and help
build links between Palestinian trade unionists and Israelis?. Unison proudly
says it <a href="http://www.unison.org.uk/news/palestine-is-your-pension-fund-investing-in-the-occupation" target="_blank">"has been campaigning in solidarity with the Palestinian people for over 20 years"</a>, so unless there is a genuine reason for missing an
opportunity for dialogue it makes a makes a nonsense of Unison's claims to help the Palestinians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If
Unite and Unison don't want to talk to Israelis then they should talk to
Palestinians like Bassem Eid instead rather than blindly follow the edicts of
the PSC. Eid wrote in an article for the <i><a href="http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-palestinian-case-against-bds" target="_blank">Washington Institute</a>: </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">..."BDS
spokespeople justify calling for boycotts that will result in increased
economic hardships for the Palestinians by asserting that Palestinians are
willing to suffer such deprivations in order to achieve their freedom. It goes
without saying that they themselves live in comfortable circumstances elsewhere
in the world and will not suffer any such hardship. It would seem, in fact,
that the BDS movement in its determination to oppose Israel is prepared to
fight to the last drop of Palestinian blood...."<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">Where is the evidence that pro-Palestinian campaigners such as the
PSC, UNISON or any of the unions done anything to help improve the lives of
ordinary Palestinians? There seems to be plenty of anti-Israel rhetoric
and talk of solidarity but very little else. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">British trade unions
like Unite and Unison and the UCU appear to focus on the conflict in the Middle
East between Israel and Palestine almost to the exclusion of other international
issues. Over the last ten years this has involved all them in considerable
costs in terms of money and resources, yet none appear to
be directly involved in any aid or training programmes for Palestinians run by
international trade union bodies such as the ITUC. Their support for the PSC
appears to be more about the political ideology of the Far Left who want to
destroy Israel than it is about helping the Palestinians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">So let's change the narrative and help the Palestinians ourselves
and the first thing we can do is to ask the unions to show us exactly how all
the thousands of pounds they have spent on BDS has helped the Palestinians in
any material way whatsoever - pity the Palestinians - pity the poor union
members whose money is being squandered on Israel hate rather than Palestinian
humanitarian aid. Our second move has to be to label BDS supporters as
anti-Israeli rather than pro-Palestinian.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ronnie Fraser</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Director</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 16.7pt;">Academic Friends of Israel</span></div>
Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-47673068844595059082015-06-06T23:57:00.000-07:002015-06-06T23:57:17.986-07:00<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 16.7pt;">
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt;">BDS
derailed?</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">According
to the press last week was a good one for the Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions
movement (BDS) with headlines such as, <i>"<a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/11648841/Netanyahu-condemns-UK-students-over-pro-boycott-vote.html" target="_blank">Netanyahu condemns UK students over pro-boycott vote"</a></i> and <a href="http://www.thejc.com/news/campus-news/137293/fury-nus-leaders-vote-boycott-israel" target="_blank">"</a><i><a href="http://www.thejc.com/news/campus-news/137293/fury-nus-leaders-vote-boycott-israel" target="_blank">Fury as NUS leaders vote to boycottIsrael"</a>.</i> But if you look behind
the headlines, the last two weeks have not turned out as well as the BDS
movement would have expected and the options open to them are severely limited
in terms of implementing the motion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
BDS movement's joy with the students pro-boycott vote was short lived because
within 24 hours of the national executive of the <a href="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/nusdigital/document/documents/14670/CD10_Final%20Proposals%20Motions_v7%20FINAL%20FOR%20PRINT.pdf" target="_blank">National Union of Students(NUS) voting to affiliate to the BDS movement,</a> Universities UK, the umbrella
body for Britain's Universities, <a href="http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/highereducation/Pages/UniversitiesUKstatementregardingacademicboycottsandacademicfreedom.aspx#.VXPpdc9Viko" target="_blank">reaffirme</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/highereducation/Pages/UniversitiesUKstatementregardingacademicboycottsandacademicfreedom.aspx#.VXPpdc9Viko" target="_blank">d its opposition to an academicboycott of Israel.</a> What is the point of a student union now asking their
University's Vice-Chancellor to support a boycott of Israel when they know what
the answer will be? On top of this setback two weeks ago Britain's University
lecturers trade union,<a href="http://www.ucu.org.uk/7521" target="_blank"> the UCU Congress debated and voted for a BDS resolution</a> only to hear the motion declared "void and of null effect." </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">The BDS movement will no doubt claim both the
UCU and NUS votes as successes and ignore Universities UK .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Since
2003, the UCU has been trying to implement what they now call a "general
pro-boycott policy directed at Israeli products and institutions, including
academic institutions. " Every time they have tried to do this they have
been unable to do so because it would
pose “a serious risk of infringing discrimination legislation".<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
boycotters intention this time was that all UCU members would be sent "a
dedicated e-mail, reminding them of <i>(the
UCU's)</i> policy on Israel, and with a link to the PACBI <i>(Palestinian BDS)</i> guidelines and any misrepresentations of UCU's
policy <i>(would)</i> be corrected
publicly.” If the UCU had gone ahead and sent out such an email they would have
been in breach of the<a href="http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=2829" target="_blank"> legal advice </a>they received in 2007 in which Counsel advised
that: <i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">“It would be beyond the Union's powers
and unlawful for the Union, directly or indirectly to call for or to implement
a boycott by the Union and its members of any kind of Israeli universities and
other academic institutions; and that the use of Union funds directly or
indirectly to further such a boycott would also be unlawful."<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">That
the motion was declared "void and of null effect" begs the question
does the UCU actually have a policy supporting BDS? I would suggest not as they
are effectively neutered since the UCU
cannot directly or indirectly campaign for BDS. In addition union officials
such as the General Secretary cannot speak in favour of BDS when they represent
the union at International bodies or rallies because to do so would leave the union
in breach of their legal advice and infringe Britain's equality and discrimination
legislation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/nusdigital/document/documents/14670/CD10_Final%20Proposals%20Motions_v7%20FINAL%20FOR%20PRINT.pdf" target="_blank">The NUS"Solidarity with Palestine" motion </a>was passed by the NUS’s
national executive committee by 19 votes to 14, a move which committed the
union to affiliate to the BDS movement. The Union of Jewish Students (UJS) said
that the decision “undermines interfaith
relations and suffocates progressive voices for peace on both sides”. NUS
deputy vice-president, Joe Vinson tweeted after the vote that
“antisemitism is like a virus, it mutates and infects everything it touches.
It's mutated into BDS and NUS is infected”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">NUS
now finds itself in a similar position to the UCU and cannot actively campaign
for BDS because of constitutional restraints. The motion confirms this point as
it asks NUS "to develop legal advice for unions adopting BDS to defend
their democratic decisions from attacks." This time, the options open to
the boycotters to implement BDS in Britain are limited and we have to be thankful for Britain's
discrimination laws for not allowing them their head. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
fact that the UCU or the NUS are willing to support BDS and ignore our Universities
legal duty to eliminate harassment and foster good relations between persons of
different nationalities, ethnicities and religions shows what sort a society we
now live in. Is it any wonder that our University campuses tend to be a
breeding ground for contemporary anti-Semitism as the anti-Israel rhetoric used
by pro-Palestinian supporters often invokes and perpetuates anti-Semitic
tropes? NUS should be listening not only to the concerns
of UJS about the effect on Jewish students but also their own members such as
the University of Southampton Students Union who expressed real concern over
escalated tension and division between student groups at the University as the
result of the build up to the anti-Israel conference that was due to be held there last April.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ronnie Fraser<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Director<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Academic Friends of Israel</span></div>
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Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-27083847995003332832015-05-04T13:52:00.000-07:002015-05-04T13:59:19.511-07:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-line-height-alt: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
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<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The</span></i><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></i><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Academic Friends of Israel<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Why do only 259 people "like" the Board of Deputies of
British Jews?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
</div>
</div>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With over 75% of the
internet population in America on Facebook, social media is becoming more and more influential in shaping opinions
throughout the world and especially about Israel. Social media also takes up a lot of one's
time, as some of us are constantly checking
Facebook and Twitter for the latest news.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Later this month the Board
of Deputies of British Jews (BOD) will elect a new President. The role of the
Board of Deputies, which was established in 1760, is to protect Jewish life in
Great Britain. To maintain its position
as the leading representative body for Anglo-Jewry, the Board of Deputies has
like everyone else a website, a Facebook page and a Twitter account. Last summer's fighting in Gaza between Israel
and Hamas war highlighted how powerful a propaganda tool social media had
become. For example the posting by
Amnesty International UK "Gaza :
Stop the arms, Stop the killing " had
32,000 "likes" and 13,500 retweets. At the time I thought, "Wow, with all
those retweets and "likes"
this certainly gets your message out there." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With this in mind I looked at
the number of "likes" on the Facebook pages for a selection of both pro-Israel
and Pro-Palestinian organisations. The results
of my survey are certainly not a foolproof guide to their popularity and reach,
as one can "like" more than one organisation and the figures can be
massaged. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The number of
"likes" are important because if you go to a Facebook page looking
for information, a large number of "likes" could influence whether
you accept or not the information displayed on the page as correct. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If you or your organisation have a large number
of "likes" you can be a force to be reckoned with. On the other hand
if the number of "likes" on your page is minimal you are in trouble
especially if you are a large organisation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This is what I found, it's
not a complete survey but it raises a number of questions.(figures downloaded
on 26 April 2015)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Pro-Palestinian
organisations <o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Palestine Solidarity
Campaign 397,000
"likes" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Stop the War campaign 112,000
"likes"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Friends of Al Aqsa 351,000</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> "likes" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">War on Want 29,000 "likes
"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Pro-Israel
organisations <o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><u><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></u></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sussex Friends Of
Israel 14,500 "likes" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Campaign Against
antisemitism 7,100 "likes"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Zionist Federation 2,000 "likes"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jewish Leadership Council 422 "likes" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Board of Deputies of
British Jews 259 "likes"<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My first reaction to these
figures was to question whether the figures for both the pro-Palestinian and the Anglo-Jewish organisations are genuine, as there is such a disparity
between the two. Could it be true that
only 259 people "like" the Board of Deputies<b> </b> and<b> </b>that the number of people who "like" the Palestine
Solidarity Campaign (PSC) are more than the total number of Jews in Britain.
Then I looked again at Amnesty International UK and found that they only
have <span class="52id"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">235,728</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">
"</span></span><span class="50f8"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">likes</span></span>".
This poses the question are the PSC's figures genuine or not? Is it realistic
to say that they have more supporters and reach than Amnesty International UK ?
If these figures are correct and the PSC has more support than Amnesty International
then we<b> </b>are in serious trouble- who is responsible for dealing with this? Who
should? Are the people who "like" them mainly Muslims or the general
public? I am no lover of Amnesty International but what does this say about British
society today?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">According to the PSC annual
review, "The number of people ‘linking’ PSC on Facebook rose from 60,000
before summer with 18.6 million people being reached in one week alone." Was
increase in the number of "likes" solely the result of the Gaza war? If
you wanted information about Israel and the war last year you didn't go to the
Board of Deputies website but elsewhere. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Are the 259 "likes" for the Board of
Deputies a reflection of them being out of touch with Anglo Jewry and social
media? The Jewish community certainly thought last summer
that the BOD did very little to support them and Israel. Why do the Sussex
Friends of Israel, have more "likes" than the rest of the community
organisations combined? Why is it pro-Israel grassroots groups such as Sussex Friends Of Israel and the Campaign
Against Antisemitism, both of whom stepped up to the plate last summer when the
leaders of Anglo Jewry dithered, have a significant
presence on the Facebook and Twitter and
are able to react to events with direct action?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Consider this, 2,378 people
like<span class="apple-converted-space"> the Facebook page of the </span>South
African Jewish Board of Deputies. That's
nearly ten times as many as the UK in a country with only 70,000
Jews as compared to 280,000 in Britain. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When it comes to
Twitter, Anglo-Jewry seems to have got
their act together a lot better, the PSC has 20,000 followers, the BOD 6000,
the JLC 4000 and the Sussex Friends of Israel 8300. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How is it that the BOD can
have 6000 followers on Twitter and only 259 "likes" on Facebook, it
doesn't make sense? What I do know is that Facebook and Twitter are very
powerful tools when it comes to getting your message across and standing up for
Israel. Could it be something to do with the fact that the BOD's primary role
is to defend the rights of the Anglo-Jewry and Israel comes a poor second? They need to acknowledge that the two are
inextricably entwined. Maybe they also need a better understanding of how
social media works and the need to react immediately? Whatever the reason the new President of the
Board of Deputies will have his or her work cut out to ensure the BOD more actively
supports Israel on social media when the
next conflict erupts and they need more than 259 people to "like" the Board's Facebook page.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Ronnie
Fraser<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Director<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Academic
Friends of Israel <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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</div>
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Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-5956194214046321572015-04-13T16:10:00.000-07:002015-04-13T16:10:04.640-07:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-line-height-alt: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The</span></i><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></i><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Academic Friends of Israel<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b style="line-height: 16.7pt;"><span style="color: red; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">History
shows that to do nothing leaves us vulnerable</span></b><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 24px; text-align: justify;"> </span></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 16.7pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
have heard the argument many times that by opposing anti-Israel events on
campus that all one is doing is giving publicity to pro-Palestinian marginal fringe events. Are the many attempts to implement an academic
boycott of Israel made by my trade union, the UCU, which myself and fellow
trade unionists opposed, marginal events that we should not have bothered
about. Was it wrong to oppose the UCU's
decision to dissociate itself from the EUMC working definition of antisemitism ? I still hear it said that I
was wrong to take the UCU to court for
alleged institutional Antisemitism, yet those same voices were silent at the
time. It's always a judgement call between choosing which issues to oppose in a
big way and those to ignore. I would hope we get it right more often than
we get it wrong. Victories are rare and should be celebrated regardless of how
they are achieved.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">One
thing is certain with the Jewish community, that in spite of what happens regardless
of the outcome you will get criticised after the event for your actions by
people who kept quiet when the battle was taking place. A prime example of what
I mean is happened this last week after the Southampton University cancelled
their law conference to discuss Israel's
legal and moral right to exist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Instead of celebrating a victory, we have
been accused by critics who were
silent when the campaign was underway of scoring </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">an own goal by asking for the event to be cancelled; that freedom of
speech is double-edged sword that can be
used against us in the future. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 3.75pt; mso-outline-level: 1; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-font-kerning: 18.0pt;">To those to whom this was a marginal event and should have been ignored,
I say you don't truly understand what this event was all about and why it was
so vigorously opposed. The conference </span><span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">was planned
as an anti-Israel, anti-Zionist BDS event masquerading as a serious academic
conference and was nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to give academic
approval to the Palestinian narrative that the Jewish people have never had a
connection with the land of Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">organisers, Southampton Law Professor Oren
Ben-Dor and Professor George Bisharat from the University of California, are
both committed to the delegitimisation of the State of Israel. Not only does it appear that Ben-Dor ,an anti- Zionist
Israeli, used the law department at Southampton to promote his own view; the
elimination of Israel, but by dedicating
the conference to a Palestinian international lawyer Henry Cattan,
who himself did not accept the existence of the Jewish state, Ben Dor
was hoping that by publishing the book of its proceedings and using
Southampton University's good name and reputation he would have a seminal work
to give credibility to aims of the conference to delegitimise the State of
Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">What many people have overlooked or maybe didn't even know is
the long standing connections that Anglo-Jewry has with Southampton University
and the Parkes Institute which in itself is sufficient reason to oppose the
conference. The archives of the Institute contain sections dealing with
Antisemitism, the Holocaust, Zionism and the foundation of the State of Israel as well as the papers of former Chief Rabbis
and Jewish communal organisations. T</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">he Parkes Institute was
established by the Reverend Dr James
Parkes who campaigned against all forms of antisemitism during the 1930s and on
behalf of the Jews of Europe during the Holocaust<span style="background: white;">.
That a conference calling for the delegitimisation of the Jewish state was to
be held on the same campus as the Parkes Institute that was established to
oppose antisemitism is an insult to the work of the Institute, Anglo-Jewry and
those who died in the Holocaust. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Freedom
of speech is another matter and cannot be dismissed in a few lines. The
University of Southampton, in this instance, thought that freedom of speech
trumped its <span style="background: white;">duty of care </span>to provide a
hostile-free environment for both Jewish students and Jewish members of staff. The
aim of BDS is to create worldwide solidarity against Israel which includes
silencing Israeli speakers and supporters on campus. This is nothing new as the
tactic of attempting to disrupt campus events which include Israeli speakers in
order to get them cancelled has already been used many times. Yes, we complain about the infringement of our freedom
of speech but from now on I would hope Universities will learn from what has happened at
Southampton when asked in future to host an Israel/ Palestine event or
conference. Southampton's procedure for due diligence does not appear to have
been sufficiently robust. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
'call for papers' for the conference was written in such a way as to deter
academics who support Israel from presenting a paper at the conference. While a
'call for papers' itself does not have
to be written in completely neutral language, it should at the very least
invite and encourage dissenting papers. But this call was written in a way that
by its very terms precluded the possibility of a dissenting voice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Southampton
has a duty of care under the law to secure freedom of speech on campus .By
making a prejudiced 'Call for Papers' qualified people were prevented from
presenting papers which under these
circumstances could be considered in breach of the right of freedom of speech.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Why
did nobody at Southampton question or realise that the true purpose of this
conference was the delegitimisation of
the State of Israel? One reason could be that there has been a general
acceptance of the language of delegitimisation in every day discourse so that
those senior academics who approve such conferences and know nothing about the
Israel -Palestine conflict or the issues surrounding the way Israel is
criticised and see nothing untoward. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Academics
are supposed to be intelligent people
yet I despair when they hide behind the shield of "freedom of
speech" or "academic freedom" saying it's their right to say
what they like even when they say something offensive. But when I respond and
say that as a Jew I find what has been said is offensive I am told I am wrong
or I am using Antisemitism to close down the debate. Where is my "freedom of
speech"? It is my right as a
Zionist and a Jew to say "I find the discussion of Israel's right to exist
at this conference anti-Zionist and Antisemitic." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">History
shows us that to do nothing as the critics suggest leaves us vulnerable and will not affect the final outcome. Consider
the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 or
the pogroms in Russia in the 1880s or what happened in Germany before
the Holocaust. What I know from my thirteen years experience gained campaigning
against BDS and antisemitism on campus is that if you choose your battles and
build a strong determined campaign, the opposition will either move onto a softer
target or act in a more measured way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-13286145422284780182015-04-02T03:25:00.000-07:002015-04-02T03:25:35.946-07:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt;">The<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Academic Friends of Israel</span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><u1:p></u1:p><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 150%; margin: 12pt 0cm;">
</div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 150%; margin: 12pt 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: red; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 150%;">Statement
from the Academic Friends of Israel regarding the </span></b><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 150%;">conference at Southampton University<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Academic Friends of Israel are very
pleased that So<span class="textexposedshow">uthampton University has <a href="http://www.southampton.ac.uk/news/statements.page" target="_blank">withdrawn its permission </a>for the
<a href="http://www.southampton.ac.uk/israelpalestinelaw/index.page" target="_blank">International Law and the State of Israel </a>Conference to take place on its
campus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="background: white; line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="textexposedshow">Their decision
was the result of the University coming under increasing pressure over the last
month from </span>politicians,
the leaders of the Jewish community, grass roots activists, funders and the
general public, all of whom were seeking to have this conference either moved
or cancelled.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This
event was promoted by an anti-Zionist, Israeli Jew whose aim is the elimination
of the State of Israel. He intended it to be a three day conference of like minded
anti-Israel activists with only a token pro-Israel representation, masquerading
as a serious academic conference. The reality was that it was nothing more than
a thinly veiled attempt to give academic approval to the Palestinian narrative
that the Jewish people have never had a connection with the land of Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In
deference to the principle of freedom of speech, we did not call for the cancellation
of the conference nor for a more balanced program. All we asked for was
that the University of Southampton have the conference relocated from its
premises so that the University and the Parkes Institute can regain their
credibility and reputation and not appear to give their approval to
Antisemitism.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: 150%; margin-bottom: 15.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 15.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">This win was achieved not
only because of the fantastic support received both from the UK and abroad but
also because the Jewish community worked together in this</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">campaign. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">In particular we would like to give a big
thank you to the 4000+ supporters who signed our </span><a href="http://petition./" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 150%;">petition.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%;">
<span style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is a victory for common sense. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-18926981365258239652015-03-24T10:35:00.000-07:002015-03-24T10:35:22.544-07:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 14.4pt; mso-outline-level: 2; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt;">The </span></i><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 20.0pt;">Academic Friends of
Israel</span></b><b><span style="color: red; font-size: 20.0pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 14.4pt; mso-outline-level: 2; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; mso-line-height-alt: 14.4pt; mso-outline-level: 2; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">Please sign the <a href="https://www.change.org/p/the-university-of-southampton-we-call-upon-the-university-of-southampton-to-distance-itself-from-the-upcoming-conference-on-israel-s-right-to-exist-by-removing-it-from-campus-in-order-to-avoid-giving-the-event-credibility-and-official-approval-to-big?recruiter=260704146&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_facebook_responsive&utm_term=des-lg-no_src-no_msg&fb_ref=Default" target="_blank">petition</a> opposing the 'Antisemitic' Israel
conference at Southampton University<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 14.4pt; mso-outline-level: 2; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Southampton
University, </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">one of 24 members of the British Russell Group of
Institutions which have distinguished themselves as research-led universities
of international quality</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> 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. </span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><a href="http://www.southampton.ac.uk/israelpalestinelaw/index.page" target="_blank">The conference "International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy,Responsibility and Exceptionalism"</a> 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.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">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.”</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> 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. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><a href="http://david-collier.com/?p=207" target="_blank">The majority of speakers</a> 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.</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">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. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Please
sign our <a href="https://www.change.org/p/the-university-of-southampton-we-call-upon-the-university-of-southampton-to-distance-itself-from-the-upcoming-conference-on-israel-s-right-to-exist-by-removing-it-from-campus-in-order-to-avoid-giving-the-event-credibility-and-official-approval-to-big?recruiter=260704146&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=share_facebook_responsive&utm_term=des-lg-no_src-no_msg&fb_ref=Default" target="_blank">petition</a> 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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-68796895082708262402015-03-23T06:44:00.000-07:002015-03-23T06:44:32.672-07:00<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<b><span style="color: red; font-size: 18.0pt;">Organiser of Southampton University's
'Antisemitic' Israel conference removed from Board of the Parkes Institute<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Professor Oren Ben-Dor, the organiser
of a conference to be held at Southampton University next month which questions
Israel's right to exist has been removed from the Board of the Parkes Institute
which is based at the University.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="http://www.southampton.ac.uk/parkes/index.page" target="_blank">The Parkes Institute</a> for the Study of Jewish and non-Jewish
Relations </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">which is dedicated
to the study of Jewish history and culture</span><span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> has the
largest Holocaust library in Europe as well as thousands of archives
documenting the history of Anglo-Jewry, including the period when the State of
Israel was established.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The conference "<a href="http://www.southampton.ac.uk/israelpalestinelaw/index.page" target="_blank">International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism"</a>
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.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The
Parkes Institute, which originally raised their concerns about the aims of the conference
last year with the Vice-Chancellor of the University, has made it clear to Professor
Oren Ben-Dor that they would not have anything to do with his conference </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> it would appear that</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> as
a result of the conference going ahead they removed him from their Board. </span><span style="line-height: 150%;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">The Institute has issued <a href="http://www.southampton.ac.uk/parkes/news/2015/03/09-public-statement.page?" target="_blank">a statement</a> saying
that </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">“This event could
potentially damage the spirit of dialogue and cooperation to which we are all
committed. A conference that singles out Israel and invites the questioning of
its very existence cannot be supported by a group of academics dedicated to the
study of Jewish history and culture.”</span></span></div>
Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-82062678824815083242015-02-20T03:04:00.001-08:002015-02-20T03:06:43.794-08:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 18.0pt;">When
is an Israel society not an Israel Society<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">?<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;">Last
week at Goldsmiths College in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span> South
London in a Student Union debate to decide whether the Union should support the
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.theleopard.co.uk/goldsmiths-su-votes-overwhelmingly-to-support-campaign-to-end-israeli-occupation-of-palestine/" target="_blank">The meeting</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>was
told by a concerned student that “This is a motion against Jews on campus.” The
debate at Goldsmiths was just one of several BDS debates that took place on
British campuses last week as a prelude to Israel 'apartheid' week which is due
to start on the 23 February.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;">What
struck me about this comment was that it was made at a College<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>known for its support of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span> Palestinian rights yet it
appears that there are decent people out there who are concerned enough and
willing to stand up and speak out against BDS and tell it is as it is; that BDS
a discriminatory campaign against Jewish students on campus. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;">One
of Anglo-Jewry's problems has been that for far too long they have acted as
bystanders and kept quiet<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span> and
not made a fuss in order not to cause Antisemitism. In fact this view has been
promoted by the leadership for about the last 150 years and even now with all
the discussion in the media about rising antisemitism in Britain and Europe,
our leaders have tended to play down the community's concerns by saying it has
never been a better time to be a Jew in Britain. However after the Paris
killings many British Jews now feel uneasy about their future especially as
they have realised they are potential targets for extremists. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;">I
make this point because I was told that when the members of the Jewish Society
(J SOC) at the School Of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) were asked
recently if they were willing to support a campaign against a BDS referendum
which is to take place during Israel 'apartheid' week,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span> the majority of<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span> the students said 'no', saying
that it was not the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span> role<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span> J SOC to stand up for Israel and
lead the 'no' campaign.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;">Whilst
I appreciate that one could in the past be a Jewish undergraduate at SOAS and
keep your head down not getting involved, I cannot understand how after last
summer's antisemitism and with Israel central to all our thoughts and prayers
that they can say this let alone think it. Whether they like it or not, keeping
quiet is no longer an option because<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span> the
Jews of Britain are now being held accountable for Israel's actions. This
apparent<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span> unwillingness to
stand up and be counted has meant that the 'no' campaign to the BDS referendum<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>is being organised by a handful of
concerned Jewish students without the official backing of the SOAS J SOC.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0cm;"><a href="http://soasunion.org/news/article/6013/BDS-Referendum-at-SOAS/" target="_blank">The SOAS BDS referendum</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>vote
is radically different from other student BDS motions in that the Student Union
itself rather than the SOAS Palestinian society is backing and organising the
vote and the debate. The BDS motion calls for a SOAS school-wide vote
which includes academics and other staff. This is against the rules of the
Student Union constitution and the 'no' campaigners have called for the vote to
be cancelled if anyone other than students are allowed to vote.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">The aim of the proposers of
the motion is to empower the Union to enter into discussions<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>with the SOAS management to implement
at SOAS an academic boycott of Israel. The boycotters are targeting the links
SOAS currently has with the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (HU) as SOAS sends
Hebrew language students to the HU for two semesters. If the BDS motion is
adopted and even if SOAS refuses to discuss implementing BDS with the Union,
pressure could be brought to bear on those students affected not to take up the
option to go the HU.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">Even
if the referendum goes ahead and proposal is adopted, the Union trustees will
be asked to consider if the BDS policy can be implemented because active
support for BDS by the Union, which is a registered charity, is considered to
be outside of the charitable objects of the Union, and in breach of SOAS
Equality and Diversity policy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">However
the Student Union shop at SOAS already enforces BDS as they have removed from
their shelves Israeli goods and if it were not for the efforts of the J SOC
they would have stopped selling Kosher sandwiches as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">You
may well ask, "where is the SOAS Israel society in all this?" Doesn't
it oppose the BDS referendum?" The simple answer is that the SOAS Israel
society has been hijacked and I quote from their website that the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="https://soasisraelsoc.wordpress.com/about/" target="_blank">SOAS Israel
Society<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></a>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Asks
integral questions of Israeli hegemony, its systemic exclusion of huge swathes
of Israeli society, the rising tide of deliberately anti-democratic legislation
and its policies towards the Palestinian refugees inside and outside the
occupied Palestinian territories."<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">The
Israel Society was relaunched in 2012 with an event titled "Is BDS
working?" One of the speakers at this event was Prof. Ilan Pappé. In other
words, the SOAS Israel society is an anti-Israel society, rather than
concentrating on building a greater understanding amongst its fellow students
of all things about Israel e.g., its achievements, its people, its
culture , its politics as well as encouraging serious and critical debate about
the Arab-Israeli conflict it concentrates instead on the negatives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;">I
contacted the SOAS Israel Society and was told that they are not a campaigning
group and did not have an official position on BDS. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>Yet when they held a meeting last week
to discuss the BDS referendum I was told that I was not allowed to attend
because I was not a member of SOAS. I am however reliably informed that there
were several non-SOAS students at the meeting as well as many supporters of
BDS.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 18pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">So when is an
Israel society not an Israel Society, when it's the SOAS Israel society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ronnie
Fraser<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Director<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 15.6pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The</span></i></b><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></i><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Academic
Friends of Israel</span></b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Patron: <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Lord Jonathan
Sacks<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Advisory
Board: <o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Dr Manfred
Gerstenfeld - Chairman of the Board of Fellows, Jerusalem Center for Public
Affairs.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Vivian Wineman -
President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Amir Lev <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">John D A Levy -
Director of the Academic Study Group on Israel and the Middle East<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Andrew R. Marks,
M.D. - Columbia University, USA<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.0pt; mso-line-height-rule: exactly;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Professor Leslie
Wagner CBE<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Rt Hon Lord
Young of Graffham<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Academic Friends of Israel Ltd is limited by
guarantee and registered in England No 5297417.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-6571518247127254482015-01-29T12:42:00.002-08:002015-01-30T01:23:32.505-08:00<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="color: red;">A contradiction in
terms - the UCU's 'Challenging Antisemitism' leaflet</span><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Cambria","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-theme-font: major-latin;"><span style="color: red;"><br /></span></span></b></div>
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">To
coincide with this year's Holocaust Memorial day, on 27 </span><span style="line-height: 24px;">January</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">, the University and College Lecturers
Union (UCU) published a revised version of their leaflet '<i><a href="http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/9/2/ucu_challengingantisemitism_leaflet_2015.pdf" target="_blank">Ch</a></i></span></span><i><a href="http://www.ucu.org.uk/media/pdf/9/2/ucu_challengingantisemitism_leaflet_2015.pdf" target="_blank">allenging Antisemitism</a>' </i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%;">which now
includes examples of where criticism of Israel crosses the line into antisemitism.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
original leaflet was hastily produced in January 2012, seven months after the
UCU Congress had voted to disassociate itself from the EUMC working definition
of antisemitism and in response to the start of my legal action against the UCU
which alleged 'institutional antisemitsm.' At the time the UCU did not consult with Jewish
members of the union before producing the leaflet. The revised leaflet, which
was produced after consulting with the membership still uses a definition of
antisemitsm written by Dr. Brian Klug:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">‘At the heart of antisemitism is
the negative stereotype of the Jew: sinister, cunning, parasitic,
money-grubbing, mysteriously powerful, and so on. Antisemitism consists in
projecting this figure onto individual Jews, Jewish groups and Jewish
institutions.’<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
definition is wholly unsuitable because it only addresses one aspect of
antisemitism and fails to recognise contemporary
antisemitism and does not mention the links between anti-Zionism, antisemitism
and anti-Israel hatred. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
revised leaflet lists only four examples of antisemitism as compared with the
<a href="http://www.european-forum-on-antisemitism.org/working-definition-of-antisemitism/english/" target="_blank">EUMC working definition's twelve. </a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">The
revised leaflet's four examples of antisemitism are: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">1. Holding Jews
collectively to blame, e.g. for the actions of the Israeli Government. Many
Jews do not support the actions of the Government of Israel<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
sentence <i>'Many Jews do not support the
actions of the Government of Israel'</i> is making the link to anti-Israel bias
and has no place in a leaflet raising awareness of the dangers of modern antisemitism.
It has been included for political purposes in order to placate the Far Left
and the anti-Zionists within the union.<i> </i>One
of the outcomes of last year's Gaza war was an increase in antisemitsm when
British Jews were blamed for the conflict regardless of whether they
supported Israel or not. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">2.<i> Denial or trivialisation of the Holocaust;
use of Holocaust imagery in describing Jews; accusing Jews of exaggerating the
Holocaust<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">3.<i> Targeting Jews or Jewish organisations for
anti-Israel protests. For example, a ‘Free Palestine’ slogan is legitimate
political debate. Daubed on the wall of a synagogue, it is an antisemitic act.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin-left: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">4.
<i>Deliberate distortion, exaggeration or
misrepresentation of religious concepts and teaching.</i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">This
last definition was changed from their original draft which read:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Distortion of religious concepts
and teaching, e.g: an eye for an eye; the chosen people. Misuse of Jewish
symbols such as the Star of David.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">One
has to ask why they omitted the relevant
wording? Does the UCU seriously believe that flags and banners with swastika's on embossed on
the Star of David seen at last summer's anti-Israel demonstrations were not antisemitic?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">However
the original draft leaflet had five examples, here is the fifth example which was left out of the revised version.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Judging Jews according to a
different standard often manifests as explicit comparisons between what is
perceived to be the collective action of Jews (usually the Israeli Government)
and the action of Nazis.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
removal of what is a perfectly good and relevant example of antisemitism begs
the question once again, why? This is a serious
misjudgement on their part and I suspect was deleted because it is one of the three D's used by
Natan Sharansky to define modern antisemitsm; Delegitimisation, Demonisation
and Double standards. On top of that there
can be no excuse for leaving out an example that equates the collective action of the Jews or Israel
with the action of Nazis. Social media
was awash last year with comments and hashtags with such as 'well done Israel,
Hitler would be proud' and 'Hitler was right.'<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">How
can we take seriously a leaflet on the dangers of antisemitism which for political reasons purposely ignores and
deletes examples of antisemitism in which Israel and the Jewish people are delegitimised, demonised or subjected to double standards? But there again the UCU couldn't possibly
use examples from the EUMC definition, now could it?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">You
have to hand it to the UCU, they have chutzpah
sending a copy of their draft leaflet to the Board of Deputies for British Jews
(BOD) asking for their comments. The BOD to its credit did not reply, possibly because
there was no guarantee that the UCU would have met all their demands for
changes to the leaflet or indeed taken any of them on board. However
if the BOD had responded the UCU could
have used their reply as an endorsement of their leaflet. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">If
you want to see a good leaflet look at <i><a href="http://www.thecst.org.uk/docs/Keeping_it_kosher.pdf" target="_blank">#Keepingit Kosher, a student's guide to antisemitism </a></i>produced by the CST and Union
of Jewish Students.<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">I
am personally glad that the BOD did not respond because the UCU's decision to disassociate
the union from the EUMC definition of antisemitism is still union policy. In
fact there should be no contact between the UCU and the BOD until they do rescind
this resolution. To my knowledge the union has never upheld any complaint
involving antisemitism including those that invoked the EUMC definition.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">The
UCU is the most pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel trade union in Britain having
adopted nineteen resolutions highly critical of Israel's actions between
2007 and 2011, These included several motions which promoted an academic
boycott of Israel which are still union policy. The UCU was only stopped from
implementing an academic boycott after it had taken legal advice and was told
that if implemented the resolutions would infringe equality legislation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 150%;">Although
the UCU claims that it is opposed to all forms of discrimination it has always
denied that its academic boycott of Israel motions are antisemitic and that by
supporting Hamas the UCU is backing the delegitimisation and destruction of the
State of Israel. Although the UCU has said that it is opposed to antisemitism,
the reality is that the union is only opposed to antisemitsm as defined by its
own political goals. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px; text-align: start;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Ronnie Fraser<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px; text-align: start;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px; text-align: start;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Director<span style="color: #333333;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px; text-align: start;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 20.7900009155273px; text-align: start;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">The </span></i><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Arial Black', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;">Academic Friends of Israel</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Arial Black', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: blue; font-family: 'Arial Black', sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.3999996185303px;"><br /></span></b></div>
</div>
Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8196401747259156128.post-30278723465438857322015-01-15T10:05:00.000-08:002015-01-15T12:54:38.977-08:00<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Antisemitism - is the genie now out of the bottle?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">15 January 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What a moment to relaunch
the Academic Friends of Israel digest after a gap of three and a half years, so
much has changed with the murder of 17
people in Paris last week. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jew hatred and
antisemitism are centre stage once again and this time it is front page news.
The genie was let out of the bottle last summer with Israel's military
operation 'Protective Edge' against Gaza last summer. </span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">The coming together of a series of
factors such as </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">the
conflation </span><span lang="RU" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel hatred</span><span lang="EN-US" style="background: white; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">, the increased use of social media
and an anti-Israeli narrative promoted by the media all combined to ensure an </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">upsurge
in antisemitism which was the longest period of sustained antisemitsm in Europe
since the Second World War. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Last week it was Muslim
extremists targeting Jews for no other reason than that they were Jews. This
week in Britain the results of survey by
the 'grass roots activists' the Campaign
Against Antisemitism of the Jews and the wider population have been published.
The outcome has been headlines such 'Almost half of Britons hold antisemitic
view, poll suggests', 'Warning over rising tide of anti-Semitism in Britain
with one in eight people claiming that Jews talk about the Holocaust to get
sympathy'. The Jewish Chronicle has
carried out its own survey, their headline was '88% of British Jews have not
considered leaving UK'. This means 12%
or one in ten have considered making Aliyah. The message is the same,
that Anglo Jewry is worried and unless something is done by our leaders and
politicians it is only going to worse. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sadly, the leaders of
the Anglo Jewry have once again been found wanting as they were last summer by
the grassroots activists who are dictating the agenda when it comes to
combating rising antisemitism and as a result gaining all the headlines. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I found recently some
very interesting data published by the Community Security Trust (CST). You
probably knew that between 2008 and 2012 there were an average 600 antisemitic
incidents in Britain each year, approximately 10 every week? But did you know
that there were only an average of 10 successful prosecutions each year, out of
the 600 reported incidents. This indicates to me something is not quite right,
although I have been told this is pretty good compared to other European
countries. Do our politicians and lawmakers have the will to do something
before it's too late, I hope so, because
we all know what is heading our way. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Was Benjamin Netanyahu
right when he made <span style="background: white;">an impassioned
call for French Jews to immigrate to Israel, the killing of four Jews in a kosher supermarket in Paris? <span class="apple-converted-space"> Some may disagree with me but I think he was
right, as Marc Goldberg wrote in his blog about </span></span>Netanyahu's
presence in Paris; <span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">"When they looked
up at the bimah, at the Jew, the former commando, the man who lost his own
brother to terrorists they saw a man they knew would put his own life
on the line to defend theirs. This is why it was the Prime Minister of
Israel who received the applause from the crowd upon arrival, this is why
it was the Prime Minister of Israel that they all wanted to hear speak.
This is the man from the country overseas whose doors will always be open to
them. The country where every man and woman of military age will fight against
the very same people who attacked them</span><span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 7.5pt; line-height: 115%;">."</span><span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 7.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Do not forget that if you say he was
wrong then you are playing in to the hands of the current </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Palestinian
narrative that the Jews have no connection with the Land of Israel, even though
we have been there for 2000 years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ronnie Fraser<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Director <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The </span></i><b><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Arial Black","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Academic Friends of Israel</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You may now like to read some of the following articles: <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Gideon
Falter, chairman of the Campaign Against Antisemitism: 'Britain’s tsunami of
anti-Semitism'<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/britains-tsunami-of-anti-semitism/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=00a47bdeec-2015_01_14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-00a47bdeec-54072193">http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/britains-tsunami-of-anti-semitism/?utm_source=The+Times+of+Israel+Daily+Edition&utm_campaign=00a47bdeec-2015_01_14&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_adb46cec92-00a47bdeec-54072193</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Gideon
Falter ‘Campaign Against Antisemitism is
the freedom litmus test’<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.jewishnews.co.uk/opinion-campaign-antisemitism-freedom-litmus-test/">http://www.jewishnews.co.uk/opinion-campaign-antisemitism-freedom-litmus-test/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Guardian – ‘Almost half of Britons hold antisemitic view, poll suggests’<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/14/uk-jewish-antisemitism-rise-yougov-poll">http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/14/uk-jewish-antisemitism-rise-yougov-poll</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
Jewish Chronicle - 'JC poll reveals 88 per cent of British Jews have not
considered leaving UK'<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/128162/jc-poll-reveals-88-cent-british-jews-have-not-considered-leaving-uk">http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/128162/jc-poll-reveals-88-cent-british-jews-have-not-considered-leaving-uk</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Geoffrey
Alderman – ‘Here’s how politicians can convince British Jews that they have a
future in the UK’<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/01/heres-how-british-politicians-can-convince-british-jews-they-have-a-future-in-the-uk/">http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/01/heres-how-british-politicians-can-convince-british-jews-they-have-a-future-in-the-uk/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Melanie
Phillips writes about writing about the endemic Jew-hatred within Islamic
religion and culture<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.facebook.com/MelanieLatest/posts/825776500797839">https://www.facebook.com/MelanieLatest/posts/825776500797839</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Paris terrorist attacks:<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: red; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marc
Goldberg - 'Prime Minister of the Jews?'<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/prime-minister-of-the-jews/">http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/prime-minister-of-the-jews/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">An
alternative take on Netanyahu's visit to Paris can be can be found here</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/01/14/netanyahus-invitation-to-french-jews-was-awkward-for-many-reasons/">http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2015/01/14/netanyahus-invitation-to-french-jews-was-awkward-for-many-reasons/</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">President
Rivlin eulogizes victims of Paris attack</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/PressRoom/2015/Pages/President-Rivlin-eulogizes-victims-of-Paris-attack-13-January-2015.aspx">http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/PressRoom/2015/Pages/President-Rivlin-eulogizes-victims-of-Paris-attack-13-January-2015.aspx</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Academic Friends of Israelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11472234430696287444noreply@blogger.com0