The Academic Friends of Israel
History
shows that to do nothing leaves us vulnerable
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.
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.
Instead of celebrating a victory, we have
been accused by critics who were
silent when the campaign was underway of scoring 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.
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 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.
The 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.
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. The 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.
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.
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 duty of care 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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
