A line must be drawn.It cannot possibly get worse than this. The dissemination of literature from a racist, antisemitic, white-supremacist, conspiracy-theorising website in the name of providing insight and/or commentary on Zionism or the policies of the Israeli government is a low point many refused to believe could be reached – though a few have warned that this is where things were headed for some time.
But, having reached this low-point, we have to ask ourselves if it can be allowed to sink any lower.
If those in British Unions who flirt with the far-right can weasel out of this, then they can weasel out of anything. A line must be drawn here. A line must be drawn now.
If this is acceptable and accepted – indeed, if this is even merely tolerated – then a line is crossed. What could possibly still remain unacceptable? What taboos remain? Violence against Jewish students ‘explained’ by left-wing academics? Desecration of Jewish graveyards celebrated on Indymedia? Would that still shock? And if so, for how long?
What can we imagine that is worse than someone on the anti-Israel Left using neo-Nazi hate polemic as propaganda?
If they can ‘teflon’ it away, then there is nothing they can’t and won’t do. Apologists for antisemitism are ludicrously inventive, but if they can get away with using neo-Nazi material, there is no limit, no boundaries, nothing beyond taste and decency.
The UCU describes itself as “the largest post-school union in the world”. It has thousands of members. Yet it has remained silent on the issue of its email list being used to distribute a link to a Ku Klux Klansman’s website. A small band of Jewish members and the supporters have been left to protest to largely deaf ears.
What signals does this send?
Does anyone doubt that if a racist white professor had expressed his theories about innate racial differences and had backed these up by suggesting UCU members read another article on the same website that Jenna Delich linked to, and had endorsed it in a similar fashion, that the response would have been markedly different?
If Delich had been, for argument’s sake, an anti-immigration proponent and had posted an article “America Will Turn Non-White During Our Lifetime” (also published on davidduke.com) would we now be experiencing this deafening silence from the UCU leadership?
Is it not quite simply the fact that Jews were the target of the racist diatribe published on davidduke.com Delich linked to that made all the difference? Is antisemitism now so unremarkable.
If we do not draw a line here, those on the Left slouching towards the return of full-blown Nazi-style Jew-hatred will arrive at this destination sooner than we think.