Better late than never – here’s the post I wrote in response to David Ward’s original offensive remarks about the Holocaust. And here is the tweet which seems to have prompted the Liberal Democrats to (finally) take action.
This tweet was perhaps not on the same level of offensiveness as the original comments (and subsequent failure to engage with criticisms) but it goes beyond simply labelling Israel an apartheid state, as it anticipates with unpleasant relish the country’s demise.
There are many ways of criticizing Israel which I might agree with, or perhaps disagree with, but in no way find antisemitic, and some of these criticisms might focus on the status of Arab Israeli citizens. But here’s just one story (courtesy of Critical Dragon) which demonstrates how inaccurate it is to label Israel an apartheid state.
This accusation features in another piece I read recently, by a supporter of BDS. She describes how one campaigner was hit in the face for agreeing that he thought Israel was an apartheid state. I read the article because its author, Sadia Saiffudin, has been in the news recently because of her controversial appointment as student-regent designate to the University of California’s Board of Regents. Here is an account of some of the responses this nomination elicited.
There certainly seem to have been some nasty elements in the BDS campaign on campus, but some assert that Saiffudin’s is a more moderate voice. David Horowitz seems to overegg the case against Saiffudin – which doesn’t mean there is no case at all, although I’m inclined to think this is an issue to be resolved within the university community.
Hat Tips: Loonwatch and Stephen Hoffman
