This is a guest post by Dan Gross and Alex Rudo
This year, the organisers of “Israeli Apartheid week” continued to indulge an annual fest of antisemitism which most Jewish students have experienced. Every year, pro-Palestine societies make it their mission to criticise Israel by inviting Israel-haters to invoke parallels to the South African system of “apartheid” in order to discredit Israel and render her an international pariah.
At SOAS, Apartheid-era South Africa was a tame comparison compared to the one made by Max Blumenthal. Blumenthal, the son of Sidney who is an advisor to Hillary Clinton, labelled Israel ‘JSIL’- the Jewish State of Israel and the Levant. Israel’s misdemeanours, in Blumenthal’s eyes, are tantamount to the totalitarian system of Islamist tyranny that Jihadists in Syria and Iraq have imposed on their subjugated population. Blumenthal, in addition to comparing Israel to a genocidal reign of terror, praised Hamas for sending an ‘incredible message’ to Palestinians to take up arms against Israel.
So what were the views that Max Blumenthal brought to this anti-Semitic event? Well if his book is anything to go by, things like punishing Jews who would not be indigenised to the newly formed Arab state to take over Israel, and of course that the world is being exploited by the master neo-con Zionist lobbies. But surely the event organisers and speakers recognise the fine line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, and that if the latter ever presented itself at the event it would be immediately shut down? Unfortunately not, this will be giving too much credit to Blumenthal, a man who paraded a book review of his which stated: “You’d think Jews of all people would react viscerally against the notion of [sic] their state would come to create their own Gestapo…..[are] pure Zionist states so very different than those of the pure Aryan one?” What Max Blumenthal had done is come to empower the anti-Semitic circus currently touring around universities, being allowed to operate because of the façade that these are all just political critiques of the state of Israel. This is not the case, and in fact what we are seeing is that façade beginning to slip and show the true extent of anti-Semitism taking grip in student communities.
A former UCL Friends of Israel Society member said “praising such an organisation that causes such harm to Gazans and to the peace process further proves how Blumenthal and his ilk are motivated by hatred of Israel and Jews, with concern for Palestinian Arab wellbeing merely used as a convenient façade.”
Comparisons of Israel to ISIL are close to home for UCL pro-Israel students, including us. The current UCL President of the Friends of Palestine society has, with great enthusiasm and satisfaction, propagated the term ‘JSIL’. Unfortunately, he isn’t alone in holding extreme views with regard to the Arab-Israeli conflict. As Elliot Miller, former President of the UCL Jewish society points out, “in the past, a UCL Union Chair and Treasurer of UCL Friends of Palestine society has lauded the terror tunnels built by Hamas in the recent Gaza war…applauding a subterranean network designed for the sole intention of murdering Israeli civilians.”
Our experience at UCL with hostile opponents has not changed our view that there are some well-meaning pro-Palestine students who are willing to hold dialogue. The crux of the issue is that grassroots movements of Palestinian activism on campus are being hijacked by extremists who channel Max Blumenthal and his ilk. It is harder to find those from PalSoc who would unhesitatingly condemn Hamas. A moral equivalency with the Israeli Defence Forces is the stock answer from those who are questioned on the intentions of Palestinian terrorists. Even when grilled on Hamas’s actions, that includes punishing apostates, adulterers and homosexuals with creative and different manifestations of the death penalty, we are met with shrugs. This has taught us that there exists a hierarchy of victimhood, in which the violent uprising of Palestinians trumps the rights of everyone else within that society.
It is no wonder that antisemitism is thriving across campuses when those who are in positions of authority hold opinions that are antithetical to liberal and rational thought. Even certain members of societies that are not nominally dedicated to the Palestinian cause have endorsed “Israeli Apartheid week” and have made the Palestinian cause a central component of activism. The revelations regarding the fervent anti-Israel activity within the Oxford Labour Society have made many Jews who have an affinity to leftist politics feel alienated and ostracised. It is not just university societies that are engaged in this behaviour. Student unions across the country are tabling and passing motions against Israel. Whilst the National Union of Students had issues with condemning ISIS, there were no qualms about voting to boycott the sole Jewish state. Granted, with all the UN condemnations against Israel, it is not outlandish to believe that Israel is uniquely evil. At UCL, the student union passed Boycotts, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) of Israel resoundingly 14-4. This happened despite a counter-motion to defer this matter to the General Assembly, allowing all students a vote.
Imagine being a Jewish student in this environment; where your student union neglects its duty of care for all students, in order to wade in on a foreign policy decision that specifically targets your homeland as opposed to the rife abuse that goes on in countries run by despotic regimes and megalomaniacal dictators. It is even more ironic that in an age when micro-aggressions are highlighted and safe-spaces enforced, the concerns of Jewish students are routinely ignored and clumped together with the despised ‘white privilege’ class, despite Jews coming from an array of backgrounds.
The hostile anti-Israel environment dovetails with a penchant, on the part of student unions, to welcome speakers with questionable motives. The UCL student union, in their resistance to the government’s Prevent strategy, invited Moazzam Begg of CAGE, a man who only recently at Exeter University refused to condemn the stoning of women for adultery. Inviting in extremist speakers is part of a two-way street to monopolise the discourse on matters relating to Islamist extremism. Speakers are also being banned. A prominent example this past year was the case of Macer Gifford. Gifford, who fought against ISIL with the Peshmerga, was no-platformed because, according to the Sabbatical Officer at UCL, “there are two sides to every conflict.” A UCL Quilliam society was also blocked from union affiliation, because of the shaky rationale that its principles are somehow already covered in Debating Society- rendered a moot point by the President of Debating Society himself. As Haydar Zaki of Quilliam pointed out, Amnesty International society covers women’s rights so by logical extension, why have a Feminist society?
Amid the spread of antisemitism on campuses across the UK in addition to the increasing curtailment of free speech, there is a growing fightback among students. With the launch of the Right2Debate campaign, students are starting to fight back for the rights of all students to express their views and to stand-up for a level debating field on campus.
