Hate preacher, Yosef Elitzur has been excluded from the United Kingdom.
Here are a few things you won’t be seeing:
1. You won’t be seeing any high profile, mainstream Jewish organisations describing Elitzur as “The Gandhi of the West Bank“.
2. No Lib Dem or Labour Lords and MPs will turn out to have invited Elitzur to the House of Commons, or to have met with him on many occasions.
3. The Guardian will not run article after article in support of Elitzur, questioning the rightness of his exclusion: capped by an editorial backing the hate preacher.
4. The Chair of the Zionist Federation will not declare himself “shocked and horrified” at Elitzur’s exclusion.
5. No prominent Left wing campaigners, pressure groups, ex-copper/academics, journalists, Christian or other religious bodies will sign petitions in support of Elitzur.
6. Noam Chomsky won’t say: “Elitzur is a respected voice advocating rights and justice, a voice that most definitely should be heard in the west.”
7. The Israeli Prime Minister won’t meet with British Ministers to protest Elitzur’s exclusion.
8. No Muslims who are sympathetic to Israel’s cause will object to Elitzur’s exclusion.
9. No Church of England vicar will be pictured taking tea with Elitzur.
10. No demonstration in support of Elitzur will be held outside Downing Street.
11. The Union of Jewish Students will not be calling for Elitzur to visit the United Kingdom.
12. No MP will cynically raise the question of a forthcoming visit by a Christian fundamentalist preacher who does not incite his followers to violence, in order to cast doubt on the propriety of excluding Elitzur. And that call won’t be taken up by any moderate Jewish organisations.
The disparity between the two responses ought to give some people pause for reflection.
