Daphne Anson: "A Campaign To Delegitimize & Ultimately Dismantle The State Of Israel”: In London, pro-Israel students condemn BDS motion

Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East. (From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Sunday, 30 March 2014

"A Campaign To Delegitimize & Ultimately Dismantle The State Of Israel”: In London, pro-Israel students condemn BDS motion

"What are you going to tell your children when they ask you why you did not vote for boycotting Israeli goods and services?”

Despite the fact that Israel is the one country in the Middle East in which women are not routinely viewed and treated as inferior beings, it was, bizarrely, a prominent campus feminist who posed the above question during a student vote on BDS in one of the University of London's constituents last week (25 March).

Granted, only 2.4 per cent of the 25,000-strong student body voted on the motion. But it was a famous victory for BDS nevertheless, the adoption by the Students' Union at King's College London (KCLSU) of the motion by which the Union resolves

1. To carry out thorough research into KCL investments, partnerships, and contracted companies, including subcontractors, that may be implicated in violating Palestinian human rights as stated by the BDS movement

2. Pressure King’s College London to divest from Israel and from companies directly or indirectly supporting the Israeli occupation and apartheid policies;

3. To have a plaque in all KCLSU student centres acknowledging that KCLSU formally supported the BDS call, as was done when KCLSU showed solidarity to our sisters and brothers in their struggle against Apartheid South Africa with the following text: “KCLSU officially endorses the 2005 Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions of Israel until it abides by international law and ends it illegal occupation of Palestine. KCLSU is proud to follow the example of a similar call in the 1980’s, which successfully led to the end of apartheid in South Africa.

Moreover, thanks to energetic campaigning by the Israel-baiting side, the vote was decisive: 348 in favour to 252.

To his credit, KCLSU President Sebastiaan Debrouwere advised against the motion:

"I don’t believe that running the risk of alienating a large number of students … I don’t think that’s the right thing to do."

(Video here)

By contrast, Vice President Areeb Ullah advocated the motion:

"We don’t live in a bubble, we live in the world, a world ... where injustice happens, a world where oppression happens ..."

(Video here. So true, Areeb: China, South Korea, Iran, in fact an entire clutch of Islamic states ... So, how about passing resolutions condemning those real oppressors in this world, eh!!!)

According to one delegate Mr Ullah behaved inappropriately to students who expressed doubts about the wisdom of the motion by "spitefully" shouting at them "Shame On You!":

"Students he supposedly represents."

In fact, there have been subsequent calls for his resignation.

Adoption of the motion was greeted with wild scenes that left dejected pro-Israel students feeling overwhelmed: BDSers waving Palestinian flags and chanted "Free, Free Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free”:

"There is also little need to point to the tastelessness of the rampant jubilations of proponents of the motion in the face of Jewish and Israeli students reduced to tears. Tonight has seen a student community at King’s College London left bitterly divided and polarised. This is not an achievement to pride itself with. Tonight has likely created wounds that are not going to heal for a while."

Despite having voted in favour of the motion, KCLSU's Interfaith Officer observed:

"I’d just like to say that I was appalled by the reaction of some students to the passing of the BDS motion – what happened was both disrespectful and intimidating, and though it was a hard fought and won campaign, there is such a thing as a bad winner."

Reacting to the motion, the Israel Society at KCL captured the essence of the BDS Movement when it wrote:

"The BDS campaign, draped as it is in the language of human rights, is a seemingly-innocuous facade for a campaign to delegitimize and ultimately dismantle the state of Israel. The thought that KCL students could support ‘joining’ this movement, as the motion states, is deeply troubling."

'the shameful scenes last night when the Student Union of King’s College London voted to support BDS. Commenting on the vote, Board Vice President Jonathan Arkush said:

“When BDS supporters chanted “from the river to the sea” they sent a message of hate to Israel and once again demonstrated that the true agenda of BDS is not to influence Israel but to destroy it. They succeeded in shaming their fine university and bringing it into disrepute.

The motion was opposed by the Student Union President and was immediately disavowed by the academic leadership of King’s College London, who will now have to live with the consequences of such a hateful and divisive vote.

The Board strongly supports the courageous students from KCL Jewish Society and UJS who ran a strong campaign against the vote and stood up to the atmosphere of intimidation that has become the hallmark of the BDS bullies.”'

And three Jewish students at KCL who through no stretch of the imagination can be considered hawks have written, inter alia, of the BDS resolution:

"Instead of facilitating constructive dialogue, it has instigated an atmosphere of discontent and animosity. In no way can the impact of this motion be interpreted as a positive influence on academic discourse and free discussion at our university....

Astonishingly, the proponents of the motion claim it has opened a dialogue. By promoting a boycott, in reality it has achieved the very antithesis. It has spawned hatred and animosity, causing the worst elements of student politics to infiltrate our campus.

This is not South Africa in the 1980s, and a motion seeking to equivocate the two is based on a reductive and harmful misconception. This conflict is far more complex than that abhorrent period in human history....

The proponents of this motion try to moralise to us by declaring that this is simply about human rights. It is pro-Palestinian but not anti-Israel, they tell us. As if we, mostly Jewish students, don’t know anything about human rights.

To those who shouted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”, we question the sincerity of your call for human rights while you chant Hamas’s call for a genocide of Jews in their homeland.

We will not stand for this contradiction, and we will not be silent in the face of such behaviour...."

Read more here and here and here and here

Incidentally, British blogger Edgar Davidson has a terrific post about responding to BDS here

Off-topic, but check this out!

9 comments:

Ibarhim Ibn Yusuf31 March 2014 at 13:08
During the Apartheid years, many countries were far worse human rights abusers than South Africa. China killed millions, Saudi Arabia treated women as second-rate citizens, Nigeria perpetrated a bloodbath in Biafra. Yet, South Africa, and only South Africa, was subjected to sanctions. South African athletes were banned from international competition -- Soviet or Cambodian ones weren't.

Would you say that was unfair to white South Africans? Would you say those sanctions were the result of anti-Afrikaner prejudice? Would you say it was wrong to punish South Africa rather than the equally undemocratic neighboring states where blacks had a much lower life expectancy? I'd appreciate your sharing your thoughts on these questions.
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Daphne Anson31 March 2014 at 19:01
Yes, Ibrahim, I do but there is no analogy between SA and Israel, where Arabs have the vote. Between 1948 and 1967 the Arabs made no attempt to create a Palestinian state, of course...
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Ibrahim Ibn Yusuf1 April 2014 at 04:23
I'm not establishing an analogy between South Africa and Israel, but between the boycott of apartheid South Africa and the proposed boycott of Israel. Both are "unfair" -- there exist far worse human-rights abusers. Yet, it would be ridiculous to state that South Africa was singled out because of an anti-Afrikaner prejudice. It is equally ludicrous to claim that Israel is being targetted because of antisemitism.
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Adam1 April 2014 at 10:25
As an alumnus of KCL, I wrote to the Chancellor a few months ago, expressing concern about the College - during my time there, extremist groups like Hizb-ut Tahrir set up stalls at the entrance and acted in an intimidating way, and the Jewish Society's noticeboard was routinely vandalised and defaced with anti-Semitic graffiti, including Holocaust denial. The College also has the dubious "honour" of educating a British suicide bomber, who attempted to blow up Mike's Bar in Tel Aviv (his accomplice was unfortunately successful).

The Chancellor's representative assured me that the atmosphere was now completely different and there was no problem at all.

They then invited Richard Falk, the anti-Semite at the UN, to give a speech. This time the Chancellor gave me a list of Falk's credentials, and defended the invitation.

I see nothing has changed. The College authorities, whilst not directly responsible for the shameful vote, stoke the fire and then act all surprised when it the fire spreads.

I urge Jewish students, and right minded decent young people, to avoid most London colleges - indeed, most UK campuses, and study somewhere else. The atmosphere is thoroughly toxic.
T
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'For as long as these antisemites wrap themselves up in the Palestinian flag, too many people are willing to turn a blind eye. Only against Jews is this type of racism openly tolerated. It is flourishing in schools, colleges, universities, unions and in city councils. In fact, so rampant is the disease now, in some settings you can be ostracised if you do not partake in the frenzy yourself. Bashing Jews has becomes a trendy position for the ignorant social justice warrior. "Palestinianism" is a viral "ponzi scheme" and as it spreads, it carries antisemitism in the undergrowth.' David Collier (2017)

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Islamophobia is a false allegation of prejudice which is deployed to silence rational criticism based on actual facts about attitudes and practices within the Islamic world.
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Expose The Lies!

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Jews were given the legal right to settle in the West Bank under article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter. They did so for decades until they were driven out in 1947 and not able to return there until 1967.
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I am duty-bound to defend freedom, culture, peaceful coexistence, the civic education of children, and all the principles that the Tablets of the Law have rendered universal. Principles which Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. This means that, since I am a Gentile, a journalist and a leftist, I have a triple moral commitment to Israel. Because, if Israel were to be vanquished, modernity, culture and freedom would also be crushed. Even though the world has failed to wake up to this fact, Israel's struggle is the world's struggle. Pilar Rahola

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