Daphne Anson: Unlocking Hatred: Huge Anti-Israel Propaganda Fest in "The City of Dreaming Spires"

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)

Tuesday, 2 June 2015

Unlocking Hatred: Huge Anti-Israel Propaganda Fest in "The City of Dreaming Spires"

Well, Oxford University is termed "the home of lost causes," but it's courtesy of both "town and gown" that the pro-Israel cause is set to take a bashing.

What an odious, divisive lot of mischief is planned for 4-21 June, with the Lord Mayor (Rae Humberstone, Labour) adding the prestige of his person (and therefore the sanction of his council) to proceedings.

Councillor Humberstone (pictured below) succeeded Councillor Mohammed Abbasi as mayor, and was himself succeeded as sheriff of Oxford by Sajjad Malik.

Participants in this hatefest include "household name" Israel-demonisers such as Mustafa Barghouti and Mads Gilbert.

To quote from the publicity brochure:

Palestine Unlocked – celebrating life and culture
Welcome to Oxford’s first Palestinian festival!

From 4th-21st June 2015 the city will be filled with Palestinian creativity and life. The festival will be showcasing Palestinian theatre, film, food, music, art, photography, craft and dancing, as well as ‘unlocking’ the realities of life in Palestine.

Events will happen across a range of city venues from Pegasus Theatre in East Oxford to Barefoot Books in Summertown including the Phoenix Picturehouse, several Oxford churches and colleges, the Town Hall and Bonn Square. [My emphasis]

... events are still being added so do make sure you come back for more:

Thursday 4^th June
Film: Omar – A tense, gripping thriller about betrayal, suspected and real, in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Followed by a panel discussion with guest speakers.

Friday 5th June Comedy Night: Palestine Unlocked hosts a comedy night at Oxford’s number one comedy venue. Ivor Dembina (Guardian-rated ****) will compere a specially compiled line-up of comedians.

Saturday 6th June Celebration of Solidarity – the official opening ceremony features Palestinian dancing, music, craft and food. The Lord Mayor of Oxford will also be making an appearance at 11.15am.

Sunday 7th June Kite Flying – Come and learn how to make your own kite! Followed by the chance to launch them into the skies. All ages welcome.

Monday 8th June A conversation with Dr Mustafa Barghouti – One of Palestine’s foremost human rights activists interviewed by ex-UN communications head and All Souls Fellow Edward Mortimer.

Tuesday 9th June Palestine: Exile and Return – Palestinian authors Dr Ghada Karmi, Karl Sabbagh and Selma Dabbagh will speak about their work and writing. 7.30pm, Council Chamber, Oxford Town Hall. [My emphasis]

Wednesday 10th June A Bird is not a Stone – A rare opportunity to discover the range and variety of extraordinary voices in contemporary Palestinian poetry translated by Scotland’s most acclaimed poets. Editor Sarah Irving and poets involved in the project will bring this poetry and its beauty and significance to Oxford

Thursday 11th June Film: Open Bethlehem. Followed by QandA with director Leila Sansour.

Friday 12th June Romeo and Juliet in Palestine – Tom Sperlinger discusses his recent book, written following teaching at the Abu Dis campus of al Quds University in the Occupied Palestinian West Bank.

Book of Gaza: writing from a city under occupation and under fire. Sarah Irving and Abu Saif will present stories from the prize-winning collection The Book of Gaza alongside extracts from the documentary diaries The Drone Eats with Me.

Saturday 13th June Palestine History Tapestry Project: a talk about how the embroidery project started and how it is helping Palestinian women generate much needed income.
Ashtar Theatre and Pegasus Youth Theatre: performed by Ashtar Theatre (from Ramallah); Pegasus Youth Theatre. Followed by a short talkback time for questions and discussion.

Sunday 14th June Family Storytelling: Stories and songs from Palestine with storyteller and author Chris Smith.
Living Stones: following Christ in the Holy Land. A sermon by Sami Awad of the Holy Land Trust, Bethlehem.

Monday 15th June The Oxford Medical Teaching Initiative in Palestine: Oxford Medics who have travelled and worked in Palestine will discuss their experiences.
Impossible to Possible: what does nonviolence mean in Palestine today? An evening with Christian Palestinian Sami Awad, Executive Director of the Holy Land Trust, Bethlehem.

Tuesday 16th June News from Palestine: Reuters cameraman Abed Quisini speaks about his 17 years of experience capturing the news stories of a population under occupation and Middle East Eye editor David Hearst talks on the pressures in London of editing and producing stories on Palestine.
Opening of Photojournalism Exhibition, followed by 7.00pm Panel Discussion at the Friends Meeting House
Seminar on Trauma Management and Rehabilitation: hear from UK doctors who have set up a programme for advanced limb reconstruction for victims of war injuries in Gaza.

Photo credit: www.oxfordmail.co.uk

Wednesday 17th June Celebrating Oxford Connections: a reception with the Lord Mayor of Oxford to mark the opening of the Oxford-Palestine Photo Exhibition.
Development of Evidence-Based Health Care in Gaza: learn from Gaza-based health professionals about promoting the principles of Evidence-Based Health Care in the Gaza Strip.

Thursday 18th June Hope in a Time of Darkness: a sermon by HG Bishop Angaelos of the Coptic Orthodox Church in the UK

Film double bill: High Hopes and When I Saw You. Including a QandA with producer Angela Godrey-Goldstein.

Friday 19th June Film: 5 broken Cameras. The film showing will be followed by QandA with the director’s brother and leader of the Popular Resistance Committee of Bil’in Iyad Burnat.

Ramadan 2015: To mark the Holy Month of Ramadan, Palestine Unlocked will be distributing Palestinian dates to local Oxford mosques for their community Iftar (breaking fast), dates donated by Zaytoun.

Providing Medical Care during the 2014 Assault on Gaza: Dr Mohammed Maqadma and Dr Mads Gilbert will describe the response at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza and how primary health care and transport were maintained.

Saturday 20th June Friends of Sabeel UK Conference: “Christians and Muslims: Peaceful Co-resistance in Palestine-Israel.”
Palestine History Tapestry Project: a talk about how the embroidery project started and how it is helping Palestinian women generate much needed income.
Gaza 2014 – Another opportunity to hear Dr Mads Gilbert and Dr Mohammed Maqadma talk about their experiences of providing medical care in Gaza during the military assaults.

NK nuts, "Nakba Day" in London

Sunday 21st June Unlocking Palestine – Moving Forward: an event looking to the future for Palestine. Short addresses will be made by a range of speakers from organisations including Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Neturei Karta. [My emphasis]

See more, including times and venues, here

6 comments:

Nathan of Plaza2 June 2015 at 19:39
I don't think we need any prizes for guessing on which mayor's watch this extravaganza was cooked up
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Anonymous3 June 2015 at 11:04
At two and a half weeks, it's almost as long as the history of the palestinians.
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Adam4 June 2015 at 16:55
Thanks for informing us about this Daphne. I shall certainly be complaining at the various venues for this hatefest.
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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)

'This new rise in antisemitism, which I had thought long dead, was not shaven-headed white imbeciles from the far right. It was Muslims, a large chunk of it.... Suddenly I grasped that the British far left didn’t want people to know about antisemitism because it pointed the finger at people they really, really liked. From that moment on, it all fell into place.... Time and again the same tropes emerged, the same sort of stuff that Streicher and Goebbels would have commended – and uttered.... And from that a whole bunch of other stuff emerged: the old blood libel business (a favourite of the repulsive Jenny Tonge).... Nice, avuncular, Jeremy Corbyn, with his peace badges, happily laying a wreath at the graveside of Palestinian terrorists who murdered innocent Jewish athletes, oh, and much much more.... It is the same antisemitism, exactly the same: the obsession with Israel to the exclusion of everything else, the conspiracy theory paranoias, the derangement.... Here’s the test – if you cannot see the flagrant racism in the BDS movement, and if you are obsessed with the perfidy of the Middle East’s only democracy to the exclusion of all else, you are an antisemite. That means a good proportion of the Labour Party, including the leader, and almost all of Momentum: no brown shirts, no marching bands, but the same old filth, dressed in the clothes of a polytechnic geography lecturer.'
Rod Liddle (2018)

'Before the June 1967 Six Day War, there were no such things as "settlements". Palestinians were trying to destroy and displace Israel anyhow. The core problem is not, and never was, "settlements," but the right of Israel (or any non-Muslim nation) to exist inside any borders in that part of the world.
If you take a stand that is based on a lie, then that stand cannot succeed. If you try to oppose antisemitism but pretend it is the same thing as "Islamophobia," then the structure on which you have made your stand will totter and all your aspirations will fail. If you try to make a stand based on the idea that settlement construction rather than the intransigence of the Palestinians to the existence of a Jewish state is what is holding up a peace deal, then facts will keep on intruding.' Douglas Murray (31 December 2016)
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9685/britain-little-lies

'Islamophobia does NOT come from the same wellspring of hatred as antisemitism. Antisemitism is a true prejudice because the hatred and demonisation it promotes derive entirely from lies and a repudiation of rationality itself.
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.
[L]ethally compromised even-handedness is to misunderstand, and thus minimise, antisemitic attitudes and behaviour while shutting down legitimate and necessary discussion of the threat from the Islamic world – even to demonise as “Islamophobic” anyone who draws attention to the extent and consequences of Muslim antisemitism.' Melanie Phillips (14 December 2016)

Jews have re-assumed the role of the canary in the mine and are the first to be targeted, but the world would face the same threat if Jews did not exist. Israel has been at the front lines confronting Islamic extremism but has received scant support... For Jews, the writing has been on the wall for a long time. The virulence of the antisemitic hatred closing in on Jews in Europe (and elsewhere) is horrifying...
Europe is today facing a crisis as serious as the confrontation with Nazism. If Western leaders continue behaving like Chamberlain and fail to stand up to this global threat, it could usher in a new Dark Age in which the Judeo-Christian culture is subsumed by primitive barbarism. The writing is on the wall Isi Leibler (12 January 2015)

Expose The Lies!

There is a war of lies and deceit on the internet generating unbelievable hate by denigrating and delegitimising the legal rights conferred on the Jewish people by the League of Nations in 1922 and the United Nations in 1945. The idea that there are two narratives on the Arab-Jewish conflict is rubbish. There is only one – the factual truth that details the return of the Jewish people to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in its ancient biblical, ancestral and historic homeland after 3500 years of dispersion with the unanimous endorsement of the nation states then comprising the League of Nations.... Generals can’t fight a war without soldiers. Jews around the world need to join the fight or vacate the internet to the Jew-haters and their lies that repeated often enough eventually become accepted as truth. David Singer (2016)

The "Apartheid" Slur

The division of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into three separate areas “A”, “B” and “C” was agreed on by Israel and the PLO pursuant to the Oslo Accords.
95% of the West Bank Arabs live in Areas A and B and their daily lives are under the total administration and control of the PLO since the Palestinian Authority was disbanded by Abbas in January 2013. The PLO has total security control in A and shares security control in B with Israel. Israel has total administrative and security control in C.
Israel is entitled to and will continue to take responsibility for the security of Jews living in the West Bank.
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.
There are Arab roads only in the West Bank that Jews are not allowed to use. Jews are also forbidden from entering Area “A”. Selling land to Jews is forbidden by the PLO under pain of death. The PLO runs the daily lives of 95% of the West Bank Arabs and Hamas runs the daily lives of 100% of the Gazan Arabs. They have been under occupation – and subjugation – by these two evil groups for the last ten years and given no say in their future or any opportunity to elect others to lead them following the disastrous political decisions of their leaders over the past ten years. Hamas and the PLO do not accept the continued existence of a Jewish State and call for its disappearance.
The narratives did not begin in 1948 – they began in about 1917. How do you make peace with an enemy that has been obsessed with not recognising any Jewish national rights in former Palestine for the last 100 years? David Singer (2016)

The Jews of the Holy Land ... are surrounded by hostile states 650 times their territory and sixty times their population. Yet their last, best hope of ending two millennia of international persecution - the State of Israel - has somehow survived. When, during the Second World War, the island of Malta came through three terrible years of bombardment and destruction, it was rightly awarded the George Cross for bravery. Today, Israel should be awarded a similar decoration for defending democracy, tolerance and Western values against a murderous onslaught that has lasted twenty times as long. Andrew Roberts (historian)

Israel is understandably obsessed with security, but its greatest security lies ultimately not in the Israeli Defence Forces, but in political warfare.... Most of the world is not deeply interested in what happens in Israel, and probably does not want to be deluged with legalistic defences of particular actions. What it wants is a clear, calm, repeated case. It is a case – aimed more at public opinion than at foreign ministries – about freedom, democracy, a Western way of life and the need for the whole of the free world to fight terrorism. Sometimes you hear Israelis say: “It doesn’t matter what we say. The whole world is against us.” You can see why they say it, for they are indeed unfairly treated. But when they say it, they are uttering a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they won’t say what needs saying, no one else will say it for them. Charles Moore (2010)

Once again the armies of the Arab nations are coordinating their military efforts to destroy Israel - whatever they say about wishing merely to regain the lost territories.... [I]f the present Arab offensive had been launched at the pre-1967 frontiers, then the Israelis would indeed have been fighting to avoid annihilation. It seems now that the Israelis were right to maintain the ceasefire lines gained in 1967, and that to do so is the only guarantee of their continued safety.
Alan Sillitoe (The Times, 11 October 1973)

Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam... In this deadly game of thrones, there’s no place for America or for Israel, no place for Christians, Jews or Muslims who don’t share the Islamist medieval creed, no rights for women, no freedom for anyone... [T]he greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons. To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle, but lose the war. We can’t let that happen...[T]he days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over. We are no longer scattered among the nations, powerless to defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in our ancient home. And the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage. For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves....Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand. But ... I know that America stands with Israel... You stand with Israel, because you know that the story of Israel is not only the story of the Jewish people but of the human spirit that refuses again and again to succumb to history’s horrors. Bibi Netanyahu (12 Adar 5775; 3 March 2015)

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions, of people, and there is no refugee problem.... [N]o one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees.... Other nations - when they are defeated - survive and recover, but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed.... [A]s it goes with Israel, so it will go with all of us. Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us. Eric Hoffer (1968)

Most of the present Arab countries were given their freedom after the 1914-18 War, or after the 1939-45 War.... Yet to listen to Arab spokesmen one might think that they had been cheated ... because they have not also got Israel. Israel is only .2 per cent of the land where Arab States have been established. Surely no fair-minded man can begrudge the Jews their own promised land when it is remembered that for every 2 acres that went to make up Israel, 1,000 acres became Arab.... Why is there an Arab refugee problem? The oil-rich countries have the money. There is no shortage of land, and the Israelis have the technical knowledge to show how it could be developed and made fertile. Bring those things together and the problem could be solved. 3rd Earl of Balfour (1968)

January 7, 2015 has already its place in the history of infamy, but also will be the date when the defenders of freedom and democracy will rise and pay tribute to those who died for their freedom and ours. Therefore, we must not forget on which side we are and who are our allies in the defense of the West and its values. Whether we admit it or not, the West is at war with an enemy who will not stop to destroy us...
The State of Israel boasts a commandment that, in one of the darkest hours in the fight for liberty Winston Churchill taught: "Never give up". Israel has proven to be a key ally in the fight against Islamism and also an example of how a liberal democracy can resist the jihadist stake and thrive as a Western nation ... Not only France but also all the West should look to Israel to defeat Islamism...
friendsofisraelinitiative.org

[I]t’s impossible to believe that an active antisemite wouldn’t – if only opportunistically – seek out somewhere to nestle in the manifold pleats of Israel-bashing, whether in generally diffuse anti-Zionism, or in more specific Boycott and Divestment Campaigns, Israeli Apartheid Weeks, End the Occupation movements and the like....[T]ell me that not a single Jew-hater finds the activity congenial, that criticising Israel can “never” be an expression of Jew-hating, not even when it takes the form of accusing Israeli soldiers of harvesting organs... Howard Jacobson (The Independent, 27 May 2013)

For Western countries to side with those who question Israel's legitimacy, for them to play games in international bodies with Israel's vital security issues, for them to appease those who oppose Western values, rather than robustly to stand up in defence of those values, is not only a grave moral mistake, but a strategic error of the first magnitude. Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is lost and Israel is lost, then we are lost too. Jose Maria Aznar

Israel is, for us, a normal and a special country. A normal country, because it is just like any other democracy. A special country, because the Jewish culture, which eventually became the Judeo-Christian culture of the dignity of man, is the conceptual foundation of liberalism and democracy. This is why attacking Israel is tantamount to attacking Europe and the West. This is also why disputing Israel's legitimacy and its right to existence means questioning democracy. And this is why we are Friends of Israel. By defending Israel, we are defending ourselves. Marcello Pera

Israel ... is beset today by a unique combination of threats. It must defend its people from attack while defending its very right to exist. No other nation in the world faces this dual challenge. To deny Israel's right to confront some of the world's most vicious terrorist groups in order to ensure the safety of its citizens is to corrode international norms from within ... The assault on Israel is one part of a more general assault on the West, on democracy, and on the moral and cultural heritage that grew from the fruitful interaction of Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome ... Should these efforts succeed, similar efforts will certainly be turned against other western democracies. George Weigel

Apart from America itself, Israel still stands as the world's brightest model of national self-liberation based on ideals of individual responsibility and human freedom. Israel's ability to withstand Arab attempts to destroy it in one of the longest and most lop-sided wars ever fought serves as an indelible testimony to the strength of democratic culture.... We know from the past that the West paid dearly for ignoring Hitler's war against the Jews. One can only hope it will not pay as dearly for having ignored or underestimated for so long the Arab war against Israel and the Jews. Ruth Wisse

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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