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)
Showing posts with label School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Show all posts
Showing posts with label School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). Show all posts
At London University's School of Oriental and African Studies yesterday, an Israel-demonising affair didn't go exactly as planned, owing to the presence of a stalwart band of Israel-supporters who told the participants what they didn't want to hear, got ejected for doing so, and are now being slurred as "having ties to the EDL".
(See video, which should be watched to the end, and post here)
That slur is not only baseless but most ironic, given the fact that one of the anti-Israel activists who couldn't attend, but would very much have liked to, is 9/11 truther Tony Gratrex, founder of the Reading PSC, who (see here for example) is widely perceived to be an antisemite:
Moreover, Ms Pinch herself, the Anglican daughter of a Jewish mother from Czechoslovakia if I'm informed correctly, has raised eyebrows in linking to material from the notorious antisemitic Redress site that I understand most PSC types try, publicly at least, to avoid:
Only a few days now to the launch (6 May, at Christ Church, Virginia Water) of Stephen Sizer's so-called Peacemaker Mediators, with himself as head honcho and at least one of the persons featured in this photo as a member of the International Board of Reference (whatever that means in practice!):
In the countdown to the launch of the new venture, our old friend the ex-vicar of Virginia Water, now ensconced in Southampton, has thrilled his faithful by bursting onto social media with this meme.
Pretty words, granted.
But actions are more eloquent than words, and NGO Monitor has the following about Sami Awad, the quotation-provider in question, who is founder and executive director of the Holy Land Trust (HLT).
The HLT, it warns,
Conducts highly politicized tours of Israel and the West Bank promoting the Palestinian narrative and targeting church leaders and the international community, claiming to provide “cross cultural and experimental learning opportunities in both Palestine and Israel.” Suggests that its participants “limit information” given to Israeli airport security and hide the reason for their visits.
HLT runs an annual summer program “Palestine Summer Encounter.” Participants have met with representatives from politicized NGOs like Breaking the Silence, BADIL, and Grassroots Jerusalem.
Sami Awad ... has stated that non-violent demonstrations are “not a substitute for the armed struggle.”
Beginning in 2010, HLT, alongside Bethlehem Bible College, has organized the Christ at the Checkpoint Conference (CATC), a bi-annual event held in Bethlehem.
CATC seeks to advance the Palestinian nationalist agenda within Evangelical Christian churches.
When it comes to demonisation of Israel Sami Awad has form. His organisation
Accuses Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and signed an “Urgent call to action” during the 2014 Gaza conflict accusing Egypt of “complicity in Israel’s genocide of the people of Gaza.”
In 2014, Sami Awad joined the “Ads Against Apartheid” campaign, which created billboards displaying to “Americans the devastating human rights abuses by the Israeli military and government against the Palestinian people. When these ads go national in the United States, Americans will start to understand the depth of the suffering Palestinians have endured under the Israeli military occupation.”
In 2013, HLT sponsored a festival in London called “Bethlehem Unwrapped,” featuring “a comedy show called “Stand Up Against the Wall,” a “Bethlehem Christmas dinner,” and a debate titled “Both sides of the Barrier – Separation or Security?” that featured Jeff Halper, founder of the Israeli Committee Against House DemolitionsThe main purpose of the barrier — to protect Israelis from suicide bombings — was erased. The festival was co-sponsored by charities that have exploited the language of morality and human rights to attack Israel for many years, including Amos Trust, Interpal, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)-UK, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, and War on Want.
In 2013, Sami Awad published demonizing rhetoric in Amos Trust’s Bethlehem Packet stating “No matter where you stand in Bethlehem, you can see the effects of the cold grip of this brutal and humiliating occupation.”
Awad has also minimized Israel’s legitimate security needs as a “manipulation” of the fear of another Holocaust. In a speech given at the “Christ at the Checkpoint” Conference in 2010, Awad stated that “the [Israeli] soldier now, who’s gone through that trauma experience [of visiting Auschwitz] now is trained in this weaponry all of a sudden is also put at a checkpoint inside the West Bank, between Palestinian areas.”
In 2011, HLT produced a film called “Little Town of Bethlehem,” a 77-minute documentary that tells the story “of three men of three different faiths and their lives in Israel and Palestine. The story explores each man’s choice of nonviolent action amidst a culture of overwhelming violence.” Using a façade of multiple viewpoints, however, the film actually presents a single narrative of Palestinian victimization and Israeli violence.
Speaking at the National Leadership Conference for the Vineyard Church in 2009, Awad told the audience: “We’ve actually done training in non-violence for Hamas leaders and other militant groups as well” (at 01:20:27 in the audio). Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization by the US State Department and the EU. Further, the US Supreme Court upheld a law criminalizing material support for terror organizations. (Holder, Attorney General, et al. v. Humanitarian Law Project et al. 2010.) The law defines “material support” as including “any property, tangible or intangible, or service, including… training, expert advice or assistance…” (See above for details of US government funding of HLT.)
A BDSer? You betcha! The HLT
Supports anti-Israel BDS (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions), including signing a petition in May 2005 calling for the academic boycott of Israel.Signatory to the 2005 “Palestinian Civil Society Call for BDS,” which calls for an end to Israel’s “occupation and colonization of all Arab lands” and promotes a right of “Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties. HLT also supports the Kairos Palestine document.
The Kairos Palestine document calls for BDS against Israel, denies the Jewish historical connection to Israel in theological terms, and blames Israel solely for the continuation of the conflict. It also characterizes terrorist acts of “armed resistance” as “Palestinian legal resistance.”
Its purpose is to rally churches globally to support BDS, delegitimization, and demonization directed at the State of Israel.
Partners with Amos Trust, Nonviolence International, Interfaith Peace-Builders, and Peacemaker Gemeinschaft.
HLT is a member of Alliance for Middle East Peace (ALLMEP), which in contrast to ALLMEP’s stated goals of working toward “peace” and “coexistence,” its members include a number of highly biased and politicized NGOs that promote agendas based solely on the Palestinian narrative of victimization and completely omit Israeli perspectives. Members include: Parents Circle Families Forum (PCFF), Combatants for Peace, OneVoice International, Sikkuy, Women Wage Peace, and others.
Incidentally, if you haven't seen David Collier's recent footage of anti-Israel ferals outside SOAS protesting Mark Regev's appearance there, do have a look (first video below). Much of the footage is sickening, but there are delicious moments, as when London music teacher Deborah Fink is caught passing off non-Jews as Jewish opponents of the Jewish State. Also featured: soprano Ms Fink's embarrassed warbling, a gay Israel-hater reacting asked how many gay bars there are in Gaza, and an outspoken black antisemite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_dVMAjtews
This lady is prone to lend her soprano tones to demonising Israel, I'm afraid. Here's a particularly infamous instance of her minstrelsy:
American violinist and propagandist against Zionism Tom Suarez, who as described by David Collier unabashedly maligned Israel in a talk at that bastion of Israel-hatred the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London late last year, calling Zionism "a fascist cult", has become excited by some maps.
Like other anti-Zionists before him, he seems to think that the dastardly Zionists will be routed by this revelation:
Sigh.
They don't seem to understand, the Israel-hating brigade, that no matter how many maps and artefacts (and newspapers, posters, football teams, orchestras from the, er, Yishuv!) they trot out with the word "Palestine" embossed upon them the fact remains that there was never a sovereign state of Palestine.
When will these people get it through their heads that the issue is not whether the name Palestine was applied to the Holy Land (it was, by the Romans, in order to erase the Jewish connection with Eretz Israel) but whether there was a sovereign state of Palestine as pro-Palestinian activists such as themselves maintain (there was not, of course, for since its invasion by Romans that land has always been ruled by someone else, latterly the Ottoman Empire, of which it was a backwater)?
Meanwhile, London's School of Oriental Studies (now SOAS), which began life in the first half of lst century as the SOS with a Jewish lecturer in Hebrew, and has since developed into one of the most vicious anti-Israel and antisemitic UK campuses, has Israel's ambassador to the Court of St James in its line of fire:
'As Mark Regev prepares to speak at SOAS later this month, students have called a protest against his proposed visit
Palestinian students and student societies across SOAS have called a protest on 27 April in response to the proposed visit of Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev. Many staff and students are particularly incensed that management has entered direct negotiations with the Embassy, despite the fact that the visit was initially proposed by two students societies: the UN Society and the Jewish Society.
SOAS management has also agreed to have the Israeli Embassy control security for the event, including allowing the Embassy to take details of everyone entering the meeting. Palestinian students wrote a letter to management outlining their concerns over free speech and safety, which was ignored.
Over one hundred staff members have signed a letter to management strongly opposing the event, and any event that takes place on campus and seeks to normalise the actions of the Israeli state or any other repressive regime. The letter also affirms solidarity with the Palestinian people and in the fight for justice. Here we reprint the statement prepared by student societies at SOAS, and support the call to protest on 27 April at 4pm opposing the presence of Mark Regev on campus.
It has come to our attention that the Israeli Ambassador to the UK, Mark Regev, will be coming to SOAS on the 27th of April at 19:00. Mr Regev is a well known former spokesperson for the Israeli state who came to international prominence through his defence of the brutal and repeated attacks on the besieged Gaza Strip, including the many violations of human rights and international law carried out throughout these operations.
Firstly [no such word, not-so-learned learned ones; the word you need is 'first'], Mr Regev will be speaking at our University as an official representative of the Israeli state, not in a personal capacity. He is being given the cover of an academic setting to put forward official state positions on the on-going expansion of illegal settlements, the siege of Gaza, land thefts, and discriminatory laws imposed on Palestinian citizens of Israel. This is not an academic debate, informed by fact and reason, it is an official exercise in state propaganda.
This comes flying in the face of a landslide (73%) SOAS vote that included the entire SOAS community, contract staff, academic staff and students, in favour of endorsing the Palestinian call for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions.The Palestinian Campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) guidelines, explicitly state the refusal to host official representatives of the Israeli state.
The response to the announcement of the event only confirms the SOAS community’s stance. For example, over 100 members of the academic staff have already signed a statement rejecting Mr Regev’s presence on campus.
Secondly, through allowing this event to take place, the school is failing to uphold its basic duty of care to staff and students, Palestinians in particular. Israel’s latest "anti-boycott law" stipulates that individuals (both foreign nationals and Palestinians who hold foreign passports) who publicly support the Palestinian call for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) for justice and equality, can be banned entry into the country.
This law is a blatant breach of free speech and academic freedom. It puts SOAS community in an extremely precarious situation, especially since a number of current staff and students have been denied entry into Israel/Palestine. This is despite the repeated efforts by the school to address these questions of academic freedom. Additionally, this law is yet another example of many attempts to dehumanise Palestinian narratives and criminalise movements and individuals striving to hold Israel to account for its violations of international law and human rights.
The environment created by this event is unsafe for Palestinian students, many of whom have suffered directly at the hands of the Israeli security services. The Ambassador will be accompanied by armed embassy security personnel (whether the arms are concealed or carried openly). Many students fear for their safety with Israeli security personnel roaming our campus. Palestinian staff and students would be subject to the same questioning and searching they suffered living under military occupation in Palestine should they attend a public event.
Thirdly, SOAS management cannot guarantee that this event will take place within the acceptable boundaries of academic freedom and free speech, free from intimidation of all participants. The School has ignored a letter of concern by Palestinian students who asked how the School proposes to guarantee that information about attendees will not be passed on to the embassy through the ticketing mechanism, and how the School proposes to deal with the presence of armed security personnel on campus. It is completely abhorrent that SOAS administration has stated that this visit can go ahead without consulting Palestinian students and staff as part of the risk assessment for the event. Effectively excluding Palestinians from this event.
Indeed, in their latest correspondence to staff, SOAS management claims to be upholding the right to free speech while also taking into account the concerns of all those affected by the event. It is clear that this is not the case as SOAS administration has effectively ignored letters from staff and Palestinian students and refused to engage with Palestinian students especially.
In response, the SOAS community calls on all students, trade unionists, and concerned individuals who believe in the importance of democracy, the right to academic freedom, educational environments free from intimidation and physical threats, and justice for the Palestinian people to join the ‘Apartheid Off Campus’ day on the 27th April in the afternoon at SOAS. A day where the SOAS community will celebrate its diversity and struggles with teach-outs on resistance movements, the situation in Palestine and their relevance in the UK today from 16:00.
Signed: • SOAS Decolonising Our Minds Society • SOAS Justice For Cleaners • SOAS Fractionals For Fair Pay • SOAS Labour Society • NUS Black Student Campaign • SOAS LGBTQ Society • SOAS Syria Society • SOAS Palestine Society • SOAS Israel Society • SOAS Islamic Society • SOAS Iraqi Society • SOAS Ahlubayt Islamic Society • SOAS Transnational Diplomacy Association • SOAS Men’s Football Club • SOAS Against Human Trafficking • SOAS Canadian Society • SOAS Kashmir Solidarity Movement • SOAS Afghan Society • SOAS Teach First Society • SOAS Albanian Society • SOAS Martial Arts Society • SOAS Spoken Word Society • SOAS Kurdish Society • SOAS MENA Society • SOAS Goes to Calais • SOAS Ceilidh Band • SOAS Herb Society • SOAS Origami society • SOAS Shia Theology Society • SOAS East Africa Network • SOAS Yemen society • SOAS India Society • SOAS Mehfil e Urdu
The story behind these videos of his is told by David Collierhere
To set the scene:
03 Nov 2016. I was inside one of the
hot spots of radical Islam in London – SOAS. We came to hear Tom Suarez
promote his book, State of Terror....
Suarez is an example of how someone can make a new career out of hating
Israel without academic training or even a basic historical knowledge of
the conflict. His methodology was clear, ‘I hate Zionists/Jews’, but to
write a book, I need to make some citations, and he went off to find
some....
From the moment Suarez opened his mouth, until his pillar of sand had
been swept aside by several people in the room, Tom Suarez built a
narrative that was dripping with hard-core antisemitic undertones....
[W]e are left with a rampant demonic force with global control and
sinister intent, doing its will between 1937 and 1948. This as six
million Jews died. His entire narrative depends on the existence of
‘Elders of Zion’ style control at the very same time as the world shut
its doors to Jews and a genocide was committed against them. It is
frightening in its sickening inter-dependency.
He gives Jews
global control as they lay dying in Auschwitz. He suggest Zionist Jews
‘twisted’ Truman’s arm and Truman “always did as he was told”. There
were brutally obscene comments, such as one discussing an atmosphere of
diminishing global antisemitism in 1946 as Europe was knee deep in
Jewish corpses....
I lost count of the number of Nazi analogies. Everything the Zionists did was comparable to Nazi Germany."
Is it any wonder, then, that Jews in the audience reacted with emotional outrage?
Here's doughty Zionist stalwart Jonathan Hoffman, quick off the mark to ask the opening question from the floor:
Here's a lady, her voice breaking at times with hurt and indignation, demanding to know why Suarez ignores Arab violence.
Here's a Muslim gentleman with a message the Israel-demonisers would rather not hear, about Israel's diversity and egalitarianism:
Here's a lady with some home truths about the expulsion of Jews from Arab lands:
Explains the maker and uploader, Israel Advocacy Network:
'Published on Oct 28, 2016
Last night police were called to rescue Jewish students from anti-Israel thugs at University College London, at the same time SOAS PalSoc had invited notorious Hamas apologist Tareq Radi to speak at the campus.
Universities must do more to keep extremists off British campuses'
Footage of disgusting intimidation of pro-Israel students here
It was predictable really, given the fact that the School of Oriental and Asian Studies at London University has the reputation as the most toxic of all British campuses for Jewish and non-Jewish supporters of Israel.
Yes, it was announced late on Friday that SOAS has voted in favour of the academic boycott of Israel.
The photo at left shows a number of the Israel-haters whooping it up earlier in the week, and as we saw earlier this month,a sophisticated videowas part of the propaganda against Israel that formed part of the campaign that ended in "triumph" yesterday.
Earlier this week, PACBI and Palestinian student and academic unions expressed their support for the 'Yes' campaign, and applauded efforts of pro-boycott campaigners.
The SOAS Students' Union has supported the BDS campaign since 2005. In October 2014, the Students' Union passed a motion that called on the Union "to take the BDS campaign to the University", through a school-wide referendum.
Along with Palestinians at SOAS, the boycott campaign received support from "the Justice for Cleaners campaign, the LGBTQIA+ Society, the Kashmir Solidarity Movement, Tamil Society, and the SOAS Student Union itself."
(Hat tip for bottom photograph: Seymour Alexander)
The haters at the School of Oriental and African Studies, an institution that's notorious as a toxic environment for Jewish and pro-Israel students, attempt to justify their hate (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uL9GFMr_1ck):
StandWithUs, the organisation whose representative was bitten on the cheek, requiring hospitalisation (see my previous post), has issued the following press release:
SOAS should uphold free speech and bar incitement to violence and antisemitism.
A small number of pro-Israel protestors, including supporters of StandWithUs, participated in a peaceful protest against the “Celebrate Palestine Festival” event held at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies [SOAS] on March 20th. The event included calls for boycotting Israel and libeling it as an “Apartheid” country.
The pro-Israel protesters were standing at the university, with signs behind them pointing out that Israel is the opposite of an 'apartheid' country and calling for a peaceful two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. They peacefully discussed these issues with attendees, only once approached by people. The police had given them permission to be there.
Anti-Israel activists then engaged them in conversation. One man verbally assaulted them with anti-Semitic slurs, saying, “the best thing that Jews have ever done was to go into the gas chambers. It was the best thing to happen to Germany to have been cleaned of Jews. The same thing needs to happen in the Middle East.” Another anti-Israel activist then punched and bit a Jewish member of the group, who was hospitalized. This was an unprovoked attack. His attacker was later arrested by police.
StandWithUs unequivocally condemns the disgusting act of violence against peaceful Israel supporters on the SOAS campus. The attacker evidently was spurred on by the hate-filled, one-sided event taking place at SOAS.
“I am totally shaken and distressed by what happened. One of the most disturbing things is that the people involved, fearing negative publicity…started accusing us shouting, "how dare you come here? It's a Celebrate Palestine event, you knew what would happen. You asked for it.’ I didn't think I would ever get to a stage in which I would feel like a Jew in Nazi Germany, and I don't say it lightly," reported StandWithUs-UK Coordinator Gili Brenner who was one of the pro-Israel demonstrators.
"It is unacceptable that violent rhetoric by Palestinian supporters spills over into violent actions. We expect the university to condemn this attack and those who incited it. Universities must have a policy of zero tolerance policy for hate speech and anti-Semitism. They should carefully monitor incendiary events like ‘Celebrate Palestine' to ensure that hate speech, violence, and suppression of free speech do not occur,” said Michael Dickson, StandWithUs-Israel Director who was in London during the incident.
“Unfortunately, the kind of blatant anti-Semitism, bigotry, and incitement to hatred that occurred at SOAS lurk at the bottom of far too many anti-Israel events on campuses. They frequently become a toxic brew that can lead to physical violence as they did in this case. They also prevent any serious discussion of the issues, and often lead to intimidation and the suppression of free speech, as they did in London,” said Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs.
"It is unthinkable that in the UK people can be prevented from peacefully demonstrating and expressing their opposition to incitement, hatred and blatant anti-semitism which, given the outrageous comments about Jews this undoubtedly was. It is important that the right to challenge anti-Israel events be protected, and Israel’s supporters must not be intimidated or silenced by the mindless violence that occurred on Sunday,” commented Joy Wolfe, UK Chairman of StandWithUs.
A short video made following the attack (the man featured is not the attacker):
I suppose it was only a matter of time, given the hate-ridden antisemitic atmosphere that prevails on some of Britain’s campuses, especially in London, and the lily-livered attitude of the university authorities.
The Jewish Chronicle reports that a pro-Israel activist was physically attacked and hospitalised during Israel Apartheid Week. He was one of a foursome from the organisation Stand With Us who went along to the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at London University to observe a “Celebrate Palestine” event there.
One man reportedly told the group that “the best thing the Jews had done was to go to the gas chambers” and then another man, described as “of Middle East appearance”, bit one of the foursome on the cheek, causing the victim to be taken to the nearby University College Hospital.
To add insult to injury, the university authorities seem to be blaming the Stand With Us group for the assault on the grounds that their presence was provocative.
You may recall my post back in July headed “It’s an Unfair Cop, Guv! – Mr Plod shows some muscle”, which told how the prominent pro-Israel blogger Richard Millett, having been recognised as a supporter of the Zionist Entity, was denied access to a talk at the House of Commons and escorted off the premises by police. In his latest piece Mr Millett draws attention to a talk on Tuesday of this week at London University’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) by Professor Gilbert Achcar. Professor Achcar, who occupies the Chair in International Relations at SOAS – which I’ve seen described as the most anti-Israel campus in Britain – was speaking about his new book, The Arabs and the Holocaust: the Arab-Israeli War of Narratives, to what Richard Millett, who was present, terms “a very receptive audience of 200 students”.
According to Mr Millett, Professor Achcar made such “outlandish claims “ as:
1. The Arabs bear no responsibility at all for the Holocaust.
2. The Israelis have Nazified the Palestinian people.
3. This Nazification has come about by Israel's broadcasting of the Mufti’s connections with Hitler during WW2.
4. The Israelis must apologise for the Nakba if there is to be peace.
5. The Israelis are today still frozen with fear by the Holocaust.
6. Any anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in the Arab world is purely a result of Israel's aggression.
What hope is there [asks Millett] when students applaud nonsense like this?
Millett adds: “If it wasn't bad enough having Ilan Pappe lecturing students full time at Exeter University his ideological twin is now doing the same at SOAS. The Arabs had a significant enough role in the Holocaust which makes Gilbert Achcar an Arab-role-in-the-Holocaust-denier.”
