December 17, 2004

Anti-Zionism on campus brought to the attention of Commons select committee on racism and terror

According to this week's Jewish Chronicle. "a delegation from the Union of Jewish Students told the Commons Home Affairs select committee of a series of incidents, some of them involving physical violence. The committee is gathering evidence on racism and terrorism"....."Of particular concern, said the UJS, was the situation at London's School of Oriental and African Studies, where a motion equated Zionism with racism and Jewish students were "very uncomfortable and feel it is necessary to minimise their appearance on campus"." Now it appears to be the UJS's Danny Stone making these charges and yet last week's JC. reported that he had attended the conference at SOAS titled "Resisting Israeli apartheid: Strategies and principles". Clearly he. didn't feel a need to "minimise" his presence. He was, however, horrified that Tom Paulin had spoken of an Israeli commander who told his troops to read how the Nazis had liquidated the Warsaw Ghetto in order to understand the tasks involved in suppressing the Palestinian refugee camps. I don't know if he castigated Ha'aretz for reporting exactly the same thing only closer to the time it actually happened.

Conspicuous by its absence from any reports of the intimidation of Jews on campus over the question of Palestine, is any evidence. Ultimately, what Danny Stone, the UJS and the JC seem to be saying is that any criticism of Israel is unpleasant for people who support Israel. This, as they all know, is not all Jews and being the butt of political argument is not intimidation.

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