Free Speech under Threat

The following report comes from Avi Mayer http://storify.com/avimayer and should be circulated as widely as possible.

Crushing Free Speech in Essex UK

How Were Protesters Able to Deny an Israeli Diplomat His Freedom of Speech?

A few weeks ago, Omar Barghouti and Judith Butler -- the former a leader of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement, the latter a cheerleader therefor -- spoke at Brooklyn College in an appearance co-sponsored by the institution's political science department. The talk, which sought to promote the effort to punish and isolate Israel until it accepts its own elimination, was hailed as a triumph of free speech.

"As an institution of higher education," wrote college president Karen Gould, "it is incumbent upon us to uphold the tenets of academic freedom and allow our students and faculty to engage in dialogue and debate on topics they may choose, even those with which members of our campus and broader community may vehemently disagree... We [...] uphold their right to speak, and the rights of our students and faculty to attend, listen, and fully debate."

In the days and weeks leading up to the event, anti-Israel activists of all stripes railed against efforts to have the event cancelled, hailing the talk as a vivid example of free expression. Ali Abunimah, editor of the hate site Electronic Intifada, encouraged his readers to sign on to a petition expressing "support for free speech" and denouncing "Zionist bullying." Alex Kane, a writer for anti-Israel site Mondoweiss, later gushed about Barghouti and Butler's talk, calling it "a fantastic event and a real big victory for free speech." Participants in the event reported a heavy police presence, meant to ensure that the event could proceed without a hitch. And so it did (if you disregard multiple accounts of pro-Israel students being ejected from the event -- which is a subject for another time).

Meanwhile, Across the Pond...

... support for free speech, it seems, only extends so far.

On Wednesday, Alon Roth-Snir, Deputy Ambassador of Israel to the United Kingdom, was scheduled to give a talk at the University of Essex in Colchester. In the period leading up the event, anti-Israel activists on campus had strongly denounced the decision to permit Roth-Snir's appearance, even starting a blog to collect statements on the matter, of which there were three in total. All three statements slammed what they referred to as the Department of Government's "invitation" to Roth-Snir. A Facebook event hosted by the University of Essex Students' Union called for a protest against the visit

Business of Hate (continued)

Whilst there have been some half hearted apologies for the original Scarfe cartoon, published in The Sunday Times of London recently, from a number of sources, it is difficult to take the apologies seriously. See http://www.haifadiarist.blogspot.co.il/2013/02/the-business-of-hate.html 

One wonders what would the consequences have been if such a cartoon had tried to give a similar message with reference to Islam, particularly as the Christian population is being hounded in so many places around the world by Islam. 

The newspaper Algemeiner seems to have countered the original cartoon in a novel way. Certain editors of many newspapers seem to feel that they can make the news rather than report it. Investigative reporting seems to have gone the way of manual typewriters, telegrams and their like.

The Business of Hate

The Scarffe cartoon in the UK Sunday Times that caused such an outcry and resulted in an apology by the editor shows a depth of disgust felt by so many and yet it didn't turn into the violence that is always shown when the so called freedom of expression by newspapers looks at Islam.

It is interesting to note how one media outlet turn the incident on its head.

http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/01/31/the-business-of-hate/

"Bye-Bye London"

I live here in Israel and yet receive reports daily from all walks of life in the UK about the changing attitudes towards Israel and Jews in that country.

Having discussed this issue with the UK Ambassador and his staff at various meetings, the usual canards are spouted that ”we are exaggerating”, the incidents are carried out by fringe elements” and “basically everything is OK in the UK”. In fact the Ambassador fails to understand why more Israelis are not prepared to study in UK universities since “there really are no problems”!!

Just who is he trying to kid??

The blog below is yet another instance of how the herd mentality is inexorably gaining momentum not just amongst the rabble rousers but also amongst the “chattering classes” and the “upper crust” of UK society.

 

 

Bye-bye London

Caroline Glick January 21, 2013, 11:27 AM

In an interview with Haaretz in November 2010, British novelist Martin Amis said the following about discussions of Israel in his motherland:

I live in a mildly anti-Semitic country, and Europe is mildly anti-Semitic, and they hold Israel to a higher moral standard than its neighbors. If you bring up Israel in a public meeting in England, the whole atmosphere changes. The standard left-wing person never feels more comfortable than when attacking Israel. Because they are the only foreigners you can attack. Everyone else is protected by having dark skin, or colonial history, or something. But you can attack Israel. And the atmosphere becomes very unpleasant. It is traditional, snobbish, British anti-Semitism combined with present-day circumstances.

After participating last week in a debate in London about Israeli communities beyond the 1949 armistice lines organized by the self-consciously pretentious Intelligence Squared debating society, I can now say from personal experience that Amis is correct. The public atmosphere in England regarding Israel is ugly and violent. 

The resolution we debated read: "Israel is destroying itself with its settlement policy. If settlement expansion continues Israel will have no future."

My debating partner was Danny Dayan, the outgoing head of the Yesha Council. 

We debated Daniel Levy, one of the founders of J-Street and the drafter of the Geneva Initiative, and the son of Lord Michael Levy, one of Tony Blair's biggest fundraisers; and William Sieghart, a British philanthropist who runs a non-profit that among other things, champions Hamas. Levy has publicly stated that Israel's creation was immoral. And Sieghart has a past record of saying that Israel's delegitimization would be a salutary proces and calling for a complete cultural boycott of Israel while laudingHamas. 

We lost overwhelmingly. I think the final vote tally was something like 500 for the resolution and 100 against it.

A couple of impressions I took away from the experience: First, I can say without hesitation that I hope never to return to Britain. I actually don't see any point. Jews are targeted by massive anti-Semitism of both the social and physical varieties. Why would anyone Jewish want to live there?

As to visiting as an Israeli, again, I just don't see the point. The discourse is owned by anti-Israel voices. They don't make arguments to spur thought, but to end it, by appealing to people's passions. 

For instance, in one particularly ugly segment, Levy made the scurrilous accusation that Israel systematically steals land from the Palestinians. Both Dayan and I demanded that he provide just one example of his charge. And the audience raged against us for our temerity at insisting that he provide substantiation for his baseless allegation. In the event, he failed to substantiate his allegation.

   

At another point, I was asked how I defend the Nazi state of Israel. When I responded by among other things giving the Nazi pedigree of the Palestinian nationalist movement founded by Nazi agent Haj Amin el Husseini and currently led by Holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas, the crowd angrily shouted me down. 

I want to note that the audience was made up of upper crust, wealthy British people, not unwashed rabble rousers. And yet they behaved in many respects like a mob when presented with pro-Israel positions. 

I honestly don't know whether there are policy implications that arise from my experience in London last week. I have for a long time been of the opinion that Israel shouldn't bother to try to win over Europe because the Europeans have multiple reasons for always being anti-Israel and none of them have anything to do with anything that Israel does. As I discuss in my book, these reasons include anti-Semitism, anti-Americanism, addiction to Arab oil, and growing Muslim populations in Europe. 

I was prepared to conduct a civilized debate based on facts and reasoned argumentation. I expected it to be a difficult experience. I was not expecting to be greeted by a well-dressed mob. My pessimism about Europeans' capacity to avail themselves to reasoned, fact-based argumentation about Israel has only deepened from the experience. 

One positive note, I had a breakfast discussion last Wednesday morning with activists from the Zionist Federation of Britain. The people I met are committed, warm, hardworking Zionists. I wish them all the best, and mainly that means, that I hope that these wonderful people and their families make aliyah. 

While their work is worthwhile, there is no future for Jews in England.

Israel to Head International Task Force

To fight anti Semitism and holocaust denial, 87 states have joined forces in this aim


This week a cooperation agreement between the ITF (Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance, and Research) and the ODIHR (Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) was signed at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. The ODIHR is an operative branch of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe)

This year, Israel was chosen for the first time to head the ITF. Under the auspices of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an agreement was signed today that boosts the strength of the forces in the global arena fighting against antisemitism and Holocaust denial.

This gives an enormous boost to the fight against the delegitimization of Israel and antisemitism in the world, bringing 87 states for the first time into cooperation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has acted, and will continue to act, against these manifestations of hate and will promote any initiative whose purpose is to eliminate them.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs added that there are elements that deny the Holocaust and are preparing the next one. There is a need topreserve the memory of the Holocaust so that similar horrors and hatred will never be repeated and the world will become a safer place.

The ITF was founded about ten years ago at the initiative of the Swedish government

Different Rules for Israel

As one of my correspondents writes, identifying anti-Semitism in the anti-Israel arguments won't faze the anti-Semites--but it might make those who are NOT already hopelessly biased against Israel stop and think.

One formulation of this is the concept of "different rules for Israel".

All states are entitled to take military action to defend their citizens--except for Israel

All states are entitled to decide who may enter their country--except for Israel

All states are entited to decide who may become citizens of their country--except for Israel

All states can be members of a regional group in the UN--except for Israel

UN Charter Article 2 par 4 states: "All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations"
(unless, of course, that state threatened is Israel)

Foreign-funded NGO's that seek to undermine a country's very existence aren't
entitled to act within that country-- except for Israel.

The list can (unfortunately) go on and on.

Unfavourable Views of Jews in Europe

Ethnocentric attitudes are on the rise in Europe. Growing numbers of people in several major European countries say they have an unfavorable opinion of Jews, and opinions are more negative than they were several years ago. The elitist opinions and the constant media Israel bashing agenda must have had some effect on these figures. So many newspapers find all types of insidious ways to express their feelings, thus passing these views on to their readers.

Recently the European song festival was held in Russia. Israel’s entry was performed by one Israeli (Jewish) and another Israeli (Muslim), surely this shows the multiculturalism of the country. Not so for the Times of the UK, the performance was by “a Jew and an Arab”. No reference whatsoever to the fact that the “Arab” was Muslim and Israeli. But then that doesn’t fit the charge of racism, does it?

A spring 2008 survey by the Pew Research Center’s Pew Global Attitudes Project http://pewglobal.org/reports/pdf/262.pdf finds that

- 46% of the Spanish rate Jews unfavorably compared to 21% in 2005.
- 34% of Russians compared to 21% in 2005 and
- 36% of Poles, 27% in 2005

Somewhat fewer, but still significant numbers of the Germans (25% compared to 21% in 2005) and French (20% compared to 18%) interviewed also express negative opinions of Jews. These percentages are all higher than obtained in comparable Pew surveys taken in recent years.

In a number of countries, the increase has been especially notable between 2006 and 2008. However, Great Britain stands out as the only European country included in the survey where there has not been a substantial increase in anti-Semitic attitudes. Just 9% of the British rate Jews unfavorably, compared to 7% in 2005.

Relatively small percentages in both Australia (11%) and the United States (7%) continue to view Jews unfavorably.

Anti-Jewish opinions are most prevalent among Europeans on the political right.

Yes there is a feeling that the 1930"s are being repeated but let's hope some sense will prevail.