Is the Deligitimisation of the State of Israel anti-Semitism?

Is deligitimisation of the State of Israel anti-Semitic?  That is a question that has been put to me over the past day or so.

Some of our opponents are indeed anti Semites and when you read some of their rhetoric, it leaves you in no doubt.  That is not to say that all people who talk about the deligitimisation of the State of Israel anti Semites, they are not.  Many are misguided and believe that they are just seeing that the Israelis are treating the Palestinians inhumanely, indeed they believe that the Israelis are letting themselves down and are going down a slippery slope towards bestiality because they believe what they are being told by the anti Semites; and any other view comes under the heading ‘Well they would say that, wouldn’t they’.  It is as one of the speakers at the Big Tent for Israel said, ‘If an NGO has a good reputation, like War on Want or the Red Cross, well intentioned people believe them.’

We have spent so many years trying to change the case for Israel and we all know that our words and even the pictures are twisted around so that well meaning people no longer believe the truth and indeed believe lies.  So I guess we have come to a place where maybe whilst we should be careful about calling individuals anti-Semites, I believe it is time we called their actions anti-Semitic – particularly if they are indeed anti-Semitic.

Racism/Anti-Semitism

Sepp Blatter of the FA seems to encapsulate the views of so many.  He was faced with comments which he was told were racist.  One of the footballers concerned said he was very offended and the other that he had used language which while unguarded, didn’t really amount to racially abusive terminology – at least not in that arena;  the other guy should not be so sensitive, after all it was only during a game.  Mr Blatter considered the matter, for however long it took him, and decided that John Terry was right, and that Anton Ferdinand had taken an innocent remark and blown it up out of all proportion.  If it hadn’t been in front of the world’s press I would imagine he would have told Ferdinand to ‘Pull himself together and stop being such a wimp’, or something similar. The problem for Mr Blatter is that the rest of the world agrees that Ferdinand is justified in being upset.  Sepp Blatter is wrong, so wrong in fact that his apology for upsetting anyone (if one considers that an apology is debatable) may not in fact help him escape the smear of ‘Racist’.  At best he is misguided, at worst he has linked himself to the worst that football can offer.

Now change the scenario and the people concerned.  Imagine if the taunts had been about Jews and or supporters of Israel.  How many of the world’s media would have condemned Terry?  I would suggest the answer is very few.

It is interesting to me that this is going on against a background of the Stephen Lawrence case: possibly the most groundbreaking race case of the last 20 years.  The case which defined what racism is in Britain – and if one looks at it one can see that it has done a huge disservice to the cause of Jew baiting as a form of racism.  If one cares to look carefully at what happened one can see that initially at least ‘racism’ equalled ‘black’.  I am not saying that young black men were not unfairly discriminated against, indeed they were, and still are, but in all the media ‘tub thumping’ other ethnic groups, not just Jews, were lost in the mêlée. 

In this world of trial by media Jews in particular are open to abuse so that we have now reached the situation where our detractors may use anti-semitic rhetoric with impunity. They decide what we are entitled to be offended by:  they can tell us that we are either mad or over sensitive to be upset if they can imply that Jews control the banks and the world economy: they can accuse Jews of being more loyal to Israel than the country in which they live: they can deny Jews the right to a homeland and call Israel a racist endeavour:  they can hold Israel and Jews to a higher standard than any other group: they can compare the actions of Israel to those of the Nazis: and they can hold Jews collectively responsible for the actions of the State of Israel.

And that my friends according to the EUMC definition is anti-semitism, a definition used by European police forces.  We are not being oversensitive – we are being racially abused.

THE BIG TENT FOR ISRAEL

It is time to join forces to combat the international network of activism that seeks to Delegitimise Israel – and

which has London has its Hub of Hubs

Rabbi Jonathan Guttentag

The closing weeks of last year saw the publication of reports by leading international think-tanks based in Israel.  These present most disturbing findings identifying London as the centre –the Hub of Hubs - of an extraordinary powerful international network of forces ranged against Israel seeking to delegitimise Israel in five different spheres of operation - academia, politics, media, churches and trade unions.

The Reut Institute’s widely researched study Building a political firewall against the Assault on Israel’s legitimacy; London as a Case Study was followed by an in depth study of the same problem by the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs - Mapping Delegitimisation.

I believe that the findings of these two works demand a response from us – the Jewish community of the UK; the friends, promoters and defenders of Israel in the UK.

Now, it would be possible for us to briefly acknowledge these studies and then pass on by. But is that really how we should be reacting? There is an international crisis, centring in the UK on our doorstep in London, that affects the cause of Israel, and therefore Jews everywhere, and we merely collectively shrug our shoulders– and say let someone else get on with it.

The Reut Institute have come forward with the recommendation of a very simple, sensible and straightforward suggestion. They would like the pro-Israel forces in the UK to be brought together, forming a so-called Big Tent, so that new forces can be energised, a new grand coalition can emerge which together will start to do the job of better defending Israel.

Now, of course, much good work is already being done in these spheres. High quality professionals and volunteers for a number of pro-Israel organisations are devoting hours and days per week to this cause.  Yet, what we can all surely acknowledge is missing,is the opportunity for these smaller groups to be brought together, to work with each other, and to spark off each other, to energise each other; and thus to move the whole operation forward, in a mass coordinated fashion.

It is for these reasons that I and others have begun working on a proposal to do just that, to organise a Big Tent for Israel, a day’s  gathering (let us say) which would be a major get together,that would bring the hundreds, if not the thousands, from the community, the friends and defenders of Israel, of whatever stripe or part of the spectrum,for a day - when the issues can be properly aired, debated, considered, and moved towards a new structured future of the defence and promotion of Israel.So that everyone in the community, who has something to give, feels comfortable to come forward and give it.

I believe that a model from recent times in Jewish life suggests itself. The 1970’s and 1980’s when “students andhousewives” (as the KGB put it to Anatoly Scharansky), were mobilised and joined forces to defeat the evil empire that was the Soviet Union.

Does the current threat to Israel and to the Jewish people, from the anti-Semitic forces of Islamism, not demand,likewise, the co-opting and the mobilising of the average concerned Jew to come together, to devote time, and to get involved, and to begin to feel that their voice matters, their efforts can make a difference?

We are planning something new, something big, something that will reach out and involve every member of the Jewish community and friend of Israel and Jewish people. So please join with us as we move forward with this timely and vital project


References
1.            The report of the Reut Institute Building a political firewall against the Assault on Israel’s legitimacy; London as a Case Study http://www.reut-nstitute.org/data/uploads/PDFver/20101219%20London%20Case%20Study.pdf 
2.            Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs an in depth study of the London problem
mappingdelegitimisation http://www.jcpa.org/text/Mapping_Delegitimization.pdf

A Hub of Hubs.

 What is that? 

Back at the beginning of May I attended the 20/20 conference held in Washington run by the AJC and Reut Institute.  I had no idea then what the idea of a Hub of hubs was all about, but I soon realised what it meant.  That was that London, my home city, had become the Hub of Hubs of hatred of Israel and Deligitimisation of the State of Israel. That is the stated aim of our enemies who are also targeting shechita and brit mila.

So what exactly do we mean by deligitimisation of the State of Israel and where did all this come from?

This is a well planned and scarily well organised plan.  Many, many years ago (October 2001) I was invited to go to Israel to the World Jewish Congress, and I remember someone speaking who had been to a meeting in Durban where the Jewish Students had been mobbed and shouted at by the Pro Palestinian group who had told them then that they would defeat Israel through three things 1 Boycotts, 2 Divestment and 3 Sanctions.  These three things are now known as BDS or the deligitimisation of Israel.  These students were not only truly frightened, they made everyone who heard them frightened themselves, and sadly nothing I have heard since has done anything to make me feel better.

Who are they, these enemies of Israel?  You may well ask.  They are not the right wing fascists, or at least not just the right wing fascists; the British government have given us laws to fight fascists. No, today they are  mainly those who dress their anti Semitism up as the deligitimisation of the State of Israel.  Sadly many of these people are Jewish,  increasingly Jews who believe that Israel has overstepped the boundaries by remaining in what is known as the ‘occupied territories’. 

Some people believe the Palestinian (Arab) rhetoric which will have us believe that the Zionist colonialists took the land of Palestine (a land incidentally named by the Romans for that place inhabited by the Jews, not the Philistines as one might think) by force and should return it.  These people do not give thought to what will happen to the lives of those non Arab nationals currently living on that land, nor do they appear to care.  These people do not give thought to the impact that their impassioned support for Arab ‘Palestinians’ has at the expense of historical truth, nor what it does to those who support an Israel which gives breath to the Torah dream of Jews living in the land of Israel, because make no mistake my friends, the ‘Palestinian’ cause has no room for Jews living in Eretz Yisroel.

So what was the purpose of the Washington conference?  It was meant to encourage greater activism throughout the world.  It was an amazing event, bringing together activists worldwide to discuss their common, shared concerns, and indeed we did. What came out were the following:

1                     The Deligitimisation of Israel is a worldwide phenomenon and its hub of hubs is London.

2                     Individuals have been fighting the academic boycott and the deligitimisation of the State of Israel since 2002 with some success.

3                     The rest of the Jewish world is new to this and just catching up with Britain.

4                     That to fight this evil we have to understand that all the petty ‘in fighting’ has to stop and we can only defeat our enemies by working together.

It encouraged the ‘’We Believe in Israel Conference”  in London  in May.

Thankfully there are idealistic people out there who do believe in Israel.  They work hard, take huge personal risks, because fighting Israel’s cause is a dangerous business – the Internet maybe a virtual world, but the real world can find us and our enemies do mean us harm; so the work activists do is  setting  ourselves up  for abuse.  The activist is brave, make no mistake.

Fighting for Israel, however, is not an expensive business.  Today to fight for Israel just takes your computer and time.  All you need is to work out for yourself,  try and think of a way to fight anti Semitism log onto Twitter or Google and start to answer those who lie about Israel, because really, that’s all it takes, not thousands of pounds.

Don’t leave it to others.

 Don’t think it takes time to do.

Don’t think it has to take money to help save Israel and the Jewish people.

 It just takes you and your computer and a new email address

There will be a Big Tent event in Manchester event  on Sunday 27^th November when everyone who believes that Israel has the right to exist within safe borders can come together to share their views.

Let’s start sharing our views here.