This is how far the Israel-bashing has proceeded on the British Left. According to the Torygraph, Southampton University had scheduled a conference on whether Israel had a right to exist, but it was canceled after widespread protests.
One of its most respected former alumni returned his degree in protest and at least one major patron of the university was said to have been considering withdrawing funding.
Organisers describe the conference as “the first of its kind and constitutes a ground-breaking historical event … it is unique because it concerns the legitimacy in international law of the Jewish State of Israel.”
The University of Southampton has withdrawn permission for the three-day conference to be held on its campus in the face of criticism from opponents who described it as “giving legitimacy to anti-Semitism”.
The university’s own website advertising the conference, originally planned for April 17 to 19, made no secret of the fact that the event would question both the legal and moral right of the state of Israel to exist, stating:
“It concerns the legitimacy in International Law of the Jewish state of Israel. Rather than focusing on Israeli actions in the 1967 Occupied Territories, the conference will focus on exploring themes of Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism; all of which are posed by Israel’s very nature.”
But in a sudden turnaround the university has apparently told the conference’s organisers that the event could no longer go ahead on safety grounds, after fears that demonstrators would try to disrupt the event, clashing with Pro-Palestinian activists expected to demonstrate in support.
The organizers (anti-Israel to a person) decried the cancellation as a violation of free speech, with “safety” being used as an excuse, and I actually agree with them. If the university originally agreed to host this odious conference, then they should not have backed off. It abrogates free speech to cancel it, unless there really were serious threats that someone would be physically (not mentally!) injured. What I do object to is the apparent stacking of the conference with people who were unanimously in agreement with the proposition that Israel shouldn’t exist.
What, no people who think otherwise were going to speak? That’s just dumb for an academic conference, and makes it seem more like an exercise in Israel-bashing than an open discussion. And in fact that it what it was, a meeting verging on official anti-Semitism.
Let’s face it: the only way Israel is going away is if the Palestinians, Iranians, or other Israel-hating countries bomb it out of existence. And why not a conference on other countries’ right to exist? After all, since War Two a lot of nations, including Pakistan, North Korea, and Slovakia (like Israel, designed to encompass an ethnic group), came into existence either by fiat, self-decision, or international mandate. Once again, Israel is being singled out. Why is that, do you suppose?
I shouldn’t have to say this, but since there are so many Israel bashers about, I must reiterate that I’ve always favored the establishment of a Palestinian state, and think that Netanyahu’s statement opposing that (though he’s seemingly retracted his position after his re-election) is reprehensible. A two-state solution is the only viable solution to the Middle East’s problems—or at least that one problem—but I don’t see how it will happen now. Nor do I really think, in my heart of hearts, that a two-state solution will stop Hamas’s attacks on Israel; after all, the Hamas charter itself calls for the complete elimination of that state.
According to the Telegraph, 900 academics and 4,000 people have signed a petition supporting the conference. That shows you the unique demonization of Israel in academica.
