Until recently, propaganda events against Israel at UK universities would pass unopposed, and Jewish youth stopped enrolling for fear of harassment. • Now they are preparing to change the situation: "We started to raise the Israeli flag without fear."
"In British reality, 'Zionism' has become a dirty word." Demonstration against Israel in London
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Citizenside
Precisely on International Holocaust Day, about two weeks ago, the Student Union for Action for Palestine at the prestigious London University King's College decided to organize an anti-Israeli event attended by BDS founder Omar Barghouti, entitled "Building an anti-racist front"
When Jewish students protested the timing of the event, its organizers claimed that it was not named that the conference was held on International Holocaust Day. On the other hand, when the audience heard the statement "There is justice to the fact that the event was held on this day, since the Palestinians are the second victims of the Holocaust," none of the attendees or organizers contradicted it. Because that is exactly the message that the BDS is promoting: hijacking Holocaust and anti-Semitism issues and using them for the purposes of the Palestinian struggle in Israel.
Barghouti argued before a courtroom full of pro-Palestinian students that the British government intended to pass a resolution banning BDS activity because of its anti-Semitic characteristics and "suppressing" any other political activism - for environmental, LGBT and social justice.
"Why is Boris Johnson's new government so preoccupied with the BDS fight for Palestinian rights?" Barghouti wondered and was quick to explain: "Johnson is not only following Trump, but also following Margaret Thatcher who banned South Africa in 1988. While Israel becomes a model for extreme right-wing leaders, foreign haters, and authoritarians worldwide, the BDS is recognized Growing as a partner in a progressive international wave is growing to fight for justice against the forces of fascism, xenophobia and wild neoliberalism. "
Understanding anti-Semitism first
Until recently, such a propaganda event would have taken place without anyone thinking of protesting. Britain is one of the forefathers of the delegitimization movement against Israel. The universities where the territory was considered occupied by pro-Palestinian activists who did on campus as far as they liked, including an exaggerated demonstration of hostility toward Jewish students. The situation has worsened to the point that Jewish young people have stopped enrolling in certain universities due to repeated anti-Semitic harassment.
But the spirit is beginning to blow in the United Kingdom against the BDS: more and more public bodies and others are adopting the definition of anti-Semitism; The Labor Party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, the BDS follower, has been defeated and clear voices are now being heard calling for disengagement from Corbyn and his anti-Semitic pro-Palestinian heritage; And the conservative Johnson government has pledged to fight BDS.
Much of the problems currently facing the BDS movement in the United Kingdom are related to the organization of Jewish students at various universities, who come out of passivity and respond to war. One of them is 21-year-old Esther Walker of the Jewish Student Union at King's College, with whom and other activists I met at the World Zionist Organization in London, the focus of their organization.
"The level of hostility toward Israel on campus has dropped." Arie Miller
"Before Barghouti's performance," Esther says, "we sent a letter to the university administration expressing concern that incitement was being heard. We were told that no one could be judged in advance except by what he said. In retrospect, a well-known Holocaust denier can also appear on campus. To challenge Barghouti and the other speakers, there was a lot of hostility towards us, even among extremist left-wing Jewish participants. Alone, I was scared to get in. But we came in a group of about 20 people.
"We were called 'racists.' One of the participants in the discussion called us 'the delegation of the Israeli embassy.' We hardly let us speak. We made comparisons between Israel and the Nazis. After the incident, we again contacted the university administration with a detailed complaint of all the anti-Semitic statements that were there." We do not believe this is anti-Semitism, all opinions have been presented and respected '- only shows us students how willing the university is to take the issue of anti-Semitism seriously, but we are not letting up. The matter is still under treatment. The University of Bristol has refused to adopt the definition of anti-Semitism. Jews did not let go, and before about monthly They embraced in the definition. "
Approaching Zionism
Arie Miller, executive director of the Jewish Student Union, adds: "There has recently been a change in the de-legitimization movement on campus. They are less focused on the boycott slogans and more are facing the cessation of the cessation of investment: failure to sell or buy weapons, sanctions on economic relations and more, and promoting the idea that Israel is an apartheid state. But we see a decline in the number of campuses organizing 'apartheid weeks in Israel', after the government advised university administrations not to support these initiatives and not allow them to exist. The number of active BDS organizations on campus has also decreased. The decline is partly due to the fact that the students focused on the Corbyn project and their election as prime minister, and that there was no further military confrontation between the Palestinians and Israel.
"The level of hostility on campuses toward Israel has dropped, thanks to the fact that we organize hundreds of pro-Israel events each year. Out of 300 events last year, only ten have been disrupted. Demonstrations by Jewish students against anti-Israeli events do not change those attitudes. But young people Jews get a good feeling that they can stand and wave the Israeli flag without feeling fear. "
"After Johnson's victory, we witness a significant disappearance of Labor Jewish Jewish voices, the group that supported Corbyn and gave him a complete backing of the long-standing confrontation over the anti-Semitism definition," said 19-year-old Harry Markem, CEO "Liberty" in the United Kingdom, which identifies the main problem of the de-legitimization struggle in the Jewish community.
"Our goal is to bring young Jews back to Zionism. In British reality, there is a difference between being pro-Israeli and being a Zionist. Zionism has become a 'dirty' word. There are many students, even non-Jews, who are willing to support Israel for being democratic and liberal, but unwilling to identify. But for the BDS there is no difference between the communities in Judea and Samaria and Tel Aviv Jews have no right to any part of this country, a recent survey of Jews in the United Kingdom found that 93 per cent of them say Israel is of prime importance to them, but Only 53 percent said they were Zionists "We can't mobilize people for pro-Israel activity without them knowing and understanding Zionism."