Here, we have taken an excerpt of his speech to the Edinburgh University Student's Association, in which he fully condemns and rebukes their decision to boycott and thus label Israel as an Apartheid State, the latest in-vogue method of delegitimization that Israel faces from the European left.
"May I be permitted to say a few words to members of the EUSA? I am an Edinburgh graduate (MA 1975) who studied Persian, Arabic and Islamic History in Buccleuch Place under William Montgomery Watt and Laurence Elwell Sutton, two of Britain's great Middle East experts in their day.I later went on to do a PhD at Cambridge and to teach Arabic and Islamic Studies at Newcastle University. Naturally, I am the author of several books and hundreds of articles in this field. I say all that to show that I am well informed in Middle Eastern affairs and that, for that reason, I am shocked and disheartened by the EUSA motion and vote. I am shocked for a simple reason: there is not and has never been a system of apartheid in Israel. That is not my opinion, that is fact that can be tested against reality by any Edinburgh student, should he or she choose to visit Israel to see for themselves.
Let me spell this out, since I have the impression that those member of EUSA who voted for this motion are absolutely clueless in matters concerning Israel, and that they are, in all likelihood, the victims of extremely biased propaganda coming from the anti-Israel lobby. Beinganti-Israel is not in itself objectionable. But I'm not talking about ordinary criticism of Israel. I'm speaking of a hatred that permits itself no boundaries in the lies and myths it pours out.
Thus, Israel is repeatedly referred to as a 'Nazi' state. In what sense is thistrue, even as a metaphor? Where are the Israeli concentration camps? The einzatsgruppen? The SS? The Nüremberg Laws? The Final Solution? None of these things nor anything remotely resembling them exists in Israel, precisely because the Jews, more than anyone on earth, understand what Nazism stood for. It is claimed that there has been an Israeli Holocaust in Gaza (or elsewhere). Where? When? No honest historian would treat that claim with anything but the contempt it deserves. But calling Jews Nazis and saying they have committed a Holocaust is as basic a way to subvert historical fact as anything I can think of.
Likewise apartheid. For apartheid to exist, there would have to be a situation that closely resembled things in South Africa under the apartheid regime. Unfortunately for those who believe this, a weekend in any part of Israel would be enough to show how ridiculous the claim is. That a body of university students actually fell for this and voted on it is a sad comment on the state of modern education. The most obvious focus for apartheid would be the country's 20% Arab population. Under Israeli law, Arab Israelis have exactly the same rights as Jews or anyone else; Muslims have the same rights as Jews or Christians; Baha'is, severely persecuted in Iran, flourish in Israel, where they have their world centre; Ahmadi Muslims, severely persecuted in Pakistan and elsewhere, are kept safe by Israel; the holy places of allreligions are protected under a specific Israeli law. Arabs form 20% of the university population (an exact echo of their percentage in the general population). In Iran, the Baha'is (the largest religious minority) are forbidden to study in any university or to run their own universities: why aren't your members boycotting Iran?
Arabs in Israel can go anywhere they want, unlike blacks in apartheid South Africa. They use public transport, they eat in restaurants, they
go to swimming pools, they use libraries, they go to cinemas alongside Jews - something no blacks could do in South Africa. Israeli hospitals not only treat Jews and Arabs, they also treat Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank. On the same wards, in the same operating theatres.
In Israel, women have the same rights as men: there is no gender apartheid. Gay men and women face no restrictions, and Palestinian gays often escape into Israel, knowing they may be killed at home. It seems bizarre to me that LGBT groups call for a boycott of Israel and say nothing about countries like Iran, where gay men are hanged or stonedto death. That illustrates a mindset that beggars belief. Intelligent students thinking it's better to be silent about regimes that kill gay people, but good to condemn the only country in the Middle East that rescues and protects gay people. Is that supposed to be a sick joke?
the Annual Gay Pride march in Jerusalem
University is supposed to be about learning to use your brain, to think rationally, to examine evidence, to reach conclusions based on solid evidence, to compare sources, to weigh up one view against one or more others. If the best Edinburgh can now produce are students who have no idea how to do any of these things, then the future is bleak. I do not object to well documented criticism of Israel. I do object when supposedly intelligent people single the Jewish state out above states that are horrific in their treatment of their populations. We are going through the biggest upheaval in the Middle East since the 7th and 8th centuries, and it's clear that Arabs and Iranians are rebelling against terrifying regimes that fight back by killing their own citizens.
Israeli citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, do not rebel (though they are free to protest). Yet Edinburgh students mount no demonstrations and call for no boycotts against Libya, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran. They prefer to make false accusations against one of the world's freest countries, the only country in the Middle East that has taken in Darfur refugees, the only country in the Middle East that gives refuge to gay men and women, the only country in the Middle East that protects the Baha'is.... Need I go on? The imbalance is perceptible, and it sheds no credit on anyone who voted for this boycott.
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| Bahai World Centre, Haifa |
I ask you to show some common sense. Get information from the Israeli embassy. As for some speakers. Listen to more than one side. Do not make your minds up until you have given a fair hearing to both parties.You have a duty to your students, and that is to protect them from one-sided argument. They are not at university to be propagandized. And they are certainly not there to be tricked into anti-Semitism by punishing one country among all the countries of the world, which happens to be the only Jewish state. If there had been a single Jewish state in the 1930s (which, sadly, there was not), don't you think Adolf Hitler would have decided to boycott it? Of course he would, and he would not have stopped the. Your generation has a duty to ensure thatthe perennial racism of anti-Semitism never sets down roots among you.
Today, however, there are clear signs that it has done so and is putting down more. You have a chance to avert a very great evil, simply by using reason and a sense of fair play. Please tell me that this makes sense. I have given you some of the evidence. It's up to you to find out more.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Denis MacEoin"
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=22&country=7845&year=2010
ReplyDeleteDear Denis,
ReplyDelete"I do object when supposedly intelligent people single the Jewish state out above states that are horrific in their treatment of their populations."
Do not judge Israel by comparing it to the broader Middle-Eastern region for Israel must be judged by the standards of a democracy. Ahmadinejad's regime and Hamas are judged by the standards of oppressive regimes. Not to discriminate Israel from its neighbouring States, would mean that you are categorising it in the same 'bucket'.
I agree with you that characterising Israel as an Apartheid or Nazi-alike State is provocative and absurd. It ,simply, is not. However it is not Sweden either, a lot needs to be done.
Kind regards,
Georgios-Konstantinos Barzoukas
http://freeisraelnow.blogspot.com/2011/03/arab-islamic-apartheids-racism-of.html
ReplyDelete@ Georgios-Konstantinos Barzoukas
ReplyDeleteIsrael is not Sweden, because in Malmo, the Jewish community is being persecuted by members of the Muslim community and the police and mayor of Malmo have both indicated they are not willing to do anything about it.
Your accusation smacks of double standards - you don't hold Israel to the same standards as repressive regimes. Why not? Israel has been a state for just 63 years yet has put in place all the democratic processes that you would find in any other modern Western state. What excuses are there for the other states in the Middle East not doing the same? Lack of money? Clearly not.
By holding Israel to a different standard to its neighbours, you apply double standards, and you patronise Israel's neighbours, suggesting that they are somehow unable to meet the same criteria. Surely that is racism.
Dear Murray,
ReplyDeleteThanks for telling me that I use double standards, I know it, and my comment's aim was to explain why I do so.
Israel is a democracy, but has only been a state for 63 years, surely the neighboring states must be treated with the same criteria since they have the potential to be democracies themselves:
Well, to my opinion, this is not the case, most of the Jews which now live in the State of Israel are descendants of migrants which moved to the region in the early and mid 20th Century. These individuals came from Western Countries where democratic values had long been instilled one way or another. ( Renaissance, French Revolution) Some of the Ashkenazi Jews came from Poland which has the 2nd oldest Constitution (1791).
They knew what living in a democratic state meant, not through television, movies or travel (which is the case for residents in Middle-Eastern countries, and please spare yourself from citing Turkey as an example of a democratic Middle-Eastern country unless you want a dissertation comment why it isn't one).
ReplyDeleteWhat is currently happening in the Middle-East proves that Dictatorships are not sustainable as political systems, when more democratic structures exist as an alternative. Whether Tunisia and Egypt (Libya and Syria maybe??) may become democracies, this shall be put to the test in the next decade. The fact that there isn't a democratic past instilled in its inhabitants in contrast to the Israeli resident as explained above will make this task really difficult.
‘Insha'Allah’ all Middle-Eastern countries will become democratic, but for the time being and for the next 10 years (until, and if, Tunisia, Egypt or any of the other countries experiencing uprisings) I see don’t see why I should not judge Israel with double standards given the neighboring status quo.
Kind regards,
Georgios-Konstantinos Barzoukas
P.S. http://graphics.eiu.com/PDF/Democracy_Index_2010_web.pdf Sweden is not a perfect democracy, I know about its recent democratic deficit. Still, check the ranking above, it remains far above Israel.
Be nice, and don’t call people racist if you don’t know them.