Below I mused on some of the overlaps between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism and, of course, the various boycott initiatives and same - I take note here of a couple of examples - with both British AUT and Presbyterian connections.
It comes as no surprise that the leading light behind the AUT boycott initiative, Sue Blackwell, links approvingly to a neo-Nazi web site from her own. See in the Jerusalem Post (via LGF): The academic ban - Nazi connection:
The Web site of Sue Blackwell, the Birmingham lecturer who presented motions calling for boycotts of Israeli universities, contains a recommended link to a Web site owned by an anti-Semitic neo-Nazi activist. Wendy Campbell, who owns the MarWen Media Web site, has promoted Holocaust denial and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories discussing "unrivaled Jewish power," and maintains an additional Web site entitled "Exposing Israeli Apartheid," which is also linked by Blackwell...
Next, let's take a look at some of the characters - one in particular - invited to speak at a pro-Divestment panel at Oberlin College. Here is the Oberlin paper's write-up of the event: Obies demand divestment:
...In an effort to inform interested students about the means and aims of divestment, Students for a Free Palestine sponsored a forum Thursday afternoon. Three panelists spoke to a group of approximately 20 students regarding the fundamental issues of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and why they believe widespread institutional divestment, including Oberlin’s potential contribution to this movement, is necessary...
...Last to speak at the forum was Gordon Shull, retired College of Wooster political science professor. Shull, also an elder in the Presbyterian Church since 1955, has been active in its incremental divestment throughout the years. He addressed positive relationships between Israelis and Palestinians, and their potential to amend the situation. “There are Jews in Israel deeply committed to Palestinian justice and dignity,” he stated. “I believe if we are to achieve a decent peace, we need to rally the support of those Jews.”
Shull also addressed the general turmoil within the Middle East. “One of my profound regrets of the past 30 years is that the U.S. did not insist Israelis move out of Gaza and the West Bank,” he stated...
Shull almost sounds like a reasonable fellow! But I'll let my emailer give you a backgrounder on him. In the extended entry is the draft of a text she has written to the Oberlin paper.
To the Editor,
"Singling out Israel" is a kind of anti-Semitism. At a time when China is occupying Tibet and the government of Sudan is sponsoring mass murder, it is very hard to think of a good reason for selecting Israel to target for divestment.
Furthermore, one of the outside speakers brought in by the student group advocating divestment has been involved in anti-Semitic incidents. When Gordon Shull was a professor at the College of Wooster, he brought to campus an anti-Israel speaker named Samir Makhlouf who gave a talk based on the infamous forgery "The Portocols of the Elders of Zion," in which he discussed the domination of the world by Jewish bankers. The talk included praise of suicide bombers, one slide read, "May God bless our martyrs; may they find peace in the heavens." Other slides showed "a Star of David morphing into a swastika, and had frames equating Zionism with Nazism. The 'equals' sign was then replaced by a 'greater than' sign, suggesting that Zionism was even worse than Nazism."
Shull defended the speaker's anti-Semitic remarks, saying "They were not virulent, they were presented in a conversational tone." As though virulent, racist ideas are made acceptable by being presented in a "conversational tone." When it was suggested that Shull should apologize for poor judgement in inviting an overtly anti-Semitic speaker to campus, Shull told reporters "I'm not into apologies."
Shull then sent e-mails to other Wooster faculty blaming the presence of the anti-Semitic speaker on Israel, His argument was that Makhlouf's "presence at the college was actually the responsibility of the Israeli government because the Palestinian speaker he had initially tried to get was unable to secure a travel visa."
In Dec. 2004, Shull defended a meeting between an official Presbyterian delegation and Hezbollah, the terrorist organization that blew up the Jewish Community Center in Buenos Aires.
Some advocates of divestment may be people of good will, but many, like Gordon Shull, are individuals who have an irrational hatred of the Jewish State.
A movement to divest from all armaments manufacturers would not be anti-Semitic. In a cruel and war-torn world, at a time when bombs are planted in the cafeterias of Israeli univeristies, a movement to divest that targets only Israel must be interpreted as anti-Semitic.
See here and here for more on the incident described in the letter above.
