This letter was
sent to the Edinburgh University Student Association following their vote to
boycott Israel because of its 'apartheid'.
Although
published some time ago, it is still very relevant today.
·
By: Dr Denis MacEoin
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 members 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.
Being anti-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 this true, 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?
I'm speaking of a hatred that permits
itself no boundaries in the lies and myths it pours out
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 per
cent 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 all religions are
protected under a specific Israeli law.
Arabs form 20 per cent 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 stoned to
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?
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.
I ask you to show some common sense.
Get information from the Israeli embassy. Ask 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
propagandised. And they are certainly not there to be tricked into antisemitism
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 there. Your generation has a duty to ensure that the perennial racism
of antisemitism 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 to you. I have given you some of the
evidence.
Students today seem to have their heads stuck up their rectume so deep they are unable to think clearly anymore. What a shame that their parents fund these useful idiots.
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