Antisemitic anti-Zionism and the scandal of Oxford University Labour Club

Alex Chalmers was co-Chair of Oxford University Labour Club until he resigned in February, alleging that a ‘large proportion’ of club members had ‘some kind of problem with Jews’, while many used the slur ‘Zio’ and voiced support for Hamas. A controversy erupted and the Labour Party is now conducting an enquiry into antisemitism at the club. Chalmers argues here that the root problem is the poisonous ideology of antisemitic anti-Zionism which is bad for Diaspora Jews, bad for the Left, bad for Israelis and bad for Palestinians.

At the Labour Party Conference back in September 2015, the Shadow Foreign Secretary Hilary Benn addressed receptions held by Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East (LFPME) and Labour Friends of Israel (LFI). At both events he delivered relatively similar speeches in which he talked about the psychological toll that the conflict takes on both Israeli and Palestinian children and the need for both sides to compromise and negotiate. LFI received the speech enthusiastically, but at the LFPME event there was outrage. One attendee shouted ‘this isn’t about peace; this is about justice’, to enthusiastic applause from a large proportion of the room. When Benn tried to respond, he was heckled by people calling him a ‘disgrace’ and saying that he should not be Shadow Foreign Secretary.

This attitude of ‘justice’ over ‘peace’ is a damaging trend that has come to characterise much pro-Palestinian activism. That is to say, the demands of Western activists living in relative comfort have become progressively more detached from the aspirations of the actual people whom they claim to be defending. Whilst support for a two-state solution amongst Palestinians is lower than it has been historically, in the last 12 months, polling conducted by the Palestine Survey and Research Group has found that it is still the preferred outcome of between 45 and 51 per cent of Palestinians. Contrast this with the logo of the UK’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign which features the entirety of ‘historic’ Palestine with no mention of Israel.


http://fathomjournal.org/antisemitic-anti-zionism-and-the-scandal-of-oxford-university-labour-club/



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Sadly this is the growing trend today we are seeing of a reemergence of antisemitism and its coming from the far left.
These idiots have learnt nothing from history it seems and are a stain on our Great British society.
I see them as no different to the far right, both vile and hateful, we no outlook for peace but the wish to bring about a second holocaust.
They neglect the fact it was the Arabs who rejected to partition plans, in 1937 and 1947, started a civil war, which had then other Arab nations enter the fray, with the sole intent of the destruction of Israel. Then both Jordan and Egypt illegally occupied areas of the former British mandate. To further conflicts that saw israel free these areas of occupation which has for the first time in history brought about the chance of a Palestinian state and nation, even if the Palestinian Arabs are nothing more than an invention from the 1960's. Israel has gained peace with former enemies, because both wanted peace, yet throughout its turbulent history the Arabs of the West Bank and Gaza have continually spurned peace, because they simply will not accept the right of an Israeli Nation..

Peace is brought about by reconciliation and Israel should withdraw from the settlements created in the last couple of decades, but this is not what is driving the terrorism and extremism. Its a state run system of hate from generation to generation that sees the highest levels of antisemitism in the world in the Palestinian territories which teach that Israel has no right to exist. Its time the world stopped making excuses for the fact the Palestinians have never wanted peace. Israel has as seen made peace with those who want peace, but Israel must also play its part