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There have been a couple of people commenting on my journal whom I am not happy having here because they boycott Israel. I'd like them to stay away. I've disabled comments as I don't want a discussion about this, but for the sake of people who can't see how this is a form of anti-Semitism, here are a few points.
Israel is doing some appalling things and should be investigated for war crimes. I'm not denying this for a moment, and I want these practices to stop and to be appropriately prosecuted.
This does not mean that everyone in Israel is responsible or approves. People are sick and tired of the whole situation, and there's a definite problem with prejudice (also with other immigrant groups, incidentally: I'm not sure whether the problems faced by the large waves of Russian and Ethiopian immigrants are particularly worse than the problems faced by immigrants into other countries), but that doesn't mean that they're all eager to get out there and use white phosphorus. Every single Israeli I know is horrified by such practices, and many are campaigning against them. I have a journalist cousin with small children who is risking prison by being a refusenik, and he is far from being the only one.
It's a bloody difficult situation and is not going to be resolved easily. There are centuries of conflict and mistrust, practical problems (there are more Palestinians claiming right of return than would actually fit in the country, and I have no idea how Jerusalem can ever be resolved), escalating violence on both sides, and too many areas where neither side is willing to budge. Israel currently has more power, and is abusing that in some ways, but I would also like to point out that it is frequently dealing with negotiating partners who want Israel wiped off the map and who refuse every single land offer that has ever been made.
So there we have a relatively shitty situation. It is not, however, the worst situation that has ever occurred, not that this justifies it for an instant. War is nasty, and wars can and frequently do get a lot nastier than this. There are some serious breaches of human rights. There is also the point that as the world and particularly the Middle East goes, Israel is doing damn well with human rights in general. They have a problem with the religious right, which is a small but noisy minority getting in the way, getting more media attention than it deserves, and affecting laws. So does America.
By singling out Israel for a boycott, you are effectively claiming that Israel is far, far worse than all the countries which may be committing widespread genocide, in which women are not allowed to drive or vote, in which FGM is routine, in which people can be executed for adultery or sodomy, in which there is no democracy, in which people vote a certain way because they fear being killed otherwise.
You are also boycotting the wrong people. Boycott the Israeli army and companies which supply it, fair enough, I'm with you on that one. Don't boycott the civilians. Don't boycott the universities. Don't boycott the people who are struggling to improve the situation, or the people who are working for human rights in general, such as my cousin who runs an international pain organisation and is a campaigner for disabled rights in Israel. Criticise the government policies, absolutely, but do not assume that every single person in the country has personally come up with and is enforcing those policies. Otherwise I'd suggest you start boycotting the entire world, since I don't know of a country without problems. Immigrants get treated like shit pretty much the world over, many countries have the death penalty, plenty of countries practice torture, whether openly or covertly, and the freedom to vote if you're an adult is far from being as universal as it should be.
Turning your back on a single country and declaring it untouchable isn't just unfair, it's pretty pointless. Refusing to trade with a country is unlikely to improve the conditions of its inhabitants, and someone sitting at home in the UK making a noise about boycotting Israel certainly won't have any effect on the welfare of Palestinians. It may, however, have an impact on the lives of Jews worldwide. Since Israel is not actually behaving worse than the rest of the planet put together, the reason for singling it out is because this is about the Jews. I realise that not everyone has spotted this connection, some people are just joining in the boycott because it's fashionable, because it seems like they're bravely upholding human rights, and because they're naive. The misdeeds of Israel, real and sometimes purported, have been used to justify anti-Semitism for a long time. Media reportage of events in Israel is far from flawless, and I've seen a number of occasions in which reportage was completely distorted. The comments sections of online articles about Israel tend to turn into an orgy of hating Israel, and much of it openly hating the Jews.
I don't think that non-Jews in the UK tend to be aware of what anti-Semitism is like in this country. It's not as severe as it could be, we're not being rounded up and slaughtered en masse. My first memory of experiencing anti-Semitism is having a bunch of children start to bully me, on learning that I was Jewish, and attempt to convert me to Christianity, at a summer camp when I was about fourteen, which is hardly a police matter. But it's there. I do not know of a single synagogue which does not have strict security measures. You can just wander into a church, but if you want to go to a synagogue there may well be two men outside the door and you will have to prove your identity and bona fides. Attacks still occur despite this: people assaulted, graves desecrated, Molotov cocktails thrown into synagogues, widespread hate speech. Just as attacks on Muslims went through the roof after 9/11, anti-Semitic attacks have doubled in the first half of this year, and it's considered to be as a direct result of prejudice against Israel. I now consider myself religiously an atheist though culturally from a Jewish background, but until a few years ago I was a practising Jew, and I was and still am extremely wary about mentioning this to people, far more so than I am about mentioning my being bisexual. This is because about half the time when you mention being Jewish, the other person starts to rant at you about how evil Israel is, completely unprovoked. I've been driven out of rooms for no more than saying that I am Jewish, including an occasion when a group of us from the university Jewish Society went to a Palestinian Solidarity Campaign meeting to show our support, and when our identities were revealed, we were silenced and chased out with shouts of, "You come from a racist country." I've had neighbours spreading slander about "that Jew downstairs" (they also spread slander about "those Pakis" from the local corner shop, they were generally bigoted people). This of course is all minor. Serious is when you end up being found in six separate bins, as happened to Andreas Hinz, a student rabbi who was murdered in London in 2002.
Israel is doing some appalling things and should be investigated for war crimes. I'm not denying this for a moment, and I want these practices to stop and to be appropriately prosecuted.
This does not mean that everyone in Israel is responsible or approves. People are sick and tired of the whole situation, and there's a definite problem with prejudice (also with other immigrant groups, incidentally: I'm not sure whether the problems faced by the large waves of Russian and Ethiopian immigrants are particularly worse than the problems faced by immigrants into other countries), but that doesn't mean that they're all eager to get out there and use white phosphorus. Every single Israeli I know is horrified by such practices, and many are campaigning against them. I have a journalist cousin with small children who is risking prison by being a refusenik, and he is far from being the only one.
It's a bloody difficult situation and is not going to be resolved easily. There are centuries of conflict and mistrust, practical problems (there are more Palestinians claiming right of return than would actually fit in the country, and I have no idea how Jerusalem can ever be resolved), escalating violence on both sides, and too many areas where neither side is willing to budge. Israel currently has more power, and is abusing that in some ways, but I would also like to point out that it is frequently dealing with negotiating partners who want Israel wiped off the map and who refuse every single land offer that has ever been made.
So there we have a relatively shitty situation. It is not, however, the worst situation that has ever occurred, not that this justifies it for an instant. War is nasty, and wars can and frequently do get a lot nastier than this. There are some serious breaches of human rights. There is also the point that as the world and particularly the Middle East goes, Israel is doing damn well with human rights in general. They have a problem with the religious right, which is a small but noisy minority getting in the way, getting more media attention than it deserves, and affecting laws. So does America.
By singling out Israel for a boycott, you are effectively claiming that Israel is far, far worse than all the countries which may be committing widespread genocide, in which women are not allowed to drive or vote, in which FGM is routine, in which people can be executed for adultery or sodomy, in which there is no democracy, in which people vote a certain way because they fear being killed otherwise.
You are also boycotting the wrong people. Boycott the Israeli army and companies which supply it, fair enough, I'm with you on that one. Don't boycott the civilians. Don't boycott the universities. Don't boycott the people who are struggling to improve the situation, or the people who are working for human rights in general, such as my cousin who runs an international pain organisation and is a campaigner for disabled rights in Israel. Criticise the government policies, absolutely, but do not assume that every single person in the country has personally come up with and is enforcing those policies. Otherwise I'd suggest you start boycotting the entire world, since I don't know of a country without problems. Immigrants get treated like shit pretty much the world over, many countries have the death penalty, plenty of countries practice torture, whether openly or covertly, and the freedom to vote if you're an adult is far from being as universal as it should be.
Turning your back on a single country and declaring it untouchable isn't just unfair, it's pretty pointless. Refusing to trade with a country is unlikely to improve the conditions of its inhabitants, and someone sitting at home in the UK making a noise about boycotting Israel certainly won't have any effect on the welfare of Palestinians. It may, however, have an impact on the lives of Jews worldwide. Since Israel is not actually behaving worse than the rest of the planet put together, the reason for singling it out is because this is about the Jews. I realise that not everyone has spotted this connection, some people are just joining in the boycott because it's fashionable, because it seems like they're bravely upholding human rights, and because they're naive. The misdeeds of Israel, real and sometimes purported, have been used to justify anti-Semitism for a long time. Media reportage of events in Israel is far from flawless, and I've seen a number of occasions in which reportage was completely distorted. The comments sections of online articles about Israel tend to turn into an orgy of hating Israel, and much of it openly hating the Jews.
I don't think that non-Jews in the UK tend to be aware of what anti-Semitism is like in this country. It's not as severe as it could be, we're not being rounded up and slaughtered en masse. My first memory of experiencing anti-Semitism is having a bunch of children start to bully me, on learning that I was Jewish, and attempt to convert me to Christianity, at a summer camp when I was about fourteen, which is hardly a police matter. But it's there. I do not know of a single synagogue which does not have strict security measures. You can just wander into a church, but if you want to go to a synagogue there may well be two men outside the door and you will have to prove your identity and bona fides. Attacks still occur despite this: people assaulted, graves desecrated, Molotov cocktails thrown into synagogues, widespread hate speech. Just as attacks on Muslims went through the roof after 9/11, anti-Semitic attacks have doubled in the first half of this year, and it's considered to be as a direct result of prejudice against Israel. I now consider myself religiously an atheist though culturally from a Jewish background, but until a few years ago I was a practising Jew, and I was and still am extremely wary about mentioning this to people, far more so than I am about mentioning my being bisexual. This is because about half the time when you mention being Jewish, the other person starts to rant at you about how evil Israel is, completely unprovoked. I've been driven out of rooms for no more than saying that I am Jewish, including an occasion when a group of us from the university Jewish Society went to a Palestinian Solidarity Campaign meeting to show our support, and when our identities were revealed, we were silenced and chased out with shouts of, "You come from a racist country." I've had neighbours spreading slander about "that Jew downstairs" (they also spread slander about "those Pakis" from the local corner shop, they were generally bigoted people). This of course is all minor. Serious is when you end up being found in six separate bins, as happened to Andreas Hinz, a student rabbi who was murdered in London in 2002.
