Guardi-yawn Reports Boycott Antisemitic

Anthea Lipsett has written a terrible article in the Guardian linking the UCU boycott with antisemitism.  You may wonder why I’ve written Guardi-yawn; well its because I’ve been following the Israel-Palestine conflict for many years now and I’m getting bored of EVERY critic of Israel being called an antisemite.  The shine has most certainly worn off.  Where is the evidence of this antisemitism?  Theres none but being a critic of Israel – which is all the evidence that seems to be required.  We have to forget that there are legitimate reasons to criticise Israel such as its illegal military occupation of the Palestinian Territories and Apartheid conditions.  This is a dangerous abuse of the term antisemitism as we all know what happened to the boy who cried wolf.  As for the All-Party Inquiry into Antisemitism I suggest reading Norman Finkelsteins Kill Arabs Cry Antisemitism.  In it he says:

Although claiming that, in the struggle against anti-Semitism, “none of those who gave evidence wished to see the right free speech eroded,” and “only in extreme circumstances would we advocate legal intervention,” the report recommends that university authorities “take an active interest in combating acts, speeches, literature and events that cause anxiety or alarm among their Jewish students”.

If not enough is being done I wonder what this means?  People are still speaking freely about Israeli crimes?  I hope so.

Antisemitism in universities remains a major concern and the government needs to do more work to address it, an all party group of MPs has warned.

A progress report (pdf) one year after the government’s response to the All-Party Inquiry into Antisemitism suggests the Department for Innovation, Universities and Science has failed to do enough to tackle antisemitism on campus.

“Although we can point to significant progress against many of the Inquiry’s 35 recommendations there are still areas which remain of concern and require further work, this includes… antisemitism on university campuses,” the report says.

It is up to individual universities to make sure campuses are free from harassment and discrimination, the report states. But the group says it will consider setting up a sub-group on antisemitism in relation to higher education in discussion with higher education sector bodies and Jewish community bodies.