It’s time to express our support for the blog which reminds us that “Liberty, if it means anything at all, is the right to tell people what they don’t want to hear” (George Orwell).
UPDATE: If you run a blog and want to join the blog roll of solidarity below, pay a visit here.
In the last 24 hours, much has been written about the shameful scenes of celebration which greeted child murderer and terrorist Samir Kuntar upon his return to Lebanon. Among the most insightful: the dignity of Israel’s position as explained by Simply Jews (”One thing, however, should not be forgotten - it is not about politics, not about national pride and even not about the grieving families. It is about the soldiers.”); Norman Geras’s invitation “…to resist the complaisant marking of a moral victory for Hizbollah; to give back its meaning to that word by giving its due to a country that would honour its dead, rather than to those whose joy is for the murderer of a defenceless child”; and Neil D and David T solemnly reminding all of us that we should take the time to remember little Einat Haran (ז״ל) , the four year old who, after seeing her father shot dead in cold blood, was herself murdered by the monster Kuntar as he slammed a rife butt against her skull. Her younger sister Yael died too, accidentally smothered to death by her mother as they hid from the terrorists.
Heartiest congratulations to the European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (EISCA) on its successful launch at the House of Commons in London. Under the directorship of the redoubtable Winston Pickett, EISCA is certain to be a valuable addition to research and analysis on the persistence of antisemitism in Europe. Do read the inaugural lecture delivered by Jim Murphy, the UK’s Minister for Europe.
Much has been written about the alliance between certain leftists and Islamists in the west around certain key themes: to be specific, anti-Zionism and anti-Americanism (which of those comes first depends on your standpoint regarding the proverbial dog and tail.) So I was very interested to come across this comment by a Bangladeshi journalist, Amitabh Tripathi, on how this particular configuration is shaping up in India.
I first learned of the visit of a “South African Human Rights Delegation to Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories” when I was on a brief visit to London last week. Ducking into a corner store to escape the incessant rain, I flicked through that day’s edition of The Independent and came across an article by Donald Macintyre, the paper’s Jerusalem correspondent, headlined “This is like Apartheid.”
Herewith a note and a request. I will be away until mid-July - I’ll try and update the blog if I can, but I may not get an opportunity. Which leads me to the request. Both the main Z Word site and this blog have grown enormously since we launched at the end of January, for which our readers deserve our thanks. That’s why I am now looking to assemble a team of bloggers to provide regular contributions. It’ll mean there’s more than one voice and one perspective here, and it’ll mean that the blog doesn’t have to shut down just because I’m away. So if you’re interested, drop an email to info@z-word.com. You should have a solid understanding of the issues we cover, a flair for writing and, ideally, some blogging experience. Make sure you include cuttings and/or links. Thanks.
Mohamed Omer is a young Palestinian journalist who was recently awarded the Martha Gellhorn Prize for his reporting. He says that on his way back to Gaza via the Allenby Bridge, which connects the West Bank with Jordan, he was detained and brutally treated by Israeli security officials. The Israelis don’t deny detaining him, but they do contest his account of what happened.
Continue reading ‘John Pilger: Never Let The Facts Get In The Way’
Read Simply Jews on the strange case of Professor Arnd Krüger.
Over on the main Z Word site, we are graced again by Anthony Julius, whose latest essay is entitled, “The Company They Keep: Antisemitism’s Fellow Travellers.” Do go read it and explore the rest of the site, or download the PDF directly.
Eve Garrard, perhaps the most trenchant and incisive critic of the academic boycott I’ve encountered, has resigned from the University and College Union (UCU).
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