Ed Miliband: 'I'm a Zionist and Oppose Boycotts of Israel'

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE: Ed Miliband has pledged to protect Jewish customs including brit milah and shechita if he becomes Prime Minister.

Speaking at a Board of Deputies event the Labour leader said he was opposed to boycotts of Israel and warned of the need to be “ever-vigilant”against antisemitism.

Asked whether he would work to ensure religious slaughter and circumcision practices could continue in Britain, Mr Miliband said: “Yes, these are important traditions. The kosher issue has recently been brought to my attention. Ways of life must be preserved.”

He added: “I take antisemitism very seriously. Any kind of delegitimisation of Israel is something we should call out for what it is and not tolerate it.

“I think the boycotts of Israel are totally wrong. We should have no tolerance for boycotts. I would say that to any trade union leaders.” » | Marcus Dysch | Thursday, March 07, 2013

HT: crosscop »

Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, Talks about the Boycott of the Jewish State

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Netanyahu Compares Israel Boycott Movement to Nazism

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Calls for a boycott on the Jewish state are simply old-style anti-Semitism in new clothes, says Israel's prime minister

Benjamin Netanyahu has invoked Europe’s Fascist past to attack the growing calls for a boycott of Israel, comparing it to embargoes imposed on Jewish businesses by the Nazis and other anti-Semitic groups.

“The most disgraceful thing is to have people on the soil of Europe talking about the boycott of Jews. I think that’s an outrage,” the Israeli prime minister told a conference of US Jewish organisations in Jerusalem.

“In the past, anti-Semites boycotted Jewish businesses, and today they call for the boycott of the Jewish state and, by the way, only the Jewish state.”

Mr Netanyahu’s fiercest broadside yet against the boycott movement followed several meetings among senior government figures over how to tackle what Israel sees as a looming threat of economic isolation.

Mr Netanyahu singled out the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, a group run by pro-Palestinian intellectuals that calls for a boycott of Israeli goods due to Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land. He called the group’s members “classical anti-Semites in modern garb” whose true goal was the destruction of the Israeli state. » Robert Tait, Jerusalem | Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Tom Jones Embroiled in Row over Israel Boycott

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Sir Tom Jones is at the centre of a row between rival campaigners over his plans to play a concert in Israel, amid growing calls for musicians to boycott the Jewish state.

The 73-year-old singer became the latest high-profile act to come under pressure not to perform in Israel after activists in his native Wales used the title of one his most famous songs, "It's Not Unusual", to urge him to cancel the show at Tel Aviv's Nokia Arena on October 27.

The Cardiff Palestine Solidarity Campaign said its petition, "It's Not Unusual To Boycott Apartheid", had attracted more than 1,000 signatures.

It provoked a sharp retort from Israel's consulate in New York, which used the same song as the title of a mass email campaign, "It's Not Unusual To Love Israel". The counter-offensive calls on pro-Israel activists to swamp Sir Tom with encouraging messages on social media to go ahead with the concert. » | Robert Tait, Jerusalem | Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Libya’s ’Concentration Camp’ Jibe Causes Walkout at the UN
THE TELEGRAPH: France's ambassador has led a walkout of some Western envoys from a United Nations Security Council debate on the Middle East after Libya compared the situation in the besieged Gaza Strip to Nazi "concentration camps".

According to one diplomat, Jean-Maurice Ripert took off his earpiece and walked out after his Libyan counterpart Giadalla Ettalhi made the remarks.

The incident occurred as the 15-member council was trying to agree on a compromise statement that would have highlighted the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza while also contribute to efforts to reach an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.

Speaking to reporters after the debate, Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari told reporters: "Unfortunately those who complain of being victims of genocide (during World War II) are repeating the same kind of genocide against the Palestinians." "The issue for us is to see the Security Council properly involved in finding solutions" to the crisis, in particular "the Israeli persecution of the Palestinians," he added. UN Diplomats Walkout after Libya Compares Gaza to 'Concentration Camps' >>> By Julian Kossoff and agencies | April 24, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

The Ugly Anti-Semitic Face of Academia
TIMESONLINE: Is an academic boycott ever justified, and is this particular boycott anti-Semitic? Two distinguished academic lawyers explain why they say "Yes" to both

The University College Union on May 30 passed two boycott resolutions. Resolution 30 endorsed the call for an academic boycott of Israel by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). It also committed union funds to promoting it on campuses. But it did not commit the union of university teachers itself to a boycott. Resolution 31 condemned the USA and EU boycott of the Palestinian Authority (that is, the “suspension of aid”). There is symmetry here. Thirty calls for a boycott; 31 calls for the ending of a boycott. Israel’s universities, which are liberal institutions, are to be shunned; the government of the PA, which is governed by a party committed to the destruction of Israel, is to be embraced.

These resolutions are the successors to boycott resolutions passed by the predecessor academic unions, the AUT in 2005, and NATFHE in 2006. The AUT resolutions purported to justify a boycott of named Israeli universities by making specific - though false - allegations against them. The NATFHE resolution, which was much like UCU resolution 30, “invited members to consider their own responsibility for ensuring equity and non-discrimination in contacts with Israeli educational institutions or individuals and to consider the appropriateness of a boycott of those that do not publicly dissociate themselves from such policies.” The AUT resolutions were reversed following a special conference; the NATFHE resolution lapsed upon the union’s dissolution only a few days later.

The UCU resolutions are in a 2007 series of boycott resolutions. They follow the National Union of Journalists resolution, and precede the UNISON resolutions. The NUJ resolution called for “a boycott of Israeli goods similar to those boycotts in the struggles against apartheid South Africa”. One of the UNISON resolutions affirms the union’s “right and desire to act in solidarity with the Palestinian people”. These resolutions open with a very one-sided, hostile account of events in the Middle East. Britain has become the boycott nation of the world – but in relation to Israel alone. It is an ugly obsession. The contemporary fight against anti-Semitism (more) By Anthony Julius and Alan Dershowitz

This boycott is not just wrong, it’s anti-Semitic

Mark Alexander