By Daphne Anson
A video nearly 30 minutes long, and well worth it:
But oh, what gnashing of teeth and wringing of hands from those who hate Israel and curse the Balfour Declaration.
What odious distortion from Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University’s Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies, for instance:
‘Predictably, Khalidi limited the “indigenous population” to Arabs and ignored the Jewish people’s historical claim to the land as recognized in the Balfour Declaration. Instead, he maintained “the Zionist Movement was a colonialist enterprise in search of a metropolitan sponsor” that was “implanting” and “fostering” the Jewish people “at the expense of the Palestinians.”
Khalidi’s terminology reflected his past as a PLO propagandist. His use of “indigenous” echoed the fabricated claims of the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s Mahmoud Abbas that the Palestinians are descended from the Canaanites, who predated the ancient Hebrews. Similarly, his term “implanting” mirrored PA political commentator Fathi Buzia’s allegation that Britain “creat[ed] and implant[ed] a fabricated, thieving entity upon the Palestinian land” and PA school textbooks, which refer to Israel “as an imperial colonial implant.”
The lecture epitomized the politicization of contemporary Middle East studies: by twisting a legitimate topic—the Balfour Declaration—into anti-Zionist, anti-Israel propaganda, Khalidi distorted the past in order to influence the present. His ahistorical claim that the Jewish people are not the indigenous population of Israel is a transparent effort to delegitimize Israel as a Jewish state. There should be no room in academe for such hucksterism masquerading as scholarship.’ Read more here
Here’s a bunch of Israel-haters blinkered to Arab rejectionism. What a surprise (not) that big trades unions, life blood of the Labour Party, are joining in the twisting and the shouting against Israel. Loathsome Ken Loach and schoolgirl Leanne Mohamad, inter alia, are also being trotted out:
Speakers at the rally will include:
Dr Mustafa Barghouti / Ken Loach / Andy Slaughter MP / Mick Whelan General Secretary ASLEF / Gail Cartmail TUC / Matt Wrack General Secretary FBU / Margaret McKee President Unison / John Pilger / Senator Paul Gavan Sinn Fein / Leanne Mohamad / Hugh Lanning PSC / Asad Rehman, War on Want / Reem Kelani / Philipa Harvey NEU-NUT Section / Daoud Abdalah BMI / Ajmal Masrour Imam & broadcaster / Prof Manuel Hassassian / Tariq Ali / Salma Yacoub / Dave Randall / Hawiyya Dance Company / John Nicolson SNP – And many more to be announced.
Organised by Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Palestinian Forum in Britain (PFB), Friends of Al Aqsa (FOA), Stop the War Coalition (STW), Muslim Association of Britain (MAB).
Supported by Unite the Union, UNISON, National Education Union- NUT Section, GMB, ASLEF, RMT, FBU, UCU, PCS, CWU, Europal Forum, CND, Pax Christi, APCUK, Kairos UK, Friends of Sabeel UK, ICAHD UK, Olive, Amos Trust, APCUK.
https://www.palestinecampaign.org/events/national-rally-central-london/
Our old friend the vicar, meanwhile, has been visiting Jerusalem and Bethlehem (he really does get around, doesn’t he?!), where a number of anti-Israel events have been taking place:
More samples from the vicar’s current Balfour-related postings (by no means all):
Mocking a wall that saves Jewish lives … nice Christian way to behave, vicar.
(Daphne is far too ladylike to call our old mate a non-kosher prick.)
What a bummer, after all that effort, vicar!
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