Imagine if a member of the English Defence League, or anyone else for that matter, came to the School of Oriental and African Studies in London to talk about the “Islamisation” of England or Europe or any place in the world. Do you think there’d be a riot?
SOAS would have barred such an invitation long before.
However, a discussion about “Judaisation” under the guise of academia is encouraged and applauded judging by last night’s audience at the Centre for Palestine Studies, which is based at SOAS, where the Arab Israeli (or Palestinian Israeli) lecturer Dr Thabet Abu Rass spoke on the topic of The Bedouin in the Naqab (Negev): The invisible Palestinians and the Prawer Plan.
I lost count how many times Dr Rass used “Judaisation” or “Judaising” to accuse Israel of nefariously attempting to make Israeli places like the Galilee, Nazareth and the Negev majority Jewish areas to the detriment of Israel’s Arab citizens already living there.
One has to ask the question, if “Islamisation” is considered offensive then why is “Judaisation” considered not offensive?
Meanwhile, one has to strongly doubt whether the Bedouin will be happy to be considered Palestinian by both Dr Rass and the Centre for Palestine Studies. The Bedouin seem to have a completely different culture, history and relationship with Israel than the Palestinians do. But Dr Rass described the Bedouin last night as “part of the Palestinian people”.
Dr Rass is Adalah’s director of their Negev office, while Adalah styles itself as “The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel”.
Dr Rass, who obtained a PhD in Geography and Regional Development from the University of Arizona, also lectures at Ben Gurion University and Sapir College but last night he started off by saying of those he teaches: “Some of my students are the most extreme settlers from Hebron.”
He continued that “Israel’s Arab minority is under attack”, that Avigdor Lieberman is attempting to “Judaise the Galilee” and that “the state of Israel is trying to increase its Jewishness”.
Dr Rass claimed there is “no free market of land in Israel” and that “93% of Israel is defined as state land” which, he said, was comparable to China, Cuba and North Korea.
Dr Rass then put the natural Bedouin growth rate at 4% and said there was only one group higher than this in the world.
Cue…pregnant…pause…
There then came derogatory laughter from the audience before some of them called out “ultra-orthodox Jews!” Sometimes, you do get a sense of total disparagement of Jewish people and for those few seconds I felt it.
Dr Rass mainly concentrated on the Bedouin town of Al-Araqib in the Negev, near Be’er Sheva, with its 300 residents. He accused Israel of demolishing its homes 49 times since July 2010 and described how Israel uproots Al-Araqib’s crops every spring.
And he described how a Bedouin village called Umm Al-Hiran was removed by Israel, soon to be replaced by a Jewish town called Hiran.
Dr Rass claimed Israel is trying to forcibly displace the Negev Bedouin and then confine them to just 1% of the Negev’s total area. He described this as “the severest attack of land confiscation since 1948”.
Dr Rass blames this, of course, on that policy of “Judaisation”. He continued that there was a “discourse of fear” in Israel which binds Israelis together. He said that when things were quiet with Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah it is “the Bedouin who become the enemy”. Such a “politics of fear”, he said, pushes Israel to the right.
He tried to make the case that the Bedouin had legal and historic rights to the Negev. He produced an old Bedouin voting card and a photocopied Arabic land certificate from 1941. He also produced an aerial photo from 1945 of the Negev showing its fertility presumably to emphasise the quality of the land he was accusing Israel of stealing.
His parting shot at Israel was “for the first time since 1948 Israel is closing places to the Bedouin. From Be’er Sheva to Ashkelon the Bedouin cannot own land. Israel is closing areas off on an ethnic basis. Israel is going to destroy Bedouin unrecognised towns and build Jewish settlements. It is going to criminalise the Bedouin for sitting on their ancestral lands. Israel is not an apartheid state, but it is creeping apartheid“.
As I understand it, Israel is not closing anything off “on an ethnic basis”. The Bedouin can apply to purchase property in any of the new Negev developments.
Chairing this Centre for Palestine Studies’ latest anti-Israel hatefest under the guise of academia was Sharri Plonski. Two years ago, while studying at SOAS, Plonski chaired a SOAS Israel Society event Is BDS working? Now she’s a SOAS lecturer.
Meanwhile, Adalah is being advised on the situation of the Bedouin by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, which calls for a racist boycott of Israel leading to Israel’s eventual obliteration. Adalah is also supported by Christian Aid in this project. Once again we see hard-earned charity funds wasted on projects primarily aimed at demonising Israel.
If you really wish to know the truth about the Prawer Plan see here and watch the clip below. You won’t be surprised to learn that Adalah and Dr Rass have misrepresented the Bedouin cause.
Many Bedouin are in favour of Prawer. The plan should improve their lives immeasurably, allowing them to live in far more advantageous locations with proper mains supplies and schools, while also benefiting financially from the move. Consultations are still taking place, though, and nothing has been set in stone yet.
The Bedouin might even, finally, be allowed to enjoy all the benefits of a full life in Israel that Dr Thabet Abu Rass has taken advantage of himself. He said that he has recently visited the British Foreign Office, the White House and Congress.
It seems that the only people against the Bedouin are Dr Rass, Adalah and anyone else who wants to stop the Bedouin from enjoying enhanced lives.
RichardMillett's Blog 
Gosh Richard, I commend you for sitting in that room listening to that Hitlerite lecture. I sat through the one at St James and the chill through the spine being surrounded by a force of anti Judaism is palpable. It is astonishing that Dr Ras takes advantage of the full democratic rights afforded him by the state of Israel, is granted entry into this country to indoctrinate a gullible student population with his racist replacement ideology, whilst real academics like Geller and Spencer are denied entry. (BTW their appeal was recently turned down!) What is the difference here? I guess, Geller and Spencer are Jews and its gloves off against Jews again in an extreme and overt way.
Robert Spencer is not Jewish. He’s a Melkite Greek Catholic.
I assume you are referring to Pamela Geller? If so, with friends like this, who needs enemies? I think that the politest way to describe her would be as “right-wing”, and by me that ain’t a compliment.
“left-wing” ain’t a compliment either – especially considering the Red/Green Axis and regressive “progressives”.
Depends which bit of the left you’re talking about. Not all left-wingers are anti-Zionists (on a good day: on a bad day, they’re antisemites). And as someone who is Jewish and left wing, I am not and never have been one of the “as-a-Jew” crowd.
Some of us remember that left wing is supposed to mean anti-racist, wherever the racism comes from.
Totally agree that “left-wing” does not mean antisemite. I am a proud member of the Executive of the Jewish Labour Movement (spelled with a “u”) the successor to Poale Zion. Remember that in 1948 the vast majority of Israelis were Labour (or Labor if you must). There is as big a gulf between Socialist-Labour and Communist as there is between the Republicans and the Nazis, both “right-wing” parties. Unfortunately, when Communism collapsed in the Soviet Union and in the UK, the Communists joined the British Labour Party, we have a couple in our local party, one of them in my ward. I wrote to the Secretary of the Labour Party several years ago to complain about this phenomenon which is known as “entryism” but got no reply. These people are, of course, anti-Israel and antisemitic, following their hero, Stalin.
The ‘vast majority were Labour’? That’s a Mapai myth.
Hi Josephine,
I was quite tickled to hear of your Jewish labour movement, I had always been under the impression that few British Jews had.distinguished themselves as labourers – chartered accountants perhaps-, while the.idea of an Anglo-Jewish “movement” is almost a contradiction in terms.
When did it all change? And why did nobody tell me?
Is this supposed to be funny? I never saw Karl Marx or Friedrich Engels getting their hands dirty, and certainly not Lenin. The movers and shakers of left-wing politics down the ages were not labourers but lawyers.
Greetings Comrade Josephine,
You are, of course, quite right. Their slogan was “Jewish accountants of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your Jags.” I’m just amazed that I hadn’t heard of you guys before. I note that the most excellent http://www.jlm.org.uk, is still “under construction”, so would I be right in guessing that your ranks still include few construction workers too?
Anyway, until it’s up and open for business, I, for one, am simply aching to hear about some of the heroic exploits of the that now notorious “ward” of the Jewish Labour Movement (spelled with a “u”) and surely I am not alone. Do you do Jewish Labour cheese and win gatherings? Please spare us no details, however trivial or unimportant they may appear.
Long live the revolution!
“I’m just amazed that I hadn’t heard of you guys before.” Yet another proof of your ignorance, if any more were needed.
Leah, your comment that “The ‘vast majority were Labour’? That’s a Mapai myth” is either less than serious or comes ignorance of Britain before the middle of the last century, at the earliest. Most British Jews were of Ashkenazi East European origin. As a result, most (including my arents and their respective families) were poor and drifted to the Left. Most, though, drifted no further than the Labour Party and its affiliated unions. This remained the case, even as their standard of living rose and remained true for many of their children, even as these became upwardly mobile and gained both status and wealth.
The same phenomenon can be found in the US, with the Democratic Party replacing the Labour Party.
What part of this is hard to comprehend? And Mapai had no part in this, not even as myth-makers.
BTW, glad to see that Poale Zion (even with a different name and form) is still with us.
Brian,
I can’t believe that I’m defending “Leah”, but you’ve completely missed the thread.
The lovely Josephine had contended:“ Remember that in 1948 the vast majority of Israelis were Labour..” She was talking about Israelis.
“Leah” then replied, “The ‘vast majority were Labour’? That’s a Mapai myth.”
In other words, their argument was as to whether the (vast) majority of Israelis supported the Labour Party (Mapai) back in 1948. Josephine said they did while “Leah” doubted this.
You then came barging in like that proverbial, though unlikely, bull in a China shop to explain that your family was very poor “in Britain before the middle of the last century”. All very poignant, but what exactly is that meant to prove about the Israeli political map of 1948? In short, before you go charging others with ignorance, learn to read.
Back to the lovely Comrade Josephine who charges me with ignorance for not knowing about her “ward” of the “Jewish Labour Movement”. Here I must plead guilty.
In mitigation however, I had heard of their forerunner; “Poalay Zion. I just never knew they had dropped the Zion from their name. I wonder why. I would also mention that by her own admission she wrote to the Secretary of the Labour Party several years ago and he still hasn’t got back to her so I’m guessing that this illustrious movement is less than influential in left wing UK circles too.
But maybe I’m wrong. I often am. I’d love to hear about some of the exploits of Josephine’s “ward” of which she is so proud. Life here in the Middle-East can at times be quite mundane that we all yearn to be told about the adventures of others. Passed any good resolutions lately?
Try engaging your brain before you write. This was about ISRAELIS.
That was to Brian, of course.
Daniel Marks, I shall treat your offensive comment with the response it deserves: silence.
In Goldfarb world, ‘silence’ = ‘writing a post’.
Whilst grateful (sort of) for Daniel’s support (the one who claims to be from London but instinctively thinks that ‘labour’ is spelled ‘labor’), I would urge him to see a professional about his delusions.
Excellent idea Brian:
“Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; When he closes his lips, he is considered prudent.” – Pity you didn’t think of it before.
You might also think about having a shave.
http://offender.fdle.state.fl.us/offender/flyer.do?personId=58122
The fact that this lecturer can go around saying these things is an advertisement for Israeli democracy in itself. If he were living in an Arab country and saying things like about, say, Hafez Al-Asad he would simply be arrested, thrown in jail and murdered in custody, like that Syrian doctor from the UK who went to “help refugees” (we don’t know what he was really doing).
Another day. Same shit.
While the antisemites use the term Judaisation as a means to denigrate the Indigenous Jewish population in order to label them as ‘occupiers’ in their own
nation state , in fact it works against them as the word dates back to King David and the Temple thus proving the Jewish connection to the land dating back almost 4,000 years . When Ben ‘ I’m not an antisemite but can understand why some people are ‘ White uses the term Judaisation , just tweet him this link . Don’t discourage the word . Instead be proactive and proudly thank them for highlighting our eternal connection
See extract here
What does Judah mean in Hebrew? (Insight from Dr. Eli)
The word “Yehuda” is usually translated as “Judah” in English Bibles. This name has such rich meaning for both Jewish and Christian traditions. For example, in the Hebrew Bible, God called King David, who came from the tribe of Judah, “The man after my own heart”. In the New Testament, Jesus, a later descendant of David, is referred to as “the Lion from the Tribe of Judah”.
But what does Judah actually mean in Hebrew?
The word Judah comes from the verb LeHodot, which simply means “to thank.” In the context of the Hebrew Bible, such thanks are synonymous not just with gratitude, but with praise. In fact, there was a particular sacrifice called “The Sacrifice of Thanksgiving.” In the Temple in Jerusalem, it was called “Todah” – the noun for “Thanksgiving.”
It is interesting to note that in Modern Hebrew, to simply say “thanks”, Israelis use the very same word (todah) that was used in the Temple to express gratitude to God.
Indeed!
Geller, Spencer and the gay Dutch poltician Geert Wilders are denied entry to the UK for fear of upsetting Muslims, (the now disgraced Lord Ahmed even threatened to surround the House Of Lords with Muslim protestors if Wilders was allowed in), while extremists like Qaradawi, a leader of the far right racist and antisemitic Hungarian party (Jobbik), and various strange Muslim extremists are given platforms at British Univ in the name of free speech; and UK NGOs and charities such as Oxfam, War On Want, Christian Aid, and even the Quakers pursue an unbalanced agenda on Israel-Palestine issues.
Since Israel is a Jewish state (the only one in the world) why should the subject of Judaisation be a controversial one! I have travelled in the Negev and the issue of the Bedouin is far more nuanced than is presented by those who would beat Israel with that or any other stick to hand.
The powers that be at “Universities UK” (collection of Vice -Chancellors) are putting the Jewish community in moral and physical danger. But with one and a half billion potential overseas students and generous sponsorship of Islamic Studies from Islamic States and Royals, they know what side their bread is buttered and are only too happy to take the Riad or whatever currency is offered by Arab royalty & dictators
The law in this country is being interpreted in increasing bizarre ways. Extremists plotting to kill us can’t be kept in jail or deported to their home countries due to Human Rights legislation; the immigration controls are a farce due to uber liberal interpretations of the right to family life; the ploy of sham marriages; and the right of family re-unification. Twitter abusers are being sent to jail for offending people – sometimes in quite trivial ways; while a guy who found two burglars stealing diesel at his farm (not in his house) went into a “red mist” as his defence counsel said in court, and beat one guy so badly he broke his arm and both of his legs, yet escaped a custodial sentence; as did a guy who for the sheer fun of it, took a flying kick at some poor defenceless guy’s head as he knelt to tie up his shoelaces outside a night club; as did a talented 20 yr old dancer who had featured at the London Olympics Ceremony, and who badly beat up a middle-aged man who called him the “N” word (all cases in the news in last few days)
Now just a couple yrs back, in the courtyard of SOAS Student Union building, at a Palestine event during the so called Israel Apartheid Week (actually goes on for much longer ie half the spring semester), in presumably full view of CCTV cameras, a middle-aged black man told me that wasn’t it a great thing that six million Jewish cowards walked into the Gas Chambers to to commit suicide as that meant that Germany was Judenrein – and wouldn’t it be great if the same thing happened in the Middle-East. And when he freely consented to be videoed by a colleague of mine while he repeated this for a second time, my colleague was attacked by a mature Palestinian PhD student (previously circling around shouting “go back to Poland”), who punched him severally, smashed his camera phone to the ground, and jumped on him biting him several times on the face, leaving visible marks. The police arrived, arrested both the attacker and victim, and charged them with Common Assault (after some legal lobbying, the charge against the victim was dropped). Then after several adjournements for the convenience of the defendant, the case finally went to court a full year later, with added charge of criminal damage to a cameraphone, and the defendant, while not denying the biting, smashing the cameraphone from the victim’s hand, and admitting he attacked first, which was clearly shown as evidence in court as footage on the victim’s cameraphone, was found not guilty on grounds of self-defence, and cosmetic damage to the phone likewise dismissed as having been possibly caused while held in police custody
Shortly after, Colin Shindler, a Jewish prof of Israel Studies at SOAS, one of whose specialities is antisemitism in the Soviet Union during the Stalin Era, wrote in Jewish News that provocations such as this have no place at British Universities and that his students have always enjoyed excellent relations with Muslims; when I asked him at a Q&A for his book at Jewish Book Week to clarify what he meant by “provocations”, he told me that as Jewish advocates for Israel, we had no business being there at a Palestine event, and that had we not been there the incident would not have occurred, and that people who had no right to be there were taking photos (repeating the charge by Palestinian sympathisers immediately after the attack that we were taking photos of children – with its inference of paedophilia – a classic antisemitic slur with potentially fatal consequences).
In conversations I had subsequently with UJS & the CST, I came across a similar inclination to blame the victim – the former presumably as they consider campus territory their exclusive prerogative, the latter covering itself for any perceived failure to protect us.
Similarly, after the Toulouse massacre of Jewish school children, Tariq Ramadan, Emeritus Professor at Oxford Univ, reframed the narrative in an article sympathetically depicting the French Muslim murderer as the victim. Despite Prof Ramadam’s high profile, I don’t recall his interpretation attracting any adverse comment in the mainstream media.
So my conclusion is that the state will not protect its Jewish minority when attacks come from certain elements they do not have the courage and legal duty to confront (the red-green alliance), and that anyone standing up for Jews, Israel & Zionism can equally expect to be attacked by hostile elements within the Jewish community itself.
Richard I stand by my account and do not fear any legal challenges on grounds of defamation or slander – so don’t block this posting – as Bicom did a few weeks ago in Standpoint
Tonyk
The Bedouin issue is indeed complicated and the present controversy is about one tribe that is trying to blackmail Israel into more and more concessions. The joke is that every civilized nation has had this problem with gypsies and other travellers, whose children are under-educated. If anyone from the UK wants to understand the current Bedouin issue, my reply is a two-word one “Dale Farm”. In any case, the minister in charge is drawing back for the moment. All the other Bedouin tribes in the Negev and certainly the Bedouin tribes in Galilee (I bet most people didn’t know there were Bedouins in Galilee are perfectly happy with present arrangements, and indeed some Bedouin serve in the Israeli army. By the way, more and more Moslems are serving in the IDF.
Well said TonyK. I’m pleased you weren’t blocked and praise your courage to say it as it is. The environment vis a vis anti Judaism is palpable and frightening, much like the Jews of Germany must have suffered. I fear that in the current climate I am unable to protect my children; I feel more vulnerablet I did as a white Jew in SA; times are truly troubled and we all need to embrace that and shout it from the rooftops. Hopefully someone will pay attention.
Yes Sharron – though to compare sit of Jews here in the UK now to Nazi Germany in the 1930s is neither wise nor accurate. There there was outright violence & hostility, here is hostility and indifference (though indifference has serious incremental consequences too). The Anglo-Jewish community is a very peculiar one – a quite different dynamic from France, Russia, USA, or S.Africa. Try googling short essay “This Green & Pleasant Land” by a Canadian Jewish academic (Shlomo Lappin I think) at King’s College London, where he deconstructs what he sees as the false narrative of acceptance internalised by the Jewish community here (one of the oldest and most peaceful & productive minorities in the UK) whose expulsion in C13th has never been legally rescinded
Sadly many prominent British Jews would never put their heads up above the parapet (as Simon Shama did recently by declaring himself an unashamed Zionist in his TV series A History of the Jews). In fact they bend over backwards to show their loyalty to the state over any attachment to their Jewish co-citizens (Malcolm Rifkind comes to mind for refusing to supply gas masks for Israeli school children during the Gulf War initiated against Iraq by the allies). Many prominent Jewish philanthropists and Foundations support high profile British Arts charities while giving little or nothing to Jewish Arts. Others ostentatiously flaunt their liberal credentials and “Jewish universalism” by supporting left-wing anti-Israel groups like NIS, Yachad, Committe Against Demolitions etc etc. The mother of the leader of the Labour Party is a member of one such group – as reported in the JC. They do little or nothing for Zionism or antisemitism. Did you know of the Centre for Study of Antisemitism at Birkbeck College (funded by Pears Foundation)? You hadn’t? no surprise, nor has anyone else except the people there.
Judaisation seems to be happening among Nobel prize winners!
Indeed, this professor is cynically exploiting the attempt to settle these nomads by blaming Jews and the “Judaization”. By the way, these Bedouin are perfectly free, from Israel’s point of view, to go and live elsewhere, including in the Arab countries as, indeed, is he. Maybe they would all like to emigrate to Syria?
Harvey: ‘Don’t discourage the word.’
The word is used, positively/admiringly, by many Israeli politicians.
Used by whom positively in Israel though?
I personally find something sinister in the word, like “Judenrein” and “Judenfrei”. I agree with Francis Ebbecke that the Nobel Prize seems to be suffering from “Judaization”. And by the way, look what is happening to the Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Hampstead and Kilburn, death threats etc. for comparing Jesus and Mohammed. He will certainly be deselected, especially as the Labour Party candidate is also a Moslem.
Chas
That’s the crux of the matter. There is a world of difference between an Israeli politician or friend of Israel such as yourself and the Ben Whites of the world who use the term to denote separation , supremacy and as means to vilify Jews in general . In short it can mean many things dependent on who uses it .
.
Thx Sharon
I will just add here that those accusations of taking photos, levelled at us four pro-Israel advocates immediatey after the attack in the SOAS Union courtyard, were unfortunately taken up and repeated, following the trial a year later, by the JC in its online coverage – dangerously misleading editing targeted at the most vulnerable of the four of us – a young Israeli photographer studying film here in the UK; and it took alot of emails and lobbying to the JC before the Stephen Pollard agreed to change it (they deleted that part though did not issue a correction). The JC reporter attending the trial also made the crass mistake of describing the middle-aged black man whose words sparked off the incident as an “elderly man” (the same words used to describe him by the defense counsel)! whereas he was a tall vigorous man in early middle-age who towered over me. The reporter refused to change that until we sent them actual footage of the guy
One correction to my previous posting: I was blocked – not in standpoint – but in Bicom’s online “Fathom
Josephine: by Hampstead & Kilburn Lib Dem Parliamentary candidate, I presume you’re referring to Mr Massid? a former Muslim extremist & founder director of the anti-extremist think-tank Quilliam Foundation. I think he posted a cartoon of Jesus and Mohammed casually greeting each other and consequently received several death threats, incl by beheading, which he reported to the police. And the response from an “anonymous” spokesperson for the Lib Dems, was not to condemn the threats but to warn against offending cultural or religious sensibilities – ENIOUGH SAID?
Why aren’t British Muslims called on to be sensitive to the religious views of Non-Muslims?
@tony
Yes. From this article, I understand that the 1290 expulsion has not yet been lifted, and is merely not enforced: http://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/england_articles/1290_to_1656.htmin December 1660 the principal Jewish merchants petitioned Charles II desiring continued residence in his dominions. At the Privy Council’s recommendation the House of Commons then discussed measures for protecting Jews. Ultimately, however, the Jews’ fate rested with Charles II and like Cromwell he showed himself favourably disposed.
OT, sorry, but I am delighted to see Scarlett Johansson telling Oxfam to eff off. Oxfam, of course, is continuing to peddle the outright lie that the settlements are ‘illegal’. And the cesspit that is Mondoweis is beside itself with rage.
So the expulsion order of 1280 has never been lifted? Why aren’t the BDS clamouring for it to be reinstated? That would show them in their true colours.