UK academics protest clampdown on Israel Apartheid Week

Nearly 250 academics in Britain signed a letter published Monday condemning the cancellation of annual Israel Apartheid Week student events at several UK universities.

The universities of Exeter and Central Lancashire ordered the cancellation of events this week, while organizers at University College London had to scrap plans to set up a mock Israeli military checkpoint on campus after failing to secure the proper permit in time, The Guardian newspaper reported.

The crackdown followed a letter to university heads from universities and science minister, Jo Johnson, which demanded they act to stamp out anti-Semitism and which cited Israel Apartheid Week as a cause for concern.

That letter, to the Universities UK organization, also asked that the government-adopted definition of anti-Semitism, formulated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, be disseminated.

In publishing its definition of anti-Semitism in May 2016,the IHRA said it was guided by numerous examples. “Manifestations might include the targeting of the State of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as anti-Semitic.”

Among contemporary examples of anti-Semitism, the IHRA listed denying the Jewish people its right to self-determination, for example by claiming that the existence of the State of Israel is a racist endeavor, or drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.

The signatories to the protest letter, who include 100 professors, said that that definition of anti-Semitism “seeks to conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.”

They suggested that a spike in far-right anti-Semitic incidents on campus “seems to reflect the increase in xenophobia since the Brexit vote.”

“Yet the government has ‘adopted‘ the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, which can be and is being read as extending to criticism of Israel and support for Palestinian rights, an entirely separate issue, as prima facie evidence of anti-Semitism. This definition seeks to conflate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism,” the letter said.

“These are outrageous interferences with free expression, and are direct attacks on academic freedom,” the letter went on. “As academics with positions at UK universities, we wish to express our dismay at this attempt to silence campus discussion about Israel, including its violation of the rights of Palestinians for over 50 years.

“It is with disbelief that we witness explicit political interference in university affairs in the interests of Israel under the thin disguise of concern about anti-Semitism.”

The 13th Annual Israeli Apartheid Week kicked off in the UK on Wednesday and was scheduled to tour the world, ending on April 10 in Latin America.

The organization’s website says events will seek “to raise awareness of Israel’s settler-colonial project and apartheid system over the Palestinian people and to build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.”