Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Zionist groups are sternly against bans and boycotts except when launched by them

"Southampton University has rejected calls to cancel a conference on Israel and international law, after the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) said it would "have a detrimental impact on cohesiveness."

The conference, 'International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism', is billed as "the first of its kind", and is being organised by Southampton-based academic and former Israeli Oren Ben-Dor, and Palestinian-American law professor George Bisharat.

According to the Jewish News, several "Jewish community leaders" have expressed their "opposition" to the conference and "lodged protests with the university's vice-chancellor."

JLC chief executive Simon Johnson said that the organisation is "gravely concerned about this unbalanced, delegitimising conference, which will have a detrimental impact on cohesiveness."

    We have asked the vice-chancellor to reconsider. It's a fine line between academic freedom, which we all cherish, and delegitimisation and discrimination. This conference seems to hover around that line.

Other pro-Israel groups have also expressed their anger, with the Zionist Federation describing the academic gathering rather bizarrely as "a kangaroo court.""