Writing in the Independent, Howard Jacobson offers an honest appraisal of the recent spate of UK protests against Israel – all of which claim nothing more sinister than a criticism of Israeli policy. He describes the sentiment expressed as:
A discriminatory, over-and-above hatred, inexplicable in its
hysteria and virulence whatever justification is adduced for it; an
unreasoning, deranged and as far as I can see irreversible revulsion
that is poisoning everything we are supposed to believe in here – the
free exchange of opinions, the clear-headedness of thinkers and
teachers, the fine tracery of social interdependence we call community
relations, modernity of outlook, tolerance, truth. You can taste the
toxins on your tongue.
But I am not allowed to ascribe any of
this to anti-Semitism. It is, I am assured, “criticism” of Israel, pure
and simple. In the matter of Israel and the Palestinians this country
has been heading towards a dictatorship of the one-minded for a long
time; we seem now to have attained it.
this to anti-Semitism. It is, I am assured, “criticism” of Israel, pure
and simple. In the matter of Israel and the Palestinians this country
has been heading towards a dictatorship of the one-minded for a long
time; we seem now to have attained it.
