Academics from across the world will gather for three days at Southampton University this April to establish a legal platform from which to discuss Israel’s legitimacy. The controversial summit is led by University of Southampton’s own Ex-Israeli Law Professor, Oren Ben-Dor.
Southampton Law Professor Oren Ben-Dor has long been a critic of Israel, writing variously about alleged apartheid in Israel and how Israel wants to be hated by Palestine. But he may now turn more heads than ever, by heading up an international conference regarding the “problems associated with the creation and nature of the Jewish state itself”.
The conference, taking place April 17th-19th 2015, claims to be “the first of its kind, and constitutes a ground-breaking historical event on the road towards justice and enduring peace in historic Palestine”.
Speakers will include Richard Falk, a former UN advisor who published an antisemitic cartoon depicting a dog wearing the Jewish ‘Kippah’, urinating on lady Justice while chewing bloody bones. Falk has also attributed blame of the Boston bombings to American foreign policy, and accused Israel of genocide. He has been condemned by UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon, as well as the British, American, and Canadian governments.
A conference on Israel’s right to exist has never been conducted on this scale at a British university before.
Israel’s right to exist has long been the line in the sand past which Israeli apologists will not retreat. Most famously in 1977, Prime Minister Menachem Begin gave this speech to the Knesset:
Our right to exist— have you ever heard of such a thing? Would it enter the mind of any Briton or Frenchman, Belgian or Dutchman, Hungarian or Bulgarian, Russian or American, to request for its people recognition of its right to exist?
Predictably, the conference has drawn the Ire of many contemporary Jewish leaders, with the Jewish Leadership Council of Britain’s Chief Exec Simon Johnson saying he is “gravely concerned about this unbalanced, deleglitimising conference, which will have a detrimental impact on cohesiveness”.
The Zionist Federation of Israel also weighed in, calling the conference a “Kangaroo court” and “Illegal”.
The law school of Southampton Uni to hold a kangaroo court arguing Israel's existence is illegal: http://t.co/2GiVg5Uuhb
— Zionist Federation ()
A on Change.org also calling the conference a “Kangaroo court” and a “disgrace” has gathered over 2,000 signatures.
The University has rebuffed calls to cancel the conference, which will go ahead on the 17th-19th April.
Is the conference suitable for this university? Should it go ahead or be cancelled? Let us know in the comments below.
MAGGOT on the MANGE TOUT served at Connaught Halls
Interesting article. I’d like the talk to go ahead even if the subject matter sounds unsavoury, but I’m a free-speech superfan
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At what point does free-speech just become about mob rule though? there seems to be no invitation of pro-israeli speakers, and the whole conference is set up by a guy with a history of hatred to Israel? talk about bias…
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I agree that there should be more balance of viewpoints but no one gets to decide what is and isn’t free speech. As soon as you apply any limits then speech isn’t free.
I also really hope the JIDF tag is ironic.
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This isn’t about stopping free speech, it’s about stopping hate.
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the point is that no one gets to decide what divides hate speech from free speech, something that ‘liberals’ don’t seem to understand
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The talk should go ahead, anything else is censorship.
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While it’s obviously utterly impossible to dismantle the state now it’s so entrenched, I hardly think it’s so ridiculously wrong to merely question it’s legitimacy…
Regardless of which “side” you’re on, it’s not as if you can pretend like the Israeli government is made up of innocent pacifists whose actions shouldn’t even be discussed.
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will it really make a difference??
NO!
pointless activity likely to bring nothing but trouble to the grounds of the university
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yeah why bother having intellectual debates on university grounds? bloody pointless for an educational institution to put on debates people might learn from
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The problem is more that there will be no debate – only one side of the issue is being represented. Had they invited some pro-israel speakers, or at least a few with a central viewpoint then maybe a worthy discussion could be had.
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one of the strengths of Southampton is its close ties to the history of the jewish people and the resources it has available to students on the subject matter, e.g. the Parkes Institute. This is merely an extension of this fact and so should go ahead provide it doesn’t divulge into either antisemitism or overly Zionist rhetoric
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Almost all of the academics attending boycott Israel. I have nothing against free speech and do not care if they want to hold a meeting of a Palestinian activist committee and declare whatever they want, but it is wrong to pretend it is an academic meeting and only invite a group of people with a particular vision. They should simply hold the meeting and drop the pretense.
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Perhaps if it was being done in a more balanced way it wouldn’t be so controversial. Perhaps consulting the Jewish Society or the Parkes Institute before embarking on this conference would have been a good idea.
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It’s not a conference debating the legitimacy of being jewish so why is it relevantly to consult the apolitical jewish society? I imagine a number of Jews at Southampton don’t wish to have their religious practices tarnished by the politics of Israel, in the same way Muslims don’t want to be associated with Hamas, ISIS, the governance of Saudi Arabia, FGM etc.
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Sounds like a very interesting debate and I’d love to attend if it wasn’t for the £30 minimum attendance fee :/
I’m personally very glad to see Southampton at the heart of what is a controversial but arguably very important debate, particularly given the current climate of violence in that part of the world.
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Completely wrong that such a conference should happen! I’m all for free speech but where exactly are the people to defend Israel’s right to exist in this? It’s dangerous that such a meeting will bring together people (including an anti-semite) against Israel’s very existence, allow them to indulge their unreasonable pathological hate and, most worryingly, pass on this hate and no doubt false information to those attending!
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It is odd people don’t seem to see the problem. This is not a free speech argument. Even if you believe Israel is the devil, is it entitled to a defense or not? Even if you thought someone was a murderer and you want to put them on trial, would anyone ever agree to a trial with only a prosecution? And that is the point here. Look at all the people attending, everyone a prosecution witness (someone who hates Israel). To be against Israel and to support the conference is still an affront to both justice and academic study.
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The ‘murder trial’ analogy doesn’t hold, the outcome of this ‘debate’ isn’t going to send anyone to prison.
I agree that there should be a defence, but the point is that you don’t get to go around banning everything you disagree with.
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It is possible and is worthy of debating, upon two separate issues. Firstly the remarkable stoicism of the Jewish people and the creation of Israel. Secondly the fanatical zionism that seems happy to hand out to the palestinians the same extreme ill treatment that the Jews have suffered, particularly in the twentieth century.
It almost feels like the palestinians are being punished for the crimes of nazi Germany. Perhaps because the palestinians are the only ones available for such treatment. I applaud and support the idea of Israel. I condemn the treatment of the palestinians and the reluctance of the world to respond for fear of being accused of anti-semitism. It isn’t that, it is a response to the particular politics of the ruling parties in the knesset.
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Interesting to see how many people are angry that they are only showing one side.
Almost everything that has ever been done before this (debates, media coverage) exclusively discusses how amazing and wonderful Israel is. I can’t see why everyone is going ape-shit because for the first time, people are exclusively discussing the other side.
Israel isn’t the only one allowed freedom of speech here.
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I think people are mistaking this conference for a trial. There will be no ‘out come’ to this, it’s simply a way to express views. Of course the people of Israel should have a say but on a seperate occasion or the whole thing would become a farce or mud-slinging.
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There are 47 Muslim countries in the World (according to Wikipedia).
And there is one small Jewish country which is surrounded by people who want to destroy it.
Decide for yourself if that sounds fair.
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What a ridiculous response to what is supposed to be an intellectual debate. The 47 countries surrounding Israel do not categorise themselves as “Muslim” to begin with (some may do, not all). It’s not a Muslim matter, and to make it a Muslim matter is simply wrong. It’s not Muslims vs. Jews, and please don’t try to make it that way.
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Qu’ran (muslim holy book or haynes manual for hate) states otherwise.
According to Sura 2 verse 88; Allah actually cursed them on account of their unbelief.
There are a “few” other verses where Mohammed makes clear his disdain for the jews, but then he makes clear his disdain for alot of things throughout the six hundred and sixty something pages of his political ideology including but not limited to: women, non-believers, merchant traders and even a solid gold cow … (I shit you not). Granted then, it would be unfair to say that his hate speech was entirely limited to the jews when everyone is tarred with the shit brush in equal measure. It is fair to say that he didn’t seem to be content unless he was encouraging the rape, pillage and murder of everything and everyone that stood before him; apparently all justified by his entirely exclusive link to sky-fairy.
I digress.
I will say this in favour of Israel; they are a relatively young nation that have been forced to drag themselves into the 21st century at a rate of knots. They have consistently shown that they are able to defend themselves, multiple times against the surrounding ring of majority muslim countries. In addition, most of said muslim majority countries do not recognise the state of Israel; religion as the reason.
To say that it is not a Muslim matter is frankly a slur on the intellectual calibre of debate that you seem to be striving for.
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It’s very difficult to respond to someone who has clearly already made their mind up about something. To be clear, the Qur’an does not state that one should kill another out of nothing. Please be more informed before you make an anti-religious rant.
As for my actual original point which you went off on a tangent about, a majority Muslim country does not make it a Muslim country. Since the Six Day War, Lebanon has been main aggressor towards Israel, which was forced into secularism by the French. Palestine is not even recognised as a country, and Iran is well Iran (and has never fought a war against Israel). So when you say the surrounding ring of majority Muslim countries, I feel you are misinformed. As for the reason why these “Muslim majority” countries may not recognise the state of Israel, it could be that the state was created by a third party force on Arab land? Or maybe it’s because Israel is widely recognised to hold apartheid policies? Or maybe it’s because Zionism calls for the expulsion of the indigenous Palestinian population from their homeland and continue to build settlements on legal Palestinian land (such as the West Bank)? Of course anti-Semitism exists in the Middle East, as it does in Europe and the US, but it is difficult to argue that this is the main reason for Arab hostility towards Israel and it’s policies.
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They’ve managed to defend themselves? Wow, well done them. Pretty easy to defend yourselves when you’re getting fuck loads of funding from rich nations like Britain and America, meaning you can have state-of-the-art weaponry and defense systems, when all the surrounding countries who you’re ‘defending’ against, including Palestine, are dirt poor. Just look at the figures for casualties on Palestine’s side compared to that of Isreal; it’s just a completely unfair fight. Isreal should show some humility and grace towards the Palestinians; they have come along and pushed them out of their home land with the help of the rich west, the least they could do is treat the Palestinians with some dignity. But it seems their Zionist pursuits show no mercy, Palestinians are the casualties of Zionism and they don’t care. And so long as they are allowed -no- encouraged to get away with this abuse of human rights by the west, people who live in the western countries that fund them are going to have a problem with it.
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How has this not been cancelled yet? I’m ashamed Southampton uni.
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That a British university is hosting a racist conference is truly shocking. How is it possible?
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Sigh. There’s so much that gets conflated.
– the existance of the state of Israel
– the actions of the state of Israel
– the citizens of the state of Israel
– people who follow the Jewish religion
– people who have Jewish genetics
This conference has a formal “Call for Papers”, so if the speakers are one sided it’s either that the papers were not submitted or were rejected. Once universities start
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…listening to petitions, we’ll be shutting off the Large Hadron Collider soon after. (admittedly I can only find 15 people who signed an anti LHC petition)
Quoting the Zionist federation in this is a bit meaningless. Obviously a Zionist organisation isn’t going to support something questioning the right of Israel to exist.
The whole situation makes me sad. There’s some amazing people in that part of the world, but also some uncompromsing jerks on both sides.
I’ve heard several students on here say they would attend except for the cost of the tickets. I’m willing to cover the cost of 2 tickets for students who otherwise couldn’t afford to go, on condition that you attend the majority of the conference and write about it somewhere the rest of us can read about your impressions, either on SotonTab or elsewhere. I’d be interested to know how accurate, or not, the claims that this will be biased (or not) are.
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Dear Prof. Ben Dor,
Having graduated from Southampton University in 1987 with an MSc in International Relations, I am appalled and angered that my Alma Mater will host such a ridiculous conference.
“International Law and the State of Israel”
It is outrageous, it should read
“International Law and the Zionist Entity”
I admire you in taking such an initiative, on getting the funds for such a scurrilous nonsensical meeting and best of all, getting punters to fork out 95 quid for it.
Southampton are playing away to Stoke on the 18th, I hope it will not affect attendance.
I’d also like to congratulate you on the timing of the conference.
Hopefully, after having a wonderful time de- legitimizing Israel, the following day, on the 20th of April, you can all raise your glasses and hail to the heavens, that the spirit of the Führer is alive and well, on his birthday, in my beloved Southampton.
Yours sincerely,
(Mr) J. E. Gordon, MSc
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To even imply this is a Nazi-like attack on Jews is horrendous. Why don’t you attend the conference and give your views, instead of branding everyone agreeing with it’s existence as anti-Semites.
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Zionists benefit from the terms Zionism and Judaism becoming synonymous, because it means any discussion of the legitimacy of Israel’s actions can be ignored or shut-down as racist and anti-Semitic. Cries of ‘anti-Semite’ really show the hypocrisy in western thinking. Remember back to the Charlie Hebdo shootings, the whole of the west were shocked by the terrorists attacks on ‘free speech’, and world leaders rallied together in a protest against suppression of ‘free speech’. And yet France, the country that was so damning of any limitation to free speech, has some of the harshest laws against anti-semitism in the world. Arrests for suspicions of anti semitism can and do happen and the perpetrators are treated harshly. Similarly in other western nations, the laws surrounding anti-semitism are much fiercely harsher than any other racist laws. In America and Western media, the public are constantly fed pro-Israeli and often anti-Muslim propaganda. So why have we got to a point in western thinking where it is it okay to draw a cartoon that is blatantly and intentionally offensive and provocative towards one religion, but another religion is protected and defended so dramatically that there are calls to censor a mere discussion of the legitimacy of a state (not a religion) who’s existence is in part based on the suppression and expulsion of another peoples? Because of the power the Israeli lobbyists have over the American government. This is what influences American foreign policy towards Israel and Palestine, and this is why media continuously and deliberately attempts to blur the lines between anti Zionism and anti semitism; they want people to dismiss anti-Israel rhetoric off the cuff. But thanks to things like social media people are beginning to wake up and realise the extent of the Palestinian plight and in turn question the legitimacy of this treatment. And when they realise that this continued persecution and support of Zionism is allowed to happen essentially because of The American governments involvement with financial lobbyists, it’s understandable that people, particularly academics might decide they want the States legitimacy in itself discussed. It has nothing to do with religion, and for those of you shouting that this is going to lead to further persecution of ‘the Jews’, you can rest assured that as long as America have Israel’s back, which they will until the day that the way money gets into politics is completely reformed and revolutionised, that Israel aren’t going to be bullied; they are going to be the ones continuing to do the bullying. Good on Southampton uni for letting people stand up and have a voice, even if it won’t make any difference it might help to open peoples eyes to why we shouldn’t support Israel’s foreign policy and continued apartheid laws.
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Unfortunately, current media is unrevealing about the actual facts. I think these kind of talks should be held at universities where the other side will get an opportunity to ask questions and get direct facts.
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For those of you who think this conference is well balanced, take a look at this blog post: http://mid-eastplus.blogspot.co.uk/2015_03_01_archive.html
Scroll down to the bottom, and you’ll find a summary of the opinions of each of the speakers. Almost all of them are anti-Israel. So, is this a balanced conference? No, it is not. Is this a freedom of speech issue? No, this the anti-Israel crowd wanting to voice their opinion unchallenged. That’s not academia either! If you’re afraid to be challenged, you chose the wrong career.
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