British Jewish students fear 'Islamophobia' charges, cancel Jewish speaker instead
Students at Britain's Leeds University have canceled an appearance by American lawyer Brooke Goldstein, who defends against lawsuits by Islamists in the US, on the grounds that Goldstein defended the rights of Geert Wilders to free speech. Ms Goldstein said the students were "trying to prevent me from speaking about how we defend their rights, as someone who advocates on their behalf. I think it's disgraceful, it's Orwellian."Anyone want to take bets on how much longer the Jewish community stays in Britain? It doesn't look good.
JSoc president Ilana Manuel said: "We researched some of Ms Goldstein's past projects, her associates and views that she has expressed in various media outlets and have decided that this is not appropriate for our campus. Our priority is the welfare of our students and we did not want to put anyone in a situation where this could be jeopardised."
Ms Goldstein argued that her defence of Mr Wilders was purely about protecting freedom of speech. "Whether you agree with him or not, and there are a lot of points we disagree on, surely he deserves to be allowed to express his opinions in the 21st century?
"It's disappointing that they would shy away from debating the most pertinent issues of our time, for example what limits should be put on free speech and what is acceptable dialogue, critical of religion, in free societies."
UKLFI's Jonathan Turner said it was "absurd to deny a platform to a speaker on the grounds that she has supported freedom of speech for Wilders and others, especially when she was not even intending to talk about Wilders. On the same basis, one would deny a platform to Alan Dershowitz, who has supported freedom of speech for the Ku Klux Klan."
Zionist Federation co-vice-chair Jonathan Hoffman said: "Just as Benny Morris was cancelled by Cambridge Israel Society in Feb 2010, we witness spineless Jewish students crumbling in the face of false charges of Islamophobia. Meanwhile, in the Alice In Wonderland topsy-turvy world of British academia, Palestinian societies are free to host the most outrageous antisemitic extremists. Thus Brooke Goldstein gets labelled as an extremist while Ken O'Keefe is given legitimacy."
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:17 PM
1 Comments:
As i said before it's 1936 all over again.
And considering the way Obama and Cameron act, you don't have much good to expect from those 'allies'.Still he 'thanked' Cameron by saying the UK is oin their own what concerns the Maladives.As the Scorpion said to the frog "It's just in my nature".
Have a great week Carl.
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