Jewish News 19/02/10 – AJDS and Mendes on Hage
From the letters bit.
Harold Zwier and Les Rosenblatt take the United Israel Appeal to task for inviting ultra right British loony Melanie Phillips. I’ve mentioned her special pleading for the BNP and its supporters before (“thousands of decent, patriotic British people, both white and dark-skinned” driven to supporting the BNP). She holds
Those who support [Nick Griffin] do not in the main do so because they are racially prejudiced. It is because he also opposes mass immigration, Islamisation and the loss of sovereignty to the EU.These are all legitimate concerns which are widely held by people who fear the loss of Britain’s historic identity — but which are stigmatised as beyond the pale by an intelligentsia which considers any such expression of nationalistic sentiment to be a form of racism.
Anyway, Zwier and Rosenblatt criticise her, and say she has “expressed very strong sentiments that could be construed as anti-Muslim.” The “UIA has clearly concluded that human rights and democracy are a lot less profitable for fundraising than whipping up fears of a Muslim takeover.”
Philip Mendes has the lead letter. The characteristic Mendes quote: “Hage was the co-author with John Docker in May 2002of a petition calling for an Australian academic boycott of Israel. The petition used a method of racial or ethnic sterotyping based on labeling all Israeli Jews – and all Israeli academics in particular – as an oppressor people.”
Comments
One Response to “Jewish News 19/02/10 – AJDS and Mendes on Hage”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying...[...] Jewish News 19/02/10 – AJDS and Mendes on Hage « Michael Brull [...]