The perception of Israel we’re
fed by the media in Europe is of a militaristic, racist totalitarian state, something I believed for many years. The wholesale abandonment of logic and journalistic impartiality as the Palestinian narrative has become THE narrative of the region. It’s become cool to Pro-Palestinian, well in actuality those groups and individuals that support things like the Boycott of Israel and hurl abuse at representatives of Israel on British campuses aren’t pro Palestinian, they don’t help Palestinians one bit(read Khalid Abu Tomah article), they’re anti-Israeli. Don’t get me wrong being supportive of Israel does not mean you can’t be critical of Israel, in fact in a democracy as Israel is there are many groups and organisations representing a vast spectrum of political, religious and social views, even in the most liberal democracy’s I don’t know how the idea of a member of parliament calling for the destruction of the state would pan out, yet this is quite the norm in Israel. We’ve seen in recent weeks and months how people wanting to vocalise opposition to their rulers have been treated by other countries in the Middle East. Israel is a democracy, where each citizen has a vote, an independent judiciary steadfastly treating all equally in the eyes of the law and protecting the rights of all of Israel’s citizens. This is what is probably most amazing about Israel, in the most difficult of circumstances it has maintained its democracy, its given power to its people, while so many nations, some pre-dating the re-establishment of Israel by decades keep their people subjected by all manner of dictatorships, yet Israel bashing seems to take priority, the criticising oppressive regimes who send tanks to crush peaceful protests.
But why Israel, there are other democracy’s in the world, what makes Israel so special, because no nation on this planet has constant assaults on its actual sovereignty the like Israel suffers no nation’s very existence is questioned as Israel’s is, no nation focus of targeted campaigns to damage and destroy the viability of it as Israel does. The question is what makes this okay? Why can Israel be singled out, a democratic state, with freedom of press, judiciary, where freedom of worship is guaranteed, while the likes of Saudi Arabia, where a Muslim can be locked up for praying.
With The Israel Campaign, this is a rallyi
ng call for all people of any colour, culture or creed, to come together for Israel, a democracy under siege. Learn the facts and lets work together to do what we can, be it letter writing, protesting or just distributing fliers, we can work together and campaign for Israel, to protect the democratic values we hold dear and stop the misconceptions that have become widespread.
With The Israel Campaign we want to get out there and give people the facts, and work together to support Israel in anyway we can. Israel isn’t a just a Jewish issue, its about freedom and democracy, Male or Female, Gay or Straight, Christian, Muslim or Jewish, supporting Israel is about freedom and standing by a democracy under siege
Can you imagine being taught to hate a nation, to be taught that its destruction and the slaughter of its people is legitimate, indeed vital for peace in the region, that its people the Jews were the worst kind of people. Well, that’s what I was taught and many others are taught the same, I started this project as a Muslim who was at one time an Anti-Semite and hated Israel, but when confronted with the truth had to accept it.
Today we fight the hate, the lies and try to prevent more young minds being poisoned. The Israel campaign is an attempt to spread the facts about Israel, the historical Jewish homeland and only democratic state in the region, that since Independence has sought peace.
We don’t see ourselves as something separate, rather part of a movement, we want to work with all who believe in the ideals of freedom, equality and democracy. Standing together we want to stem the tide of Anti-Israel vitriol spewing from many facets of society. We believe in peace in the Middle East for both the Jewish people and the Arab people, but this can not be achieved by the demonisation and vilification of the State of Israel
