(Spectator-UK) Melanie Phillips - The 2010 Belfast Festival, held under the auspices of Queen's University Belfast, convened a panel discussion Monday on "Conflict in the Middle East." In September, the Festival's director, Graeme Farrow, invited Professor Geoffrey Alderman, a British Jewish commentator and defender of Israel, to take part in the panel, an invitation he accepted. To Alderman's astonishment, last Friday he received an email from Farrow informing him that "a mistake" had been made in inviting him. Thus the delegitimization, bullying and ostracism of the Jewish state morphs seamlessly into the delegitimization, bullying and ostracism of Jews anywhere who support it. The Jewish state alone is not to be allowed to defend its existence; its Jewish supporters alone are not to be allowed to speak in defense of its right to do so.
2010-10-20 09:10:37Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive