(Telegraph-UK) Danny Cohen - Over the past year it has become increasingly normal for people in Britain to use "Zionist" as a slur. To say that simply believing in the State of Israel's right to exist is fundamentally reprehensible. I can think of no other religion or nation state that has to put up with this. It is only the Jewish state that has the right to its very existence challenged in this way. Only Jewish people who should be denied a homeland. A homeland in the place Jews have lived, loved, worked and prayed for thousands of years. In Tehran, free speech and political opposition are violently suppressed in a country run autocratically and often brutally by ayatollahs. Women are not equal citizens and the gay community have to live in fear. Yet do you hear anyone calling for an end to the existence of Iran? Are there placards at mass marches on Britain's streets calling for the extinction of that nation? The reason this is happening with Israel but not other countries is horribly clear. It is because Israel is the homeland of Jews. I declare proudly I'm a Zionist. I believe Israel should exist. The writer was the director of BBC Television (2013-15).
2025-06-23 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive