Israeli hospitals not only treat Jews and
Arabs, they also treat Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank - On the
same wards, in the same operating theatres
Dr. Reuven Reuveni - IsraelFebruary 15, 2014
This
article is dedicated to all students and their professors in the world
University is supposed to be about learning
to use your brain, to think rationally, to examine evidence, to reach
conclusions based on solid evidence, to compare sources, to weigh up one view
against one or more others.
This is
a MUST READ article that needs to be disseminated in every and each university. If you
have friends, children or grandchildren in university please make sure they
publish this important letter in the students' rag or post it on the university
bulletin board.
An incredible letter written by a non - Jewish Scottish professor to his students who voted to
boycott Israel.
A Scottish professor responds to campus boycott. The
Edinburgh Student's Association made a motion to boycott all things
Israeli since they claim Israel is under an apartheid regime. Dr. Denis Maceoin (a non-Jew) is an expert in Middle Eastern affairs. Here
is his letter to those students.
AN EDUCATED NON-JEWISH TAKE ON ISRAEL.
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Dr. Denis
MacEoin, a senior
editor of the Middle East Quarterly, addresses The Committee of the
Edinburgh University Student Association.
Received
by e-mail
from the author, Dr. Denis MacEoin, a senior editor of the Middle
East Quarterly,
TO: The Committee Edinburgh University
Student Association.
May I be permitted to say a few words to
members of the EUSA? I am an Edinburgh graduate (MA 1975) who
studied Persian, Arabic and Islamic History in Buccleuch Place under William
Montgomery Watt and Laurence Elwell Sutton, two of Britain's great Middle East
experts in their day.
I later
went on to do a PhD at Cambridge and to teach Arabic and Islamic Studies at
Newcastle University. Naturally,
I am the author of several books and hundreds of articles in this field. I say all that to show that I am
well informed in Middle Eastern affairs and that, for that reason, I am shocked
and disheartened by the EUSA motion and vote.
I am
shocked for a simple reason: there
is not and has never been a system of apartheid in Israel. That is not my opinion, that is fact that can be
tested against reality by any Edinburgh student, should he or she choose to
visit Israel to see for themselves. Let
me spell this out, since I have the impression that those members of EUSA who
voted for this motion are absolutely clueless in matters concerning Israel, and
that they are, in all likelihood, the victims of extremely biased propaganda
coming from the anti-Israel
lobby.
Being
anti-Israel
is not in itself objectionable. But
I'm not talking about ordinary criticism of Israel. I'm speaking of a hatred that permits itself no
boundaries in the lies and myths it pours out. Thus, Israel is repeatedly referred to as a "Nazi" state. In what sense is this true, even as a metaphor? Where
are the Israeli concentration camps? The einzatsgruppen? The SS? The Nuremberg
Laws? The Final Solution? None of these things nor anything remotely resembling
them exists in Israel, precisely because the Jews, more than anyone on earth,
understand what Nazism stood for.
.It is
claimed that there has been an Israeli Holocaust in Gaza or elsewhere
Where? When? No honest historian would treat that
claim with anything but the contempt it deserves. But calling Jews Nazis and saying they have committed
a Holocaust is as basic a way to subvert historical fact as anything I can
think of.
Likewise
apartheid. For
apartheid to exist, there would have to be a situation that closely resembled
how things were in South Africa under the apartheid regime. Unfortunately for those who believe this, a weekend
in any part of Israel would be enough to show how ridiculous the claim is.
That a
body of university students actually fell for this and voted on it is a sad
comment on the state of modern education. The most obvious focus for apartheid would be the
country's 20% Arab
population. Under
Israeli law, Arab Israelis have exactly the same rights as Jews or anyone else;
Muslims have the same rights as Jews or Christians; Baha'is, severely
persecuted in Iran, flourish in Israel, where they have their world center;
Ahmadi Muslims, severely persecuted in Pakistan and elsewhere, are kept safe by
Israel; the holy places of all religions are protected under a specific Israeli
law. Arabs form 20%
of the university population, an exact echo of their
percentage in the general population.
In Iran, the Bahai's (the
largest religious minority) are
forbidden to study in any university or to run their own universities: why aren't your members boycotting Iran?
Arabs in Israel can go anywhere they want, unlike blacks in apartheid South
Africa. They
use public transport, they eat in restaurants, they go to swimming pools, they
use libraries, they go to cinemas alongside Jews - something no blacks were able to do in South Africa.
Israeli hospitals not only treat Jews and
Arabs, they also treat Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank. On the same wards,
in the same operating theatres.
In
Israel, women have the same rights as men: there is no gender apartheid. Gay men and women face no restrictions, and
Palestinian gays often escape into Israel, knowing they may be killed at home.
It seems
bizarre to me that LGBT groups call for a boycott of Israel and say nothing
about countries like Iran, where gay men are hanged or stoned to death. That illustrates a mindset that
beggars belief.
Intelligent
students thinking it's better to be silent about regimes that kill gay people,
but good to condemn the only country in the Middle East that rescues and
protects gay people. Is
that supposed to be a sick joke?
University is supposed to be about learning
to use your brain, to think rationally, to examine evidence, to reach
conclusions based on solid evidence, to compare sources, to weigh up one view
against one or more others. If
the best Edinburgh can now produce are students who have no idea how to do any
of these things, then the future is bleak.
I do not
object to well-documented
criticism of Israel. I do object when supposedly
intelligent people single the Jewish state out above states that are horrific
in their treatment of their populations. We are going through the biggest upheaval in the
Middle East since the 7th and 8th centuries, and it's clear that Arabs and
Iranians are rebelling against terrifying regimes that fight back by killing
their own citizens.
Israeli
citizens, Jews and Arabs alike, do not rebel (though they are free to protest). Yet Edinburgh students mount no demonstrations and
call for no boycotts against Libya, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and Iran. They prefer to make false
accusations against one of the world's freest countries, the only country in
the Middle East that has taken in Darfur refugees, the only country in the
Middle East that gives refuge to gay men and women, the only country in the
Middle East that protects the Bahai's.... Need
I go on
The
imbalance is perceptible, and it sheds no credit on anyone who voted for this
boycott. I
ask you to show some common sense. Get
information from the Israeli embassy. Ask
for some speakers. Listen
to more than one side. Do
not make your minds up until you have given a fair hearing to both parties. You have a duty to your students,
and that is to protect them from one-sided
argument.
They are
not at university to be propagandized. And
they are certainly not there to be tricked into anti-Semitism by punishing one country among all the
countries of the world, which happens to be the only Jewish state. If there had been a single Jewish
state in the 1930's (which,
sadly, there was not), don't you think Adolf Hitler would have decided to boycott it
Your generation has a duty to ensure that
the perennial racism of anti-Semitism
never sets down roots among you. Today,
however, there are clear signs that it has done so and is putting down more. You have a chance to avert a very
great evil, simply by using reason and a sense of fair play. Please tell me that this makes
sense. I
have given you some of the evidence. It's
up to you to find out more.
Yours
sincerely
Denis
MacEoin
http://www.meforum.org/staff/Denis+MacEoin
http://www.facebook.com/notes/arnie-taragin/finally-an-incredible-letter-written-by-a-non-jewish-scottish-professor-to-his-s/10150297015783610
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