israelis 'not zionist enough' for oxford israel society, anshel pfeffer & or kashti,...
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Israelis 'not Zionist enough' for Oxford Israel SocietyThe university's Israeli students have left the Israel Society in the hands of a group ofdetermined British Jews, saying the organization doesn't realize that not every Israelisupports the Israeli government.
By Anshel Pfeffer and Or Kashti | Feb. 13, 2014 | 4:17 PM | 9
1 Tweet 98
Oxford Univ ersity . Photo by Wikicommons
If it was happening at any other student society, then the war of words, the
expulsion of a student and the split among the small membership of one of
hundreds of societies active at Oxford University would have been of little
interest to any but those involved.
But the goings-on at the Oxford Israel Society over the last two months
illustrate a much wider and growing divide between Israelis and Diaspora
Jews, and between energetic advocates of Israel and Israelis who are
believe these foreign friends are actually damaging their country's
interests.
The bottom line is that as of last month, the Israeli students in Oxford
have left the Israel Society, leaving it to a group of determined British
Jews. Jerusalem native Ariel Hoffman, an Israeli MA student in advanced
mathematics and son of prominent civil-rights
campaigner and Women of the Wall leader Anat
Hoffman, was barred from the society's events and its
Facebook page after according to him "being too
Israeli" and according to the society's leadership
"being a troublemaker." Matters got worse when the
affair was published in the local Oxford Student
newspaper by reporters Ruth Maclean and Ben
Goldstein and another Israeli, Yishai Mishor, wrote an
open letter on the case in a local students' newspaper,
committing the sin of airing an internal Jewish broigez
out in the open.
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Everyone is aware of the irony of the Israelis not being pro-Israel enough
to belong to the Israel Society. "They kicked me out because I was too
Israeli," says Hoffman. "I joined in the hope that there would be events
connected to Israel, films, culture, food, but nothing with an
establishment connection. It was immediately clear to me that they have a
very different ideology to mine. They have a fetish for anti-Semitism,
every second sentence they say is about it and every criticism of Israel is
anti-Semitic. I tried to explain to them that not every Israeli is a Zionist
and not everyone agrees with the government. They found it hard to
digest that Israelis have different views."
"They want the society to be focused on pro-Israel advocacy," says Yishai
Mishor, a lecturer at the Tel-Aviv University law school who is doing his
PhD at Oxford and was the one to write the letter in The Oxford Student
newspaper in which he suggested the Israel Society "change their name to
the 'Netanyahu Support Society' and stop abusing the name of my
country." "They spend their time looking for fights," says Mishor. "It
harms the Israelis here and damages Israel's image when all they do is row
with the Palestinians."
The consolation of those remaining in the society is that not all Israelis are
like the small bunch of 40 Israeli students at Oxford. "The type of Israelis
who study at Oxford come from an elite Ashkenazi, high-income
background. Maybe they don’t feel they have to defend Israel," says
Jonathan Hunter, one of the leading members of the Israel Society. "They
can say we don't know enough about Israel but these guys don't know what
it is to live in the UK and hear all the time lies about Israel. They really
shouldn't have gone behind our backs to a student newspaper. It just
proves how everyone is eager to publish nasty things about Jews and
Israel."
Hunter does have a point when he says that at least some Israelis,
certainly those representing the government, support what he and his
friends are trying to do. Over the last couple of years, the Israeli Embassy
has intensified its efforts to engage with students groups and increase pro-
Israel advocacy on campus. One of the ways of doing this has been to
bring high-profile Israeli lecturers to the universities. Last month, the
Israel Society hosted Science Minister Jacob Perry in Oxford. This
proved another of the flashpoints. "Hoffman said he will bring a
Palestinian friend of his to listen to Perry," recalls Hunter. "It was clear he
was just being a troublemaker. I can understand that he and other Israelis
have concerns about the political nature of what we do, but we engage in
pro-Israel advocacy and that's very important in Britain. We didn't expel
him because he's anti-Zionist, but because he was rude and says
inflammatory things."
Along with his activity in the Israel Society, Hunter is also the Campus
Director of Stand With Us U.K., an advocacy group with headquarters in
Los Angeles and Jerusalem. Last month the Israel Society at Oxford voted
on a new constitution which affiliated the society with Stand With Us and
the British Zionist Federation. "Stand With Us is a hardline right-wing
group," charges Mishor. "Since they arrived on the scene, the Israel
Society has become very secretive and political. They have campaigned
against groups such as (left-wing Zionist) J-Street in the U.S. and Yachad
in Britain, so how can they call themselves pluralistic? As an Israeli who
served my country for four years as an IDF officer, I don't need them to
tell me how to support Israel." Mishor who in the past was president of the
Jewish Society (Jsoc) of Oxford says that since his open letter was
published "I have received numerous emails from Jewish students here
telling me they also disagree with the group running the Israel Society."
Stand With Us which describes itself as "a nonprofit organization
supporting Israel around the world" denies that it is right-wing or has any
political affiliation and maintains that it has never received funding from
the government, though it does coordinate a lot of its activities with
government ministries. "We don't run the Israel Society in Oxford," says
Stand With Us Israel Director, Michael Dickson. "Our job is to educate
people about Israel and the students in Oxford asked for our help and to
be affiliated with us. It's not political." He believes that the split between
the Israelis and the Israel Society is "a little broigez" but has some words
of admonishment for the Israelis there. "They should be involved in
supporting Israel and educating people" he says. "When so many are
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acting against Israel, we can't stand aside."
The Israeli Embassy said in a statement that "as part of its activity on
campuses the embassy supports cultural events Israel Societies on
campuses throughout Britain. The societies are autonomous and their
policy is decided in accordance with internal votes they take periodically
and the embassy has no involvement in that."
Richard Black, the Israel Society president who argued with Adam
Hoffman over Facebook and expelled him from the society was not willing
to comment. A statement put out by the society emphasized that it "is a
pluralistic body welcoming a range of opinions from its members" but did
not refer to the expulsion of the decision of other Israeli members to
leave.
Anat Hoffman, who was in Oxford this week visiting her son and his new-
born daughter, said that "I am very proud of Ariel and the stand he made.
The problem is that some people have a very narrow definition of
patriotism and it only causes harm to Israel."
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