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The Left and the Jews

(Fathom-BICOM) Alan Johnson - I am not Jewish. But I am a person of the Left and have been since the late 70s. We left-wingers must rethink our refusal of the right to national self-determination of just one people, the Jewish people. We must rethink our commitment to boycott just one state in the whole wide world, the Jewish one. That singling-out is anti-Semitic in consequence, I am afraid, whatever the motivations of individual boycotters. Our task is huge: to build an intellectual firewall separating sharp criticism of Israeli policy from the spreading demonology of Zionism and Israel which is not legitimate and which can be lethal. Peace will only come through engagement and deep mutual recognition between the two peoples, and there is no alternative to negotiations and mutual compromise. The writer, editor of Fathom and Senior Research Fellow at BICOM, was professor of democratic theory and practice at Edge Hill University in England.
2016-03-09 00:00:00
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