Thursday 11th January

Fair criticism or a step too far?

Some very dubious emails are circulating widely within UCU about my views on Israel. I think they go well beyond what is a reasonable tone. I’m putting a link to them on my web site so you can make your own mind up.

The emails acknowledge that I don’t support the academic boycott of Israel but go on to suggest that because I think it is quite legitimate for UCU members to criticise Israeli policy – or indeed to argue for a boycott - I don’t understand the nature of anti-semitism.

They then go on to suggest that since I have mentioned in passing that my dad – a Jewish Communist who fought in the battle of Cable Street against the fascists – held similar views, this means that in some way there is a link between my current views on Israel and what Stalin did to Russia’s Jews.

I’ll leave it to you to decide where the logic is in this. I think any group of UCU members are entitled to comment or the election, and encourage their supporters to attend hustings and influence the vote. But it would help if the language was rather more temperate and the logic more robust.

The author David Hirsh writes 'it is a little unsettling that he (me) seems to rely on the advice of a member of the mid-twentieth century communist party for his understanding of anti Semitism' and then provides four paragraphs on the Communist Parties' record. Presumably the intention is to smear me by association for having had a communist as a father……..

Hirsh asserts that: "Opposition to Israeli foreign policy is entirely legitimate and it would be absurd and dishonest to attempt to de-legitimize such opposition by claiming that it was necessarily anti-Semitic. Yet this defence of the right to criticize - which nobody serious could disagree with - functions as code for defending the right to exclude Israelis."

Pardon?

David Hirsch urges co-thinkers: ”UCU hustings for Gen Sec - quiz the candidates on proposals to exclude Israeli academics from our campuses, journals and conferences.”

Anyway, read the piece for yourself here

I’m going to stick primarily to the issues members are raising with me in meeting after meeting – and which will form the cornerstone of my manifesto.