On Monday 14 May 2018, tens of thousands of Gazans massed on the border with Israel. 62 were killed. There was a chorus of condemnation that Israel was killing ‘innocent protesters’. Those of us who combat lies about Israel knew this was nonsense. The IDF documents every use of weapons and is rigorous about not using them unless necessary. Sure enough, early on Wednesday 16 May Salah Bardawil, a Hamas official, said that 50 of the 62 killed were members of the Islamist terrorist group. The Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad had already said on Tuesday 15 May that three members of its Saraya al-Quds military wing were killed by Israeli forces in Khan Younis.
On 21 May 2018 Novara Media published a video by the academic David Wearing (now of SOAS… Where else …). Wearing notes the deaths on 14 May and vilifies Israel, quoting those well-known objective (not!) organisations Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. But does he mention that most of the dead were terrorists, sworn to obliterate the world’s only Jewish State? Of course not. Because he is an avowed Corbot and Momentum admirer (in all likelihood he’s a member). He wants to impose an arms embargo on Israel. He’s an Israel Derangement Syndrome Sufferer.
He believes there’s a ‘huge propaganda campaign whitewashing Israel’s crimes’ ……..
He signed in support of the planned antisemitic Conference at Southampton University in 2015
His PhD supervisor at SOAS was Prof Gilbert Achcar – who gives the Palestinians a moral pass for Holocaust denial on the grounds that they are supposedly oppressed by Israeli Jews.
He says he’s a friend of Faiza Shaheen. The Labour candidate who tried to deny that Corbyn laid a wreath on the grave of a Black September terrorist who murdered eleven Israeli Olympic athletes and a German policemen.
In other words Wearing is yet another academic contaminated by Israel Derangement Syndrome.
By the way here’s his assessment of Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer:
If you were a researcher for the BBC News Channel and you were looking for a well–informed, not-too-partisan Israel expert to be a guest to comment on the current tensions, would David Wearing be top of your list? Or even on your list at all? His book (and PhD) is about why the oil wealth of the Gulf States matters for the UK ….. (No Shit Sherlock, of course it does! The Gulf States are a customer for UK exports plus their oil wealth is needed for inward direct and portfolio investment for the UK. It’s a statement of the bleeding obvious). There is no indication of any expertise in Israel and its relations with its neighbours.
Well Have I Got News For You …. BBC News had Wearing as their ‘expert academic’ to comment on the escalation in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians. On Friday 14 May at sometime between 10:00 and 10:15 (catchup unavailable, wonder why ….).
Let’s fisk his lies:
“Politicians – or many of them – have has created the conditions in which this violence started”
Wrong. Hamas is responsible – specifically Hamas’ move out of Gaza to portray itself as ‘representing’ Arabs in Jerusalem and in mixed Israeli cities
“Israeli politics has really lurched to the far Right in the past ten years”
The cliché of the Left. The fact is that the Proportional Representation electoral system (with a threshold of just 3.25% for a Party to be represented in the Knesset) couldn’t possibly deliver a government of the ‘far Right’.
“Far right street gangs terrorising Palestinians”
There have been a few instances but it’s in response to Hamas incitement: extremism begets extremism.
“Palestinians have been increasingly spoken about and treated as a Fifth Column “
Evidence-free assertion.
“Whirlwind is being reaped that was sown over the past ten years “
Lazy evidence-free cliché.
Shaun Lay – the BBC interviewer – says of Israeli Arabs: ‘not having quite the same rights as Israeli Jews’. SOS – Shame On Shaun – All Israelis have the same rights, guaranteed by the Basic Laws!
Of course Wearing cites (as ‘really important’) the recent sham report from ‘the world’s leading Human Rights organisation’ Human Rights Watch:
“This is what’s underlying everything, this 2-tier system where Jewish people are treated by the Israeli State as effectively being superior to and of more value and of more worth and having more rights than Palestinian people”
Utter nonsense.
“This has even been set out in Israel’s Nation State Law in 2018 that explicitly stated that Israel is a state for the Jewish People …. Where does that leave the 20% of the population that’s Palestinian?”
The Nation State Law changed nothing in regard to the status of non-Jews. It simply codified the Jewish character of the State of Israel. It does NOT say that “Israel is a state for the Jewish people”. It says “The right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.” In other words Israel is and will remain a State with a Jewish identity. But also guarantees rights to minorities. Just as the established Church in the UK is the Church of England but members of other faiths (and none) are treated equally. No difference!
“This is [?meted] out quite concretely in terms of lack of equitable treatment in terms of residency, in terms of funding for communities … “
Rubbish.
“There is violence inherent in a situation like that … Subjugation of people is always going to rely ultimately on violence and what we’re seeing now is an upsurge in violence that is inherent in this way that Israel treats the Palestinian people “
Marxist drivel. Hamas is responsible for the upsurge in violence.
Shaun Lay limply attempts to provide some balance because he knows the BBC’s Editorial Standards: “Israel has right to defend itself”
Wearing’s response is predictable: “Israel isn’t just defending itself, it’s enforcing the subjugation of the Palestinian People and doing that through criminal behaviour”
Antisemitic drivel (IHRA says that ‘making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews’ is antisemitic).
Regarding Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, Wearing comments “Israel doesn’t discriminate properly between civilian and military targets”
Another antisemitic comment, reminiscent of the blood libel. He’s plain wrong and how appalling that he is teaching lies….. Israel achieves the lowest proportion of civilians to combatants (1:1) in asymmetric warfare of any country in the world. Israel always warns before a bombing raid and if there is a civilian visible, the raid is aborted.
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