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Several days after the ceasefire in Gaza, several suspicious incidents have been reported in Israel. However, it seems that for the moment, things are largely settled.
That hasn't stopped a group of approximately 40 Manchester Metropolitan University students attempting to use the dying embers of this fire to push their own strange agenda on the powers that be.
***UPDATE*** A link found, such as it is. Apparently these protests were co-ordinated among several British universities, despite the ceasefire.
I also have a source on the ground (unfortunately one the sheep who took part in this), so you'll have to take his overbearingly smug word for it (my refutations are under each point in bold):
Students from the Manchester Metropolitan University have today occupied the ground floor area of the Geoffrey Manton building in a show of solidarity with the people of Gaza.
In a statement issued earlier today, the protesters made the following demands upon the Vice-Chancellor:
1) Issue a public statement condemning Israel's attack on Palestinian educational institutions, including the bombing of the Islamic University of Gaza, and encourage your colleagues in the other Universities to issue a similar call.
This particular 'educational institution' had links to terrorism and the most vile extremist ideologies. I very much doubt if any of the 'protesters' would be happy to find a general Christian university in their city, let alone a Christian version of this, terror labs and all. I certainly wouldn't.
2) Establish an emergency fund for Palestinian students from Gaza and waive their tuition fees to support their efforts to acquire an education.
What's the emergency? That Hamas won't allow secular education? Why should our taxes go to potentially rewarding terrorist activity? If Arab students want to learn here, they can apply and pay like everyone else. Or is that the idea, to send out the message that if you elect a group of religious lunatics who insist upon attacking a powerful neighbour, it doesn't matter because the West will ride to the rescue. Failing scholarships, maybe we could just pay for their 'Jews and Christians are apes and pigs' textbooks and be done with it. Oh, we do already! My mistake.
3) Waive all application and tuition fees from students coming from Palestine and create scholarships specifically available for Palestinian students.
See above. But I will add many Muslims in the past have abused the hospitality of the West, so this seems a recipe for disaster. I would also say if you're that concerned about Arab education and freedom of mind, use your cash to fight Islamic extremism, not Israel.
4) To build links with Palestinian universities.
Israel actually built some Palestinian universities, and look where it gets them. They're often funded by the West somehow in any case. However, you would (rightly) not tolerate the sentiments of these universities were they Western or Christian.
5) Divest MMU funds from all firms contributing to the Israeli war effort.
If Israel ever does succumb to the war(s) being waged against it, efforts such as this will bear some of the moral responsibility. I would rather help a free nation defend itself and defeat terrorism than play any part in a second holocaust (again, see Hamas' stated goals).
6) To create a proper memorial to Tom Hurndall, a MMU student murdered by the Israeli Occupation forces in Gaza.
Tom Hurndall was actually shot by an Israeli-Arab soldier, although that fact was conveniently overlooked by much of the media.
7) To sever all academic links with Israeli institutions that don't oppose the continued occupation of Palestine.
This amounts to collective punishment, which these protesters supposedly stand so steadfastly against. Besides, what sensible Israeli would advocate the abandoning of strategic settlements and sealed borders without serious and tangible compromise on the Arab side?
8) That the Student's Union should allow political posters to be displayed on its windows/noticeboards/walls.
In other words, the Student Union should be allowed to inflict its nonsensical leftist agenda on all students, whilst claiming to speak for those who join simply for the discounts and social life.
Are we seriously to believe the other side would be heard?
9) That no military recruiters should be allowed on campus.
They show their true colours here. The British Army has nothing to do with Israel or its conflicts (well, since we pulled out of the Mandate at least). This is a display of the Student Union's anti-military agenda, and being against self defence is not the same as standing for peace.
10) That the University should boycott Coca-Cola and stop the sale of it in all its outlets.
No idea what this means. Do they refresh the 'evil occupiers?' Or have we roped in anti-Capitalist protesters now too?
11) That there should be no repercussions for anyone involved in the occupation of MMU buildings.
Again, true colours shining brightly through, and they're streaks of yellow. If these people had the courage of their convictions as they claim, this ridiculous (even contextually) addition would never have made the list. But no, they expect to act as they please and get away with it scott free - could this be what they have in common with Hamas?
When this first landed in my inbox I was at a loss for words, but I at least I did attempt a rebuttal, much good that it'll do me.
What annoys me the most is this list employs shameless double standards (the sort with which anyone with an independent mind who follows the news will be instantly familiar); for example, it's apparently not OK to 'collectively punish' the people of Gaza for electing Hamas, despite their actions and agenda, even though several venerable organs were crowing about how legitimate the murderous gang/political party are, and how free the elections were.
But it's OK to punish all Israelis for the actions of their (actually freely elected) government, whether they agree with them or not. Obviously.
I also find the omission that most of the Arabs killed were Hamas terrorists, and the fact that the (Israeli built) 'Islamic University of Gaza' was servicing weapons and extremist literature, deeply disturbing.
The most frightening thing about this conflict is how everyone with an anti-West, anti-nation state, if not outright anti-Israel or anti-semitic outlook has crawled out of the woodwork in a perverse unity, as if their views are now mainstream.
God help Britain if these people are our future.
Thursday 22 January 2009
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2 comments:
A couple of comments to some points in your essay:
"Israel actually built some Palestinian universities, and look where it gets them. They're often funded by the West somehow in any case."
Yes indeed. And furthermore, the "intrusion" of Western Colonialism into the Muslim world beginning in the 17th century and lasting clear through to the middle of the 20th century, involved (aside from a wealth of other assistance and introductions of technological, medical, institutional progress) the establishment of universities by the West -- all the way from Indonesia to India to Afghanistan to the Middle East to North and Central Africa.
"However, you would (rightly) not tolerate the sentiments of these universities were they Western or Christian."
The trouble is that people such as these protestors (whose sentiments partake of the darker more irrational waters of Leftism, even worse than PC MC) are absolutists about their double standard: the white West is evil, and the non-white non-West is "oppressed" by the West. White Westerners such as these protestors can become "Honorary Browns" (see my 3-part essay on this) through their romanticized solidarity with these underdogs who are being "oppressed" by the white West (with Israel in this view as an "Honorary White" and certainly Western entity). The implicit Reverse Racism in this view is not necessarily coherent, so flaws in its logic or seemingly contradictory expressions by some of these self-hating Western protestors do not vitiate the racism involved.
"9) That no military recruiters should be allowed on campus.
They show their true colours here. The British Army has nothing to do with Israel or its conflicts (well, since we pulled out of the Mandate at least). This is a display of the Student Union's anti-military agenda, and being against self defence is not the same as standing for peace."
Part of the incoherence of this Leftist ideology is its ability to mush things together that do not really belong coherently: in this particular case, any Western army is seen as an actual or potential "oppressor" of "downtrodden" underdogs (whether they be the Irish or the "Palestinians") -- and certainly are seen as historical oppressors through Western Colonialism. The British Army thus in the minds of these protestors is part of a larger System that is ethically tainted with a Western globalist enterprise that in myriad ways "oppresses" poor Third World peoples.
"10) That the University should boycott Coca-Cola and stop the sale of it in all its outlets.
No idea what this means. Do they refresh the 'evil occupiers?' Or have we roped in anti-Capitalist protesters now too?"
And this is one of the myriad ways in which the dastardly Western globalism "oppresses" those poor Third Worlders -- in this case, through ensnaring and ruining their day-to-day societies and lives through becoming sucked into our global economy which is helping to "rape" their people, their cultures, and their ecological environments, etc.
An amusing and significant footnote in this regard is a French radical Leftist activist who goes by the name of "Jose Bove" who became somewhat infamous a few years ago by personally destroying with a bulldozer a McDonald's restaurant in or near Paris. What's significant is that Jose Bove has also actively supported the "Palestinian" cause. So we can see that "Anti-Globalists" and Islam apologists are bedfellows and fellow travelers.
(BTW: I told a friend about your blog, and he told me he really likes it.)
Erich:
Thanks for your detailed and insightful comments.
As for your first point, I was having a chat with someone the other day when the conversation turned to Obama. He asked me if I'd be happy if we in Britain ever had an Indian Prime Minister, as the Indians had to put up with our rule for over 200 years. He then went on a passionate tirade about how we 'raped' that country.
I pointed out to him that darker episodes aside, we actually gave India an awful lot. Railways, its exceptional Civil Service, its education system, the English language which helped unite disparate tribes and make the government more effective.
Besides, when the Mughals and other Muslim foreigners conquered and ruled it, they were exceptionally more brutal than us.
He couldn't answer these points, but insisted I was a racist because I wouldn't just agree with him. C'est la vie.
I think the level of indoctrination of people my age and younger is absolutely terrifying, and Obama is now the standard bearer for this; not because a black man was actually elected president, but because of all the hysteria and 'this is the greatest day in history' rubbish from otherwise normal people.
I will get round to reading your essays soon, but I must admiteven the brief description rang true. I view it as a modern, leftist extension of the 'white man's burden' theory.
I looked up Bove; the ironic thing about globalism is it's us it will eventually finish; we're the global minority, and we really have the most to lose.
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