A line must be drawn

A line must be drawn

It cannot possibly get worse than this. The dissemination of
literature from a racist, antisemitic, white-supremacist,
conspiracy-theorising website in the name of providing insight and/or
commentary on Zionism or the policies of the Israeli government is a
low point many refused to believe could be reached - though a few have
warned that this is where things were headed for some time.

But, having reached this low-point, we have to ask ourselves if it can
be allowed to sink any lower.

If those in British Unions who flirt with the far-right can weasel out
of this, then they can weasel out of anything. A line must be drawn
here. A line must be drawn now.

If this is acceptable and accepted - indeed, if this is even mere
tolerated - then a line is crossed. What could possibly still remain
unacceptable? What taboos remain? Violence against Jewish students
'explained' by left-wing academics? Desecration of Jewish graveyards
celebrated on Indymedia? Would that still shock? And if so, for how
long?

What can we imagine that is worse than someone on the anti-Israel Left
using neo-Nazi hate polemic as propaganda?

If they can 'teflon' it away, then there is nothing they can't and
won't do. Apologists for antisemitism are ludicrously inventive, but
if they can get away with using neo-Nazi material, there is no limit,
no boundaries, nothing beyond taste and decency.

The UCU describes itself as "the largest post-school union in the
world". It has thousands of members. Yet it has remained silent on the
issue of its email list being used to distribute a link to a Ku Klux
Klansman's website. A small band of Jewish members and the supporters
have been left to protest to largely deaf ears.

What signals does this send?

Does anyone doubt that if a racist white professor had expressed his
theories about innate racial differences and had backed these up by
suggesting UCU members read another article on the same website that
Jenna Delich linked to, and had endorsed it in a similar fashion, that
the response would have been markedly different?

If Delich had been, for argument's sake, an anti-immigration proponent
and had posted an article "America Will Turn Non-White During Our
Lifetime" (also published on davidduke.com) would we now be
experiencing this deafening silence from the UCU leadership?

Is it not quite simply the fact that Jews were the target of the
racist diatribe published on davidduke.com Delich linked to that made
all the difference? Is antisemitism now so unremarkable.

If we do not draw a line here, those on the Left slouching towards the
return of full-blown Nazi-style Jew-hatred will arrive at this
destination sooner than we think.