BICOM, the Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre, is an independent British organisation dedicated to providing a more supportive environment for Israel in Britain. BICOM pursues its objectives through a range of activities, one of which is the publication of the quarterly Fathom journal under the editorship of Professor Alan Johnson. With its aim stated to be “to promote a deeper understanding of Israel and the region,” Fathom has 30,000 regular readers, among which are policy makers and opinion formers, mostly in the UK, but also in Europe, the USA and Israel. Fathom seminars, which are run in London as an adjunct to the journal, are attended by leading think tankers, academics, and desk officers from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO). With a reputation for accessibility, objectivity and authoritative scholarship, each issue of Fathom offers a range of articles on the nature of contemporary anti-Semitism, as well as news and analysis on Israel and the region. David Ward, M.P. Fathom 5 is now available online and I am pleased to be one of the contributors to this issue. My contribution, which looks at the ugly phenomenon of Holocaust inversion – the equation of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians with the Nazis’ treatment of the Jews, and the associated accusation that “the Jews” failed to learn a moral lesson from the Holocaust – is both important and timely. Not only did David Ward, Liberal-Democrat MP for Bradford East, indulge in Holocaust inversion on Holocaust Memorial Day 2013, but only this week, on February 5th 2014, yet another politician, Yasmin Qureshi, MP (Labour) made the following statement during a debate in Parliament: “What has struck me in all this is that the State of Israel was founded because of what happened to the millions and millions of Jews who suffered genocide. Their properties, homes and land – everything – were taken away, and they were deprived of rights. Of course, many millions perished. It is quite strange that some of the people who are running the state of Israel seem to be quite complacent and happy to allow the same to happen in Gaza.” My article titled, ‘Holocaust Inversion and Contemporary Anti-Semitism’ can be found at the following link: www.fathomjournal.org/policy-politics/holocaust-inversion/ But please take the opportunity to read the entire issue of Fathom 5, which can be accessed at the link below. With contributions by David Landau on the late Ariel Sharon, Aluf Benn on Benjamin Netanyahu, Dave Rich on the Quenelle, David Hirsh on Jewish left-wing anti-Zionism and BDS, and Steven Lee Beeber on the music of Lou Reed, among many other features, Fathom 5 is a most thought-provoking and enjoyable read. www.fathomjournal.org
Various news outlets are reporting that England’s high court has denied an appeal by the four anti-Israel protesters who had been convicted for trespassing inside a London branch of Ahava, the Israeli cosmetics company. The four had been convicted in 2011 of illegal trespassing for chaining themselves to a concrete block in an Ahava store in Covent Garden. The four claimed to be demonstrating against Israeli settlement policies in the West Bank, insisting that the settlements constituted a war crime. The protesters also claimed that Ahava’s products were misleading because they claimed to be from the Dead Sea in “Israel” when in fact they were produced on Palestinian land. Read more here.