It is clear that the Gaza demos on university campuses in America and in this country are not about a ceasefire but about Israel’s right to exist. At Oxford University protesters were asked by the organisers to sign a declaration in favour of the ‘thawabit’. This document proclaims the ‘right to resist’ (i.e. intifada), the ’right to self determination’ (i.e. statehood), ‘Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine’ and ‘the right of Palestinian refugees to return’ (to their homes and lands). The last of these ‘rights’, implying an influx of millions of refugees and their descendants, would of course mean the end of Israel as a Jewish homeland. Needless to say, no mention is made of the exodus, in many cases forced and without compensation, of Jews from Muslim countries in North Africa and the Middle East.
Steven Rose ● 634d