Thread by @NudderingNudnik

A follow up to my thread yesterday on the obsessional and publicly funded hate promoted by @FestOfDebate .

After complaints from a local Jewish woman in Sheffield it seems that the @FestOfDebate added an Israeli speaker to a discussion panel on Saturday evening.

This could only be an honest attempt to balance the irrational hatred towards all things Israeli, “Zionist” and Jewish? A victory for decent anti-racist principles and a step toward an inclusivity that includes British Jews?

Well, no.

The @FestofDebate event chose instead to double down and add insult to the contempt they have shown for Jewish concerns.

The Israeli participant selected to appear was predictably one of a fringe group of obsessives who also hate all things Israeli/ “Zionist” and Jewish.

The Israeli was Ronnie Barkan. A fringe far-Left activist who has said:

“I don’t define myself as being Israeli or Jewish, but that is the way that the State of Israel defines me – that is my legal status under Israeli apartheid.”

Barkan has defended violent attacks on Israelis, saying  that Palestinians should create a “popular struggle rather than a nonviolent one”

The Israeli that @FestofDebate choose to appear at their event inevitably describes himself as an “anti-Zionist” and refers to Israel as “the Jewish-supremacist entity...founded on the basis of ethnic cleansing and ethnic segregation.”
I assume that Gilad Atzmon had another gig.

When asked by a member of a beleaguered minority to re-think its approach to a highly charged and sensitive issue at a time of unprecedented pressure affecting the lives of British Jews, @FestOfDebate and it’s partners chose to spit in the face of British Jews.

This is nothing short of publicly funded racism and it is impossible to imagine any other minority group being treated with such contempt.

A reminder that @FestOfDebate sponsors & partners include publicly funded bodies such as
@sheffhallamuni @sheffielduni @SheffCouncil

Ends