Page 5 - CUFI Update Winter 2017

Israel is NOT an apartheid state
The worst example of an apartheid regime was South Africa. It’s unacceptable to compare Israel with South Africa. Let’s be clear: Israel is not an apartheid state. For example,
• Every person in Israel has full equal rights, 1.6 million Arab Israelis have the same rights as the 6.8 million Jewish Israelis.
• In Israel incitement to racism is a criminal o ence, people have freedom of association, freedom
of expression, freedom of religion, freedom of speech and all adults have the right to vote.
• Israel is a place where women enjoy equality, the media is unfettered and critical, an independent judiciary protects the powerless from the powerful, educational excellence and scientific innovation are pursued and a welfare state supports the poor.
• Arabs and other minorities, serve in the Israel Defense Forces, in the Knesset and are well- represented in the media.
• Israel is a fully functioning and vibrant participatory democracy.
Impact so far:
WE NEED YOUR HELP!
Please send an email to the President of Universities UK and your constituency MP to ensure that British universities comply with the law.
Visit www.cufi.org.uk/latest-action-alert and follow the instructions.
Using the pre-completed email and MP look-up, you can contact them in just a few simple steps!
COUNTERING ANTI-ISRAEL HATE ON UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES
This month we launched an online campaign to stop the so-called “Israel Apartheid Week” events from taking place on campuses.
As you will know through our news coverage and emails, British universities are increasingly becoming hotbeds of anti-Semitism and ugly anti-Israel rhetoric.
In March, a number of student groups are planning to run what is called “Israel Apartheid Week” an event designed to delegitimise and attack the reputation of the Jewish state.
OFFENSIVE AND ILLEGAL
Organisers of Israel Apartheid Week plan to distribute o ensive and mendacious propaganda to students
in university campuses across the country and in doing
so they break the law. This is because Universities in Britain and Northern Ireland have a legal duty to foster good relations between students of di erent nationalities, ethnic groups and/or religious beliefs. Israeli students
are protected as a nationality and Jewish students are protected as an ethnic group, irrespective of their religious beliefs. To comply with this important duty universities must refuse to allow university property to display false and inflammatory propaganda that includes the phrase “Israel Apartheid Week”.
• Thousands have so far got involved with this campaign in partnership with Israel Britain Alliance.
• Three universities have so far scrapped “Israel Apartheid Week” events in response to the campaign.
• However, more universities are planning events over the next few weeks.
Not only is this event o ensive and intimidating, it is also based on complete lies.
We have a responsibility to ensure that universities in this country are places where truth speaks louder than lies. This is why we are asking CUFI UK supporters to spend a few moments to take action in what is possibly one of our most important campaigns to date - because this impacts the next generation in their understanding of Israel.
We cannot sit back as this nation’s future political leaders, doctors, journalists, teachers, business people and other professionals are fed lies that demonise the Jewish State.