Eric Lee

War on Want is a respected UK charity which works to combat poverty and promote human rights around the world. Pluto Press is a respected left-wing publishing house which to its everlasting credit is the publisher of my second book. So when the two come together to host an event on the subject of Israel, naturally one should only expect the best.
And yet the event I attended last night in East London’s Toynbee Hall was — as a friend predicted — a horror story.

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This evening marks the beginning of Holocaust Memorial Day in Israel. It is also Adolf Hitler’s 120th birthday. What an appropriate day, therefore, for the United Nations to convene its international conference on racism and to have as its only head of state to attend the event the Holocaust-denying, anti-Semitic, gay-bashing, trade-union repressing president of Iran — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
I was very proud of the fact that Israel and the United States chose not to attend, and that they were followed by other democracies including Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

I am also delighted that those democracies which have attended — including the United Kingdom — chose to walk out shortly after the Iranian president began his speech.
Watching all those delegates get up out of their seats, walking with determination toward the doors, in one case waving a fist at the Iranian dictator, I could not help but feel delighted.
This is what the real struggle against racism looks like.

Last night, the second largest union in Britain, Unison, voted to call for “an economic, cultural, academic and sporting boycott” of Israel. This follows similar calls by two other unions — the NUJ and UCU.
If you oppose the boycott, please print out this A4 sized full colour poster proclaiming “No to racist boycotts! Israelis and Palestinians welcome here!” and hang it in your workplace and in your home. (The poster is in PDF format.)
And please encourage other opponents of racist boycotts to link to this page and to download the poster themselves.