[Boycott - Zionist Lobby]

University hit by anti-semitic website claims

Rob Waugh
27 January 2007

Marilyn Stowe
of Yorkshire law firm
Grahame Stowe Bateson
pressuring Leeds University to take action against Palestinian website

I cannot be associated with [no longer offer a five-figure sum to] Leeds University until this matter is resolved. I expect they will now take steps to deal with this situation..

Marilyn Stowe
principal and head of the Grahame Stowe Bateson (Private Client Family Law Unit)

Marilyn Stowe, an expert in divorce law and member of the legal advisory group to the Law Commission, said she could no longer offer a proposed five-figure sum after learning a post-graduate student, who also works for the university, was running a website containing anti-semitic material.

Akram Awad, a Palestinian Solidarity Group activist at the university, has a reference to "the evil Zionist virus" on his website which also includes a series of links to films relating to the Middle East conflict, two of which have been criticised for containing allegedly anti-semitic comments.

Mr Awad, who works part-time for the university IT help desk, was also behind a controversial students' union policy which limited potential complaints about anti-semitism to those deemed offensive to Judaism.

He champions the policy on his website which he says will allow "campaigning ... on the Palestinian cause and Israeli crimes without fear of being stopped or discriminated against by the Union following nonsensical and frivolous complaints by Zionist students."

The policy is at odds with official National Union of Students (NUS) policy which states that anti-semitism cannot be restricted to statements only on the Jewish faith.

Last night, Mrs Stowe said: "I have enormous concerns that Leeds University has been publicly linked with a website which is publishing anti-semitic material and with the greatest regret I cannot be associated with Leeds University until this matter is resolved.

"I expect they will now take steps to deal with this situation and not be perceived as pursuing a policy hostile to a particular group of students."

She is also pulling out of a speaking engagement at the university's business school on February 7.

Gemma Tumelty, NUS National President, said the university should launch an investigation into the allegations of anti-semitism surrounding the website.

Mr Awad insisted he was not anti-semitic, and said he had now withdrawn a link to one of the films from the website.

He said there was a disclaimer on the website about all the film links which asked any viewers who believed they were racially or religiously offensive to contact him.

He denied "evil Zionist virus" was anti-semitic because he drew a distinction between Zionism as a political ideology and Jewish people as a whole.

A Leeds University spokeswoman insisted the university was totally opposed to all forms of racism and it was not tolerated on campus. She said they were taking practical steps to reinforce this message and pro-actively working with members of the Jewish community.

She said: "All students and staff are required to abide by our equality and diversity policies, and to recognise our duty to promote good relations between people of different races."

She added: "The website akramawad.com was registered in 2005 in the name of a postgraduate student at Leeds, who gave the university as his postal address. This address has since been changed on the domain registration area. The website is hosted by an American company.

"It is not and has never been hosted, supported or endorsed in any way by the university ... we are reviewing it carefully and will take firm action over any material we judge to be clearly anti-semitic.

"Mrs Stowe has shared her concerns with us, and we have sought on a number of occasions to allay her fears."

rob.waugh@ypn.co.uk

Source: http://www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle.aspx?SectionID=55&ArticleID=1999793

Turning a UK University into a Yeshiva

Gilad Atzmon
2007-01-28

A few days ago I learned about Bonsoir. It is a web site maintained by a young Palestinian post-graduate student in Leeds. The site is a must see, it is an on-line Palestinian film library archive, a sort of ‘Palestinian You Tube’. The person who created the site is Akram Awad, who has gathered in a section called Palorama, an impressive collection of live stream audiovisual materials concerning Palestine, the Middle East and documents that present the ever-growing Zionist crime in sound and movement. I’ve also learned that he has occasionally collaborated on initiatives with Umkahlil, peacepalestine and Annie's Letters and is active in a very humble way, not seeming to be one who craves attention, but who cares about what he is doing.

Three days ago I wrote to Mr. Awad to tell him how impressed I was with his site. Last night he wrote back. Apparently, without drawing attention to his case, the young exiled Palestinian student is under fire. The Zionist lobby in Britain has utilised its heavy cannons against him and especially against his message.

Just like in North America where external funds help Zionist lobbies to dictate the academic discourse, Leeds University, a respected UK academic institute, is coming now under very similar heavy pressure.

I learned form the Yorkshire Post today that “Marilyn Stowe, an expert in divorce law and member of the legal advisory group to the Law Commission, said she could no longer offer a proposed five-figure sum after learning (that) a post-graduate student, who also works for the university, was running a website containing anti-Semitic material.”

Yet, Mr. Awad, clearly states on his site and in the UK press that he is an anti-Zionist rather than anti Semite. He shouldn’t have even gone through the trouble, because it is apparent that the site is dedicated to diffusing information on Palestine and the people of Palestine. He is not criticising Jews as an ethnic or racial group, but any mention of Jews is connected in a concrete way to the political action that Israel undertakes and is solely concerned with Zionism as an ideology and in practice. Moreover, Mr. Awad’s site contains some original articles, but much of it is set as an on-line archive. It is a collection of films that expresses a wide variety of ideas and expression, assuming that in a free world people are entitled to listen to other views and can make up their own minds.

Mrs. Stowe said, "I have enormous concerns that Leeds University has been publicly linked with a website which is publishing anti-Semitic material and with the greatest regret I cannot be associated with Leeds University until this matter is resolved. I expect they will now take steps to deal with this situation and not be perceived as pursuing a policy hostile to a particular group of students."

Mrs. Stowe is obviously entitled to decide what she wants to do with her money. Yet, a quick search reveals that it is not Leeds University that hosts Mr. Awad’s site. It is actually hosted by an American firm. Seemingly, Mrs. Stowe is misinformed, misinforming or even both. However, it is rather obvious that Mrs. Stowe sets the conditions of her support for the university by raising a clear demand for conformity of thoughts. In broad daylight, Mrs. Stowe offers economic contributions to Leeds University as long as the academic institute starts to operate as a Yeshiva (an institution specialised solely in Torah studies and Talmud in particular).

May I remind Mrs. Stowe that the word university is derived from the Latin ‘universitas magistrorum et scholarium’, (community of masters and scholars). Mr. Awad’s web site is exactly what Universitas stands for. It provides the world community with direct access into the Palestinian discourse. It makes knowledge available. It is there to share the notion of Zionist brutality with every Internet enthusiast on this planet. Mrs. Stowe is rather unhappy with it. She somehow prefers to silence the opponents of Israel. She prefers the restricting discourse. Mrs. Stowe, herself a graduate from Leeds University, may have forgotten what academic freedom is all about. But far more worryingly, being a lawyer, she is actually acting against freedom of speech.

May I remind Mrs. Stowe that it is the openness that made the West into something we can occasionally take pride in. If Mrs. Stowe does believe in the true notion of Universitas rather than in the silencing dynamic of the Yeshiva, she should regret her choice to withdraw funding and rush back to support a university that is lucky enough to have Akram Awad amongst its students.

However, Mrs. Stowe’s behavior is just another red light warning for the UK academic world. Seemingly, Zionist lobbies are there to exploit the diminishing governmental financial support for higher education.

Zionist lobbies will do whatever they can to interfere with academic freedom. Zionists know that ‘freedom of thought’ and ethical awareness are the gravest threats to Israeli politics and the Zio-centric discourse. Beware!

Gilad Atzmon is an Israeli born Jew who served in the Israeli army, currently living in London. He is a top proffesional jazz musician playing saxophone and clarinet.

Source: http://www.amin.org/look/amin/en.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=7&NrArticle= 39072&NrIssue=1&NrSection=3

The J-Word

Paul Eisen
UK Director of Deir Yassin Remembered
2007-02-01

From Paul Eisen - UK Director of Deir Yassin Remembered

To Mrs. Marilyn Stowe:

Dear Mrs. Stowe,

My friend Gilad has more than adequately exposed your shameful attempt, as described in the Jewish Chronicle, and the Yorkshire Post to use your money to silence free speech in Leeds University and to enforce on others your own shameful worldview. But may I add something of my own?

One of the reasons cited by you and others for the suppression of Akram Awad’s excellent website Bonsoir is the inclusion in it of the film -Deir Yassin: The Agony. This film, about the Deir Yassin massacre, centres on the testimony of one survivor of that massacre – Zainab Attieh, now an elderly survivor but then a young bride-to-be – who is seen at the site of the massacre describing exactly what happened on April 9 1948.

I know that you would prefer that none of this testimony was seen. You don’t want the world to know of Deir Yassin and the Nakba because then you could not maintain the spurious Jewish position as world number-one victim, even as Zionist Jews unleash untold misery on Palestinians and on so many others throughout the world. But those days are over. Now, even you can no longer get away with that kind of nonsense. So you find something in the film that you think you can get away with. And this is what you have found:

At one point in the film, Zainab Attieh says, “The Jews snatched the son and threw him in the baking oven”

Oh dear, it’s the J-word. No doubt about it, Zainab Attieh said the J word.

Well, Mrs Stowe, leave aside the fact that when Zainab Attieh saw these terrible events carried out by the (shhh..the J-word) there was no Israel and therefore no Israelis she could name as the murderers. Leave aside also that in Palestine and throughout the Arab world it is perfectly normal and acceptable to refer to Jewish Israelis as Yahud (Jews) simply because that is what they are. And also Mrs. Stowe, leave aside the fact that Zionists, while constantly complaining about the J-word, at the same time promote ad nauseam their own Holocaust by blackening the name of pretty much the entire non-Jewish world: The German and Austrian peoples who they say conceived and perpetrated it; the Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, Rumanian, Hungarian, peoples etc., etc who they say hosted, assisted in and cheered it on; the Americans, the British, the French, the Dutch, the Belgians, the Italians (but not the Danes and the Bulgarians) etc. who they say didn’t do enough to stop it; the Swiss who they say earned out of it and the entire Christian world who they say created the faith-traditions and ideologies in which it could take place - and now the Palestinian, Arab and Muslim peoples who they claim want to do it all over again – and all the while moaning about one little J-word on one Palestinian website.

Leaving all that aside Mrs. Stowe, I have some news for you:

The massacre at Deir Yassin including the throwing of that baby into the oven was perpetrated by Jews acting as Jews and for Jews. And the Zionist bullies at Leeds University, in their attempts to suppress free speech, to police the discourse and thus to maintain the oppression of Palestinians and others throughout the world, they also are Jews, acting as Jews and for Jews.

So Mrs. Stowe, forget the Jewish Chronicle and the Yorkshire Post, I’m looking forward to the Sun headline: JEWS GAG PALESTINIAN - WOTTA DISGRACE!!!

Yours sincerely

Paul Eisen

Deir Yassin Remembered

http://www.deiryassin.org/

paul@eisen.demon.co.uk

Source: http://tentmaker.org/wp/?p=123

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