Anti-Zionism: Respectably academic

A potentially ugly row is brewing in the United Kingdom over an academic conference, due to be held at the University of Southampton in April, which carries the title, “International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism.”

Given that a sentence construction like that one will leave most people with their eyes glazed over, let’s just cut to the chase here. The real title of this conference is, “Does the State of Israel Have a Legal Right to Exist? No, Of Course it Doesn’t.”

Hence the growing volley of criticism heading in the direction of Southampton, one of Britain’s better universities. “They have never held a conference questioning the right of existence of any other country,” said Lord Leigh, a prominent member of the Conservative Party.

Lord Leigh is absolutely correct on this point, but that won’t bother the organizers one jot. The clue as to why is in the word “exceptionalism” in the conference title. Israel, uniquely in a world that is still dominated by the nation-state system, is a state built upon violence and ethnic cleansing, and the task of academics, therefore, is to unravel the legal implication that inevitably follows: that as a sovereign entity, the Jewish state should be dismantled.

I’m undecided as to how serious a problem this conference is, although it’s important to note that British Jews are incensed by it.

Given that, let me offer one reason as to why we shouldn’t be overly worried. Many of the speakers have been around for what seems like an eternity—so long, in fact, that if Israel, heaven forbid, were to disappear, the immediate result for these folks would be unemployment.