free speech: we all scream for murder – at the oxford union

as you may know by now, the israeli deputy foreign minister, danny ayalon, was heckled pretty comprehensively at his speech at the oxford union on monday night. the high (or low) point came when, rather like the accusations of murder levelled at the israeli ambassador to the us, michael oren, at the university of california, irvine (which actually resulted in a few arrests) a man rose to his feet and launched into a diatribe which included one key arabic phrase, which has been widely reported as “itbah al-yahud”, or “kill the jews” – this phrase is, of course, familiar to me as the rallying cry for many middle-eastern atrocities, not least the baghdad pogrom of 1941 (that’s pre-state of israel, folks) known as the farhud.

it seems, from at least one eye-witness report, discussed on this blog, that the phrase actually shouted was “khaybar, khaybar ya yahud” – you can see video of the incident here (and of the ayalon incident here). much will be made, of course, of the ‘twisting’ and ‘misreporting’ of the incident, if it turns out (i can’t quite make it out myself) if the protestor was not yelling “itbah al-yahud”.

unfortunately, the alternative is no better. the reference to khaybar will not be lost on anyone who knows anything about early islamic history and what happened to the jewish tribesmen of khaybar when muhammad fell out with them. this chant itself is a regular feature of demos all over the middle east and its symbolism is not casual; nor is the sentiment expressed in the chant reported outside the chamber: ‘free palestine from the river to the sea’. even a cursory glance at the map will show anyone what that implies about the state of israel.

i scarcely need to mention the use of the word “yahud” – it doesn’t mean “israeli”, or even “zionist”.

oxford university is supposed to be a bastion of free speech, which i too support. is this what we mean by free speech? i mean, i am not a fan of danny ayalon, or his boss, or his boss’s boss. i am not a fan of michael oren. but it seems to me that such behaviour is not aimed at representatives of other controversial states – and i am bound to ask why.

the protest at oxford was, apparently, organised by the “palsoc” and the “oxford anti-war action group”. i wonder (although not that hard) where the hard lefties are involved in these campaigns.