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Israelis 'not Zionist enough' for Oxford Israel SocietyThe university's Israeli students have left the Israel Society in the hands of a group ofdetermined British Jews, saying the organization doesn't realize that not every Israelisupports the Israeli government.

By Anshel Pfeffer and Or Kashti | Feb. 13, 2014 | 4:17 PM | 9

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Oxford Univ ersity . Photo by Wikicommons

If it was happening at any other student society, then the war of words, the

expulsion of a student and the split among the small membership of one of

hundreds of societies active at Oxford University would have been of little

interest to any but those involved.

But the goings-on at the Oxford Israel Society over the last two months

illustrate a much wider and growing divide between Israelis and Diaspora

Jews, and between energetic advocates of Israel and Israelis who are

believe these foreign friends are actually damaging their country's

interests.

The bottom line is that as of last month, the Israeli students in Oxford

have left the Israel Society, leaving it to a group of determined British

Jews. Jerusalem native Ariel Hoffman, an Israeli MA student in advanced

mathematics and son of prominent civil-rights

campaigner and Women of the Wall leader Anat

Hoffman, was barred from the society's events and its

Facebook page after according to him "being too

Israeli" and according to the society's leadership

"being a troublemaker." Matters got worse when the

affair was published in the local Oxford Student

newspaper by reporters Ruth Maclean and Ben

Goldstein and another Israeli, Yishai Mishor, wrote an

open letter on the case in a local students' newspaper,

committing the sin of airing an internal Jewish broigez

out in the open.

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Everyone is aware of the irony of the Israelis not being pro-Israel enough

to belong to the Israel Society. "They kicked me out because I was too

Israeli," says Hoffman. "I joined in the hope that there would be events

connected to Israel, films, culture, food, but nothing with an

establishment connection. It was immediately clear to me that they have a

very different ideology to mine. They have a fetish for anti-Semitism,

every second sentence they say is about it and every criticism of Israel is

anti-Semitic. I tried to explain to them that not every Israeli is a Zionist

and not everyone agrees with the government. They found it hard to

digest that Israelis have different views."

"They want the society to be focused on pro-Israel advocacy," says Yishai

Mishor, a lecturer at the Tel-Aviv University law school who is doing his

PhD at Oxford and was the one to write the letter in The Oxford Student

newspaper in which he suggested the Israel Society "change their name to

the 'Netanyahu Support Society' and stop abusing the name of my

country." "They spend their time looking for fights," says Mishor. "It

harms the Israelis here and damages Israel's image when all they do is row

with the Palestinians."

The consolation of those remaining in the society is that not all Israelis are

like the small bunch of 40 Israeli students at Oxford. "The type of Israelis

who study at Oxford come from an elite Ashkenazi, high-income

background. Maybe they don’t feel they have to defend Israel," says

Jonathan Hunter, one of the leading members of the Israel Society. "They

can say we don't know enough about Israel but these guys don't know what

it is to live in the UK and hear all the time lies about Israel. They really

shouldn't have gone behind our backs to a student newspaper. It just

proves how everyone is eager to publish nasty things about Jews and

Israel."

Hunter does have a point when he says that at least some Israelis,

certainly those representing the government, support what he and his

friends are trying to do. Over the last couple of years, the Israeli Embassy

has intensified its efforts to engage with students groups and increase pro-

Israel advocacy on campus. One of the ways of doing this has been to

bring high-profile Israeli lecturers to the universities. Last month, the

Israel Society hosted Science Minister Jacob Perry in Oxford. This

proved another of the flashpoints. "Hoffman said he will bring a

Palestinian friend of his to listen to Perry," recalls Hunter. "It was clear he

was just being a troublemaker. I can understand that he and other Israelis

have concerns about the political nature of what we do, but we engage in

pro-Israel advocacy and that's very important in Britain. We didn't expel

him because he's anti-Zionist, but because he was rude and says

inflammatory things."

Along with his activity in the Israel Society, Hunter is also the Campus

Director of Stand With Us U.K., an advocacy group with headquarters in

Los Angeles and Jerusalem. Last month the Israel Society at Oxford voted

on a new constitution which affiliated the society with Stand With Us and

the British Zionist Federation. "Stand With Us is a hardline right-wing

group," charges Mishor. "Since they arrived on the scene, the Israel

Society has become very secretive and political. They have campaigned

against groups such as (left-wing Zionist) J-Street in the U.S. and Yachad

in Britain, so how can they call themselves pluralistic? As an Israeli who

served my country for four years as an IDF officer, I don't need them to

tell me how to support Israel." Mishor who in the past was president of the

Jewish Society (Jsoc) of Oxford says that since his open letter was

published "I have received numerous emails from Jewish students here

telling me they also disagree with the group running the Israel Society."

Stand With Us which describes itself as "a nonprofit organization

supporting Israel around the world" denies that it is right-wing or has any

political affiliation and maintains that it has never received funding from

the government, though it does coordinate a lot of its activities with

government ministries. "We don't run the Israel Society in Oxford," says

Stand With Us Israel Director, Michael Dickson. "Our job is to educate

people about Israel and the students in Oxford asked for our help and to

be affiliated with us. It's not political." He believes that the split between

the Israelis and the Israel Society is "a little broigez" but has some words

of admonishment for the Israelis there. "They should be involved in

supporting Israel and educating people" he says. "When so many are

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acting against Israel, we can't stand aside."

The Israeli Embassy said in a statement that "as part of its activity on

campuses the embassy supports cultural events Israel Societies on

campuses throughout Britain. The societies are autonomous and their

policy is decided in accordance with internal votes they take periodically

and the embassy has no involvement in that."

Richard Black, the Israel Society president who argued with Adam

Hoffman over Facebook and expelled him from the society was not willing

to comment. A statement put out by the society emphasized that it "is a

pluralistic body welcoming a range of opinions from its members" but did

not refer to the expulsion of the decision of other Israeli members to

leave.

Anat Hoffman, who was in Oxford this week visiting her son and his new-

born daughter, said that "I am very proud of Ariel and the stand he made.

The problem is that some people have a very narrow definition of

patriotism and it only causes harm to Israel."

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04 dissenter not being logical

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80 years ago 1 political movement decidedwhat was a good German

By dcj 14 Feb 2014 05:16AM

Zionism

By A lex Limpach 14 Feb 2014 10:46AM

Democracy is not treason

By Rob 14 Feb 2014 00:12PM

03 Oxford Israel Society

By Donald Mintz 13 Feb 2014 05:51PM

02 The EU finance those Israeli leftist traitors

By The new Kapo 13 Feb 2014 05:46PM

01 Anat defending his little boy. Cute. (That guy musthave serious problems)

By Heinrich Graetz 13 Feb 2014 05:37PM

Another ignroant smartass

By Rob 14 Feb 2014 00:07PM

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