British protesters attack Israel's deputy ambassador

[shira]

Pro-Palestinian protesters storm towards Talya Lador-Fresher after her speech at Manchester University, prompting police to whisk her away from site. Protesters proceed to encircle police car, climb on hood. Ambassador Ron Prosor says sweeping denunciation expected

Hagit Klaiman
Published: 04.29.10, 17:51 / Israel News

LONDON – A lecture given by Israel's Deputy Ambassador to Britain Talya Lador-Fresher at the University of Manchester deteriorated Wednesday into violence when pro-Palestinian protesters stormed at the diplomat in an attempted attack.

The protesters were waiting for Lador-Fresher outside the lecture hall, but this did not deter her from entering as planned. Immediately upon her exit, the protesters lunged at the diplomat, prompting security guards to whisk her back into the hall. Following a consultation on the site, it was decided to escort her out of the premises in a police car.

more...
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3882700,00.html

[shira]

1. From JPost

“I don’t think they wanted to kill me, but I genuinely believed they wanted to physically hurt me," she said. "If I had not had the police and security team, I would have been beaten up.”

Lador-Fresher told the Jewish Chronicle, “No foreign diplomat should have to go through what I went through.”

She had been scheduled to give the lecture in February, but it was postponed following reports of planned demonstrations and the inability of university authorities to properly protect her. At that time, more than 300 protesters from the Action Palestine student society scuffled with Jewish students and police.

The lecture was scheduled for Wednesday, when police and university authorities said they were prepared to deal with the demonstrators, including a complete lockdown of the building, a high-level security presence, ID checks at the door and ticket-only arrangements.

http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishNews/Article.aspx?ID=174309&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[shira]

2. Not one report from any British papers

Here's Haaretz...
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1166302.html

[Donald Ian Rankin]

3. Note that the non-far-right source puts it rather differently...

Haaretz does not describe the incident as an "alleged attack".

Note also that both sources acknowledge that none of the protesters succesfully perpetrated any violence against her person, and neither of them quotes any source but her for the claim that they intended to do so.

[shira]

6. Is Haaretz that non-far-right source? Are they a leftist source or not left enough?

[shira]

9. You didn't see the picture of the attempted attack on her car in the YNET article, did you?

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[shira]

12. Yes, non-violent peaceful protesters with their hearts in the right place

:eyes:

Those idiots are the mirror image of Israel's nutball settlers.

[breakaleg]

14. Let's wait until they thron rocks at Israeli children before we go that far.

[LeftishBrit]

4. Here's a description of the incident from the Manchester University student newspaper

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:h5mFDRe1LMEJ:www.student-direct.co.uk/2010/02/students-clash-over-israeli-ambassador-visit/+talya+lador+fresher&cd=26&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a


Unfortunately, it's not unknown for students and other local protesters to get rowdy when opposing speakers, and it is by no means confined to Israeli speakers. And newspapers tend not to prioritize such events in their reporting, especially if no one was injured, and especially if they are concentrating almost exclusively on the run-up to what is likely to be an extremely close general election in less than a week's time.

[Tripmann]

5. Yeah, I had some trouble finding the story

I guess so close to a national election its a bit of a non-story.

[shira]

7. This article was written before the incident from 2 days ago

[proteus_lives]

8. If a Palestinian politician had been attacked, we'd be seeing a different reaction on this forum.

Fact of life on DU.

[shira]

10. Violence against Israeli speaker is not an isolated incident

Violence against Israeli speaker is not an isolated incident
April 30, 2010 — Mira Vogel

http://engageonline.wordpress.com/2010/04/30/violence-against-israeli-speaker-is-not-an-isolated-incident/

At the University of Manchester, anti-Israel demonstrators, reportedly from Action Palestine, surrounded and tried to attack deputy Israeli ambassador Talya Lador-Fresher after she’d given a political science lecture at Manchester University. She has the impression that they would have beaten her up if they could. The event had been postponed previously due to security concerns. A spokesperson for the University of Manchester commented irrelevantly:

“The University is fundamentally committed to freedom of speech, exercised within the law. It follows that it should also allow peaceful and lawful protest to take place on its campus.”

Not reassuring – the protest was not peaceful but violent.

There are political players at the extremes of Israeli and Palestinian society, along with their supporters, who would like us to consider this attack representative of Palestine solidarity, but it isn’t. At most, it represents support for the minority within Palestinian society which hates and attacks Israelis, and works to drive them away. In their approach and mentality Action Palestine activists have more in common with the extreme right Israelis who left a pipe-bomb outside the home of anti-occupation activist Ze’ev Sternhell than they have with genuine pro-Palestinian campaigners. They insist that they stand for Palestinian rights, dignity and freedom, and yet deny rights, dignity and freedom to Israelis. The only serious thing about them is their attempt to import the Middle East conflict onto a British campus.

Too often anti-Israel campaigners find antisemitism appealing, though they would be the last to admit this. Action for Palestine hosted Bongani Masuku back in December 2009, at the same time as the University and College Union. The South African Human Rights Commission found Bongani Masuku guilty of hate speech against Jews a few days afterwards. UCU and Action for Palestine would or should have known about the charges against him. They would or should have known that anti-Israel campaigning is often expressed as animosity to Jews, who are treated as proxy Israelis.

But, like UCU nationally, my local UCU branch at Goldsmiths attributes antisemitism to “the actions of the Israeli state” rather than to the groups and individuals who enact it, and leaves Jews to deal with it on their own. Harry’s Place points out that Action for Palestine is holding a seminar next week with Amnesty International and Ben White, who considers antisemitism “understandable”.

So where are we? A British campaign for Palestinian rights attacks an Israeli and seeks education from an antisemitic speaker. A reputable human rights organisation collaborates with them. A higher education institution can’t distinguish between peaceful protest and physical attack. A trade union invites a racist to speak on an anti-racist platform.

And precisely what does all this have to do with a political solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians?

[IndianaGreen]

13. An apartheid state and its representatives deserve what they get!

Israel is the new South Africa!

[shira]

15. Do you have a problem with the issues raised throughout that article, namely...

"So where are we? A British campaign for Palestinian rights attacks an Israeli and seeks education from an antisemitic speaker. A reputable human rights organisation collaborates with them. A higher education institution can’t distinguish between peaceful protest and physical attack. A trade union invites a racist to speak on an anti-racist platform.

And precisely what does all this have to do with a political solution to the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians?"

[IndianaGreen]

16. We already have a political solution to I/P, thanks to Israel, a one state solution!

All that's left to do is to push for full citizenship for the Palestinians living in this big state of Israel.

[shira]

17. You didn't answer the question. Those issues in post #15 based on the ENGAGE article...

....do they bother you in the least?

[IndianaGreen]

18. Your shit don't bother me at all!

How about them apples?

[shira]

19. I'm asking about the shit quoted in post #15....nothing to do with me. Does that bother you?

[IndianaGreen]

20. You are not bothered by the Occupation, why should anyone be bothered by what bothers you?

Got it?