Solve Israel's Problems » Please Share Our ArticlesHaaretz journalist evokes 'Elders of Zion' at UK university

Haaretz journalist evokes ‘Elders of Zion’ at UK university

January 31, 2016

Amira Hass, one of the most extreme-left columnists for Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, is no stranger to controversy.

Among many other things, she has in the past defended Palestinian terrorism, and specifically deadly rock-throwing attacks against Jews, which she described as no less than an Arab “duty”.

But in a recent talk at an anti-Israel event at England’s University of Kent, Hass seemed to surpass even her own outrageous standards, claiming that “the Elders of Zion” plotted to “occupy” the Palestinians.

“I ask myself did the Elders of Zion really sit together at the beginning of the Seventies and then during the Nineties, and plan, and have all these military orders, all these changes?” Hass asked the 200-strong audience.

“I believe that they knew for sure that they don’t want to give back the land and in the Nineties, my conclusion is that they wanted to do everything possible to thwart the two state solution.”

A recording of part of Hass’s speech – entitled “Israel and the Palestinians: Colonialism and Prospects for Justice” – was uploaded by British pro-Israel blogger and activist David Collier, along with a picture of Hass delivering her address. In a blog post describing his experience at the event he recounted his sense of shock at hearing such an openly anti-Semitic canard evoked at a British university – without anyone challenging or protesting it.

“I got lost between the sentences as I tried to make sense of what I was hearing,” Collier wrote. “Hass was discussing a hidden agenda, a secret group of Jews, plotting and planning beyond the reach of Israeli democracy – by extension, this secret group were to blame for the ‘war crimes’, for the death of innocent Palestinian children.

“Hass was spinning tales of a Jewish cabal, of shady secretive control, of unworldly plots and sinister deeds. A road that leads to dead children. Hass was resurrecting a classic historic antisemitic blood libel in a British university.”

Speaking to Arutz Sheva, he described it as “sickening” and “frightening.”

“It was sickening, and frightening that in a university in 2016, the Elders of Zion can be mentioned without anyone in the audience saying a word,” he said.

Hass, along with fellow far-left Haaretz columnist Gideon Levy, regularly speaks at anti-Israel events throughout Europe and North America, and has urged Diaspora Jewry to stop supporting Israel.

Protect and Support Israel by Sharing our Articles