NETANYA, Israel — In a chilling message about the future of Britain, the University College Union in Britain sent out an email to all their groups informing them of the Holocaust Memorial Day 2020 commemorations next year. What is chilling is the fact that they listed trade unions, Roma gypsies, gays and lesbians, black people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, as the named victims of the Holocaust.
But they “forgot” to mention Jews!!
Was this an omission? No. They did include “non-Jewish Poles.”
But no Jews.
What is going on here?
This was no “drafting error,” as they muttered when caught out in their deliberate omission .
UCU is an amalgam of university teachers and lecturers.
Have the institutionally antisemitic politics of the UK Labour Party seeped into the British campus?
This is highly likely.
As in other Western countries, the radicalized campus has become the conveyor belt of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel dogma.
We are witnessing the closing of the academic mind in Britain. Academia has become an industry of dogma.
And the initial signpost points to the future Britain in which they forget to mention Jews as the overwhelmingly targeted and slaughtered victims of the Nazi Holocaust. These are Britain’s future politicians, influence, and opinion makers.
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Barry Shaw is the International Public Diplomacy Director at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.
UPDATE: ”On Tuesday, UCU penned a message of gratitude to everyone who contacted them about the problem with the circular. The organization wrote on Twitter that it was “deeply sorry” for the offense caused by the “incomplete version” that was originally sent out” — AND — “UCU also offered a link to an updated version of the email, which added a paragraph about how the Holocaust impacted the Jewish community in Europe. The section began with an explanation that in the years leading up to the mass murders, Nazi policies and propaganda “deliberately encouraged” divisions in German society. Aryan Germans were advised to separate themselves from their German Jewish neighbors, leading to exclusionary laws and violence.
“The systematic murder of six million Jews across Europe [began] by the separating and dehumanizing of the Jewish people,” the updated email said. “The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust is asking people around the UK to stand together and take action to create a safer future.”
AND: ”In its updated email, UCU claimed the circular that was sent out on Friday that omitted Jewish people entirely was the result of “drafting errors.”
“UCU apologizes for the offense this caused and reassures all members that it continues to fight against all forms of antisemitism, hatred and bigotry in society,” the email stated.