NIFI event in Northern Ireland makes the case against boycotting Israel
Northern Ireland Friends of Israel (NIFI) has held a large event in Belfast to protest against the boycott Israel campaign being waged by several trade unions in Northern Ireland.
Over two hundred people turned up to the event on Monday 1 March to hear speeches from Terry McCorran, a Co-Chair of NIFI, Eric Lee, from Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine (TULIP), and Reverend Chris Hudson.
Terry McCorran spoke out against the boycott campaign, which he said had seen calls to ban the Israeli football team from playing in Belfast and calls to picket a Leonard Cohen concert because the singer was due to perform in Tel Aviv.
Mr McCorran, who spoke in a private capacity as his union UNISON has a boycott policy, condemned the harassment of Israeli workers at Castlecourt shopping centre in Belfast as well as the intimidation of shoppers and staff at Marks and Spencer.
Eric Lee explained what the boycott campaign was all about; who supports it and who opposes it, why it is a bad idea and how it can be countered. He argued that positive engagement with both sides was the best way to support peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Reverend Chris Hudson, who served as a full-time union official for over 18 years and was a leading member of the anti-apartheid movement in the Republic of Ireland, said it was "a big lie" to describe Israel as an apartheid society.
Referring to the recent decision of the town council at Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, to tear out the page from the welcome book signed by the Israeli ambassador, Hudson asked: "what exactly is the Jewish community in Ireland to make of that? The ambassador of no other country on this earth would be treated that way."
Speaking after the event, the other Co-Chair of NIFI, Steven Jaffe, said that the meeting marked the "first organised stand against the boycott of Israel in Northern Ireland".
Mr Jaffe added that "the fact we had standing room only at our meeting indicates this issue is deeply divisive. The vast majority of our supporters are not Jewish. In Northern Ireland of all places we know that dialogue, however difficult, is the only way forward towards peace, not sterile and negative boycotting".