The JC – true to form

We carried a story mid-August about the Jewish Chronicle which had devoted most of its front page and page two to a ’scoop’ about JfJfP’s consultation on boycott, divestment and sanctions, allowing us a letter in reply.

Well, last week they published a letter in response from one Susanne Fisher, just about as long as ours, repeating the old slanders and adding some new ones. A further response was sent off but with minimal expectation of it being published. Our expectations were met. It wasn’t published. Well here it is.

‘Cheap slanders dropped in as though they were fact’ is, avows Susanne Fisher (Letters, August 28), ‘a good description of [JfJfP’s] unrelenting efforts to delegitimise and harm Israel’. ‘Baseless accusations of Israel’s villainy’ abound at our meetings, she further avows.

Curious. Our meetings aren’t taken up with accusations or cheap slanders but with reports, evidence, discussion and analysis. Ms Fisher says that she ‘would urge your readers to attend JfJfP meetings’. Please do so where you will be most welcome.

Richard Kuper
Jews for Justice for Palestinians

and a helpful one from Deborah Maccoby, also not published

Susanne Fisher (Letters July 28) gives a welcome boost to Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JfJfP) by writing “I would urge your readers to attend JfJfP meetings, as I have often done, to see and hear for themselves its true agenda.”

It is a pity, though, that Ms Fisher herself has learnt nothing from her attendance at these meetings and describes well-documented evidence of violations of human rights and international law as “baseless”.

Ms Fisher asks how JfJfP can “claim that its latest initiative of boycott, divestment and sanctions, aimed uniquely at Israel, is out of concern for Israel’s well-being?” Israeli dissidents such as Jeff Halper and Neve Gordon have come to the conclusion that only outside pressure on Israel, in the form of selective boycotts, divestment and sanctions, can stop it becoming an apartheid state increasingly in the grip of the extreme right. This is a view that at least deserves respect, not vilification.

Yours faithfully,

Deborah Maccoby
Signatory: Jews for Justice for Palestinians