A three-day expo held in the Scottish Parliament Building at the end of April promoted «Israel’s Contribution to Medicine, Science and Technology» Outside the entrance pro-Palestinian protestors flaunted biased slogans denouncing Israel’s achievements.
MPS Ken MacIntosh fights Jew-hate in Scottland.
Week end comment
My Mike Adams
The exhibition had previously been seen in Glasgow during the 60th Anniversary of the State of Israel. Last week’s expo in Edinburgh was organised by the Scottish Friends of Israel, and sponsored by Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) Ken MacIntosh.
Commenting on his motivation for doing so, MacIntosh said: «We have a lot of negative views on Israel that are not helpful, many are poisonous and damaging. Rather than responding to the rhetoric, I thought it would be better to show a positive side of Israel and acknowledge the huge contribution it has made».
Sofiah MacLeod of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) initiated a petition and tried banning the exhibition which would, according to her, implicate all Scots “in a whitewashing of Israeli crimes”. Patrick Harvie MSP forwarded a parliamentary motion on the grounds that the exhibition would give the impression that the parliament condones the record of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians. Both petition and motion were overruled by the vast majority of MSPs.
The exhibition also seemed to vex other players in Scottish society. A group of 12 Scottish doctors including one Dr. Muhammad al-Ashqar from Edinburgh, and one Dr. Ali Syed from Glasgow signed an open letter petition with precisely the same wording as that of the SPSC. Demands for cancelling the exhibition were also backed by the Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) which passed an emergency motion at its recent annual meeting in Dundee. On a side note, the STUC also reaffirmed last year’s complete boycott of Israel which earned itself the dubious honour of leading the way for Trade Union boycotts of Israel in other countries.
So how can a presentation of Israeli inventiveness and ingenuity upset so many people? It is obviously a severe case of hysterical and irrational fear or hatred of Israel, in a word, Israelophobia. The expo itself simply highlighted scientific and technological innovation that Israel has been instrumental in introducing, such as technology used in mobile phones and computers, as well as medical research in physics and stem cell research. Scottish Friends of Israel underscored the fact that they have no “direct or indirect interaction with the Israeli government” and the exhibition did “not attempt to deliver any political message whatsoever” serving only “to draw attention to the remarkable achievements of the medical and scientific community of Israel”.
Because of the controversy, members of the public were prevented from visiting the exhibition unless accompanied by their MSP, while the pro-Palestinian lobby occupied the area outside the parliament building accosting passers-by with their hate messages equating Israeli technology with death and destruction.
I see it only pertinent to pose the following question: What kinds of achievements, technological or otherwise, do the proud people of Palestine (read: Arabs occupying Judea, Samaria and Gaza) have to show for themselves? Aught, as the Scots would say. The only thing that springs to mind is a Nobel laureate who made hardcore terrorism look like a walk in the park.
This last outbreak of anti-everything Israeli reminds me of a “Life of Brian”-quote: “But apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh-water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”
Here are some Israeli firsts in the field of communications that have benefitted the Scots and their Palestinian Arab friends, as well as everyone “connected” in the world today.
1981: Technology enabling two calls on the same phone line.
1986: Integration of voice, fax and call processing functions into a single system.
1995: The Internet Phone (IP).
1996: Instant messaging services (“chatting”)
1997: Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) which enables voice, picture and data to be transmitted via the Internet.
2000: Utilisation of VoIP in recording technology.
2005: Single channel data transmission (“base band”) IP for EDGE solutions, for both handsets and base-stations.
2006: Mobile WiMax compliant ASIC which provides fixed and fully mobile internet access.
If Scottish doctors began boycotting Israel’s medical expertise they would have to stop treating breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, Alzheimer’s and many other medical conditions. Calling all physicians: It’s time to check up on where your life-saving drugs come from.
The Israelis have made technological leaps and bounds despite 62 years of continual Palestinian Arab insurgency, and the effects of eight wars with neighbouring Arab states that all would see the Israelis and the Jewish state wiped off the map.
Author of “The Israel Test”, George Gilder says it quite succinctly when he asserts that Israelis now form “the vanguard of human achievement”. In commerce, in medicine, in science, in technology and indeed, as a matter of circumstance, in military strength, Israel has forged one of the most creative societies on Earth. It is crude envy of Israel’s success, Mr. Gilder says, that explains contemporary anti-Semitism: “At the heart of anti-Semitism is resentment of Jewish achievement”.
According to Mr. Gilder, Israel “concentrates the genius of the Jews”, so that any showcasing of that genius abroad is likely to agitate all types of reactionaries, including miserly and mean-spirited Scottish politicians and other votaries of the all-inclusive condemnation of Israel.
Posted by ivarfjeld 
