Melanie Phillips
Substack, June 19, 2024
“And as also usually happens at such events, these two anti-Zionists promulgated distortions, falsehoods and blood libels to demonise Israel and its supporters.”
Two days ago, a gripping debate took place in Toronto. The latest in the Munk Debates on major policy issues run by a Canadian charitable foundation, Monday evening’s event advanced the motion “Anti-Zionism is antisemitism”. It was proposed by the writer Douglas Murray and international lawyer Natasha Hausdorff, and opposed by the Guardian journalist Mehdi Hasan and Israeli anti-Zionist Ha’aretz writer Gideon Levy.
In an audience vote before the start of the debate, 61 per cent supported the proposition with 39 per cent opposed. In the final vote, the proposition had 66 per cent support with 34 per cent opposed. You can watch the whole debate here.
I watched this encounter with more than usual interest. In 2019, I took part in an Intelligence Squared debate in London on an identically worded motion. On my side was Einat Wilf, an Israeli former member of the Knesset for the Labour and Independence parties, and our opponents were Mehdi Hasan and the Israeli anti-Zionist academic Ilan Pappé. You can watch that debate here.
The big difference was that, while the Toronto audience was mostly sympathetic to Israel, the London audience was mostly hostile. The vote taken before the London debate showed only 15 per cent in favour of the proposition with 59 per cent against. At the end, 19 per cent supported the motion with 76 per cent against. … [To read the full article, click here]
