Resisting the Israel lobby -- Abe Hayeem

Jews who speak out can be deluged with with verbal abuse, hate mail and intimidation.
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/abe ... m_ijv.html

Criticism of Israel's human rights contraventions - and particularly any mention of boycotts - elicits an immediate and powerful barrage from the pro-Israel lobby. Editors of national newspapers and journals can expect to be inundated by letters from Israel supporters, often copying their arguments word-for-word from the numerous websites that push the Israeli embassy line.

At the same time, critics can be deluged with hate mail couched in lurid language. The SHIT List ("Self-Hating Israel-Threatening") website exemplifies the extreme verbal abuse and intimidation heaped on Jews who speak out.

Israel is invariably portrayed as the victim, despite its record of killings, assassinations and destruction in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, and its relentless land grabs over decades in the occupied territories, exhaustively documented by human rights organizations.

The lobby can operate at the highest levels of city government as was seen in February 2006 when the group Architects & Planners for Justice in Palestine - formed to highlight the complicity of Israel's construction industry in the occupation - was launched in the office premises of the Richard Rogers Partnership.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/abe ... m_ijv.html