COVERAGE: Conservative Home - Calista Toner: Why Conservative students should support Israel and counter anti-semitism on campus
“Many students believe the terror attacks of the 7th of October in Israel require some moral equivalence: that they were justified and that Israel “had it coming”. That Hamas are militants, rightfully reacting to the oppression of 75 years of Israeli colonialist rule. That Israel should not exist but, while it does, Israelis must understand that civilians will be slaughtered. Babies will be murdered, women will be raped, and others will be kidnapped – all in the “justified” fight against oppression. After all, decolonisation is never peaceful.
These sentiments have, in recent weeks, been expressed loudly on my campus, and on campuses across the United Kingdom. This is the sort of evil that too many of our youth believe. Indeed, according to a YouGov poll conducted only six days after the atrocities, a staggering 49 per cent of 18–24-year-olds in the UK ‘don’t know’ whether Hamas is a terrorist organisation. This is obscene and abhorrent.
Glasgow University Conservative and Unionist Association (GUCUA) felt it necessary to counter this, and vocally to support Israel and our British-Jewish community. This is why I collaborated with the Pinsker Centre to draft our recent open letter and why the whole board of GUCUA agreed to sign it.”
