Discovering Israel — Part 4
What I learned from the book: Friends of Israel by Hil Aked
This is the third book that Merton PSC (Palestine Solidarity Campaign) book club chose to read. It’s as much about Israel as it is about Britain. In fact, it’s about the presence and power of Israel in the politics, media, academia, even civil society in the UK. And what a mess!
The book does a good job of trying to organise this mess, but as you can imagine, since many of the topics overlap, this is not an easy task. Plus, one thing is connected to another, there is a domino effect with the whole thing. The book is easy to read, easy to grasp, but talking about it is another issue.
I’ll try to make this article as short as possible, and as simple as possible. To that end, I’ll start with a ‘case study’ we learn about from the book because it features all the main issues.
Tricycle Theatre affair (page 116) is a good example of how it all merges together. Here we have, religion, culture, international film festivals, media, civil society, and politicians all involved. We have lies, misleading information, manipulation, injustice, pressure, and , frankly, lack of activity from those who think differently — you name it, it’s all in this little affair.