Martin Amis and Christopher Hitchens “Would’ve Stood Up to Hay Protesters”, Says Simon Schama
His friends Martin Amis and Christopher Hitchens would have stood up to the protesters trying to silence debate at literary festivals, the historian Simon Schama told an audience at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival at the weekend.
The Hay Festival and Edinburgh International Book Festival have cut ties with sponsor Baillie Gifford after a campaign led by Fossil Fuel Books, which claimed that the asset manager invests in companies with links to Israel, as well as companies that contribute to the climate crisis.
Invoking his late friends, Schama told a Hay audience: “Book festivals are theatres for listening to each other. I don’t want to see festivals being trapped in some sort of purity test.
“I go back to dear friends. I’m going to the memorial service of my friend Martin Amis. Martin and Christopher Hitchens and Clive James and a lot of my friends who are not with us were absolutely committed never to have the hands of writers tied behind them.
“They were merry pugilists. They absolutely believed that you could disagree spectacularly with each other without requiring the silencing or worse of each other.
“That is the heart and soul of the Hay Festival and the other great festivals that we have in this country, and I don’t want to see them imperilled. All of you, along with me, have to stand up and fight for them.”
The writer and presenter is a professor of history and art history at Columbia University in the US, where pro-Palestinian students set up an encampment. “Jewish students are pretty damn scared,” he said. “In the weeks after Oct 7th, swastikas appeared in the corridors near their dorm lodgings… It is an extraordinary and awful thing that has been going on.”
Schama said: “With the demonstrations in London, there are certain things you can’t do if you’re Jewish in England now. You can’t safely go out with a kippah, a skullcap. You certainly can’t be seen wearing a Star of David on public transport. Jewish children have been vocally and sometimes physically assaulted on their way to Jewish schools.”
Worth reading in full.
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https://off-guardian.org/2024/06/03/get-up-stand-up-dont-give-up-the-fight-know-your-rights-or-you-will-lose-them/
An extremely complementary article from John and Nisha Whitehead at Off-G. This revolves around a young college student in the USA standing up for free speech and who was supported by the Rutherford Institute, our equivalent of the FSU I suppose.
Know your Rights.
With The Official Convicted Antisemite Party possibly gaining power I do not fancy the chances of Jews in this country. Nothing has changed, Starmer made up some lies about Corbyn and Long-Bailey. That’s it. The hate is even worse now than it was under Corbyn. Let us not forget that Starmer was choreographing Corbyn’s second election shot.
Who fancies having antisemite and racist David Lammy leading diplomatic talks anywhere outside his sick head? Whatever you do don’t ask him which Henry followed Henry VIII.
I always thought IX followed VIII.
He was also at the Bilderberg Group a couple of years ago, that haven of democracy!
Similarly is/was a member of the Trilateral Commission founded by David Rockefeller as a group for bosses of top corporations and politicians
Yes as long as you can convince the authorities that what you’re doing is to save the world or is social justice-related, you too can get away with being an antisocial vandal and/or aggressive yob. Be a menace to society, just be sure to choose the right T-shirt that matches your chosen cause on any given day.
I’m also pretty sure that if the culprits are men but say they identify as women on their collective period then they should walk away from this, no bother;
”Palestine activists destroy Barclays Banks in Bolton and Bradford, UK demanding the bank divests from Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems.
The vandals are part of the Palestine Action group who vandalize and destroy businesses that have ties with Israel.”
https://x.com/OliLondonTV/status/1797638052715852008
So as long as you are a vandal with a cause, you can get away with much more. If someone vandals a diesel pump when I’m there I might just shove the nozzle down their throat.
I think I’d shove it in their ‘Southern Hemisphere’, then I’d be able to say, “Never mind planet Earth, let’s see how much gas is in Uranus!”😡
I’d possibly be found guilty of ‘microaggression’ though. Especially if I used diesel.😟⛽
On a roll Mogs. 😀😀😀
Wonderful photo of those two young rebels!
During the “Black Lives Matter” protests, not that long ago the new left were still associating what they called the far right with antisemitism. Remember, everyone who disagreed with them was a Nazi. Hasn’t taken them long to drop their previous standards and embrace Nazism. What’s that saying? If the new left didn’t have double standards, they would have no standards at all.