World Jewish News

Matthew Gould is Britain’s first Jewish ambassador to Israel.

UK Ambassador: British university anti-Israel bias ‘widely exaggerated

British Ambassador to Israel Matthew Gould refuted Israeli accusations of increased anti-Semitism on British university campuses as he insisted that “in the vast majority the student body has more important things to deal with then the Middle East”.
Speaking at a briefing to Israeli media in Tel Aviv earlier this week, as technical talks between western powers and Iran were in progress in Istanbul over deadlocked negotiations over Iran’s disputed nuclear programme, Gould also insisted the P5+1 (Great Britain, Russia, the US, China, France, plus Germany) negotiators were “not going to be easily fooled”.
Adding apparent legitimacy to Israel Premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated insistence that Iran is not serious about diplomacy and is using talks as a smokescreen for its ongoing nuclear development activity, the Ambassador continued: “If Iran thinks they will bamboozle us through game playing and negotiations they will be disappointed. We are not naive, not stupid...we have a great deal of experience, and are not going to be easily fooled.”
Whilst stressing that the international delegation did not feel “that military action would be right” at this juncture, he added that that the world powers would not “run after Iran to plead with them” to continue negotiating.
Highlight the close working relationship between the British administration and its Israeli counterparts, he said the UK acknowledged the “profound level of concern in Israel and among senior governmental figures who say (Iran) is an existential threat to Israel”.
Returning to widespread media reports of an apparent surge in anti-Semitic incidents in British academic institutions, which have in turn led to a downturn in the numbers of Israeli foreign students choosing to study on British campuses, he described the phenomenon as a kind of “reverse delegitimisation”, adding that “all British universities (are) tarred with the same brush, and genuine problems of a few universities (wrongly) described as problems with them all”. “I have been with senior Israelis who say it is not safe to defend Israel in British universities, and that is wildly exaggerated,” he asserted.
His words echoed a recent opinion piece by the Director of the British Council in Israel Simon Kay for ynet news, in which he insisted that “concerns (of campus-based anti-Semitism) must not be generalised into a judgement about the entire UK University and cultural scene”. Quoting Union of Jewish Students (UJS) figures that showed there were 16 anti-Semitic incidents against Jewish students on campuses in the first half of 2011, which was a 43% drop on the previous year, he added that “although there some serious issues on certain campuses, the vast majority of Jewish and Israeli students have a successful and happy time on campus”.
Gould is Britain’s first Jewish ambassador to Israel. On arriving in Israel to assume his new position in September 2010 he said he came “determined to help build the strongest possible partnership between Britain and Israel”, adding that “our posting to Israel gives us a chance to make a contribution, on issues we care about, and in a country we love.”

EJP