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Pictured from left: Human rights lawyer and Cambridge lecturer Dr Guglielmo Verdiramem, SOAS research fellow and former adviser to Palestinian negotiation team Stephanie Koury, Jon Snow, former Channel 4 Middle East correspondent Dr Saul Zadka and Sarit Michaeli of Israeli human rights centre B’Tselem |
Snow storms at ‘fear and failure’
Kuwaiti rulers are ‘filthy’ and Saudi rulers ‘dreadful’
NEWSREADER Jon Snow firmly put an audience in its place as he chaired a heated debate at Hampstead Town Hall.
As he listened to impassioned audience members battle over the question of Israel’s human right’s record last Monday night, he dubbed the debate “depressing” and told audience members they were trading on “fear, loathing and failure”.
The discussion, organised by the Jewish Forum for Justice and Human Rights, was snubbed by the Israeli embassy, which objected to the debate’s title – ‘Is Israel a Serious Human Rights Violator in the Occupied Territories?’ – claiming it reflected a “predetermined and tendentious agenda”.
In a letter read out by Mr Snow, an embassy official said: “Your refusal to modify the title made it clear the purpose of the panel is not conducting any meaningful dialogue but rather mounting a public display of one-sided vilification.”
The debate was lead by comments from Sarit Michaeli of Israeli human rights centre B’Tselem, former Channel 4 Middle East correspondent Dr Saul Zadka, former adviser to the Palestinian negotiation team Stephanie Koury, human rights barrister and Cambridge lecturer Dr Guglielmo Verdirame and Rabbi Alexandra Wright of the Liberal Synagogue, St John’s Wood, and followed by questions from the audience.
But in the middle of the debate, Mr Snow told the audience: “What I find rather depressing about tonight is that we’re trading on fear, loathing and failure and what I think ought to come out of this is whatever you feel about that actual motion on the sheet here is a certain degree of hope. Having been to Israel and Gaza and the occupied territories this year, I am hopeful, I am optimistic, I believe Palestinians and Israelis can and will live together.
“It just seems to be too depressing to have one side saying stop Israel and the other side saying they are the foulest people on earth. It doesn’t take us anywhere, we can all do that.”
He said people needed to find a way of looking forward, without imposing preconditions to negotiations, adding: “There should be absolute conditions for peace but no conditions for negotiations – none.
“There are none in Northern Ireland, none in South Africa, none in East Timor and you have solutions. You won’t get anything with preconditions.”
Responding to a question on the holocaust deniers conference being held in Iran, Mr Snow leapt to the defence of populations represented by what he called “lunatics”.
He launched a spirited attack on the leaders of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, labelling the Saudi royal family “dreadful” and Kuwaiti leaders “filthy” and declared Britain’s newfound friendship with Libyan leader Gadaffi as “rather annoying”.
He said: “Speaking as someone who’s been in Iran for three or four weeks this year, this is one of the reasons why people have dealt with it (the conference) in the way they have. They are absolutely horrified and repulsed by the whole idea that it should take place. But it’s not the nation of Iran. Iran is an extremely complex country which has a great loathing for (leader) Ahmadinejad.
“If one deals with things in terms of a country of 70 million people represented by a lunatic who actually proportionally has almost no power except perhaps the power of populace and rhetoric we’re going to get ourselves in a lot of trouble. There is hope in Iran and we must trade on it.
“You won’t get anything by talking about people who are not represented by their dreadful leadership – the Saudi Arabians are not represented by their dreadful royal family there, the Kuwaitis are not represented by the filthy families that run the house there.”
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