Jewish Conservative youth group protests Hotovely with 'Occupation' event
The movement claims that she "has consistently refused to recognise Palestinian heritage, referring to the Palestinians as "thieves of history."
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFPortrait of Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs, Tzipi Hotovely poses for a picture at her office in Jerusalem on February 19, 2020. (photo credit: OLIVIER FITOUSSI/FLASH90)
The UK Conservative Movement (Masorti) invited Israeli Ambassador to Lonodn Tzipi Hotovely to speak. Noam, an independent Masorti UK-based youth movement, will host its own protest event in response, "The Occupation: What is it and what is our role as British Jews?" on Wednesday."Throughout her career, Hotovely has made many racist and inflammatory statements," the movement wrote in a Facebook post, explaining its reasoning for protesting the event and hosting a counter one instead.Hotovely, who was a Likud MK for eight years, and has also filled various ministerial positions in her political is one of three women in charge of the Israeli Embassy in London, and spoke to The Jerusalem Post on International Women's Day about smooth dynamic and close professional relationship they share.The movement claims that she "has consistently refused to recognise Palestinian heritage, referring to the Palestinians as ‘thieves of history’, going on to say that their "history books are empty, and [they] are trying to co-opt Jewish history and Islamicize it".The statement that Noam is referencing is a speech that Hotovely made in Knesset in 2017, in which she reportedly told Palestinian MKs that they are "thieves of history.""Your history books are empty and you are trying to co-opt Jewish history and Islamize it," she said.At the time, she was also scheduled to speak to the Princeton student body, but the event was cancelled by the Princeton Hillel director after the speech came to light.Hotovely responded that she was "shocked," adding that "by canceling this lecture, you are infringing on the fundamental academic freedom of the students... denying the basic freedom of students to hear different points of view, to question, challenge and think for themselves."Alan Dershowitz, at the time, called the cancellation "outrageous censorship."Noam added to its list of reasonings her invitation of Lehava to speak at the Knesset.In February 2011, then-Likud MK Hotovely heading the Knesset Committee for the Avancement of Women, when the conversation about marriages between Jewish women and Arab men came up.The committee meeting, which was part of a larger hearing that Hotovely headed that day, was under the umbrella event Jewish Identity Day. Various talks and conferences by multiple organizations were held.Ben-Zion Gopstein, head of Lehava, a radical right-wing organization, spoke that day at the Knesset.Lehava strongly opposes Jewish intermarriage, specifically between Jewish women and Arab men in Israel. In addition to propagating its mission to Israeli citizens across the country, Lehava has ran operations to retrieve girls from Arab towns after they have been married.Then-Ra'am MK Taleb a-Sanaa condemned the rhetoric, arguing that "This hearing gives legitimacy to an anti-democratic and very dangerous situation in which the Knesset is expected to back up Halacha – the concept of Jewish identity does not need to make racism kosher."Noam added that "to reward her with a platform after these hurtful comments is a deep humiliation for our community."The organization's counter event will "involve hearing from Palestinians, minorities in Israel, and anti-racist activists in Israel about their work combatting racism akin to that expressed by Tzipi Hotovely."Lahav Harkov-Levine contributed to this report.
