Looks like the anti-Israel groups in Britain aren’t as influential as they think.
The British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP) launched the pamphlet at a reception in Parliament last week. Turnout at the launch was very poor, however, with only around 10 people attending, leading Jenny Tonge, an ardent critic of Israel, to ask why the turnout was so low.
Poor Jenny. She’s just getting hit right and left. My heart bleeds. Well, no, it doesn’t. I’m thinking schadenfreude goes right about here.
However, pro-Israel groups doubted the call for a boycott would have much impact, particularly because of the increasing desire by British academics to work with outstanding Israeli universities.
Cue Nelson.
I’m vaguely reminded of that Monty Python sketch where Adolf Hilter (no, that’s not a typo) is trying to run for office in a small English suburb. The guy is posturing and shouting in German, to an audience that consists of two people (one of whom works on the campaign) and a recording of crowd noise.
I’m also reminded of this news article from the fall, where PeTA ran a propaganda film and only 7 people showed up (2 of whom were opposition researchers and one was PeTA’s president.)