Marcus Dysch's blog



Spot the Israeli flags at the Champions League final? This lot did...

By Marcus Dysch, May 22, 2012

During Saturday night’s Champions League final some of you will, I expect, have noticed two Israeli flags displayed in the stands.

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Drake's "re-barmitzvah"

By Marcus Dysch, April 11, 2012

Canadian rapper Drake is one of the hottest names in the music industry at the moment.

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The Sheikh, the minister and the shambles

By Marcus Dysch, April 11, 2012

What a mess.

From start to finish Raed Salah's deportation has been an utter shambles. The latest ruling – this time from the Upper Immigration Tribunal – arguably only deepens the sense that the authorities have lost control of the case.

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Angels of Mersey

By Marcus Dysch, April 3, 2012

Among the most valuable work being done to help Jewish students around the country is that of the dozens of chaplaincy families employed by organisations representing all spectrums of Jewish life.

New BBC documentary Angels of Mersey follows chaplains of all religions working in Liverpool. Among them is Rabbi Shmuli Brown, Chabad’s representative at universities in the city.

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A week of weakness

By Marcus Dysch, December 15, 2011

While our non-Jewish friends and colleagues wind down in advance of the festive period and we look forward to the joys of Chanucah, I find myself, as usual, rather disgruntled.

Never mind the season of goodwill, this has been a strange week and one in which I’ve spent a considerable amount of time shaking my head in disbelief.

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After the "Jew goal", the "Jew punch"?

By Marcus Dysch, December 1, 2011

Remember the “Jew goal”? Well now it seems another sport may have adopted a similarly tasteless phrase.

Welcome to the world of the “Jew punch”.

Subscription boxing channel BoxNation this week apologised and launched an investigation after a retired boxer made a rather dubious remark on one of its shows.

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PSC forced to cancel trade union conference

By Marcus Dysch, October 28, 2011

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign has been forced to cancel a conference with trade unionists which was due to take place tomorrow.

The event was expected to promote boycott methods and encourage local groups to support BDS measures against Israel. Speakers were to include RMT general secretary Bob Crow.

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UJS's "radical, progressive" campaign? Sensible, or a cause for concern?

By Marcus Dysch, September 16, 2011

The Union of Jewish Students announced plans this week to launch a "radical, progressive" campaign, encouraging students to speak up for the rights and "liberation" of both Israelis and Palestinians.

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Israel's forgotten man?

By Marcus Dysch, August 17, 2011

Travelling around northern Israel a couple of weeks ago something caught my eye.

Along the motorways, in the shopping malls, in villages, I saw dozens of posters and billboards featuring a man's face and offering a $10,000,000 reward.

It was a face I was entirely unfamiliar with. “Who,” I asked my Israeli friend, “is that?”

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Israel - a "holiday" from Hell?

By Marcus Dysch, July 25, 2011

Admittedly I’m not a regular reader of the West Sussex County Times, but something in this week’s paper caught my eye.

The paper has an exclusive, headlined “Woman describes her Israel trip from hell”, on page six of this week’s edition.

It sounds a fascinating tale – the intro alone reveals how a West Chiltington woman told of her “ordeal in an Israeli prison”.

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British Jews and Israel

By Marcus Dysch, July 14, 2011

Earlier this week I attended three events, on consecutive evenings, which revealed much about British Jews and their relationships with Israel.

One discussed the rising boycott and delegitimisation campaign, another looked at support for Israel from the left, and the third was something altogether different, and, thankfully, more positive.

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Reporting Raed Salah

By Marcus Dysch, June 30, 2011

I had intended to blog about some of the bizarre coverage yesterday of the Raed Salah case.

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Tackling the 'Y' word

By Marcus Dysch, April 15, 2011

There has been a great deal of coverage given to the campaign to kick antisemitism out of football in the past 24 hours.

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Winners: Jewish students - all for one and one for all

By Marcus Dysch, April 4, 2011

It's not easy being a Jewish student at a British university.

Nights of celebration and recognition from your peers and elders must seem a long way off when you are forced to spend part of your campus experience being physically or verbally abused for either simply being Jewish, or defending Israel.

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Israel and Britain. Just good friends?

By Marcus Dysch, March 10, 2011

Unfortunately I missed this yesterday, but Ben Brogan had a fascinating piece in the Telegraph looking at Britain’s relationship with Israel.

As well as some interesting insight into the position of William Hague and the Foreign Office, Ben considers the delegitimisation campaign and the “perversion of the narrative”.

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One for the pulper

By Marcus Dysch, March 7, 2011

Clare Solomon had a busy winter – apologising for making apparently antisemitic remarks on Facebook, proposing herself as a leader of the student fees protests-cum-riots, and being mauled by Jeremy Paxman on Newsnight in

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Top 10 reasons not to be antisemitic

By Marcus Dysch, March 3, 2011

After a thoroughly miserable week of Jew-bashing from almost all corners, here’s some light relief.

Amir Mizroch has compiled his "top 10 reasons not to be antisemitic".

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Spinning the boycott

By Marcus Dysch, February 25, 2011

Anti-Israel campaigners relentlessly promoting their boycott of the country and its goods would have you believe they are landing success after success.

Don’t believe them.

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Go easy on easyJet

By Marcus Dysch, February 17, 2011

There’s something about the story of easyJet selling bacon sandwiches on its Tel Aviv flights which really rubs me up the wrong way.

Passenger Victor Kaufman believes easyJet were “insensitive” and need “a lesson or two on cultural awareness”.

Get a grip.

The affair reminds me of the totally unnecessary complaints made to Marks and Spencer last year over a lingerie advert .

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The EDL's most significant Jewish recruit?

By Marcus Dysch, February 10, 2011

Regular readers will know that in recent months we have covered the English Defence League’s attempts to attract Jewish supporters to its cause .

Jewish communal groups such as the Board of Deputies and Community Security Trust have repeatedly warned of the dangers the extreme right-wing anti-Islam group pose, not only to British Muslims but also British Jews.

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