The European Union of Jewish Students is proud of the action taken by the World Student Christian Federation, to withdraw its original invitation of Azzam Tamimi to its interreligious dialogue conference, due to the urging and actions of the European Union of Jewish Students.
Azzam Tamimi is known internationally for being the advocate of the most hateful and despicable views. His speeches in around the UK have drawn continued widespread condemnation, and for good reason.
His views represent the most extreme of the debate, all too often transcends into the realm of AntiSemitic discourse, and consistently aims to stir up more tension and hatred in this debate to a point that it is detrimental to the communities involved.
EUJS is strongly dedicated to the continued idea of inter-cultural dialogue, however only with legitimate representatives, one of which Tamimi is not. The line between free speech and hate speech is fine, but Tamimi has consistently and purposefuly found himself on the side of the incitement of hatred.
As such EUJS strongly supports and is proud of the decision made by the WSCF to withdraw such an invitation. EUJS President Benjamin Zagzag noted that “this is a victory, not only for us, but for moderate and legitimate debates everywhere, and a substantial step forward for the very values that are at the core of inter-religious dialogue”.
