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Organisation accused of anti-semitism for targeting businessman

This news post is about 7 years old
 

Businessman says they have hounded him out of Belfast and Glasgow

A Jewish man has claimed campaigners from the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign are trying to force him and his family out of Scotland.

Nissan Ayalon, an Israeli who lives in Aberdeen, sells cosmetic products made in his home country.

But he says the campaign group are hounding him wherever he tries to sell the Dead Sea mineral products, mostly in shopping centres.

Ayalon has accused the campaigners of playing a game of “chase the Jew”.

He said: "It's like I don't have the right to exist. I have to justify my existence. I have to ask for permission to live, to walk to work.

"We were accused of murdering, mass murdering, slaughter, criminals, we were called criminal enterprise. We were called baby killers.

"There is nowhere else for me to go. I love it here, where is my equal opportunity?"

Mick Napier, of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity refuted the anti-Semitic claims.

He said: "It's ludicrous.

"We hate the sin, not the sinner.

"It's the company that's being targeted, the individual is irrelevant.

"We talk to people, we try to persuade people to shop elsewhere. He is selling the proceeds of crime."

The Israeli businessman said he previously had stalls in Belfast and Glasgow, but felt forced to close them down, and moved to Aberdeen where he said the treatment had continued.

Jewish Human Rights Watch (JHRW), an organisation set up to address anti-Semitism in the UK, said the case was plain to see.

JHRW's Robert Festenstein said: "If you target a Jewish man and drive him from Belfast to Glasgow, and then from Glasgow to Aberdeen, and then try and drive them from there, however you claim you might not be anti-Semitic it's impossible not to acknowledge the truth.

"And it's not enough for them to say we're only interested in the product he's selling.

"It's about as serious a case as we've found."

Aberdeen councillor Martin Greig called for more to be done, and said: "I think it's really chilling that we have individuals persecuted on the basis of their religion."

However, Aberdeen City Council co-leader Jenny Laing said: "It's evident that this administration condemns any kind of racism.

"We are committed to working to ensure that does not happen."

 

Comments

0 0
RealFreedom
about 7 years ago
Palestinian Solidarity Campaign anti-semitic? Bears will be defecating in woods next.
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