Debate on Zionism sparks angry clashes

Supporters and opponents of Zionism have clashed at a debate over the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

The motion was carried with 355 people in favour and 320 against.

Earlier in the week it came under fire from some groups, who criticised it for attempting to " delegitimise" the Jewish state, and it is expected to lead to further controversy. A distinguished panel of Jewish commentators spoke for and against the motion.

Speaking for it at the Evening Standard sponsored Intelligence2 debate last night were Professor Jacqueline Rose, Professor Avi Shlaim and Israeli journalist Amira Hass.

Former Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, Professor Raphael Israeli and Daily Mail and Jewish Chronicle columnist Melanie Phillips spoke against.

The result followed a far closer poll at its start with 228 for and 227 against. An earlier internet poll however, registered 846 for and 9,230 against.

The commentators debated topics including the settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and the Six Day War in 1967.

Professor Rose said Zionism, the original ideology on which the Jewish nation was founded, had become the enemy of the Jews. She said: "Jews did not survive attempted genocide to become brutal oppressors."

Professor Shlaim, who teaches at Oxford University, said Zionism was helping to fuel anti-Semitism. He said Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was a "Jewish Rambo" and the "antithesis of Jewish values of truth and justice".

Professor Shlaim said Jewish settlers were the "unacceptable face of Zionism" and were eroding Israel's democratic ideals.

"Zionism is not racism but many of the hard-line settlers are racist," he said.

"I have never questioned the legality of Israel within its pre 1967 borders. What I reject is the illegal and colonial expansion after 1967," he added.

Amira Hass, who works for the Left-wing Haaretz newspaper, said Palestinians were forced to wait for hours at checkpoints in the West Bank and were often humiliated by Israeli soldiers.

She said: "We have to ask ourselves whether it's right that the Jewish people have become the masters of another."

But Melanie Phillips said the root cause of the problem was not the occupation but the Arab world's refusal to accept a Jewish state in the Middle East.

"There has never been an independent Arab state of Palestine - Jewish ties to Israel-Palestine have existed for more than 3,700 years," she said.

"The Arabs were offered a two state solution in 1937, 1947 and 2000 but they rejected it. A Jewish state in what they consider Arab land is an anathema to them."

And Professor Israeli said the Six Day War was forced on to Israel and it had no choice but to defend itself. "We were attacked from the West Bank. More than 1,000 shells fell on our houses in west Jerusalem," he said.

Professor Ami said the checkpoints were a result of the Palestinian intifada and were needed to prevent suicide attacks. The debate was chaired by former ITN journalist Richard Lindley.