The next group meeting will take place at 19:30 on Monday 13th February in the Focus Room of the Avenue St Andrew's United Reformed Church, Southampton SO17 1XQ.

The focus of the meeting is the

Isreal, anti-zionism and anti-semitism

The speaker will be Prof. Tim Sluckin.  Tim Sluckin is professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Southampton and secretary of Southampton Hebrew Congregation.

In his presentation Tim shall give a brief history of the Jews, modern anti-Semitism and the development of the state of Israel, explaining the origin of Zionism in the context of developing nationalism in late 19^th century Europe, and transformation of the label from a term describing  an active political aspiration to one merely describing a passive political or ethnic sympathy.  The talk will include the relationship between pre-war anti-Semitism, recent anti-Zionism, and the increasing strength  of nationalism in the last few years. The competition between different ideologies in contemporary Israel and Palestine produces philosophically interesting but politically toxic conflicts between competing views of civil liberties, some of which shall be touched on if time allows.

Everyone is welcome: whether you are or not a national member of Amnesty International, please come and see how you can become directly involved in promoting human rights world-wide and defend the people who suffer because they dared to raise their voice.

For more information about the group and the meeting venue please visit

http://www.amnesty-volunteer.org/uk/southampton-city/homepage.php