I graduated from Glasgow University in 1967 and my first jobs were as a systems analyst for British Steel for three years, and then as a business analyst at Lloyd’s of London (the underwriters) for three years. Changes of direction meant I was a lecturer in Systems Analysis at Manchester Polytechnic for 16 years, took higher degrees from Manchester University, and was a lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh for 17 years. I’m also director of a management consultancy. In October 2009 I ‘retired’ from lecturing – and have never been busier! You can find out more about me by visiting http://www.som.hw.ac.uk/staffpages/bushk2/index.html.

I used to be not much interested in Israel, though my first degree involved the study of Modern History. A cousin and his wife had gone to live there, and my parents visited Israel in the ‘70s. I was aware of it as a small Jewish state that had won 3 wars against the odds. My religious childhood, though Jewish orthodox, was minimally carried into adulthood. I was a relatively infrequent visitor to synagogue – on Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, and occasionally for a wedding or a bar mitzvah. My first trip to Israel was in 2007 for the wedding of a friend’s daughter. It was this visit that encouraged me to join SPME and later to apply for the Faculty Fellowship Summer Institute in Israel, so that I could learn more about Israel and its inhabitants, its challenges and its successes. This visit was an eye opener. Not only did I learn about the history of Israel and its society, but I met heads of Universities, journalists, cultural artists, politicians, etc., many of whom did not agree with the actions Israel was taking. Since then I have been a supporter of Israel and a supporter of peace in the Middle East, and for veracity about the Israel-Palestine conflict.

I realised that Israel was under threat from the political left and right, and there was growing anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom, from elsewhere in Europe, in the United States, in Australia, in the Arab world, and so on. Even the Holocaust itself was being questioned and denied. In recent years in the United Kingdom, the BBC, certain newspapers and Trades Unions, and some University campuses have displayed a major increase in anti-Israel activity. There has also been an increasing demand for a boycott of Israeli academics, products from Israel, etc.

In early 2009 there was no branch of the SPME in the United Kingdom and little way in which UK-based academics could give their combined opinions about the Israel-Palestine conflict. In the spring of 2009, the UK Chapter of SPME was formed by Professor Ashley Grossman of Barts and the London School of Medicine and me. We became the co-coordinators of the Chapter. There are now more than 800 UK members who receive the SPME Faculty Forum, and I hope they will all formally join the SPME (and pay the appropriate fee!). SPME-UK has also been co-opted to the Executive Board of the Fair Play Campaign Group (FPCG), which ‘was established by the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council in December 2006. It works to coordinate activity against boycotts of Israel and other anti-Zionist campaigns.’

My aim is to have an SPME representative at every University in the United Kingdom, who will inform SPME of any relevant campus activity. SPME will also be in contact with University Jewish Societies and interested individuals. We have already spoken to colleagues and groups nationally and internationally, which shows how wide the SPME remit is.

I believe that pro-Israel activity has been slow in the United Kingdom – ‘keep your head down and say nothing’ has been the attitude until now. That must change, and it is changing. SPME is one of the reasons for this change. No longer will half-truths and lies in academia about Israel be allowed to go unchallenged.

One day, hopefully sooner rather than later, peace will come to the Middle East. What then will be the function of the SPME? Anti-Semitism will continue. It has existed for more than two millennia. SPME will continue to rebut anti-Semitism and anti-Israel diatribes which are found in academia and on campuses, in ‘learned’ journals, and in articles written by academics (and students) in newspapers and in the media in general. The need for SPME, and for SPME-UK, has never been greater.