Professor Stuart Rees (an indefatigable activist for Palestinian human rights, founder of the Sydney Peace Foundation and the Sydney Peace Prize, Emeritus Professor at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia, and winner of the inaugural Jerusalem (Al Quds) Peace Prize) (2019): “UN Security Council Resolution 2334, of December 2016 said that Israel’s settlement activity constitutes a ‘flagrant violation of international law’ and has ‘no legal validity.’ The vote Was 10-0 with the US abstaining. In spite of this resolution, Israel continues to benefit from special treatment, not just from supportive US policies but through the benefits of diplomatic blind eyes. The UN imposes sanctions on other states but not on Israel even though, under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), its settlement policy constitutes a war crime and a crime against humanity… To confirm critics’ judgements that the Jewish state of Israel is racist, that its governance amounts to apartheid, in December 2018, the Israeli Knesset rejected the Equality Bill, introduced by Mossi Raz of the Meretz party. The text was a direct quote from Israel’s Declaration of Independence. “The State of Israel shall maintain equal political rights among all its citizens, without any difference between religions, race and sex.” The bill was rejected by 71 -38. In the journal Mondoweiss, Yossi Gurvitz commented, “Those 71 votes represent the hard core of practical Zionism who decided that Israel would be a Jewish country not a democratic one”” (Stuart Rees, “Redefining free speech: opposing Israel is not anti-Semitism”, New Matilda, 15 January 2019: https://newmatilda.com/2019/01/15/redefining-free-speech-opposing-israel-not-anti-semitism/ ).