Dr. Queen's website has now been removed by the University of Birmingham administration.  A spokesperson wrote, "Until recently we have relied on the disclaimer to make it clear that the views expressed on such websites are personal to the owner and are not endorsed by the University in any way.  Latterly however we decided that this approach is open to misinterpretation and made a policy decision to close down access to all such personal websites."

University of Birmingham must be praised for removing websites with an antisemitic content from their servers.  It should not be forgotten, however, that there are still issues to address, e.g. Birmingham Academics for Antisemitism?

I have decided to leave this page on-line in the hope that it will encourage other British universities to follow Birmingham's example.
The writings of Israel Shamir have spread like a rash across the Internet.  The characteristics that have endeared him to so many people is that he is Jewish (well at least Jew-ish); Israeli  and he writes the most awful garbage about Israel  and Jews in general.  For the average antisemite they must think that their messiah has arrived.  Is that why a University of Birmingham website once linked to him?  I say "once" because Sue Blackwell has seen the light  and removed the link (see "NAZI ALERT!" on her  Birmingham University website).  I tried to tell her but she would not be told.  With this level of verification of sources anything is possible.  Why does University of Birmingham continue to host her website?
I enjoy irony.  From the very beginning of her meteoric rise to Internet fame, Sue Blackwell has trotted out the opinions of various Jews in support of the idea that this or that is not racist or antisemitic.  Here is but one example from many.
"As for "parallels with Nazi Germany", I do not personally use such language. But I know of many people who do, including a number of Jewish people (see some of the messages of support posted on my website). I think they have a right to their point of view and while such language is strong and controversial, I do not think that it is racist." More ...
As can be seen from the above Ms. Blackwell persists in this daft belief.  Either that or she has yet to update her website in view of this fresh understanding.  Whatever, Israel Shamir, a man to whose website she was only recently defiantly linked has now fallen from grace.  This Israeli Jew has now been placed in the box marked 'Nazi' along with the likes of Holocaust denier David Irving  and National Front guru Martin Webster, i.e.
"NAZI ALERT!
Some notorious far-right individuals and organisations are jumping onto the Palestinian bandwagon in an attempt to hijack the cause of the Palestinian people for their own anti-semitic ends. Recent examples are:

Revisionist "historian" (read Holocaust-denier) David Irving featured the nomination of Rachel Corrie for the Nobel Peace Prize on his website. The link was widely circulated on the Internet. 

Martin Webster, national organiser of the National Front in the 1970s, featured the case of Tom Hurndall in the latest edition of his "Electronic Watch on Zion" newsletter. 

Israel Shamir, whose writings are widely admired in some pro-Palestinian circles, .."
So Ms. Blackwell once linked uncritically to an "Israeli Jew" whom she now apparently thinks is a Nazi.  What does this say for her critical judgement?  Not to know what Israel Shamir stands for suggests that Ms. Blackwell is remarkably uninformed about the Middle East  and the issues surrounding the Arab-Jewish conflict generally.

The first people to tackle Shamir regarding his antisemitism was Ali Abunimah & Hussein Ibish.  Initially they did this in private  and later, when this did not get the desired results, they went public.  There follows two quotes from their email.
'1) Yesterday we received an "Easter Message" from Shamir in which he repeats the most odious characterizations of Jews as "Christ killers," the staple of classic European Christian anti-Semitism. In the message, which originates from Shamir's own email address, he writes: 

"Jesus taught, love your neighbour as yourself, even if he is a traditional enemy of Jews, a Samaritan. That is why he was hated by the Jewish supremacists of his time. He said: you can not worship God and Mammon, the god of greed, you have to choose. That is why he was hated by supply-side economists and bankers of his day. They sentenced him to death and the Empire obliged and carried out the execution, in order to keep peace with these all-important forces. Our fathers did not dare to speak against their leaders. The spirit of domination scored a victory, but the spirit of brotherhood did not vanish."

Shamir continues: "The Jewish supremacy forces and the greed worshippers united again to crucify Christ. The US, this New Rome, again gives hand and agrees to become the executioner. Now it is our turn to decide."' More ...
'2) Shamir recently gave a speech at Tufts University. He is quoted as saying at that speech: "Palestinians are perfect mammals; their life is deeply rooted in the ground... Israeli people represent a virus form of a human being because they can live anywhere." ("Israel at fault for Middle East violence, Jewish journalist says," The Tufts Daily, April 10, 2001) The quote appears to be verified and accurate.

This is, if anything, even worse than the "Christ killers" language drawn from traditional European Christian anti-Semitism. The "Jew-as-parasite" analysis recalls the even more vicious political and racial, rather than folkloric and religious, anti-Semitism which emerged during the 19th century in Europe and culminated in the Nazi genocide of World War II. This description of Jews as 'parasites' or "viruses" cast them as immutably alien to all societies in which they lived, and contrasted the 'international Jew' with the supposedly 'authentic' volkish people, who have deep connections to the land of the nation and who are the creators of social and economic value. The 'inauthentic' Jews were always 'foreigners' and "viruses" because, as Shamir puts it, "they can live anywhere," and are not rooted to the land as the non-Jewish population supposedly is. They are cast as parasites and diseases that feed off of the productivity and creativity of the authentic people, without ever contributing anything themselves."  More ...
Nigel Parry (who is English) has an impeccable record of support for the Palestinian Arab cause.  Below is part of what he has to say about Israel Shamir.
'4) DEFENDED BY WHO? 
It is worth noting that, in Shamir's response to their letter, one of the people Shamir called in his defence was Christopher Bollyn of The SPOTLIGHT, who informs us that "Christ killers" was a perfectly acceptable characterisation of Jews.

We had just misunderstood it, that was all, because we're just not "steeped" in Christianity like he is.

Speaking as someone who has been steeped, boiled, and occasionally roasted in Christianity for over a decade now, it strikes me as incredible that any purported Christian could be unaware of the historical implications and inappropriateness of using the term "Christ killers" to describe Jews.

I fully expect that next Bollyn will be assuring us that "sand niggers" is a perfectly acceptable term to use to describe Arabs. Would we accept that?

Needless to say, if you go to http://www.spotlight.org, home of the Liberty Lobby [sic], "the voice of the American Majority", we are only one click away (see "TBR Suppressed History" in the right column) from common garden variety Holocaust denial:

"...a plethora of documentary evidence, long suppressed, shows that [concentration camp Jewish] prisoners were relatively well-treated, compensated for their hard work and allowed to purchase luxuries to which even the German public did not have ready access. This is not the image of abject deprivation that the Holocaust lobby would like you to entertain."  (from "Concentration Camp Money," by Jennifer White, The Barnes Review).' More ...
 
In, "Israel Shamir and the Russian connection" Meredith Tax reports on some research she has done concerning Israel Shamir.  One of the publications he writes for is called "Zavtra".  Below is what she says about this rag.  Later in the same article Ms. Tax goes on to list some of the antisemitic websites hosting Zavtra material.
'What is Zavtra?
Reporting on current conditions in Russia to the Congressional Helsinki Committee on Sept 19, 2000, Micah H. Naftalin, National Director of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) alluded to "the most influential antisemitic publisher in Russia-- Aleksandr Prokhanov, chief editor of the extremist newspaper Zavtra." Prokanov hit the front page of the Moscow Times that month when he met with Putin and also brought David Duke of the KKK to Russia to organize:

Prokhanov was one of a select group of newspaper editors invited to talks in the Kremlin last month. He ate Kremlin pastries. He drank Kremlin coffee. He chatted with the president. He felt related, part of the family. 

So what kind of goodies does this new familial extension have for Putin? Why, no one other than David Duke, formerly the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, currently the leader of a U.S. group called the National Association for the Advancement of White People and also a member of Prokhanov's family. 

Duke is in Moscow for a month, on Prokhanov's personal invitation. He has come to share his experience in promoting the cause of "white rights," as he described NAAWP's main responsibility last year. Russia apparently needs his experience, too. In an interview with the newspaper Kommersant on the day of his arrival in Moscow, Duke expressed alarm over the increased number of black people, which, he says, has grown noticeably in the capital since his previous visit last year.' more ...
As we have seen, there was a time (before Sue Blackwell saw the light) when anyone could access Israel Shamir's website by following a link on a Birmingham University website.  The link was labelled "The Writings of Israel Shamir"  and it took you directly to this odious man's website.  There among other things you could join his mailing list  and get his pro-Palestinian Arab propaganda (sorry I mean antisemitic garbage) sent directly to your mail box.  That should help University of Birmingham fulfil its duties under the "Amended Race Relations Act 1976".  In case you have forgotten, the 1976 Act (A) places a positive general duty on universities (and a list of other establishments) to actively promote race equality.  Thus University of Birmingham must have due regard, as relevant, to the need to eliminate unlawful racial discrimination; promote equality of opportunity  and promote good race relations between people of different racial groups.  Israel Shamir is just the guy to help (I think not).
Here is a simple question to do with linking.  Would the University of Birmingham (U of B hereafter) host a website featuring the writings of Israel Shamir?  Would his propaganda characterising Jews as "Christ killers"  and "viruses" fall within U of B's notion of "academic freedom"?  Seeing what U of B's management already thinks is OK I am taking a risk asking the foregoing question.  However, let us hope that classic European antisemitism is not  considered to be cool at U of B.  So why facilitate access to this garbage by providing a link to it from a U of B website?  Why even take the chance of facilitating such access by giving webspace to someone like Sue Blackwell, who apparently, can't even be bothered to verify her sources before linking to them?

Neither do I buy the excuse that U of B or the administrator of their website cannot be held responsible for material on websites to which they link.  Adding a link is an active process  and whomsoever does it bears responsibility for checking what is on the end of that link. Anyone with any experience of the Arab-Jewish conflict in the Middle East will be aware of Israel Shamir  and what his writings represent.  Does this mean that U of B's management (who OKed the website); the website's administrator (who made the link) or both approved the link to Shamir's website deliberately knowing what he represents?  Were either knowingly invoking classic European antisemitism in the service of Palestinian Arab 'rights' (as many Muslim extremists already do in the UK)?  Or is it just that these people are so incompetent or sloppy that they can't be trusted to get things right?  I sincerely hope it is the latter even if it does not give much hope for the future of British academia in some quarters.
Finally, I must say I don't understand how U of B can justify websites like the one above on the grounds of 'academic freedom'.  Surely one important element in any academic pursuit is debate  and the right of  effective response.  In practice this is denied by the very nature of website presentation.  I know because I have tried.  The administrator of the website need not even respond let alone debate.  This is generally what happens, but even when there is a response this is usually cut short when the administrator feels s/he is losing the debate.  Websites such as the one complained of above do not represent 'academic freedom'. They degrade academic freedom by denying effective debate.