The backlash against Palestine solidarity: MEMO in conversation with Dr Hil Aked

Subhead: As support for the Palestinian cause increases, so too do efforts by the Friends of Israel to quash it, but who are the key factors in the British Zionist movement?

Join us in conversation with Dr Hil Aked as we discuss how Israel's friends in the West are helping maintain its apartheid regime and reverse widening support for the Palestinian cause in Britain.

Dr Aked is a writer and author of '

Friends of Israel: The backlash against Palestine solidarity' which  traces the history and changing fortunes of key actors within the British Zionist movement in the context of the Israeli government's contemporary efforts to repress a rising tide of solidarity with Palestinians expressed through the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.    

An investigative researcher with a background in political sociology, Aked holds a PhD from the University of Bath and an MSc from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London. Aked has conducted research on the ‘Israel lobby’, Islamophobia, neoconservative think tanks and the media, the far right, and civil society activism in the struggle for AIDS treatment in South Africa. Aked's work has appeared in the Guardian, Independent, Sky News and Al Jazeera, as well as volumes from Pluto Press and Zed Books/Bloomsbury.