Michael Dickson

Michael Dickson is the Israel Director of StandWithUs International.

In June 2007, Dickson wrote to The Times in protest at trade union Unison's role in the academic boycott of Israel.

In a January 2009 article, Dickson described his organisation's role in creating HelpUsWin.org an online campaign in support of Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip:

Israel's campaign against Hamas may be the world's first social war, being fought on social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, on talkbalks of leading media sites and on blogs.

As news of the air campaign broke, our organisation, working closely with Israeli authorities set up an Internet Task Force to lead the fight. A multilingual and web-savvy core group of around 15 bloggers and experts were brought together to co-ordinate a strategic battle for public opinion which, within days comprised thousands of activists. They are working around the clock to respond in real-time to online criticism of Israel and to help counter misinformation about the situation.

In April 2009, Dickson took part in a protest against the presence of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad at the United Nations Durban II conference.

With this backdrop, we staged our own opening to Durban II, a silent protest, led by student demonstrators. They walked towards the Palais Des Nations with tape over their mouths to reflect the silence of the UN on issues such as the violent oppression of women, the genocide in Darfur which claims a life every eight minutes, the suppression of students, minorities and gays in Iran - and all because of the obsessive focus on Israel.

External Resources

• Youtube, StandWithUS International work during the war on Hamas - Israeli TV interview with Michael Dickson during Operation Cast Lead.