Open Letter to SNP Members of Parliament – Don’t Be Fooled by False Accusations of anti-Semitism

John Mann MP, Zionist Chair of Parliament’s ‘anti-Semitism’ Sub-Committee Joins the Signatories

Gary Spedding - the Walter Mitty Character who drafts SNP EDMs

 

Another self-seeking publicist and narcissist -   the Blue Labour MP 'rent a gob' John Mann 

  

Dear Member of Parliament,

I wrote to most of you at the weekend in response to the signing of EDM 652 by predominantly SNP MPs (28/33).  I also enclosed a link to a blog article entitled ‘Zionism in anAnti-Racist Guise - SNP falls for the oldest Zionist trick in the book - AttackPalestinians, Shout ‘anti-Semitism’ 

Being anti-Semitic is no obstacle to being a supporter of Israel and Zionism

I note that it has now garnered an extra 9 signatures -  mainly the more reactionary Labour MPs (John Mann in particular) as well as a stray from Plaid Cymru and the UUP, who clearly thought her friends in the SDLP needed the company of Protestant supremacism.

The EDM, although deceptively worded, clearly has a Zionist pedigree.  My objections, as a longstanding Jewish anti-Zionist, to the motion  were five fold:

John Mann's racist friend - former New Labour MP Phil Woollas who ran an openly racist campaign but was deselected by the High Court

1.             It affirmed that ‘anti-Semitism has no place in campaigns of solidarity with Palestinians’ thereby assuming that it ever has had such a place.

2.             It cites as a reliable source the statistics of the Community Security Trust, an overtly right-wing Zionist organisation, which supplied false information to the Home Office to secure the deportation of Raed Salah, a Palestinian leader in Israel.  The Upper Tribunal threw the case out when it was revealed that this information had been forged.  There is good reason to believe that the anti-Semitic incidents that the CST records are similarly suspect.

Robert Zile MEP, Latvian LNNK - another anti-Semitic friend of Israel - likes to march with the veterans of the Latvian Waffen SS every March

3.             It refers to ‘armed violence’ between Israel and Gaza whereas in reality there was what the noted Israeli author, Ilan Pappe described as ‘incremental genocide’.  2,200 Palestinians were killed, including 551 children, whereas approximately 70 Israelis died of whom 90% were soldiers.

Zionist Federation vice-chair Jonathan Hoffman demonstrates alongside Roberta Moore of the neo-Nazi Jewish Defence League

4.             It calls for members ‘to make clear the distinction between the Jewish community…’ and ends there.  Presumably this illiterate motion means the Jewish community and the actions of Israel.  I agree but it is somewhat unfortunate that the Israeli government repeatedly claims that it acts on behalf of all Jews, inside and outside Israel and that the Zionist Board of Deputies of British Jews goes out of its way to associate the British Jewish community with the actions of Israel.  Is it any surprise that some people take the claims of Zionists seriously?

John Mann MP did his best to stop Jeremy Corbyn MP being elected and used the racist Daily Express - which in the 30s ran a campaign against admitting Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany - to further his campaign

5.             The issue is not ‘anti-Semitism’ but the virulent racism of the Israeli state.  The issuing of a book Torat HeMelech by Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira which advocated killing non-Jewish children and infants, as they would grow up to hate Jews.  The precise argument Himmler gave to senior SS officers in October 1943 as a justification for killing Jewish children.  No prosecution of Shapira ever took place and when he was temporarily detained by Police for one day hundreds of rabbis protested against this.  The examples of Israeli racism, such as barring Arabs from Jewish towns, forbidding the right of Israeli Palestinians to rent ‘Jewish’ homes are numerous.

The Zionist CST sees its job as excluding left-wing Jews from communal meetings

What I didn’t realise was that the EDM had been drawn up, not by the initial signatories to the motion but by a Gary Spedding, who claims to be part of the Palestine solidarity movement but who is widely derided by activists for his self-seeking publicity seeking.   I and others have been bombarded by him with comments for most of this week. 

Smug, reactionary, not very bright but 'concerned' about 'anti-Semitism'

Mr Spedding informed me that ‘Your opinion of me matters very little. My performance is judged on how threatened the Israel advocacy groups feel by the work I do and I can tell you that they're terrified. Absolutely terrified.’

Well he certainly terrifies his few remaining friends and he should terrify you!  He is an extreme example of narcissism.  A Walter Mitty character. 

Spedding, has made it clear that, in his opinion, I ‘choose to remain blind to the anti-semitism that blights our movement.’ I have asked Spedding repeatedly what exactly this blight consists of.  His silence has been deafening.  When there were anti-Semites hanging around the Palestine solidarity movement, Gilad Atzmon and Paul Eisen in particular, it was Jewish anti-Zionists who rooted them out.  Gary Spedding was nowhere to be seen.  In his arrogance, Mr Spedding thinks he knows more about anti-Semitism than Jews who work within the Palestine solidarity movement

I would therefore ask you to remove your signature from this overtly Zionist inspired EDM.  It constitutes a direct attack on Palestine solidarity work in this country.  It serves no purpose whatsoever and it is not surprising that the high priest of false accusations of anti-Semitism, John Mann MP, has become a signatory.  You should also think very carefully before signing anything by Gary Spedding again.  Anti-Semitism is repeatedly used by the Zionist movement and the Israeli government as a weapon against their detractors.  Today it is the European Union for labelling goods made in the West Bank.  Yesterday it was President Obama.  Two weeks ago the Palestinian people were blamed for forcing the holocaust upon Hitler.

This wild use of the term anti-Semitism simply lets the real anti-Semites off the hook.  Like the boy who cried wolf, it immunises people to anti-Semitism when it does occur and drains the term of all meaning.

I hadn’t realised when I wrote to you that one activist had even gone so far as to set up a Spedding Solidarity Movement page!  Please don’t be taken in by this charlatan again. 

Yours sincerely,

Tony Greenstein

It would be unkind not to make a particular mention of John Mann MP, since he too loves publicity - good or bad.

As Chair of the Parliamentary Sub-Committee on 'Anti-Semitism' John Mann MP, despite not being Jewish, considers himself an expert.  The anti-Semitism that concerns him is that which is connected with opposition to Israel - like Boycotts, Sanctions and Disinvestment.

So when the Universities Colleage Union decided to boycott Israeli Universities for their involvement in research for the Israeli military, training its officers and running programmes specifically designed to meet its needs, as well as institutes of security and the like, John Mann MP and the corrupt Dennis MacShane MP swung into action.

When an action for racial discrimination was brought by Anthony Julius of Mishcon de Reya, an ardent Zionist solicitor, against UCU for racial discrimination (the argument being that Zionism is an inherent part of being Jewish and therefore to be anti-Zionist is to be anti-Jewish and therefore racist) John Mann MP was more than willing, with Dennis MacShane, to give evidence.  The  Tribunal case - Fraser v UCU was comprehensively lost and the Tribunal had this to say about the two MPs:

"We did not derive assistance from the two Members of Parliament who appeared before us. Both gave glib evidence, appearing supremely confident of the rightness of their positions. For Dr MacShane, it seemed that all answers lay in the MacPherson Report (the effect of which he appeared to misunderstand). Mr Mann could manage without even that assistance. He told us that the leaders of the Respondents were at fault for the way in which they conducted debates but did not enlighten us as to what they were doing wrong or what they should be doing differently. He did not claim ever to have witnessed any Congress or other UCU meeting. And when it came to anti-Semitism in the context of debate about the Middle East, he announced, “It’s clear to me where the line is …” but unfortunately eschewed the opportunity to locate it for us. Both parliamentarians clearly enjoyed making speeches. Neither seemed at ease with the idea of being required to answer a question not to his liking."