Labour’s Disciplinary Procedures would put the Star Chamber to Shame

Labour Party Witch-hunters Employ the   Daily Torygraph to Pursue Bogus Allegations of Anti-Semitism

Update

The printed version of the Daily Telegraph is significantly different from the Internet version (see bottom of post).  Out has gone allegations that I alleged that Jews supported the Nuremberg Laws.  Instead the idiots believe that it is anti-Semitic for me to have 'compared Israel's views on inter-racial marriage to the Nazi party's Nuremberg Laws on race.'

I have to confess that this is true.  In 'when Nuremburg came to Israel' I make exactly this comparison.  When Israel's Education Ministry ban a book 'Borderlife' from the high school English syllabus because it depicts a relationship between Jewish and an Arab teenagers as a 'threat to national identity' this is exactly the mentality of the Nuremberg racial laws and anyone who denies this is a hypocrite and a liar.  But it isn't just me who makes this comparison.  The greatest Jewish political scientist and philosopher of the 20th century, Hannah Arendt said exactly the same in her book 'Eichmann in Jerusalem - the Banality of Evil'.  She wrote:

Israeli citizens, religious and non-religious seem agreed upon the desirability of having a law which prohibits intermarriage… there certainly was something breathtaking in the naiveté with which the prosecution denounced the infamous Nuremberg Laws of 1935, which had prohibited intermarriage and sexual intercourse between Jews and Germans. Hannah Arendt, p.7 Eichmann in Jerusalem - The Banality of Evil, Penguin Books, London 1994.

And why was it breathtaking?  Because in Israel to it is impossible for a Jew and a non-Jew to marry.  Sexual relations between Arabs and Jews is a social taboo and the government funds groups, like the fascist Lehava group, which campaign against this.  Lehava in particular doesn't hesitate to attack Arab men in 'Jewish areas'.  So yes, I plead guilty to this particular charge!

Daily Telegraph article is significantly different from Internet version

Even the Board of Deputies Jamie Slavin admits that Tony Greenstein has fought anti-Semitism in the Palestine solidarity movement when people like Gilad Atzmon have surfaced

On March 18^th I was informed by John Stolliday of the Labour Party’s Constitutional/ Compliance Unit that I had been suspended from membership on the basis of comments I am alleged to have made.  Despite writing to the said Stolliday twice, I have not been informed as to the nature of these alleged comments.  Today (April 1^st) I received a letter from Harry Gregson, Acting Regional Organiser, informing me that he was intending to put off his investigation until after the local elections. 

Jonathan Freedland - the Guardians liberal Zionist who always falls on the wrong side of the fence

Even Jonathan Freedland, the Guardian's most prominent Zionist accepts that Tony Greenstein has opposed anti-Semitism without question - other comments refer to the editor of the Jewish Chronicle, Stephen Pollard's support for the anti-Semitic Polish politician Michal Kaminski

I immediately phoned Gregson and asked that I be sent copies of the evidence against me and the name(s) of the complainants.  Gregson, a minor apparatchik, despite having informed the Chairperson of Brighton Labour Party, Lloyd Russell-Moyle, that I would be given this evidence within a week, informed me that Labour Party procedures require that I should not be informed until after he has conducted his investigation.  This is clearly untrue.  The Executive Committee’s guidance as to how to carry out an investigation clearly states that ‘the respondent should be notified of the investigation and the nature of the complaints or allegations at an early stage’.

John Mann MP was effectively called a liar by an Employment Tribunal when he gave evidence at the case of Fraser v UCU

Of course this is not a matter of petty bureaucratic procedure or sticking to the rules but of a political attack on the Left of the Labour Party, led by people like John Mann MP, someone branded a liar, pompous and untrustworthy by an employment tribunal.

Employment Tribunal in Fraser v UCU heavily criticise Jeremy Newmark, who is behind the allegations of anti-Semitism.  Newmark is Chair of the Jewish Labour Movement i.e. the sister group of the racist Israeli Labour Party

The pretext for the attack is ‘anti-Semitism’ and that appears to be the basis of the allegations which have been made against me.  I say appear to be, because I can only take the word of the Daily Telegraph for it. [Activist who derides critics as 'Zionist scum'admitted to Labour in latest anti-Semitism scandal to hit Party] 

According to the Zionists, this sensitive and profound play is 'anti-Semitic'

Whilst the Compliance Unit has refused to give me the details of allegations made against me, someone in the Unit has nonetheless passed the information on to a paper which is not known for supporting the Labour Party and of course rent-a-mouth MP John Mann was on hand to provide a quote.

The past few weeks have seen a welter of charges around trivial examples of ‘anti-Semitism’ – some real, some imagined.  There was the case of Gerry Downing of Socialist Fight, who stupidly believes that a mythical ‘Jewish Question’ explains the support of the United States for Israel.  There are the foolish comments of a Vicki Kirby made two years ago, there is the reference to 6 million dead Zionists by Khadim Hussain, the former Mayor of Bradford.  Quite understandably he uses ‘Zionists’ instead of ‘Jews’ given that Zionists regularly confuse the two as a matter of policy.

When Aaronovitch allowed a comment alleging I was anti-Semitic on his blog  I sued The Times which apologised and paid damages

The point he made, namely the undue concentration on the extermination of Jews in school syllabuses, when the 10 million dead Africans in the Belgian Congo alone, pass without mention, is not in the least anti-Semitic.

Letter of Suspension from Labour Party

There are also false allegations of anti-Semitism against Oxford University Labour Club for supporting Israel Apartheid Week and York University Palestine Society for putting on the play 7 Jewish Children.  For details of these see Anti-Semitism– Weapon of Choice, Weekly Worker 24.3.2016 

Letter in response to Stolliday's suspension letter - Stolliday has subsequently leaked details of the complaints to Daily Telegraph

The Telegraph article by a Camilla Turner is wrong in a number of particulars.  It alleges that I refer to my critics as "Zio idiots" and "Zionist scum", and claimed that Jews supported the Nuremberg Laws.  I probably did refer, on Twitter to Zio idiots.  There is a 140 character limit and therefore one shortens words – it is certainly not anti-Semitic.  Whether calling someone an idiot or scum is anti-Semitic I will leave to other peoples’ judgment but when you are accused of anti-Semitism, self-hatred etc. by people who justify the murder of Palestinian civilians and even children it isn’t at all strong. 

The allegation that I claimed that Jews supported the Nuremberg Laws is an example of precisely the same offence as the former Mayor of Bradford is accused of, confusing Jews with Zionists.

I have never accused the Jews of Germany or anywhere else of supporting the 1935 Nuremberg Laws.  Laws which stripped German Jews of their citizenship, which made German ‘blood’ the requirement for citizenship and which enforced the legal the separation of Germany’s Jews from non-Jewish Germans.   They forbade inter-marriage and sexual relations between Germany’s Jews in just the same way as Israel forbids Jews and non-Jews to marry.  The Nuremberg Laws were, in the words of Gerald Reitlinger ‘the most murderous legislative instrument known to European history’. [The Final Solution, p.7, London 1998]

Letter from Gregson informing Tony Greenstein of delay in investigation - Gregson refuses to let TG know details of allegations

I do however say that the German Zionist Federation [ZVfD] and not just the German Zionists were enthusiastic supporters of these laws.  As the Introduction to the Nuremberg Laws stated:

If the Jews had a state of their own in which the bulk of their people were at home, the Jewish question could already be considered solved today… The ardent Zionists of all people have objected least of all to the basic ideas of the Nuremberg Laws, because they know that these laws are the only correct solution for the Jewish people too…

This quote can be found in an article by Israeli socialist and Emeritus Professor Moshe Machover and Mario Offenberg, Zionism and its scarecrows’ p. 38., in the journal Khamsin 6, Pluto Press, 1978.  It is directly quoting Die Nurnberger Gesetze, 5. Auflage, Berlin 1939 p.13/14. 

The same quotation appears in two books by Francis Nicosia, the Raul Hilberg Distinguished Professor of Holocaust Studies at Vermont University. [The Third Reich and the Palestine Question, I B Tauris, 1985 p.53 and Zionism and anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany [ZANG], p. 108, Cambridge University Press, 2008.  which cites an article by Lohsener in the Nazi journal Reichsverwaltungsblatt 23.11.35].

Letter in response to refusal of Labour bureaucrat Gregson to hand over details of allegations to Tony Greenstein

Rabbi Joachim Prinz, President of ZVfD and later Deputy Chairman of the World Jewish Congress explained that

‘Everyone in Germany knew that only the Zionists could responsibly represent the Jews in dealing with the Nazi government.  We all felt sure that one day the government would arrange a round table conference with the Jews… there was no country in the world which tried to solve the Jewish problem as seriously as did Germany… It was our Zionist dream!… Dissimilation?  It was our own appeal!…’ Joachim Prinz, ‘Zionism under the Nazi Government’, Young Zionist, London Nov. 1937 p.18

Indeed I would go further.  Whereas Jews the world over were shocked and angry at the decision by Germany’s conservative establishment – its industrialists, military and politicians – to put Hitler in power and began a massive economic boycott of Nazi Germany, the Zionists welcomed Hitler to power.  They even concluded their own trade agreement, Ha'avara, with Nazi Germany in August 1933 which helped destroy the Jewish and Labour Movement boycott of Germany.  This is not disputed.  It is covered in exhaustive detail in Edwin Black’s Ha’avara – The Transfer Agreement, Brookline Books, 1999.

German Zionism, which was a tiny minority amongst German Jews, welcomed the rise of the Nazis.  They were the volkish Jews.  Nicosia wrote that “So positive was its assessment of the situation that, as early as April 1933, the ZVfD announced its determination to take advantage of the crisis to win over a traditionally assimilationist German Jewry to Zionism”. [ZANG p.146].  Berl Katznelson, a founder of Mapai [Israeli Labour Party] and editor of Labour Zionism’s daily paper, Davar, [who was second only to David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first Prime Minister] saw the rise of Hitler as “an opportunity to build and flourish like none we have ever had or ever will have”. [Nicosia, ZANG, p.91].

Joachim Prinz admitted that:

“It was morally disturbing to seem to be considered as the favoured children of the Nazi Government, particularly when it dissolved the anti-Zionist youth groups, and seemed in other ways to prefer the Zionists. The Nazis asked for a 'more Zionist behaviour.” [Joachim Prinz, Zionism under the Nazi Government, Young Zionist (London, November 1937), p.18].

I suspect that this aspect of the charges will be quietly dropped because the historical record is so clear and embarrassing to the Zionists.

The more general accusation of ‘anti-Semitism’ is equally ludicrous.  Not only am I the author of the book The Fight Against Fascism in Brighton and on the South Coast, published by Labour History Workshop but I was a founder member of Brighton and Hove Anti-fascist Committee in the 1970’s as well as being Secretary of the Anti-Nazi League in Brighton in the early 1980’s when we cleared out the National Front and an Executive Member of Anti-Fascist Action.

When a member of Brighton PSC, Frances Clarke Lowes came out in support of holocaust denial in 2012 I proposed his expulsion both to the local PSC group and national PSC.  I also helped lead the campaign to isolate and remove supporters of Gilad Atzmon, the anti-Semitic Jazzman, from the Palestine solidarity movement at a time when others, Zionists included [Michael Ezra and David Taube] were arguing that he wasn’t anti-Semitic.

Even Jamie Slavin of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which is not exactly shy when it comes to supporting Israel right or wrong, admitted that ‘I stumbled across Tony Greenstein’s blog this morning. Tony is an anti-Zionist, Jewish member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC). Whilst his views on the situation in the Middle East are a complete anathema to me, to his credit, he has led the opposition within the PSC against rising levels of antisemitism.’

And lo and behold, even Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian, the person who maybe more than anyone else has led the current campaign to confuse anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism confessed in a private e-mail to me on 23^rd October 2015 that:

‘I have always had respect for the integrity of your position:  I remember your admirable stance on Gilad Atzmon for example’

I have incidentally given Jonathan Freedland notice that I might have to publish his email, despite the ‘Not for Publication’ note and it is my understanding that he is happy with this.

The attempt therefore to paint me as anti-Semitic has no legs and I have given the Labour Party functionary, Harry Gregson, due warning that I will not hesitate to resort to the libel courts if there is any attempt by Labour’s witch-hunters to suggest otherwise.

The only other aspect of the Torygraph’s allegations is the question of the legitimacy of the IRA’s attempt to assassinate Thatcher in 1984.  This is a historical question.  Thatcher herself is now dead.  The Labour Party in Brighton discussed this at length when a councillor, Richard Stanton, said exactly this.  There was a furore in the Evening Argus locally but the Labour Party and his ward, Queens Park, overwhelmingly backed Richard.  Richard stood for re-election and despite the Tories putting out a leaflet with a picture of a Guy Fawkes style bomb on it, Richard doubled his majority.  Most working-class people at the time were not taken in by the ruling class hypocrisy over the attack on Thatcher.  This was a woman who told us to ‘Rejoice, Rejoice’ when nearly a thousand men lost their lives when the General Belgrano was sunk by a British torpedo.  She was the woman who caused countless deaths from suicide and depression in the coalfields because of her destruction of the industry.  There was a war between the IRA and the British armed forces, in which Republican politicians were seen as legitimate targets by the Army and its dirty tricks brigades, such as the Force Research Unit.   Not only Republican politicians but ordinary Catholics were murdered by Loyalist death squads who were aided by British intelligence. 

Although some senior Labour politicians might today disavow their previous support for the Republicans the fact is that the IRA were fighting on behalf of the nationalist community in Northern Ireland.  One does not have to agree with all their tactics to understand the legitimacy of their struggle.  They were not terrorists, they were backed by the majority of the Catholic community as is evidenced in the fact that Sinn Fein have become the majority party of that community.

I am looking forward to doing battle with the Zionists and their supporters.  I have no intention of backing down.  I hope that Jeremy Corbyn, John McDonnell and others in Momentum with weak spines will understand that the attack on people like me is not because of genuine anti-Semitism.  ‘Anti-Semitism’ is a useful vehicle with which to attack the Left.  It is a means of attacking the Corbyn leadership itself.  Corbyn and McDonnell have a choice – they can allow the witch-hunt by Labours civil service at the behest of the Right to go ahead or they can call a halt to the process before they too are its victims.  Or as Kipling put it “Once you pay them Dane-geld you never get rid of the Dane”  In other words, don’t appease the Right fight them.

The Torygraph's article - based on a leak from the Compliance Unit