The Zionists complained we weren’t prominent and that some of us had been expelled for 'anti-Semitism'! That was the whole point! Antisemitism has been weaponised
Given its appalling record of late, refusing
to print a letter from over 200 Jewish women and another from over 400 people,
both of which the Morning
Star later printed,
I was surprised that the Guardian had decided to print
a letter from over 100 Jewish supporters of Chris Williamson.
 |
| The Morning Star published the letter that the Guardian refused to carry from 200 Jewish women |
Of course we knew that the Zionists weren’t
going to like the letter but we didn’t believe given the Guardian’s fabled commitment to
free speech (comment is free but facts
are sacred – CP Scott) that they would pull the letter after it had already
gone out in the print edition.
 |
| Now you see it now you don't |
 |
| It is surprising that the gutless Guardian didn't recall all the print edition |
Until the advent of the Internet such
a thing was physically impossible. I confess I once achieved this feat locally in
the Brighton Argus when an article from a Palestinian sounding name appeared in
the morning edition arguing that Palestinians’ home was in Jordan. Clearly the Zionists had sent it and the
letter was removed from the evening edition.
Today the Argus doesn’t have more than 1 edition.
 |
| Free Speech on Israel is not something that has ever concerned the Board of Deputies |
The normal thing to do if the Zionists
didn’t like the letter would have been to write a letter in response. Indeed
before the fake anti-Semitism campaign that is exactly what the Board of
Deputies used to do and on more than one occasion I have crossed swords with
them.
But those were the good old days when
the Guardian had a backbone and it didn’t have a committed Zionist Jonathan
Freedland at the helm. It also had a
decent Letters Editor Nigel Wilmott rather than a handpicked clone Rory
Foster who has a spine made of rubber.
Yesterday the Board of Deputies of British
Jews, whose very name is a lie since it does not represent either secular Jews or Haredi Ultra Orthodox Jews complained. At best the BOD represents 30% of British Jewry
and the most conservative elements of that 30%.
Most of their complaints were fatuous
and the Board should have been sent away with a flea in their ears or told to
send a letter in by way of reply. But
Rory Foster has no guts or backbone. The Board’s complaints were trivial in the
extreme:
i.
The
first complaint is that we are not ‘prominent’.
Unfortunately that is not true. Thanks to the Board and the Zionist press
Jackie Walker and myself are very prominent!! Is anyone suggesting that Noam
Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein don’t deserve that accolade? A truly pathetic
example of the obsession with status and rank of these petty-bourgeois businessmen.
ii.
‘The
Guardian was misleading and inaccurate in its description of the signatories,
some have been suspended or expelled from the Labour Party.’ Yes, that was the whole point of the letter,
that Chris Williamson is in danger of being unfairly expelled from the Labour
Party because of false allegations of anti-Semitism. Noone is hiding this fact. It is however a
lie to imply that either Jackie Walker or myself was expelled for anti-Semitism.
If Jews are expelled for ‘anti-Semitism’ then that casts doubt on the whole
shoddy process.
I was suspended in March 2016 for ‘comments I was alleged to have made.’ No indication was given as
to the nature of those comments and I only learnt of them 2 weeks later when
Sam Matthews leaked them to The Telegraph and Times. At my expulsion hearing
(which I delayed when I obtained a High Court Injunction) Counsel for the Labour
Party emphasised that it was not being alleged that I was anti-Semitic.
 |
| How the Zionist press sees it |
I had called Louise Ellman MP a supporter of Israeli child
abuse and ‘shamed’ her. I had called
Owen Jones ‘a Janus faced whore who bears the impression of the last person who
sat on him’ and called Chuka Ummuna an Uncle Tom (though I had apologised if
the original Uncle Tom took offence!). When I gave testimony to Shami Chakrabarti
she was shocked by what I told her.
iii.
One
of the signatories, Michael Morgan, who was not Jewish had apparently called
for Zionist to be exterminated (I suspect this is an exaggeration). His
inclusion was a mistake and could easily have been rectified by erasing his
name.
 |
| When Israeli snipers began gunning down unarmed Palestinians the Board of Deputies leapt into action blamed Hamas's 'cynical use of its population' - not a word about the use of snipers against an unarmed population |
But the Board of Deputies is not in a position to
complain. It has overtly supported
the murder of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza by the Israeli army. Or
are Palestinian lives worth less than those of Zionists? Isn’t that racist?
iv.
Meredith Wood-Bevan put Hope not Hate after their name. He didn’t claim to represent HnH. This merely
suggests that he was active in the group.
Similarly Peter Sheridan put Jewish Labour Movement after
his name. All that means is that he is a
member of this group. Embarrassing to be
sure (for the JLM) but he didn’t claim to represent them. Indeed it shows that not
everyone in the JLM is a racist.
 |
| The sheer hypocrisy of these supporters of open murder beggars belief and the Guardian is shameful in bowing down to these racists |
The Board finish their letter by
stating that ‘We wish to make two specific complaints:
First, the Guardian has a duty to
conduct due-diligence on the signatories of letters it publishes, especially on
one relating to such a serious issue as racism. In this case, the inclusion of
racist signatories ought to have stopped the publication of the letter.’
But the problem is that the Board of Deputies define anyone who is anti-Zionist
as anti-Semitic. Therefore anyone who opposes a Jewish state or Zionism is, by definition, anti-Semitic. Indeed
most of the Jews who died in the Holocaust were, by their definition, anti-Semites.
 |
| This is the racism that the Board doesn't talk about in the Jerusalem Post |
Of course the opposite is true. Anyone who defends an ethno-nationalist
state in which Jews are privileged vs non Jews, is automatically a racist. For
example Palestinian homes are demolished in order to
make way for Jewish homes. Jewish homes
are never demolished to make way for Arab homes. Jewish women when they go into labour can
choose a maternity unit where there are no Arabs. The Board of Deputies defends Israel as a Jewish
state. It is therefore racist. The BOD go on to say that:
‘Second, should it choose to
publish such a letter, the Guardian has a duty to describe it accurately. To
describe the signatories of this letter as “prominent members of the Jewish
community” is inaccurate and misleading.’
This is just soo pathetic it is unbelievable. ‘Prominence’ like fame is
entirely subjective. If the Board of
Deputies signatories wish to argue they are more prominent than us fine but I
suspect they will be laughed out of town.
 |
| The Guardian rejected a letter from over 400 signatories |
Nowhere, not once in their pathetic letter does the Board of Deputies challenge
the substance of our letter and our support for Chris Williamson. Instead by their
actions the Board of Deputies have proved exactly what we said in the
letter. This is a contrived campaign of demonization
of anti-racists and the Guardian has again demonstrated its utter spinelessness.
i.
The signatories are racist (not true)
ii.
Hope not hate were ‘misrepresented’ (not
true)
iii.
The signatories were described as ‘prominent
members of the Jewish community’. (pathetic)
 |
| Huff Post take on the affair getting us much more publicity |
If you now go to the Guardian letter it says that the article has been removed.
The full List
of Signatories can be found here. The story has of course been picked up
widely in the British media. For example
by the Canary
and Huffington
Post
Nor is this the first time that The
Guardian has printed controversial letters. On 22 October 2015, in response to
a letter supporting the Cultural Boycott of Israel some 149 signatories
claiming to represent the ‘cultural world’ wrote
opposing the Cultural Boycott. Besides
JK Rowling (who I guess represents some type of culture) there those well known
culture vultures Tory MPs Bob Blackman, Guto Bebb, Mike Freer and Michael
Dugher (sorry he was apparently Labour!). They even told us they were setting
up Culture for Coexistence ‘an independent UK network representing a
cross-section from the cultural world’. If you click on Culture for Coexistence now you
get the message ‘Website expired’
which suggests it was nothing more than a name of convenience for the purpose
of getting a fraudulent letter into The Guardian. I can’t remember the BOD asking for ‘due diligence’ on that occasion.
If the Board of Deputies really do
object to Jackie Walker, Leon Rosselson and myself being described as ‘prominent’
which was the Guardian’s sub-headline not ours, then let them write in and make
this point about how really important the Board is! I seem to recall that in
1942/3 the then Board of Deputies President Selig Brodetsky sabotaged the
efforts of Rabbi Dr Solomon Shonfeld, Chairman of the Chief Rabbi’s Rescue Committee
because of the desire to protect the self-importance of the Board. Clearly these things matter to these people,
even as in 1942, the lives of Jewish refugees from Nazism was at stake.
What is truly disgraceful is that The
Guardian has just given in to this blatant exercise in censorship. Ironically the
furore around the letter has gained it far more publicity than it would have
garnered if they had bitten their lips.
It has been, from the Zionist perspective, a wholly counter-productive
exercise because it has shown, in all its kodachrome clarity, what a petty minded,
self-important group of grey bureaucrats the Board of Deputies is.
For them to accuse others of racism
when they justify gunning down hundreds of unarmed Palestinians does indeed
merit the Yiddish description chutzpah.
The list of Jewish signatures can be
found here.
Tony Greenstein
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please submit your comments below