Starmer Promised to ‘tear the poison of anti-Semitism out by its roots’ – so why did he appoint an anti-Semite as General Secretary?

David Evans email stating that Jews feel unsafe when faced with robust debate is about as anti-Semitic as it gets

Stop Press:  Angela Rayner Threatens to Suspend ‘thousands and thousands’ of members. Thus breaking the EHRC Report’s stipulation that Labour leaders should not interfere in the disciplinary process

It should be a statement of the obvious that the Labour Right has never been interested in opposing racism. That is why, if there was no other reason, their concern with ‘anti-Semitism’ is a brazen lie.

It was New Labour that demonised asylum seekers and used Islamaphobia to discipline Britain’s Muslim communities. It is why you never hear anything from them  today about the Windrush Scandal, the continuing deportation of Black people to the Caribbean or Grenfell Tower. As we all know, Black Lives Matter was only a 'moment'.

Nadia Whittome, a member of the Campaign Group of MPs and the Alliance for Workers Liberty is a scab

The ‘anti-Semitism’ the Right constantly talk about is always at the level of the metaphysical. It has no concrete manifestations. Black people are subject to Stop and Search, Windrush deportations, Police violence and disproportionate imprisonment, coupled with economic discrimination. Which of these applies to British Jews? None is the answer.

All the leading lights in the fake ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign are themselves racists. Take Tom Watson who declared that he wouldn’t rest until the last ‘anti-Semite’ was expelled from the Labour Party. This is the same Tom Watson who issued a leaflet as Campaign Manager in the Hodge Hill by-election of 2004, which declared that "Labour is on your side – the Lib Dems are on the side of failed asylum seekers".

Watson gave unflinching support to Phil Woolas, who fought the 2010 General Election on a platform of Islamaphobia. He painted his Lib-Dem opponent as a supporter of violent Jihadism. So outrageous were Woolas’s lies that the High Court removed him from Parliament. Woolas fought the campaign on the basis of ‘making the White folk angry.’

John Mann, the ‘anti-Semitism Czar’ was also very concerned about ‘anti-Semitism’ but this didn’t stop him demonising Gypsies and Roma. In 2007 he brought out the Bassetlaw anti-social behaviour handbook which listed Travellers alongside Alcohol, Fireworks, Rubbish, Neighbours from Hell, Noisy Neighbours and Alcohol as a problem of anti-social behaviour.

Support for the Israeli state and Zionism is strongest amongst neo-Nazis and the far-Right.  Strange that. In the German Bundestag the most pro-Zionist party is the far-Right AfD, which contains a large number of neo-Nazis. From Tommy Robinson to the neo-Nazi founder of the alt-Right Richard Spencer (a ‘white Zionist’) today's neo-Nazis are the foremost supporters of Zionism and Israel’s ethno-religious nationalism. No better example of this phenomenon is Donald Trump himself. Trump has no hesitation in indulging the anti-Semitism of his followers yet he is also the most pro-Zionist President there has ever been.

For some unfathomable reason Momentum and the Campaign Group want to get into bed with Herr Sturmer 

The answer to this conundrum is simplicity itself. Fascists and anti-Semites admire Israel because the ‘Jewish’ state is the kind of state they aspire to create. It is an ethno-nationalist state that has complete disregard for minorities within its borders and maintains a violent racist occupation over the West Bank which makes Apartheid South Africa seem a children’s playground in comparison.

When I was interviewed after being suspended by the Labour Party as part of the 'anti-Semitism' witchhunt I was asked about a post in which I said that Israel is waiting for the holocaust survivors to die in order that it can save on welfare benefits.  I was asked nothing about anti-Semitism.

This kind of criticism of Israel, which draws on the holocaust, is anti-Semitic according to the IHRA definition of ‘anti-Semitism’.  The only problem was that I was quoting from the headline of an article in the Israeli paper Ha'aretz! Perhaps they too are anti-Semitic?  Idiot Harry Gregson who interviewed me, before jumping ship to the Independent Group certainly thought so.

The Zionist movement, which fought against the rescue of Jews from Hitler’s clutches during the ongoing holocaust, actively seeking to prevent Jews seeking refuge in countries other than Palestine, has exploited the holocaust as a means of warding off criticism. The holocaust has been very profitable to Israel.  It enabled Israel to build its submarine fleet courtesy of West Germany as well as obtain monetary reparations. In return Israel gave West Germany a kosher certificate that enabled it to be accepted as a key member of NATO.

The symbol of Israel’s exploitation was the creation of Yad Vashem, a holocaust propaganda museum, which sought to portray Arab opposition to Zionism as being an extension of Nazi hatred of the Jews. Yad Vashem was built almost next door to the village of Deir Yassin (Givat Shaul) which was subject to a terrible massacre in April 1948 when over 100 Arabs – men, women and children – were slaughtered with knives and grendades by the Irgun terror militia. Yet when a guide to Yad Vashem, Itamar Shapira pointed this out he was instantly dismissed for ‘politicising’ the holocaust.

Nadia Whittome - scab MP and supporter of the Zionist Alliance for Workers Liberty

If pointing out the comparisons between the Jewish and Palestinian tragedy is unacceptable to Yad Vashem then what is acceptable is the invitation it extends to neo-Nazis and Hitler worshippers. This first began under the Israeli Labour Government of Yitzhak Rabin when John Vorster, the Prime Minister of South Africa was invited to Israel in 1976. As is always the case with state visitors they are taken to Yad Vashem so that they are made aware of the fact that Israel derives its legitimacy from the tragedy of European Jews. The fact that Vorster had been interned during the war as a Nazi supporter made no difference.

Since then a whole flock of neo-Nazi and far-Right visitors have made the compulsory pilgrimage to Yad Vashem. These include two leaders who have openly praised Hitler! Brazil’s Bolsonaro and Philippines Duterte. Then there was Austria’s Jorg Haider leader of the Freedom Party, which was founded by a former member of the SS. Not leaving out the world’s premier anti-Semitic ruler, Viktor Orban of Hungary. Orban praised Hungary’s pro-Nazi leader Admiral Horthy who presided over the deportation of nearly half a million Jews to Auschwitz, as an ‘exceptional statesman’. Orban’s visit provoked protests outside by holocaust survivors but that doesn't stop Netanyahu being best friends with Orban.

One of the lessons of the holocaust is that no refugee or asylum seeker should be turned away like Jewish refugees were. Israel refuses to grant asylum to any non-Jewish refugees. Not only Netanyahu but the whole political spectrum of Zionist opinion, including the Israeli Labour Party, has supported attempts to deport Israel’s 40,000 Black African Jews because they are not Jewish.

It should therefore not be a surprise that a Knesset committee has just proposed Effi Eitam, a right-wing hawk and an avowed racist, to become the next Chair of Yad Vashem. It really is a fitting appointment and I only hope that no one impedes his appointment. In 2006 Eitam made these comments:

We will have to do three things: expel most of the Arabs of Judea and Samaria [West Bank] from here. It is impossible with all these Arabs and it is impossible to give up the territory, because we have already seen what they are doing there. Some may be able to stay under certain conditions, but most will have to go. We will have to make another decision, and that is to kick out the Israeli Arabs from the political system. Here, too, things are clear as day: we have created a fifth column, a group of first-degree traitors, so we cannot continue to allow such a hostile and large presence in Israel’s political system. Third, in the face of the Iranian threat, we will have to act differently from everything we have done until today. These are three things that will require a change in our ethics of warfare.

Those with a sense of history will understand that the legend of the ‘stab in the back’ and a ‘fifth column’ were integral to the German nationalist myths that circulated in the wake of Germany's defeat in the first World War that Germany had lost, not because of any military failure but because of the treacherous Jews. Eitam is indeed an appropriate appointment.

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Why do I mention this?  Because if Jeremy Corbyn had indeed introduced anti-Semitism to the Labour Party, if anti-Semitism was indeed a problem in the Labour Party then the Jewish Labour Movement and the Zionist lobby would not have been in the slightest bit interested. Zionism has never fought anti-Semitism. The Board of Deputies has never called an anti-racist demonstration in its history.

Viktor Orban, Prime Minister of Hungary and a notorious anti-Semite as well as Netanyahu's close political friend

In 1936 the Board told Jews not to oppose Moseley’s Blackshirts at the Battle of Cable Street.  In the 1970s it spent most of its time attacking the Anti-Nazi League not the National Front. Hence its demonstration in March 2018, purportedly against Corbyn’s ‘anti-Semitism’ attracted people like Norman Tebbit and Ian Paisley Jnr.. If the Board had been in the slightest concerned about anti-Semitism it would have pulled up Boris Johnson about the anti-Semitic comments about Jewish media moguls fixing election results in Russia in his 2004 novel 72 Virgins.

The Board was no more interested in 2004 about Johnson’s anti-Semitism than it was in Jacob Rees Mogg’s anti-Semitic comments about the Illuminati. What you haven’t heard about Mogg’s comments? Well of course you haven’t because the press wasn’t interested. Now if Corbyn had made the comments it would have been front page news.

If there is one truth that people should assimilate it is that the ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign against Corbyn had nothing whatever to do with anti-Semitism. It is because of Corbyn’s political cowardice and inability to understand Zionism that instead of facing it down he accepted the allegations and then tried to run with them. The faster Corbyn and Formby expelled people the more they proved that the accusations of the Board of Deputies were true and the greater the demands made upon them.

The graphic below is taken from Labour's leaked Report.  Corbyn and his office (LOTO) pressurised the Compliance Unit into expelling me, Jackie Walker, Ken Livingstone and Marc Wadsworth.  Why?  To 'reestablish trust' with the Jewish community. Well we were expelled but did the Zionists shut up?  Of course not.  They simply upped their demands and then stabbed Corbyn in the back.

That is why the statement of Andrew Scatterbrain, Chair of Momentum, that Corbyn’s suspension imperiled the ‘fight against anti-Semitism’ was so pathetic. The ‘fight against anti-Semitism’ has never been anything other than a fight against Corbynism and socialism. The idea that Starmer and his glove puppet David Evans were seriously concerned about racism against Jews or any other group should be left for children’s bed time stories.

Extract from p.306, Labour's Leaked Report -  Jeremy Corbyn Dug his Own Grave - was trust rebuilt when Jackie, Ken, Marc and myself were expelled?  Of course not.  The Zionists demanded more.

When Evans sent out an email ordering constituencies not to pass resolutions supporting Corbyn who did he use as his political stage props?  Jews of course.  Not actual Jews. Most Jews in the Labour Party are not Zionists. He was referring to Jews in the Jewish Labour Movement who have largely entered Labour with the purpose of opposing Corbyn. Most would be equally at home in the Tory Party. The JLM was refounded in 2015 to oppose Corbyn. The JLM, like its ‘sister party’ the ILP is as hostile to socialism and anti-racism as Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.

I have therefore submitted a complaint to Labour’s Complaint Unit.  The email Evans sent to CLPs and MPs saying Jews would be made uncomfortable by motions supporting Corbyn contains at least 3 anti-Semitic tropes.

i.                   It rests on the anti-Semitic stereotype of the weak and sensitive Jew unable to withstand vigorous argument or debate.

ii.                It proceeds on the assumption that all Jews are supporters of the Labour Right and Starmer.

iii.             It uses Jews as pawns in Starmer’s war with the left. 

Meanwhile I hope people enjoy the latest cartoon of Steve Bell to be censored by the Guardian’s despicable editor, Kath Viner. I’ve been asked why someone who put on My Name is Rachel Corrie should at the same time become the Guardian’s most Zionist editor in 50 years.  I guess that a £350,000 salary has its temptations.

Below is my complaint to Labour's Complaints Unit.  I have every confidence that Evans will be looking for new employment!

Tony Greenstein

National Complaints Team, The Labour Party, Southside, 

105 Victoria Street LONDON SW1E 6QT

Email to complaints@labour.org.uk and Submitted via Complaints Form

Dear Complaints Unit,

Re:    A Complaint Against David Evans for Anti-Semitism

I wish to make a complaint against the Labour Party’s General Secretary, David Evans. When Keir Starmer was elected as leader of the Labour Party he pledged to “tear out this poison (anti-Semitism) by its roots”. Unfortunately when Jennie Formby was forced to resign Starmer appointed an anti-Semite in her place.

On 30^th October Starmer suspended Jeremy Corbyn for stating that

‘the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons by our opponents inside and outside the party, as well as by much of the media.’

What Corbyn said was self-evidently true. The mere fact that the allegations of anti-Semitism were supported by the racist Tory tabloids and politicians such as Boris Johnson makes it clear that anti-Semitism did not spontaneously spring up the moment Corbyn became leader. The fact that anti-Zionist Jews as well as Black and Muslim anti-racists were suspended or expelled is proof of this.

What is remarkable is that Labour’s right-wing MPs, who were complicit in the Windrush Scandal, were so troubled by ‘anti-Semitism’. Just 6 Labour MPs, amongst whom was Jeremy Corbyn, voted against the Immigration Act 2014 which introduced the ‘hostile environment.’

Tom Watson who proclaimed that he wouldn’t rest until the last anti-Semite was expelled was the same Tom Watson who, as campaign manager in the Hodge Hill by-election, issued a leaflet proclaiming that "Labour is on your side – the Lib Dems are on the side of failed asylum seekers". 

Watson is the same person who defended Phil Woolas MP when the High Court removed him from Parliament in 2010 as a consequence of a campaign based on ‘making the white folk angry’. Tom Watson had ‘lost sleep over poor Phil’.

There was also the ‘anti-Semitism Czar’, Labour MP John Mann who issued the Bassetlaw Anti-social Behaviour Handbook which categorized a whole ethnic group, Gypsies and Roma, as an example of anti-social behaviour. This is exactly what the Nazis did. Mann was subsequently interviewed by Police.

However I digress. The focus of my complaint is not yesterday’s men but the current General Secretary, David Evans. Labour List reported that in an email to local party secretaries and chairs Evans warned local parties against considering motions on disciplinary cases that expressed solidarity with Jeremy Corbyn. Because such motions would provide

“a flashpoint for the expression of views that undermine the Labour Party’s ability to provide a safe and welcoming space for all members, in particular our Jewish members”. 

This is clearly and unambiguously anti-Semitic for at least 3 reasons. Nothing less than Evans immediate suspension will suffice if Starmer’s promise to root anti-Semitism ‘by its root’ is to be kept. When a fish rots it does so from its head down. That is equally true of the Labour Party. If you fail to take action against this unrepentant anti-Semite then Starmer’s words will ring hollow.

The anti-Semitic stereotype of the vulnerable, effeminate, fragile and cowardly Jew is a familiar one. As Rachel Byrne wrote the aims of Zionism were to ‘re-embody and re-masculinize’ Jewish men. Anti-Semites often “likened women to Jews in their supposed adaptability, forwardness, and absence of reason”

Likewise G.K. Chesterton, the famous writer and philosopher, the ‘prince of paradox’, whose brother A.K. Chesterton was a member of Oswald Moseley’s British Union of Fascists and a founder member of the National Front , argued that ‘bravery and patriotism were foreign to the Jewish makeup.’

If Evans is really arguing that Jews in the Labour Party are too sensitive to be able to debate a motion of solidarity with Jeremy Corbyn then it is clear that he is in the wrong job.

Even if we were to give Evans the benefit of what is a very large doubt and accept that he wasn’t being intentionally anti-Semitic when he ascribed weakness and cowardice to Jews, it is impossible to accept that he wasn’t aware of the anti-Semitic implications of his statement.

There is an irresistible inference to be drawn from the suggestion that debating a motion of solidarity with Corbyn would make Jewish members of the Labour Party feel unsafe. What Evans is saying is that most if not all Jewish members of the Labour Party are in agreement with Corbyn’s suspension. Treating Jews as one homogenous group is clearly anti-Semitic.

Evan’s statement is also not true. All the evidence suggests that most Jewish Labour Party members oppose Corbyn’s suspension. See for example the letter from Jewish members of Corbyn’s own constituency of Islington North. It is the basis of the world Jewish conspiracy theory that Jews think and act together.

Jews like any other group in the Labour Party have a diverse range of opinions. The idea that they will feel uncomfortable and afraid to debate the issue is to other them. To single out Jews in the Labour Party from all other Labour Party members is to stigmatise them. That  is clearly anti-Semitic.

It is extremely regrettable that in his desire to eradicate anti-Semitism, Keir Starmer has chosen to appoint an anti-Semite as General Secretary. Nothing less than Evans immediate suspension will prove that Starmer was being sincere in  his original pledge.

It is also clear that Evans was deliberately using Jewish members of the Labour Party as a political football. That too is reprehensible and anti-Semitic.

I look forward to hearing from you and I wish you good luck in your search for a replacement General Secretary.

Comradely greetings.

Tony Greenstein