Open Letter to Labour’s National Executive Committee – Freedom of Speech is a Right not a Privilege and it is not in the gift of Starmer’s Glove Puppet David Evans

Your Dishonesty is Disconcerting  Your fight isn’t against anti-Semitism but the Palestinians

Dear National Executive Member,

I should congratulate you on the latest suspensions in the fight against ‘anti-Semitism’ – veteran Israeli socialist Moshe Machover and Naomi Wimborne-Iddrissi. What better way to fight anti-Semitism than to expel a few Jews! Honesty is a rare commodity in politics so it would be helpful if you could stop the lies and admit that ‘anti-Semitism’ is a figleaf. The enemy is and always has been and anti-Zionism and support for the Palestinians.

Last weekend Keir Starmer and Angela Rayner chose, of all days, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinians, to speak at a conference of the Jewish Labour Movement and Labour Friends of Israel. What else is to be expected from someone who declares that he is a racist, sorry Zionist, ‘without qualification’? As Al Jazeera’s The Lobby showed, LFI operates out of Israel’s Embassy. It is not an independent organisation.

Repeating a lie does not make it true. The JLM, formerly Poalei Zion, is not and has never been the ‘Jewish section’ of the Labour Party. It is the Zionist section and anti-Zionist Jews cannot join it. It became an affiliate in 1920, a time when Labour supported the British Empire and when colonialism was seen as a good thing. It was refounded in 2015 to undermine Corbyn’s leadership.

The Labour Party has over ½m members. It may have 500+ paedophiles. Does anyone suggest that it has a problem with pedophilia? Of course the Labour Party has a few anti-Semites, far less than the Tory Party. But it NEVER had a problem with anti-Semitism. It is the Tory Party, which was historically the party of anti-Semitism. See John Bercow says he was subject to antisemitic abuse from Conservatives

When PZ affiliated to Labour in 1920 its support amongst the Jewish community was derisory. By 1939 it had less than 500 members. The attitude of Jewish workers to Zionism was summed up by Alec, a fictional character in Simon Blumenfeld’s novel Jew Boy: ‘

I don’t see why I should change one set of exploiters for another because they are Jewish.’

Historically anti-Semitism in the Labour Party was a far greater problem than today. Sidney Webb, founder of the Fabians and the New Statesman, later Colonial Secretary, declared that

‘French, German, Russian socialism is Jew-ridden. We, thank heaven, are free.’ And why? ‘There’s no money in it.’  [Paul Keleman, The British Left and Zionism – History of a Divorce, p.21]

Herbert Morrison - his refusal to admit Jewish refugees during the war led to thousands of deaths - yet his antisemitism was not criticised by the Zionists

Herbert Morrison, Labour’s wartime Home Secretary set his face against the admission of Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe despite public opinion running 80% in favour. Morrison was an ardent Zionist and the Board of Deputies made no criticisms of him even though his actions led to the deaths of thousands of Jews.

If Labour under Corbyn was genuinely plagued by anti-Semitism then the Board of Deputies and the JLM would not have been in the slightest bit interested. The BOD has never, in its 200 year history organised an anti-racist demonstration, until Corbyn became leader! In March 2018 it organised a demonstration outside Parliament with guests such as Ian Paisley of the DUP and Norman Tebbit!

Naomi Wimborne-Iddrissi - suspending and expelling Jews is Starmer's way of fighting 'antisemitism'

When the Anti-Nazi League formed in 1977 to take on a growing fascist threat the BOD devoted its time to attacking the ANL not the NF! As Maurice Ludmer, the editor of Searchlight wrote:

"In the face of mounting attacks against the Jewish community both ideologically and physically, we have the amazing sight of the Jewish Board of Deputies launching an attack on the Anti Nazi League with all the fervour of Kamikaze pilots... It was as though they were watching a time capsule rerun of the 1930's, in the form of a flickering old movie, with a grim determination to repeat every mistake of that era. " (Issue 41, November 1978)

In the 1930s the BOD told Jews not to confront the fascists. A message they repeated after the war with the 43 Group. Anti-Zionism has always has been their main enemy.

Trump was forced to change the ad (left) after its subliminal antisemitic messaging was pointed out 

The decision of the NEC to endorse the IHRA misdefinition of anti-Semitism in September 2018 was racist. The IHRA defines the Palestinian experience of Zionist racism as anti-Semitic. At the same time the IHRA is a definition that anti-Semites like Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Donald Trump are perfectly happy with because it’s target is the Palestinians not anti-Semitism.

The IHRA has been adopted by the same Trump who brought back anti-Semitism into American politics. It has also been criticised by the person who drafted it, Kenneth Stern, for ‘chilling’ free speech, and its weaponisation. 

Is this anti-Semitic?  Perhaps we should ask Starmer!

Zionism begins where the fight against anti-Semitism ends. Its hero is the same Arthur Balfour of the Balfour Declaration who, as Prime Minister in 1905, introduced the Aliens Act preventing Jewish refugees entering Britain.

Balfour was known as ‘Bloody Balfour’ after the murder of three Irishmen when Police opened fire on a protest in Mitchelstown, County Cork when he was Chief Secretary. In a debate in Parliament Balfour argued against giving Black people the vote in South Africa.

‘We have to face the facts, Men are not born equal, the white and black races are not born with equal capacities: they are born with different capacities which education cannot and will not change. 

Balfour was also an anti-Semite. He described a meeting with Cosima Wagner, the widow of Richard Wagner in which he admitted that ‘he shared many of her anti-Semitic postulates.’

Starmer is treating the EHRC’s ‘Anti-Semitism’ Report as if it were holy gospel, with anyone who criticises it, (except Peter Mandelson) being suspended. Yet the report is worthless and evidence free.

The Commissioner who produced it, Alasdair Henderson, has just been revealed to be a supporter of two fascists - Roger Scruton and Douglas Murray. Scruton, was the editor of the Salisbury Review, which linked the Tory Right and British fascists.

Scruton believed that being gay was "not normal" and that Budapest Jews were part of a "Soros empire". It is ironic that the report on anti-Semitism was produced by an anti-Semite!

Henderson also liked a tweet by Douglas Murray, who once called for Muslim immigration to Europe to be banned. Murray is author of the ‘Strange Death of Europe’ which argued that Muslim immigration is murdering White Europe. Murray’s book is based on the far-Right Identitarian Replacement Theory.

On 3 September, Henderson liked a tweet which read:

“It’s amazing to me that Tory ministers still flounder and flub when some media moron incants the magic words ‘misogynist’ and ‘homophobe’, as if those are empirical statements about reality, not highly ideological propaganda terms.”

In 2006, Murray made a speech in the Dutch parliament, saying “all immigration into Europe from Muslim countries must stop” and “conditions for Muslims in Europe must be made harder”.

As if this wasn’t sufficient Henderson made clear his hatred of Black Lives Matter, liking a tweet thread that said:

“The Met are clearly treating the (illegal under the Covid regs) BLM protests much more indulgently than they have treated other protests and gatherings. This is poison to an open society, but no-one seems to care.”

Starmer did his utmost to ensure that the EHRC Report was adverse to the Labour Party. The worse it was the better it was. The Report’s defence of Freedom of Speech cannot have pleased him or his McCarthyite glove puppet, David Evans. That is why Starmer paid off Labours racist and misogynist ‘whistleblowers’ £¾ million despite legal advice to the contrary. Starmer didn’t want the EHRC investigating the leaked report.

Luke Akehurst - the vile racist on Labour's NEC who justifies the murder of Palestinian children

The fake ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign has never been about racism or anti-Semitism. If it were then Luke Akehurst, a vile racist who has just been elected to the NEC, would have been expelled long ago. Akehurst works for Israel lobby group We Believe in Israel. In May 2018 Akehurst defended the use of Israeli snipers against unarmed demonstrators. Over 200, including 49 children were killed. Akehurst wrote that

This was a case of highly trained IDF soldiers, with very clear rules of engagement, with use of live fire as the very last resort, stopping terrorists from using the chaos and confusion of a huge demonstration

General Zvika Fogel justifying the targeting by snipers of children

According to Akehurst Palestinian children are terrorists. In an Israeli radio interview, Brigadier-General Zvika Fogel described how a sniper identifies the “small body” of a child and is given authorisation to shoot. A UN Commission of Inquiry ‘found that Israeli snipers shot at children, medics and journalists’.

According to Luke Akehurst this child deserved to die because he was a terrorist - yet it is Jewish anti-Zionists who are suspended and expelled

If a member of the Labour Party had justified the murder of Jewish children they would have been expelled instantly yet Akehurst sits on the Labour Party’s highest body!

I was expelled for describing Louise Ellman MP, a fake victim of ‘anti-Semitism’ as a supporter of Israel’s child abuse. Yet on 6^th January 2016 during a Parliamentary Debate ‘Child Prisoners and Detainees: Occupied Palestinian Territories’ this despicable woman defended Israeli policy towards Palestinian children - arresting kids in the middle of the night, blindfolding, beating and torturing them. Two years later, on 7^th February 2018, there was another debate Palestinian Children and Israeli Military Detention. Ellman again supported the Israeli military behaviour towards Palestinian children (Israeli children are subject to a different legal regime).

It is now an expulsion offence to tell the truth about Israeli racism. Only last week a lawsuit trying to force the Israeli city of Carmiel to provide transportation for Arab children to local schools was dismissed out of hand to protect “the Jewish character of the city.”

Yet if you cry ‘racist’ the IHRA says you are anti-Semitic. Carmiel was founded as a Jewish city. Arabs moved in because of the shortage of accommodation in Arab towns. So the local authority decided not to fund schooling for Arab children in order to ‘encourage’ Arabs to desist from moving in. What else is this if not racism and Apartheid?

Starmer understands perfectly well that Zionism is another word for Jewish Supremacy. Labour condemned White Supremacy in South Africa, Protestant Supremacy in Northern Ireland but refuses to condemn Jewish Supremacy in Israel.

The attack on Corbyn and Jewish anti-Zionists has never been about anti-Semitism. I was singled out in 2016 by the JLM, not because I was a racist but because I opposed racism. The same was true for Jackie Walker, Marc Wadsworth and Chris Williamson. All four of us should be readmitted to the Labour Party. Unfortunately Corbyn decided to appease the Zionists and turn on his friends. Hence his present predicament.

Racist Labour ex-MP Phil Woolas

Neither Starmer nor the Right is in the slightest bit concerned with racism or anti-Semitism. These are the same people who turned on Harriet Harman for having refused to support the racist Labour MP Phil Woolas after the High Court had removed him from Parliament.

Woolas ran a campaign in Oldham in 2010 aimed at fomenting racial and religious strife. He was intent on mobilising ‘the White Sun vote’ and ‘making the white folk angry’. Yet who were his supporters?  Tom Watson and John Mann, the instigators of the fake anti-Semitism’ campaign.

Watson confessed that ‘I’ve lost sleep thinking about poor old Phil Woolas and his leaflets.’ Watson ran a similar campaign in the 2004 Birmingham Hodge Hill by-election when he issued leaflets saying that ‘Labour is on your side, the Lib Dems are on the side of failed asylum seekers.”

John Mann, the ‘anti-Semitism Czar, was one of those who mutinied against Harriet Harman. George Howarth MP, another racist who sits on the NEC, collected funds to support Woolas. The idea that these creatures were concerned about anti-Semitism is for the birds. The Labour Right has never been concerned with racism. Just 6 Labour MPs voted against the Tories 2014 Immigration Act including Corbyn. Just 1 was from the Labour Right.

It is no surprise that Starmer appointed an anti-Semite, David Evans, as General Secretary. In attempting to protect his boss against criticism Evans used openly anti-Semitic arguments to justify his attack on freedom of speech. He said discussing the subject would make Jews feel unsafe. This is anti-Semitic for 3 reasons.

i.                    It rests on the anti-Semitic stereotype of the weak 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 a political football in the war on the left. 

Some of the most ardent Zionists like Starmer have a fondness for anti-Semitism. When Donald Trump told 4 Black Congresswomen to ‘go home’ he added for good measure in a series of follow-up tweets, that they all “hate Israel with a true and unbridled passion” and have “made Israel feel abandoned by the U.S.”.

Today White Supremacists justify their anti-Semitism by supporting Israel. Labour’s Right are doing exactly the same. It’s not for nothing that the founder of America’s alt-Right, neo-Nazi Richard Spencer described himself as a ‘White Zionist’.

One thing is for certain. If anti-Semitism were a genuine threat in Britain today, then Starmer, Rayner and the rest of the cabal wouldn’t be seen for the dust. Jewish people today are not the victims of state racism - Windrush style deportations, Stop and Search, a racist judicial system, false imprisonment, economic discrimination or police violence. Jews are White and treated accordingly.

In the 1950s the McCarthyist Right cried ‘communist’. Today’s McCarthyists cry ‘anti-Semite’. The name may have changed but the message has remained the same.

Let me quote to you the message of an Israeli poet and Zionist, A B Yehoshua in a lecture to the Union of Jewish Students (JC 22.1.82).

‘Anti-Zionism is not the product of the non-Jews. On the contrary, the Gentiles have always encouraged Zionism, hoping that it would help rid them of the Jews in their midst. Even today, in a perverse way, a real anti-Semite must be a Zionist.’

Not only are Starmer and Evans racists, but they are anti-Semites too.

Comradely greetings,

Tony Greenstein

PS:  It has just emerged that under Evans’ ban on motions, two CLPs – Poplar and Limehouse, Bethnal and Bow Green have been banned from debating motions supporting The Big Ride for Palestine in aid of Palestinian children. This proves that those who argued that  the IHRA was not about support for the Palestinians are LIARS.  Does support for Palestinian kids make Jewish racists i.e. Zionists feel ‘unsafe’? If it does then they deserve to be made uncomfortable.