It is no coincidence that as soon as Oxford and Bristol Universities Adopted the IHRA that the Zionists Came for Ken Loach and David Miller
Last
Saturday the newly formed Labour Campaign for Free Speech held its inaugural
conference. Among the invited speakers
was Professor
David Miller of Bristol University.
David
was one of a number of speakers including Chris Williamson, the former Labour
MP, Norman Finkelstein and Ronnie Kasrils, the Jewish former ANC Minister.
Quite
understandably the Israel/Zionist lobby in this country were perturbed by the
event. Targeting free speech has become a key priority for them. It is, after
all, the only means of defending Apartheid Israel. Their
chosen instrument being the IHRA
misdefinition of anti-Semitism.
The IHRA
Bristol
University in adopting the IHRA recently has all but invited the attack on
David Miller. The IHRA is a definition whose sole purpose has become closing
down free speech on Palestine and Zionism. It has absolutely nothing to do with
anti-Semitism as has been traditionally understood. Indeed it is arguable that the definition
itself is anti-Semitic because on the one hand its illustrations say that ‘Holding Jews collectively responsible for
actions of the state of Israel’ is anti-Semitic and on the other hand it
also speaks of Israel as ‘a Jewish
collectivity’ and says that ‘Denying
the Jewish people their right to self-determination’ is anti-Semitic.
Clearly
if Israel is a Jewish collectivity and the expression of Jews’ right to
self-determination then it cannot possibly be anti-Semitic to hold them
responsible for its actions. Would anyone say that it was racist to hold
British people who supported the Iraq War responsible for the actions of the British
army?
This
is why some of the biggest supporters of the IHRA are anti-Semites. Donald
Trump, who combined White Supremacism, anti-Semitism and ardent Zionism in
equal measures, applied
the IHRA through Executive Order. As Vanity Fair observed
Prior to being elected, Trump seemed to suggest
to a room full of Jews that they buy off politicians; tweeted an image of Hillary Clinton’s
face atop a pile of cash next to the Star of David and the phrase, “Most
Corrupt Candidate Ever!”; and released an ad featuring the faces of powerful Jewish
people with a voiceover about them being part of a “global power structure”
that has “robbed our working class” and “stripped our country of its wealth.”
After moving into the White House, and just a few short months following his
assertion that he is the least anti-Semitic person to walk the earth, Trump refused
to condemn neo-Nazis and, just last August, accused
American Jews of being “disloyal” to Israel by voting for Democrats.
This
was before saying that Jews “don’t love
Israel enough” after which he dived straight into a stereotype about how
Jews loved money and power. Trump is not
alone. Viktor Orban, the Prime Minister of Hungary is also a supporter of the
IHRA. The same Orban who waged
an anti-Semitic election campaign in 2017 against the ‘globalist’ George Soros
and who considers Hungary’s pro-Nazi leader Admiral Horthy, who presided over
the deportation of Hungary’s Jews to Auschwitz as an ‘exceptional
statesman’.
The
IHRA has been heavily criticised by a host of academics and jurists such as Geoffrey
Robertson QC, the noted human rights barrister, who termed
it ‘unfit for purpose’. Even its author, Kenneth Stern, stated
in testimony to Congress that the way the IHRA was being used, through its use
in Title VI cases could ‘only help to chill, if not suppress, their political speech’.
Stern
singled out for attention a particularly ‘egregious’
case in which the Campaign Against
Anti-Semitism had called
for the dismissal of another Bristol University lecturer, Rachel Gould (who
is Jewish) for having written
an article ‘beyond anti-Semitism’ in
which she looked at the way the holocaust was being used by Israel’s supporters
to defend its repressive occupation of the West Bank.
David
Miller’s Real ‘Crimes’
What
then were the heinous ‘crimes’ of David Miller that caused the combined weight
of Britain’s Zionist groups to call for his dismissal? Perhaps David praised
the Nazis or told us how the Protocols
of the Elder of Zion were true? Or
maybe he used his 10 minute speech to expound on the finer points of the International
Jewish Conspiracy Theory? Well according
to the President of the Board, Marie van der Zyl, Miller’s speech “would not look out of place on the pages of Der Sturmer”, a Nazi
tabloid.
According
to the Jewish
Chronicle ‘Bristol University professor calls for 'end' of Zionism as ‘functioning
ideology of the world'. The Jewish
News reported that ‘Action urged over
Bristol academic who called to ‘end Zionism as an ideology’. In other words
his ‘crimes’ were political.
David Miller was also accused of attacking Jewish students because he
criticised Bristol J-Soc which has been waging a campaign of harassment against
him for two years and the Union of Jewish Students nationally. Did he advocate
boycotting Jewish students on campus? Or
attacking them physically? Perhaps he advocated the measures that Poland took
pre-1939 when Jewish students were confined to ‘ghetto benches’ i.e. separated
from non-Jewish students?
If so then I would be the first to call for David’s dismissal. But what
did he actually say? According to the Jewish
Chronicle his offence was to say that
“The ‘Jewish student groups’ […] are political lobby
groups overseen by the Union of Jewish Students, which is constitutionally
bound to promoting Israel.
“There is a real question of abuse here — of Jewish
students on British campuses being used as political pawns by a violent, racist
foreign regime engaged in ethnic cleansing.
“The UJS’ lobbying for Israel is a threat to the
safety of Arab and Muslim students as well as of Jewish students and indeed of
all critics of Israel.”
Like me you might be
slightly puzzled at the combined Zionist attacks on David Miller. Try as I
might I can’t find anything in the least anti-Semitic in what he said. David talks
about UJS, which is funded by the Israeli state being a
‘threat to the
safety of Arab and Muslim students as well as of Jewish students and indeed of
all critics of Israel.”
It is a strange
anti-Semite who is concerned about the safety of Jewish students! David Miller
is absolutely correct. The Constitution
of UJS states under ‘Objects’ paragraph
2.1.1.
Creating meaningful Jewish campus
experiences and inspiring Jewish students to make an enduring commitment to
their Jewish identity, Israel, and the community.
UJS is affiliated to the World Zionist Organisation
which is responsible for the apartheid structures of the Israeli state
including its settlement expansion. Ha’aretz, a liberal Zionist newspaper,
spoke of its land
theft division writing that
It’s time to investigate, and then shut
down, this quasi-governmental agency, which steals both state and private
Palestinian lands to realize its sacred goal of settlement construction
This is the racist body responsible for the
ethnic cleansing of Palestinians yet the Union of Jewish Students are
affiliated to it.
The truth is that Jewish students who are
anti-Zionists or non-Zionists wouldn’t go within a mile of the average J-Soc.
Indeed they would not be eligible to join.
David Miller called for an end to Zionism. So do many Jews. There is nothing anti-Semitic
in this. Zionism is a political movement
and ideology. The first Zionists weren’t even Jewish but Christian anti-Semites
such as Lord Shaftesbury and Arthur Balfour who saw in Zionism a means to be
rid of their unwanted Jews. Shaftesbury opposed
Jewish Emancipation holding that if Jews wanted to stand for office they should
do so in their own state. Balfour
introduced Britain’s first immigration law the Aliens
Act in 1905 in order that Britain could turn away Jewish refugees from
Czarist Russia.
Jews and Zionism
The overwhelming reaction of Jews to the early
Zionist movement was one of unremitting hostility. It was only the actions of
Hitler and the holocaust that caused a majority of Jews to become Zionist.
As Isaac Deutscher, the biographer of Leon Trotsky, wrote
in ‘The Non-Jewish Jew and Other Essays’
‘to the
Jewish workers anti-Semitism seemed to triumph in Zionism, which recognised the
legitimacy and the validity of the old cry ‘Jews get out!' The Zionists were
agreeing to get out.’
Similarly the bourgeois anti-Zionist, Lucien
Wolf, Secretary of the Conjoint Foreign Committee of the Board explained
regarding the Zionist belief that Jews belonged in their own stated that:
I have spent most of my life in combating these very
doctrines, when presented to me in the form of anti-Semitism, and I can only
regard them as the more dangerous when they come to me in the guise of Zionism.
They constitute a capitulation to our enemies.’
To most Jews pre-Hitler Zionism was a form of Jewish anti-Semitism.
Can there be any more blatant attack on free speech than the calls to
dismiss David Miller? What would happen if there was a call to dismiss a
reactionary academic who called for the end of Communism? The Tories would explode in indignation.
Gavin Williamson would pontificate about freedom of speech but when it comes to
Zionism this advocate of ‘free speech’ remains curiously silent.
The only possible justification for the attacks on David Miller as anti-Semitic
is that Zionism is the equivalent of being Jewish. In other words it is assumed
that but for a handful of ‘Jewish self-haters’ and the ‘wrong sort’ of Jews, all
Jews are Zionists.
The conflation of being Jewish and Zionist is an anti-Semitic canard or
trope in the language of the Zionists. Those who argue that being Jewish and
Zionist are one and the same are arguing that Jews are therefore responsible
for the actions of Israel, a state whose ideology is Zionism. Ironically it is
that which is anti-Semitic.
David Miller’s criticism of UJS is wholly warranted. UJS is a Zionist not
a Jewish organisation or more precisely a Zionist Jewish organisation. In the words of
Liron Velleman, UJS’s Campaign Organiser
We are a proud Zionist organisation, supporting
Jewish students to develop their own personal relationship with Israel and
embolden them to feel comfortable discussing it on campus.
What does Zionism mean in practice? Well B’Tselem, the largest Israeli human
rights organisation has recently
made its position crystal clear. Israel
is a Jewish Supremacist Apartheid Society.
If
you have any doubt about this then watch these 2 videos. One from the Palestinian solidarity group
Makan and another is what happened when an Israeli Arab citizens had a picnic
on the West Bank. Not only did a group
of settlers tell them they were not allowed there, because they weren’t Jewish,
but when the Israeli army was called, the soldiers enforced the wishes of the
settlers. No one from the army has been punished for this and no one will be
punished because racism against Palestinians and Arabs is part of Israel’s DNA.
This
is Zionism and this is what UJS supports and this what the calls for the
dismissal of David Miller are about. Let us be absolutely clear that those who
are calling for the sacking of David Miller are calling for an end to academic
freedom in Britain and for the policing of speech by academics and students.
The Community Security Trust and
Islamaphobia
That
Zionist groups such as the Community Security Trust, whose remit is allegedly
the safety of the Jewish community, are calling
for the dismissal of Miller demonstrates that all these Zionist organisations
are singing from the same hymn sheet.
The
CST protests that at David Miller’s claim that parts of the Zionist movement
are Islamaphobic is anti-Semitic. Can there be any doubt that Israel is
viciously anti-Muslim? There are a plethora of pro-Zionist organisations that
are also Islamaphobic such as the Gatestone Institute
and the Henry
Jackson Society. No better example of this phenomenon was there than Donald
Trump himself.
Zionism and the Far-Right
Who
can forget the flying
of an Israeli flag outside Capitol Hill on January 6th alongside the
Confederate flag and an assorted group of neo-Nazis and White Supremacists? Our
own fascist groups such as the EDL fly
the Israeli flag at demonstrations. Tommy Robinson and his Football Lads
Alliance have worked
closely with a group of far-Right Zionists led by Jonathan Hoffman, a
former vice chair of the Zionist Federation without any criticism from the
Board. That darling of the far-Right, Katie Hopkins, was a guest
at an Israeli Embassy dinner and had her picture taken with the Ambassador Mark
Regev.
The Shameful Response of Bristol University
What
is disappointing is the utter failure of the Bristol University to defend
Professor Miller. The
University has said
they “do not endorse the comments made by
Professor David Miller about our Jewish students”. Where is the defence of academic
freedom?
Their comment
to the Jewish Chronicle that ‘We are speaking to JSoc,
Bristol SU and UCU about how we can address students’ concerns swiftly,
ensuring that we also protect the rights of our staff.’ is disgraceful. Nothing Miller
said is in the least a threat to Jewish students and to imply otherwise is a
betray of the legal duty of mutual trust and confidence which underlies every employment
relationship.
Chris Williamson has written an excellent
letter to Professor Hugh Brady, the Vice-Chancellor of Bristol University. I can only suggest that you also write to
Bradey at:
The University of
Bristol,
Beacon House,
Queens Road
Bristol BS8 1QU
email him at vc-epa@bristol.ac.uk
Other people at Bristol University to email are:
Prof Sarah Purdy Pro VC (Student Experience) pvc-studentexperience@bristol.ac.uk
Prof. Tansy Jessop Pro VC (Education) pvc-education@bristol.ac.uk
Mr Jack Boyer Chair, Board of Trustees governance@bristol.ac.uk
Dr Moira Hamlin Vice-Chair, Board of Trustees governance@bristol.ac.uk
Judith Squires Provost provost@bristol.ac.uk
Jane Bridgwater Director of Legal Services jane.bridgwater@bristol.ac.uk
Prof. Simon Tormey Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences wp19124@bristol.ac.uk
and Law
Perhaps the most disgusting
response of all comes from the scab ‘Labour’ MP Thangam Debonair @thangamMP
who has condemned what she calls the ‘appalling
behaviour’ of David Miller for exercising his right to freedom of speech.
You have to wonder. Do these New Labour MPs have any principles? Does Thangam, Bristol
Mayor Marvin Rees and
all the other Labour racists have no commitment to the most basic principles of
a democratic society? Wherein the
principles of John Stuart Mill and Voltaire?
Let us be clear of one things.
We
will not allow Bristol University to make Professor David Miller a sacrificial
victim on the altar of Zionism. If
Thangam.
Please
Sign and Share the Petition Supporting
David Miller. There are already 2 Zionist petitions up calling for his dismissal.
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