Sheffield Hallam Lecturer & Lawyers 4 Israel's Lesley Klaff Declares that ‘Zio’ is not Anti-Semitic as Scottish Zionists Tried to Smear Scottish PSC as Anti-Semitic
I have the greatest sympathy for
the crooks and liars who otherwise go under the name of Glasgow Friends of Israel (GFI)
and Confederation of Friends of Israel in
Scotland (COFIS).
Put yourself in their shoes. You
are desperate to defend your favourite apartheid state (Israel). The only way
you can do so is by accusing your opponents of ‘anti-Semitism’. So how can you
prove it?
The problem they face, as
everyone who is honest (no that doesn’t mean you Sir Sturmer!) is that Palestinian
supporters and anti-Zionists don’t hate Jews. Nor do they blame Jews for what
Israel does. That is what Zionists do. So what can the Zionists do?
Easy. If you are Edward
Sutherland, a genuine non-Jewish anti-Semite, you set up a fake profile as a
Palestinian supporter and then post a stream of anti-Semitic abuse. Unfortunately
for Sutherland no one seemed to be taking the bait.
Therefore Sutherland and his
friend, Zionist lawyer Matthew Berlow, hit on the brilliant idea of daubing ‘Free
Palestine’ on Berlow’s home and blaming Scottish PSC. What could go wrong? Well
everything actually!
Sutherland set
up a fake Facebook profile under the name ‘Stevie Harrison’. He then posted
what he considered an anti-Semitic post, ‘Fuck
Israel’ and he also set up a fake Twitter account in the same name. Fuck Israel is not the most astute
political comment I’ve seen but it’s not anti-Semitic.
Another of
Sutherland’s charming posts read “I’ve
seen it all now. "Zio prick’s asking for donations” in reference to
Jewish lawyer Matthew Barlow’s Go Fund Me page. ‘Zio prick’ was his idea of
anti-Semitism whereas it is simply abusive.
At the
time Sutherland was Convenor of COFIS. But the icing on Sutherland’s cake was a
tweet:
A certain Jewish
lawyer woke up this morning to find ‘Free Palestine’ spray painted rather
prominently! No idea who was responsible.
This was followed five winking
emoticons insinuating that he, “Stevie Harrison”, had done the supposed spray
painting. Berlow responded:
Idiocy. Typical spsc [Scottish
Palestine Solidarity Campaign] behaviour. Criminal.
Not only does
Sutherland teach morals and philosophy at Belmont Academy but he is the Principal
Teacher of religious education too! One
can only imagine what religion he teaches? Devil worship?
working with anti-Semites and fascists doesn't stop GFI accusing the Labour Party under Corbyn of neo-Nazism
Sammy Stein
from GFI admitted
that “Mr Sutherland, as well as a few
others in our organisation, have false identities on social media.’ Stein explained
the fake profiles by saying:
“We do this to
expose people who express anti-Semitic sentiments.”
In other
words they post anti-Semitic stuff and then claim the people doing it are
Palestinian supporters.
We have
come across Sammy before. Sammy is nothing if not an expert in anti-Semitism.
In fact he seems to spend most of his time keeping company with anti-Semites. In
2019 Stein was caught
with Max Dunbar, ex-Treasurer of the BNP and Treasurer
of Britannica, a fascist group which was, according to Hate not Hope, merely
the BNP under another name. They were both harassing the SPSC stall.
Another friend of Stein was Jimmy Robertson, former security chief
of the BNP in the Highlands. Both had been helping run the GFI stall.
Max Dunbar, ex-BNP and neo-Nazi with Sammy Stein of Glasgow Friends of Israel having a friendly chat at the Zionists' stall
Not surprisingly the General Teaching
Council for Scotland (GTCS) was forced
to set up a hearing into whether Sutherland was a fit and proper person to
be teaching children. It’s a bit like asking whether it would be proper to appoint
Wayne
Couzens as the manager of a woman’s refuge. You know the answer before you
begin.
The hearing was told that
Sutherland ‘had shared antisemitic posts
online after setting up a fake profile ‘under the pseudonym Stevie Harrison.’
The panel heard
evidence from Matthew Berlow, who claimed
Sutherland set up a fake profile to lure antisemites into exposing their
views.
Despite admitting posting the
messages with a view to defaming others, Sutherland denied breaching the
teachers’ code of conduct. His defence being that “We do this to expose people who express antisemitic sentiments.”
Now why you may ask should
Sutherland want to trap anti-Semites into posting on his Facebook newsfeed when
he is surrounded by anti-Semites? How many anti-Semites does one man want?
Messages from his Stevie Harrison
account read:
“Back after a 30 day ban, my first
thought? F*** Israel.”
Sharing a
post from a member of the Glasgow Palestine Human Rights Campaign Facebook
page, Sutherland wrote:
“Tried to stitch up a good mate of mine.
P***k.” For a teacher of religion Sutherland has a penchant for salty
language. "Free Palestine ya bastards”.
But it wasn’t just Sutherland who
was in on the conspiracy to frame other people for his own anti-Semitism.
According to The
Times of Israel Zionist lawyer,
Matthew Berlow found to have commented on social
media post about attack he knew never happened with accusation that Scottish
Palestine Solidarity Campaign was the culprit
Screen
capture from video of a Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign rally. (YouTube)
The ToI reported
in February 2020 that:
A Scottish
Jewish lawyer has been found to have attempted to discredit a pro-Palestinian
group in accusing it of vandalism that he was aware never happened.
Matthew Berlow,
a criminal solicitor based in Glasgow, faces a £500 fine following a probe by
the Law Society of Scotland, the local Daily Record newspaper reported Monday.
A preliminary
ruling said Berlow did not maintain the standards of behavior expected of a
lawyer.
The reporter
for the LSS found that Ed Sutherland, a teacher at Belmont Academy in Ayr, had
created a Facebook account with the alias “Steve Harrison” which, under the
guise of being a pro-Palestinian activist, he then used to associate himself
with the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC).
Sutherland is
an associate of Berlow and both men have ties to a UK-based Israel advocacy
group, the Record reported.
Berlow
admitted he knew the graffiti attack was fake telling the Law Society of
Scotland that he played along because the Harrison persona was being used “to monitor various disruptive activities of
the SPSC.”
Not
surprisingly the LSS found
that Berlow’s behaviour fell below the standards expected of a solicitor and
that he had faked
a graffiti attack at his own home. Berlow had in the past been fined
by the LSS for calling SPSC ‘scummy
racists.’
Berlow’s
response to Sutherland’s tweet was “Idiocy.
Typical SPSC behaviour criminal.” In other words he was trying to frame
SPSC for criminal damage. In the circumstances the £500 fine amounted to an
endorsement of criminal behaviour. Sutherland’s ‘explanation’
was
“Unfortunately I made it too real and named an
organization I shouldn’t have. It wasn’t my intention to blame the SPSC for a
fictitious event.”
As Mick said, the LSS should have reconsidered their
fine
“because the damage to our reputation,
in accusing us of such criminal acts, is impossible to deny.”
In 2018 Berlow
was ordered
to undergo “diversity training” and pay a fine after abusing Palestinian
campaigners. He was given a fine of £1,750 as well as an additional £100 to
University of Aberdeen lecturer and pro-Palestinian campaigner Dr. Karolin
Hijazi, for calling her a “snowflake”
and a “wannabe justice warrior.”
Scottish pro-Palestinian
activist Dr. Karolin Hijazi of the University of Aberdeen in 2014. (Screen
capture: YouTube)
One of Sutherland’s worst
comments was about Berlow, saying:
‘Looks like a certain Zio’s big
nose is out of joint. Don’t worry Mr. Berlow, You’re going to get what’s coming
to you.’
When the fake account began to
raise suspicion, Sutherland lashed
out:
Someone complained to Facebook
about me not using my real name. I don’t know what… they are up to but there it
is on my profile.
Stevie Harrison. If you want my
birth certificate, just say.
If I lose my job because some
zionist doesn’t like me supporting the people of Palestine, don’t worry about
it. I’ll still have my dignity.
The see you next Tuesday who
complained won’t have. Rant over.
According to Mick Napier, the Law Society of Scotland got
involved, which led Berlow to admit
that he was behind the Stevie Harrison posts — in other words faking his
own antisemitic harassment, which of course for Zionists is nothing new.
At this point the rats fell out
among themselves. Berlow defended himself by exposing Sutherland’s role: it was
Sutherland, not he, who was behind the fake postings. As Tom Suarez observed
‘if Berlow knew of the deceit
when it took place, then he knowingly accused SPSC on no basis, and so in early
2019 SPSC filed a complaint against Berlow with the Law Society’
which found against him but
imposed the derisory fine.
Berlow went further telling Electronic
Intifada that Sutherland’s “posts were not anti Semitic” under the IHRA
definition that has been used
to tar Palestinian supporters as antisemitic.
My charge sheet included using the term 'Zio' - now the Zios have said it's not anti-Semitic I'm hoping Sir Keith will readmit me with an apology!
Actually I agree with Berlow but
that’s because the IHRA is not about anti-Semitism but anti-Zionism. It is a
confidence trick that too many University administrators and academics have
gone along with.
Bear in mind that in April
2018 the Herald reported
that SPSC was being criticised for using a “vile
and derogatory word” to describe Zionists and supporters of Israel. And
what was this word? ‘Zio’. As Mick explained:
I use
‘zio’ because I am hostile to the political ideology of Zionism adding that ‘Zio is not to be confused remotely with a
racist epithet.”
You may remember the fake
‘anti-Semitism’ allegations in the Labour Party which have now mysteriously
disappeared as Sir Sturmer busies himself with expelling Jewish members.
Labour's Shami Chakrabarti defined 'Zio' as anti-Semitic and Corbyn being a fool went along with it
In 2016 Shami Chakrabarti issued
a report
which described ‘zio’ as ‘a new modern-day racist epithet’. Utter nonsense but Chakrabarti understood
nothing about Zionism or anti-Semitism.
Sammy Stein, told the Daily
Record that Sutherland had been using the alias “for
years”, but that “Ed is no anti-Semite.
In fact, he’s a friend of Israel.”
Of course as anyone knows, there
is nothing incompatible with being a Zionist and an anti-Semite. On the contrary the list of anti-Semites who
love Zionism and the State of Israel is as long as your arm:
Tommy
Robinson, Viktor
Orban, neo-Nazi Richard Spencer (a ‘White
Zionist’), Donald
Trump etc. etc. If you are an anti-Semite what is there not to love about
Zionism and Israel? Anti-Semites want to get rid of Jews and where better to
send them than Israel?
Some of
the most important Zionists in history have
also held vile anti-Jewish attitudes. And some
of the world’s worst contemporary anti-Semites are militantly
pro-Israel.
Sutherland was both Convener and
site administrator of COFIS, a registered
charity. Sutherland took over the position of Convener in 2018 from another
disgraced official, Nigel
Goodrich, when Goodrich‘s
involvement with an overtly racist Facebook group was exposed. Nigel Goodrich left the UK after an earlier case involving
Facebook deception when his membership of an extreme right-wing Facebook page Jewish
Defence Forces was revealed.
The JDF included
members jailed for violent assault and people like Israeli academic Mordechai Kedar who advocated
the rape of Palestinian women to deter Palestinian resistance. Its posted
“Rule One” which was: “This group is
about ‘Palestine and Palestinians’ which doesnt [sic] exist.’ Sutherland
defended Goodrich at the time, claiming he left COFIS “due to relocating outside of the UK”.
Starting
on April 5, the General Teaching Council for
Scotland held
a hearing to review
Sutherland’s fitness to teach in a classroom.
What Sutherland and Berlow did is
nothing new. As Asa Winstanley wrote
Mossad-linked Israeli law
firm Shurat HaDin admitted
posting a series of violently anti-Semitic comments to Facebook in
order to frame Palestinians and solidarity activists. In 2019, Electronic
Intifada exposed a network of fake Twitter trolls systematically
posting violent anti-Semitism in order to frame Jeremy
Corbyn’s Labour Party and the Muslim community. See:
Edward Sutherland campaigning for Israel in Glasgow.
COFIS has
“an extensive record of publishing racist
materials” Mick Napier wrote
that
The Scottish body charged with overseeing charities
should revoke COFIS’ charitable status immediately.
The GTC stated
that the "material posted by the
teacher was of an anti-Semitic nature", and Mr Sutherland could lose
his job pending the outcome of the upcoming hearing.
It is
alleged that his fitness to teach is impaired as a result of breaching several
parts of the GTC Scotland code of professionalism and conduct.
It was
Sutherland’s defence however that provoked astonishment. In 2018 one of the
charges against me by the Labour Party was that:
"On
numerous occasions since May 2016, Mr Greenstein has uploaded deeply offensive
and derisory antisemitic posts to social media and comments boards including
but not limited to : repeatedly using "zio" as a term of derision,
According
to the Jewish
Journal, ‘zio’ is an ‘anti-Semitic
slur coined by the KKK’. Yet what was the defence put forward by Sheffield
Hallam lecturer Lesley Klaff of UK Lawyers for Israel on behalf of Sutherland?
According
to Mick Napier Klaff defended Sutherland by insisting that anti-Zionism and
anti-Semitism should not be confused; ‘Zio’ was merely “an abbreviation” and
not racist! Which is rich coming from an organisation that dedicates its life
to proving that anti-Zionism = anti-Semitism. Klaff argued that:
“A
reasonable person would realize that this is a reference to somebody who
supports Israel…Zionism is a political ideology and there's a range of views
held by Jews on Israel and there's a range of views held by non-Jews on Israel.
There are plenty of non-Jews who are Zionist and there are quite a few Jews who
aren't…Zionism is not legally recognized as an aspect of Jewish identity. It's
recognized legally as a political movement or ideology to which some Jews
subscribed. Many non-Jews do as well, so it's not unequivocally anti-Semitic.
Sutherland
agreed with Klaff about “Zio” and “Zionist”:
“It’s
frequently used as a derogatory term for people who support the State of
Israel, whether they're Jewish or not. It is only ever in my experience used as
a political insult.”
Klaff is
the same person who was responsible
for a complaint of ‘anti-Semitism’ being made against Palestinian academic Shahd Abusalama at Sheffield Hallam University. Klaff is
sister-in-law of the open racist and fascist, Sharon KKKlaff.
Klaff’s defence
of Sutherland demonstrates the dishonesty of the Zionist lobby. Klaff argued
that even when “Zio” was used with a hostile expletive this was not
anti-Semitic. Posting repeatedly about a “Zio prick” or a “fucking Zio” was not
anti-Semitic but entirely political, claimed
Sutherland:
In my experience it is an abbreviation for
Zionist, in an entirely political sense. It’s entirely political and makes no
reference to Jewish tradition culture or religion. "Zio prick" is
vulgar but not anti-Semitic.
Oddly enough this was my defence at my expulsion
hearing from the Labour Party in February 2018. My argument was simple. ‘Zio’
is short for Zionist and if you believe a Zionist and a Jew are one and the
same then it is you who is anti-Semitic. Jeremy Corbyn, being an utter fool
went along with it describing
‘zio’ as a ‘vile epithet.’
Sutherland
told the tribunal that several other current members of COFIS had also set up
Facebook profiles with false identities.
Sutherland
and Berlow were co-conspirators who went on to invent a graffiti attack on the
lawyer’s home, which they then attributed to Scottish PSC. According to
Sutherland’s testimony theirs was a close collaboration. Asked if he shared his
posts with Berlow before or after he posted them, Sutherland replied that it
was “a combination of the two. It was a daily discussion. I shared all of
them with Mr. Berlow”.
Having
been caught in flagrante, and facing disciplinary action by their
respective professional associations, Sutherland and Berlow put forward an
unprecedented defence. It turned on its head the traditional accusation of
Zionists that anti-Semitism equals anti-Semitism.
The
smearing of political opponents as ‘anti-Semitic’ has been promoted by the
Israeli regime since its foundation. Foreign Minister, Abba Eban, explained
that Israel works “to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and
anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all”.
Boris
Johnson’s racist ‘anti-Semitism’ Czar, Lord Mann demanded that UK Labour Party
leader, Keir Starmer, outlaw the critical use of the term “Zionist”. That party
has ruled that “Zio” was on a par with racist slurs, and “should have no place in Labour party discourse”.
Conflating
anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism was a constant of pro-Israel advocacy – until
the recent GTCS hearing.
A
REAL RACIST SLUR DEFENDED
Sutherland’s
“Stevie Harrison” jeered
about Matthew Berlow, that the “Zio’s big
nose is out of joint”. Klaff insisted that such a post was not
anti-Semitic, “given that many Zionists are not Jews and given that many
non-Jews have big noses and many Jews don't”.
This is
disingenuous but clearly the GTC was out of its depth. Nazi propaganda about
Jews regularly caricatured Jews with oversized noses. Sutherland claimed the
post was “not made generically about any group of people. It refers
specifically to Mr Berlow personally having a big nose”. Pull the other one.
Scottish
Zionists have a long history of making false accusations of ‘anti-Semitism’
against Scottish PSC. In January 2018 Berlow denounced “people from the
spsc shouting about big noses” at his comrades in Glasgow city centre. That
earlier fabrication stands in stark contrast to the evidence he gave under oath
that they believed that jibes about “Zio
big noses” do not constitute anti-Semitism..
Berlow
was asked if he thought someone genuinely posting any of those
comments would be anti-Semitic: “I would say that this is a person who has
a problem with supporters of Israel, with Zionists”.
ZIOS
SUPPOSEDLY DEFENDING FREE SPEECH
Klaff who is nothing if not dishonest, which admittedly is a common characteristic
amongst lawyers, defended the right to belligerent anti-Zionist discourse as
being protected by the IHRA definition:
The IHRA
definition was never intended as a tool to be used to sanction people or take
away their livelihood or indeed to take away people’s free speech rights…or to
discipline them because it’s got to be used in the context of other laws like
employment, protection legislation, the right to free speech under Article 10
of the European Convention of Human Rights and so on
This comes
from someone who used
the IHRA to try and get a young Palestinian academic at her own university
sacked! The dishonesty of these Zios
beggars belief. The person who drafted the IHRA, Kenneth Stern, said it was
being used to ‘chill’
free speech.
Klaff
issued a veiled threat of possible legal action against the GTCS if it found
against Sutherland by relying on a dictionary definition of anti-Semitism:
If
Mr.Sutherland was sanctioned for these comments on the basis of a definition
other than the IHRA definition, if he was to pursue the case under the European
Convention of Human Rights, courts would take a dim view of that. Given that
the government has adopted it, I think we all need to be singing from the same
hymn sheet.
THERE
WERE SEVERAL WEAKNESSES in the proceedings of the GTC panel, each attributable to the
fact that the only witnesses called were pro-Israel campaigners
·
Although her testimony was
recognised by the GTC ‘prosecutor’ to be ‘confusing’, ‘conflicting’, and
‘distinctly odd’, the supposedly ‘expert’ testimony of a member of UK
Lawyers for Israel was not scrutinised by anyone with expertise in the
field.
·
The potentially criminal act of
fabricating a crime to falsely incriminate SPSC was not included in the hearing
on Sutherland’s fitness to teach, although the deception was jointly promoted
by Sutherland and Berlow, and has been admitted under pressure by Berlow, who
defended their joint endeavor as a “a
moment of madness”. Sutherland’s lawyer insisted there was no question of
criminality in his client’s behavior and this went unchallenged.
·
A lack of knowledge from members
of the panel meant that the GFoI fantasy narrative of frightening aggression
from ‘hate groups’ hostile to Israel was never questioned. Stein and Berlow
were accepted unchallenged as “credible
witnesses” and their record of working with a right-wing extremist and
Holocaust denier to harass pro-Palestine campaigners remained undisclosed.
·
Sutherland pleaded to the panel
that “nothing I have done was motivated
by intolerance or prejudice”. This too went unchallenged, whereas the
extreme anti-Palestinian racism of the group he led was expressed in numerous
racist posts, including a post from the admin welcoming the “euthanizing” of three [Palestinian]
rioters in Jerusalem”. Another praised the massacre of Muslims in a New Zealand
mosque as “payback for what Muslims have
done”
During
the four-day GTCS hearing the Israeli lobby demonstrated their true colours.
They are not interested in fighting racism but defending Israel and attacking
those who stand with Palestine.
See Shock
Zionist U-turn at GTC Sutherland hearing, Mick Napier, 15 April
2022, Mick Napier
None of this stopped Jonathan Hoffman, the former Vice-Chair of the Zionist
Federation and a good supporter of Tommy Robinson and friend of fascists and
anti-Semites alike, from defending
Sutherland and Berlow. Hoffman’s only qualification for defending anti-Semites
is that they support Zionism and the Israeli state. Which practically includes
all anti-Semites today!
Naturally
being a concerned member of the public I emailed Belmont Academy to find out
whether Sutherland was still teaching at the school. The correspondence is
below:
Dear Sir or Madam,
I am writing an article on Edward Sutherland, the teacher from Belmont Academy,
who set up a fake anti-Semitic Facebook group under a pseudonym. Please can you
confirm whether he is still a teacher of Religion and Morals and Philosophy at
your school or not?
Kenny.Ross@south-ayrshire.gov.uk
Sent on 26/04/2022 14:15:00 by Kenny Ross
Hi Tony, please see our
response below. If you send any future enquiries to communications@south-ayrshire.
A spokesperson for South Ayrshire Council said: "A hearing conducted by
the General Teaching Council for Scotland is currently underway, and it would
be inappropriate for us to comment at this stage."
I
therefore responded:
18:19 (5 hours ago)
Dear
Mr Ross,
I
find it strange that you and the local authority seem unable to say whether you
are still employing an open racist and anti-Semite, to say nothing of someone
who adopts fake persona on social media in order to blame others for a
purported act of vandalism. What I find even more absurd is that this man is a
teacher of religion, morals and philosophy! I just hope God has a sense of
humour.
This
seems out of a Life of Brian sketch.
Yours
sincerely,
tony
greenstein
Scottish
Friends of Israel’s fake Facebook page posted anti-semitic material (SPSC)
Scottish
“friend of Israel” faked anti-Semitism for years (Asa
Winstanley, E.I.)
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