Israelis Demonstrate in Afula Against the Sale of a House to an Arab - Arabs barred from entering Afula's municipal park

What Afula Does Openly hundreds of Israeli Jewish Communities do covertly but legally

As Ofer Casif, the Jewish member of Hadash in the Knesset wrote on Twitter, "How would we define a mayor in Europe who would demonstrate against selling a house to a Jewish family?"

The answer is that we would call him a neo-Nazi although according to Labour’s racist Deputy Leader Tom Watson and its Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry, we would be guilty of anti-Semitism!  Because the IHRA definition of ‘anti-Semitism’, which the Labour Party has adopted, defines comparing Israelis to Nazis as anti-Semitism.

However for most people opposing the sale of a house to someone because of their ethnicity or, in the case of Afula, barring access to its park to people because they are Arabs, is the action of Jewish Nazis.

However we should not be too harsh on Afula.  Unlike Israel’s outraged liberals who are weeping crocodile tears, Afula is not alone.  Hundreds of Jewish communities in the Galilee and elsewhere bar access to non-Jews (and Black Jews), quite legally, under the Receptions Committees Law of 2011. This is reinforced by the Jewish Nation State Law 2018 which specifically endorses ‘Jewish settlement’.

The Jewish only city of Afula - its residents are fighting to keep its 'Jewish character'

These gated communities do not allow Arab Israelis to wander through them and have picnics in their parks.

Nor is it simply the Zionist right.  The Israeli Labour Party and Meretz are both based on Israeli Kibbutzim which have always been Jewish only communities, as have the Moshavim.  Jewish settlement and segregated housing was fundamental to the Labour Zionist policy of Jewish land, labour and produce.

But whereas in most middle class Israeli Jewish communities people are prevented from accessing the land by simply preventing the sale of land, via the Israeli Land Authority and the Jewish National Fund, in Afula, this is not possible. Afula is populated by Israel’s Oriental/Misrahi Jews. The Reception Committee Law doesn’t operate for communities above 700 people.  

The Jewish city of Afula

Afula doesn’t simply consist of JNF and ILA land, some 93% of all Israeli land, but private land.  Hence it is more difficult to prevent Arabs buying property as was the case in Upper Nazareth.  This is why Israeli newspapers can tut tut knowing that no Israeli Arab village has been built since Israel’s formation unlike hundreds of Jewish communities.

What Afula is shining a light on is the Apartheid nature of the Israeli state.  An apartheid state that the Labour Right defends and Corbyn is too timid to call out.  However what the demonstrators in Afula are doing is putting the ‘Jewish’ in the ‘Jewish state’ into practice. They are the honest racists.

The Jewish National Fund owns or controls 93% of Israeli land

Suffice to say that the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and other council officials in Afula were demonstrating against the sale of a house to an Arab.  If these people had been Arabs calling for people  not to sell to Israeli Jews, they would have been arrested immediately, charged with incitement to racial hatred and face imprisonment. 

Arab Israeli poet Dareen Tatour served 5 months in prison for simply writing a poem calling on her people to resist Zionism. Raed Saleh was framed for racial incitement because he mentioned the blood of children in the context of demonstrations in Jerusalem against the attacks on worshippers at the Mosques of Omar and Al-Aqsa.

But to most people the connections between what happened in pre-1939 Nazi Germany and Israel today will be unmistakeable. Arabs are not wanted today in Israel just as Jews were not wanted back then.

Tony Greenstein

Jews are forbidden from entering this town - sign in Nazi Germany

What Netanyahu Sowed, This Northern Israeli City Reaps

Haaretz Editorial

Jun 17, 2019 12:36 AM

Slogans regarding the need to “preserve the Jewish character” of a place were once again heard in Afula, during a demonstration on Saturday night held in front of a home that was sold to an Arab family.

These slogans cannot hide the racist division between “our people” and “the others,” between the superior and inferior, between the holy and the unclean, that accompanies a person here from womb to tomb. The way the city fathers embraced the demonstration is indicative of the deepening cooperation between government representatives and avowed promoters of racism like the Lehava organization, whose flag was seen at the protest alongside the Israeli flag.

A demonstration to preserve the 'Jewish character' of Afula

There were several dozen people at the demonstration, including Mayor Eli Elkabetz, Deputy Mayor Shlomo Malihi and members of the city council. The Facebook page Otzma Yehudit Afula – devoted to promoting Otzma Yehudit, the Kahanist faction that contended in the April general election as part of the Union of Right-Wing Parties – called on people to attend the protest.

“Our city is being sold,” the page said. “We must not lend a hand to this and we must not be silent. I ask everyone who can and to whom his country is important to come Saturday night.” In one of the responses, a party activist made the intention clear. “If you don’t wake up, Afula will fall like Upper Nazareth and your daughters will become slaves to the enemy.” As in other times in history, the dissemination of hate focuses on the “violation” of women by “the other.” Itai Cohen, one of the city council members who demonstrated, said the municipality would continue “to make sure the city preserves its Jewish character.”

In Afula’s case, preserving some imaginary purity has turned out to be worthwhile. Like many more veteran politicians than he, Elkabetz has learned to use racist dog whistles to benefit his political career. During the last local election campaign, Elkabetz promised to “preserve the Jewish character of Afula,” participated in demonstrations against selling local homes to Arabs, and on his Facebook page claimed that “the conquest of the city park,” i.e., visits to the park by Arabs from nearby communities, “must stop.”

After his victory, the municipal park was in fact opened several times solely to Afula residents. City council members, as they were sworn in, promised to “preserve the city’s Jewish character.” Last month Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit ruled that this addition to the swearing-in ceremony had no legal standing.

Bottom of Form

Afula is a racist mirror of broad sections of Israeli society, the legacy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent years in office. The spirit of the nation-state law – the Netanyahu government’s crowning glory – wafts over the Afula demonstration and gives legitimacy to discriminatory, ugly behavior toward Arab citizens. Israel urgently needs local and national leadership that will facilitate ways for Jews and Arabs to live together.

Northern Israeli City Closes Park to Non-residents Over Summer Vacation

Mayor’s campaign ad states ‘Park built for Afula residents must remain theirs. … We must proudly wave Israeli flags in entire park and play music in Hebrew’

Noa Shpigel 

Jun 25, 2019 2:09 AM

The northern city of Afula announced Monday it will close its main municipal park to nonresidents over the summer, except on Fridays. In recent years, Afula residents have complained of Arabs from the area using the park, and have protested against Arabs buying homes in the city.

The mayor of Afula, Avi Elkabetz, was responsible for building the park during his previous terms in office from 2005 through 2013. His election campaign last year featured a slogan calling for Afula to maintain its Jewish character. Before he was elected, he took part in protests against the sale of homes in the city to Arabs. After the election, members of the city council were sworn in with an oath that they would protect the Jewish character of the city.

As part of Elkabetz’s election campaign, he wrote the following on Facebook: “The occupation of the municipal park must end. It is not a political issue. It is not an election issue. It is simply a fundamental matter of principle. A park that was built for the residents of Afula needs to remain theirs … We must proudly wave Israeli flags through the entire park and play music in Hebrew,” he wrote.

A week and a half ago, Elkabetz again participated in a protest against the sale of a house in the city to an Arab family.

The city said the municipal park was built with public funds and Afula residents pay for its maintenance. The park will be open to the general public on Fridays for free and during the rest of the week it will serve as a community center in every way, similar to other places around the country that are open to local residents only.

Residents can enter the park for free by showing their ID card and children who don’t have an ID card can purchase a wristband to identify them for a one-time fee of 10 shekels ($2.80). 

The park will be run by the city’s Shakim Afula community centers organization, which posted on its Facebook page on Monday: “Good news for Afula residents,” saying it will produce dozens of community and culture events over the summer vacation, including sporting events, shows, family get-togethers, workshops for children, a small zoo and more. It asked the public to wait patiently until it publishes its full program and details, “and not to believe rumors from unfounded reports.

Lansman’s attack on Jewish Anti-Zionists is no different to the attacks on Whites who opposed Apartheid in South Africa

In his support for the Israeli State and the false ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign Lansman & Momentum are aiding Corbyn’s opponents

Just over a week ago dozens of Israelis in the northern Israeli city of Afula demonstrated against the sale of a house to an Arab. Joining them were Mayor Avi Elkabetz, Deputy Mayor Shlomo Malihi and members of the city council.

Israel's northern city of Afula

Mayor Elkabetz was elected promising that Afula would ‘maintain its Jewish character’. MK Ofer Cassif of the Communist Hadash asked

“How would we describe a mayor in Europe who would demonstrate against selling a house to a Jewish family?”

The very phrase ‘Jewish character’ is replete with racism and overtones of racial purity. In Germany too there were signs saying ‘Jews not wanted here.’

Hundreds of Jewish communities in Israel bar Arabs from membership

Nor is Afula an isolated example. The 2011 Reception Committees Law allows hundreds of Jewish communities to bar Arabs from living in their towns through the use of Admission Committees.

In 2010 the Chief Rabbi of Safed, Shmuel Eliyahu, issued an edict forbidding Jews to rent homes or property to Arabs.  He was backed up by dozens of other Israeli rabbis, all of them  paid state officials. To this day Arabs are barred from renting rooms in Safed or similar cities.

This is the Israel and the ‘Jewish’ state that Lansman supports. It is also the Israel that the IHRA definition of ‘anti-Semitism’ which Lansman supported protects by deeming it ‘anti-Semitic’.  It is no surprise that those well known anti-racist newspapers like the Daily Mail also join Lansman in protesting abou 'antisemitism'.

Lansman attacks the one group of Jews in the Labour Party that supports Corbyn - yet Momentum tolerates this man at its head

Lansman has done his best to support the fake antisemitism allegations - the question is who he is working for - certainly not for the election of Jeremy Corbyn

When Lansman says that anti-Zionist Jews are not part of the non-existent ‘Jewish community’ and attacks the JVL he is supporting the most racist and chauvinist Jews in Britain.

Lansman's Jewish community newspaper has run an unremitting campaign against Corbyn

And Lansman is fully aware of this. That is why it is correct to call him a racist. He defines Palestinian opposition to Israel and Zionism as itself racist.

As Jews in the past 70 years have grown more prosperous they have moved out of the East End of London into suburbs such as  Golders Green. They have been replaced by Muslim and Bengali immigrants. According to Dr Geoffrey Alderman, a right-wing Jewish academic and Zionist, in the Jewish Community and British Politics (p.137, Clarendon Press, 1983)

‘‘By 1961, over 40% of Anglo-Jewry was located in the upper 2 social classes, whereas these categories accounted for less than 20% of the general population.’

Phil Piratin addresses crowd

In 1945 the only Communist MP ever to have been elected in England, Phil Piratin, was elected for Mile End in the East End.  Half his votes were estimated to come from Jews. When Alderman surveyed Jewish voters in Hackney for the 1979 general election, some 1.8% of Jews said they were voting for the neo-Nazi National Front but zero percent were voting for the Communist  Party candidate.  In other words not only have Jews become more prosperous but they have moved to the Right politically.

That is what explains the level of around 15% of Jews voting for the Labour Party NOT its stance on Israel.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Britain have dissociated themselves from the Zionists 

There is no single Jewish community.  A minority, the central Orthodox based around the United Synagogue are represented by the fiercely anti-Corbyn Board of Deputies, a group which has never fought anti-Semitism of the fascist variety.

Orthodox Jews are well aware of the opposition of the Zionists to Jewish refugees in the war coming to Britain - above is a letter in the Jewish Chronicle on 5.2.93.

Another large section of Jews are the Ultra Orthodox based around Stamford Hill.  They are not represented on the Board of Deputies. Last September 34 Orthodox Rabbis signed a letter criticising the Zionist BOD for attacking Corbyn.  Of course the letter received no publicity in the mainstream media or BBC.

The level of racism in Israel is higher than in any other state in the world

The Union of Orthodox Congregations left the BOD in 1971 and there have been major differences between them and the Zionists, not least a memory of when the Zionists opposed the rescue of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany unless they went to Palestine. See Skwawkbox here and here and JVL

50% of Jews in Britain aren’t attached to any synagogue and they are secular Jews.  It is these Jews that groups like JVL and Jewdas represent.

Lansman has bent over backwards to support the JLM

What Lansman has done is ally himself with the most right-wing section of British Jews.  Those who are allied with the Apartheid State of Israel.  Lansman fools himself that his friends are amongst the ‘progressive’ Labour Zionists of the Jewish Labour Movement.  In reality the JLM are no more socialist than their Likud counterparts.  They have acted as a Trojan horse inside the Labour Party and are presently  trying to use the Equality and Human Rights Commission investigation in order to try and destroy Jeremy Corbyn.

Union of Orthodox Congregations separated in 1971 from the Zionist Board of Deputies

 At their last conference the JLM passed a motion of no confidence in Corbyn. Their previous parliamentary Chair Luciana Berger joined the ‘funny tinge’ group and now sits in the House of Commons for the Liberal Democrats having falsely presented herself as a victim of Labour ‘anti-Semitism’. Lansman's obsession with 'anti-Semitism' lines him up with the Tory press who, for some strange reason, are also opposed to 'antisemitism' but no other form of racism.

The Israeli Labour Party has supported Netanyahu's racist hostility to African refugees

The JLM is the 'sister party' of the racist Israeli Labor Party

The JLM openly boast that they are the ‘sister party’ of the Israeli Labor Party. This is the racist Zionist party which supported Netanyahu in his attempts to physically expel 40,000 Black African refugees from Israel because they are neither Jewish nor White.

These are the disgusting racists that Lansman calls his kith and kin.  The question is when Momentum members are going to remove this racist from his present position of unelected Caudillo of Momentum.

Tony Greenstein

Momentum founder under fire after claiming left-wing Jews are ‘not part’ of the Jewish community

James Wright 19th June 2019

Momentum founder Jon Lansman is facing criticism after he claimed a group of left-wing Jews are ‘not part of’ the Jewish community.

Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) is made up of Jewish Labour members, and the organisation is active in around “half of all local constituency [Labour] parties”.

Still, in an email to JVL, Lansman claimed that the organisation is not “part of the Jewish community”, saying:

neither the vast majority of individual members of JVL nor the organisation itself can really be said to be part of the Jewish community

Left-wing Jews “responsible”

In the email, Lansman (who is Jewish) also blamed JVL for some of the impact the so-called ‘crisis’ of antisemitism allegations in Labour has had on the party. And he alleged that “JVL’s existence has been partly responsible” for some Jewish people leaving Labour in the context of these allegations. That’s despite academics at the Media Reform Coalition concluding that corporate media coverage of Labour and antisemitism has been a “disinformation paradigm”.

In a comment The Canary has seen, JVL co-chair Jenny Manson responded by saying:

There is increasing concern among our members and supporters about the very negative remarks you make about Jewish Voice for Labour. Many Jewish Labour Party members, working hard for the election of a Labour government, have felt undermined by your comments.

Instead of criticising the corporate media and right-wing politicians for weaponising antisemitism allegations against the Labour leadership, Lansman appears to be blaming left-wing Jews for calling out false allegations.

‘Grossly exaggerating’ antisemitism allegations

Lansman, who founded Momentum out of Jeremy Corbyn’s 2015 leadership campaign, also said:

The fact that JVL insists on defending those who deny the problem and many of those who have clearly brought the Labour Party into disrepute (whether or not they are themselves antisemitic) means, I am afraid, that I regard JVL as part of the problem and not part of the solution to antisemitism in the Labour Party.

Cartoon in Nazi  comic about a Jewish family who were not wanted

But in response, JVL co-chairs Manson and Leah Levane wrote:

In those parts of the Jewish community which support Jeremy’s values, there is concern about the extraordinary and unfounded allegations made that grossly exaggerate the degree of antisemitism within Labour. It is irresponsible to promote unjustifiable fears, scaring Jewish people that they face an existential threat from a Labour government. These allegations, so often unquestioned, are damaging the party’s standing in our community and also in wider society.

They also wrote:

Antisemitism clearly still exists in Britain and within its political parties, including Labour, but it is demonstrably more prevalent on the right of the spectrum. Wherever antisemitism exists it needs to be combatted. False allegations of antisemitism however do not help Jewish people.

Indeed, it seems that the media storm over Labour and antisemitism is largely a smear campaign when you compare the coverage to the facts. Because while any antisemitism in Labour is most certainly a problem, cases of anti-Jewish prejudice in Labour reportedly relate to 0.1% of the party’s 540,000-strong membership. And since Corbyn became leader, the number of Labour voters agreeing with antisemitic statements has actually fallen significantly.

The Canary contacted both Lansman and Momentum for comment, but had received no response by the time of publication.

Who is really in denial?

Neither JVL nor its supporters are denying that some antisemitism exists in Labour. The people in denial seem to be those like Lansman who refuse to properly acknowledge the weaponisation of antisemitism allegations against Corbyn’s leadership. In fact, this apparent cowardice from some on the Labour left has allowed the political attacks to gain their current traction. So we should commend JVL for standing against dangerous smears that are obscuring the fight against real antisemitism and damaging the only real alternative to Conservative austerity. Suggesting JVL members are the ‘wrong sort of Jews’ for taking a stand, meanwhile, is frankly a disgrace.

Lansman launches attack on Jewish Voice for Labour

Jon Lansman has launched an angry attack on the Jewish Voice For Labour group writing that they are "part of the problem and not part of the solution to antisemitism in the Labour Party."

In leaked correspondence, the Momentum founder also stated it was his "observation... that neither the vast majority of individual members of JVL nor the organisation itself can really be said to be part of the Jewish community."

In a letter written to JVL co-chairs Jenny Manson and Leah Levane, Mr Lansman also said that JVL "ill-serves the cause of Palestinian rights."

Mr Lansman launched his attack on the pro-Jeremy Corbyn group after they wrote to him suggesting he no longer reflected the views of most Momentum members - despite having founded the group himself.

But in a devastating attack, Mr Lansman wrote: "I am afraid, that I regard JVL as part of the problem and not part of the solution to antisemitism in the Labour Party. And as a consequence of that, I’m afraid it ill-serves the cause of Palestinian rights too.

"You no doubt believe that you are expressing the views of progressive socialist Jews, and yes I am aware of many progressive socialist Jews who, after backing Jeremy Corbyn in two leadership elections and in the 2017 general election, are now considering leaving the party or have already done so, and JVL’s existence has been partly responsible.

"JVL behaves as if it speaks for Jewish socialists. It does not. And too many of its members self-define as 'Jews' only to attack other Jews."

Mr Lansman - who is still a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn - also wrote in his May 4th letter that: "Whilst there are of course plenty of dissident Jews in Britain, my observation is that neither the vast majority of individual members of JVL nor the organisation itself can really be said to be part of the Jewish community since the organisation was set up to oppose the conclusion that I’m afraid that every significant Jewish community organisation has arrived at about the Labour Party.

"I do think it is possible to eradicate antisemitism in the Labour Party and to defend the Labour Left’s project but not by denial of the problem within the Labour Party."

Arch right-winger Luke Akehurst, who works for We Believe in Israel, supported the murder by Israeli snipers, of unarmed Palestinians in Gaza last year.  This reprobate is as hostile to JVL as Lansman

JVL Introduction

At Limmud this year in a session on antisemitism and the Labour party, Jon Lansman is reported as being highly critical of JVL: while he “did not support closing down JVL, he was dismissive of it.” Thanks a bundle Jon (always assuming we can trust anything that appears in the JC). David Rosenberg responds.

Luke Akehurst of We Believe in Israel was more forthright saying ‘there was a case for proscribing the organisation Jewish Voice for Labour, which served “no useful purpose” and had been set up to delegitimise the Jewish Labour Movement’.  When asked to comment by Skwawkbox, Akehurst doubled down, with undoubtedly libellous bile, as reported below. (For those who don’t know, Akehurst is one of a number of non-Jews like Euan Phillips and John Mann who have made it their task to deride Jews who do not follow their script.)

Lansman slams left rival CLPD slate for key disciplinary committee

SHORTS: What does it mean to be Jewish? Comparisons between a Prison called Gaza and the Warsaw Ghetto

What does it mean to be a Zionist? Supporting the murder of medics in Gaza or banning Arabs from a park in Jewish Afula?

Ethnic Privilege at Affordable Prices - Apartheid Adventures

What Keeps Jews Jewish? 

First off there is an excellent short video showing that the United States’ support for Israel derives, at least in part, because of its own ingrained racist legacy and settler colonialism.  The affinity between Israel and the United States is best evidenced not only by the $38 billion subsidy of Israel over the next decade (itself a fraction of actual US support) but by things like the training of America police forces by their Israeli counterparts. After all if you want to deal with hostile Blacks in the USA where better to train them than in Israel which has so much experience of hostile natives.

Also included is the excellent video from Richard Silverstein’s Tikkun Olam on what being Jewish really means in an America where Zionism is increasingly being challenged within the Jewish community. Israel calls itself a Jewish state but the values it displays owe more to hostile anti-Jewish regimes, Nazi Germany included, than Jewish history or tradition.

Telling Jewish anti-Zionists is not hate speech according to Twitter whereas comparing the siege of Gaza to the Warsaw Ghetto is

Nowhere was this more obvious than in the recent murders of 11 Jews at Pittsburgh where far-Right Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett was sent to ‘reassure’ American Jews. This was a good example of how Zionism is tone deaf. The murderer at Pittsburgh, Robert Bowers gave as his reasons for the murders the fact that the synagogue he attacked, the Tree of Life had supported HIAS (Hebrew Immigration Advisory Service) which supports refugees in America. Bennett has led the campaign in Israel for deporting the 40,000 Black African refugees in Israel and led the fightback against a deal which Netanyahu did with the UN in which half would have stayed in Israel permanently. Israel sent someone whose politics are no different from the murderer of Pittsburgh’s Jews.

Below are a collection of short items illustrating key aspects of Zionism today and its Racist, Apartheid nature

Zionists said that the image of this dead 21 year old medic, gunned down by Israeli snipers was 'antisemitic'

Another Zionist attack on free speech - Zionists Launched Campaign to Remove Billboard “Honoring the First Responders of Gaza”

Nearly 3 weeks into a planned 4-week run, an electronic billboard honoring first responders in the Gaza Strip was pulled on November 13th because the billboard company received threats and abuse calling their staff terrorists, anti-Semites and threatening a boycott. (Yes there are some boycotts Zionists like!).

The Palestine Advocacy Project sponsored the billboard on Interstate 93 near Boston to highlight the desperate situation in the Gaza strip. The billboard included a photo of 21 year old Palestinian medic Razan al-Najjar and read: “Honoring the First Responders of Gaza. Saving Lives. Rescuing Hope.” Razan was murdered earlier this year when tending those who had been injured by Israeli gun fire.

It was estimated to be viewed by over a half million motorists each week and met with positive media coverage.

A Zionist bomb threat derailed the Premiere of Jackie Walker's film 'The Lynching' strangely enough this threat to free speech passed by unremarked in the yellow press

According to Sarah Gold of the Palestine Advocacy Project:

“This campaign is neither engaging us nor our perspective. Instead it is attempting through intimidation to eradicate the avenues of free speech we have endeavored to use; to silence us.”

The billboard is another casualty in an ongoing attack on free speech in the US. Palestine Legal states in their 2017 report

“The Israeli state and its proxy organizations in the U.S. are investing heavily in punitive measures to intimidate and chill the free speech of those who wish to express criticism of Israeli policies.”

The report documents 308 attacks on U.S.-based Palestine-related free speech in 2017 alone.  One complaint accused the billboard of

‘glorifying those who try to kill and destroy our People and Homeland! Anti Semitism is as old as time itself, Hate of Israel is hate of Jews, completely unacceptable!”

In other words any criticism of Israel is criticism of Jews. Richard Colbath-Hess remarked that the Billboard

“does not even mention Israel. Instead it was a celebration of Palestinian heroes. Apparently, there cannot be Palestinian heroes without some advocates of Israel feeling attacked.”

How would the New York Times SUPPORT for the murder of 200 Palestinians have played out 75 years ago when the Nazis laid siege to the Warsaw Ghetto?

This brilliant cartoon transposes what the NYT columnists said about those executed by Israeli sniper fire - they brought it on themselves, even the children - it was a photo op. etc.  the moral blindness of these apologists for murder is thrown into stark relief by the comparison with the Warsaw Ghetto

This is a quite brilliant cartoon depicting how NYT columnists like Thomas Friedman, who justified Israel’s murder of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza, would have treated the Nazi murder of the fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto if they had been exercising their talents on behalf of Joseph Goebbels.

Preserving the Racist Character of Israel – Keeping Arabs out of the park

This demonstration against the sale of a house to an Arab is not racist - it is merely the assertion of Jewish identity - notice how the Jewish Labour Movement has nothing to say about this but if Jews experienced this in England the air would be thick with 'antisemitism' accusations

The Jewish residents of Afula are good Zionists.  Noone can deny them that. In keeping with the spirit of Zionism they wish to preserve the ‘Jewish character’ of Afula. That was why, in June this year, hundreds of Jewish demonstrators protested about the sale of a house in Afula to non-Jews.  You can, of course, understand their concern.  Afula is, or was, a 100% Jewish city like most towns and communities in Israel. After all Israel is a Jewish state

Of course, without a formal declaration of Apartheid this is not possible everywhere and a few places, such as Haifa, are mixed although even there Arabs live in their own areas. That is why the presence of Black Africans is so resented in South Tel Aviv.

The need to preserve Israel’s Jewish Zionist character also explains why Israel is concerned with maintaining its demographic majority, a policy that is common to all Zionist parties. The Israeli Labour Party is as concerned about separating off from Arabs as the right-wing Zionist parties. The following article from Ha’aretz explains why the newly elected Council in Afula has lost no time in barring Arabs from its local park (dressed up as barring only non-residents).

The swearing-in ceremony Thursday in which the Afula City Council vowed to maintain the city’s Jewish character is a nationalist rite with dangerous potential. On Facebook the new mayor, Avi Elkabetz, proudly stated that he had closed the city park the day before to everyone but city residents. Elkabetz is keeping his election promise. After all, he pledged to maintain this northern city’s Jewish character and fight the “conquest of the park.”

This isn’t the first attempt to “maintain the Jewish character” of Afula. A protest once arose in the city after Arab families won the bidding process to have dozens of housing units built. And Afula isn’t alone. A few months ago, Kfar Vradim in the Western Galilee hills tried to halt a bidding process after it emerged that half the winners of the previous tender were Arabs.

Israel has a long history of insularity, exclusion and discrimination – in allocating land and other resources, in distributing the population around the country, and in residential screening committees – not only toward the Arab minority but also toward Mizrahi Jews and other groups.

The ceremony in Afula is another warning sign against dangerous processes underway in the Jewish community under the most right-wing government in the country’s history and a prime minister who, at the ballot box, feeds on incitement against Israel’s Arab citizens.

This swearing-in ceremony is a direct continuation of the nation-state law. This legislation, contrary to what people say on the right, expresses a breakdown of the ideology crafted by the country’s founders. It’s a betrayal of the Declaration of Independence’s values and a renunciation of equality as a fundamental value.

Against the backdrop of the enshrining of Jewish supremacy and Arab inferiority, and the racist incitement that has become typical of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, not only should we not be surprised at shows of nationalist insularity and incitement, we should get used to the terrible idea that these will only spread.

Citizens in a democratic country have the right to live wherever they want. No local authority has the right to prevent any person from living in its jurisdiction, or to close a park to Arabs on the pretext of promoting an “atmosphere of Afulaites.”

Hopefully this racist, inflammatory government will pass away soon. Until then, the only hope to stop the illness’ spread is in the opposition that, against all odds, will spring everywhere Jews and Arabs live side by side in peace, Afula included.

Revisiting Naz Shah

The 'antisemitic' map of Israel inside the USA that Naz Shah tweeted came from a Zionist site, Information Regarding Israel's Security (IRIS) 

One of the mysteries of the affair of Naz Shah MP was where her map showing Israel as part of the United States came from. The Zionists screamed ‘anti-Semitism’ but as Mandy Rice-Davies of Christine Keeler fame once remarked, ‘they would say that wouldn’t they?’.

It has been variously claimed to have originated on Norman Finkelstein’s web site and Mike Sivier has claimed it originated on the anti-Semitic Redress site.

Just to remind people Naz Shah posted comments at the time of Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza in the summer of 2014 one of which said that since the United States loved Israel so much maybe they could accommodate them.  She even provided a map to demonstrate how the USA could quite easily accommodate Israel.

To most people this was a humorous meme about a warmongering, racist state but to the Zionists it was, yes you’ve guessed it anti-Semitic.  Unfortunately Naz Shah didn’t step up to defend herself and displayed the same mentality as the victims of Stalin’s purges.  She apologised, never a good thing to do when Zionists are on the attack.

I have previously stated that the map appeared on the Jewish Virtual Library site.  In fact it originated on the site of an organisation called Information Regarding Israel's Security (IRIS) although Redress clearly redrew it and passed it off as its own idea.

Israel’s Warrior Foetus – Israel gets them young

The sickness of Israel's militaristic society is captured in this graphic

An article in Newsweek in May told of how an ‘ad for the Lis Maternity Hospital in Tel Aviv featuring a foetus wearing a beret with the caption underneath reading “received the President's Award for Excellence, 2038.” The award is a high military honour handed out on the eve of Israel's Independence Day. 

The article quoted Israeli journalist Mairav Zonszein who wrote on the Tel Aviv-based website +972 Magazine: 

“Portraying an unborn child as a soldier is disturbing in its own right, regardless of country.

"In Israel, an occupying power whose military has for over five decades been primarily concerned with maintaining control over a civilian population, this ad is even more charged and offensive," she said.

“The notion that a good hospital will produce good soldiers is pathological. That a top hospital believes the best way to get women to choose their maternity ward is by convincing them their baby is destined to be a successful soldier in the Israel Defense Forces is also a genuine indication of just how militaristic Israeli society is,” Zonszein added.

I seem to remember that child soldiers have gone out of fashion.  Except it would seem in Israel where they start even before the baby has left the womb.  No doubt another accomplishment of Israeli technology.

Brighton’s Christian Zionists

James Dyer - one of the madder Christian fundamentalists and a noted bigot, part of Sussex Friends of Israel attempts to disrupt Palestine solidarity stall

Brighton's Zionist Christians - Daniel (in glasses), Dyer and Gill Young, a fruitcake in any language

And here are the mugshots of 3 of Brighton’s Christian Zionists.  They are part of the EDL supporting Sussex Friends of Israel. As good fundamentalist Christians they are devoted to the Book of Revelations and the idea that the Jews will all ‘return’ to Israel whence the majority of them will perish on the plains of Armagedon and the uber-racist amongst them will Rapture themselves up to heaven alongside the Chosen.

Socialists Against Lizards– Lansman Concentrates on the Eccentric David Icke rather than Tommy Robinson who is a fascist menace

Momentum and Lansman's idiotic video which can only boost Icke

David Icke is a right-wing crackpot not a fascist menace - yet Lansman's Momentum treats him as an equal threat to Black, Jewish and Asian people

First it was the actress Tanya Shew’s video for Momentum which was panned by everyone.  The Zionists didn’t like it because she said she supported BDS and Palestinian free speech should not be inhibited by false accusations of ‘anti-Semitism’.  We didn’t like it because it concentrated on something that wasn’t a problem in the first place and raised the old bogey about why Jews should dissociate themselves from Israel when Israel claims them as its own.

Lansman's tie up with Progress, the JLM and AWL - the fight against fake antisemitism is on

Now Lansman has got into bed with Progress and the AWL and various hangers on from the Right to form Socialists Against Anti-Semitism. The only problem is that it doesn’t include any socialists and is a pale pink version of the Tory run Labour Against Antisemitism which includes such luminaries as Jonathan Hoffman, a friend of Paul Besser, former Intelligence Officer of Britain First.

Anti-Semitism is a marginal prejudice in today’s Britain. Jews are privileged not economically discriminated against. Jews aren’t the victims of Windrush or subject to stop and search and they aren’t under represented in Parliament or the Establishment. If Anti-Semitism was a problem does anyone seriously think that the Mail and Sun – which employed Katie ‘refugees are cockroaches’ Hopkins would have been so concerned about it?  When people are accused of ‘Anti-Semitism’ today it is akin to accusing them of Communism 60 years ago.  The fight against ‘anti-Semitism’ is the new McCarthyism which is why the right-wing of Labour, which didn’t concern itself with May’s hostile environment policy, is so concerned about anti-Semitism.

Tania Shew's self indulgent video was universally panned - someone should tell Lansman that it's not Jews but Black people who are the subject of the Windrush Scandal - its Mosques not Synagogues which are being attacked

Lansman seems to have taken leave of his senses. His new video on David Icke, who is certifiably mad, with his lizard obsession, is complete madness.  Certainly Icke is anti-Semitic however he doesn’t pose a threat to anyone.  It is Tommy Robinson and his thousands of supporters in the Football Lads Alliance who are the real threat. Lansman’s demonstration, with his Zionist Labour Movement friends outside Icke’s meeting is a complete diversion from the demonstration against Tommy Robinson called for this Sunday. 

It would seem that the Jon Lansman, believes that Jews are equal victims of racism to Muslims and Black people today. That is a simple lie.

Luke Akehurst and his Zionist Shitlords

'Shitlord' is not a word I'd come across.  Apparently it is a meme for bigot or racist.  I prefer to think of Akehurst and friends as Zionist Shits

Tony Greenstein