Jenny Flintoft R.I.P. – Comrades Remember a Tireless Fighter Against Racism and Bigotry

The Palestinians had no better supporter than Jenny, the rock of Portsmouth PSC, a socialist and friend of the oppressed 

UPDATE

Jenny's funeral was held today, Friday 29th January. I attended by video link as only a handful of close friends and relatives were able to be present. It is sad not to be able to pay one's respects in person but that is what the virus that killed Jenny has done to us.

In her last words to those assembled the person officiating quoted the subtitle of this blog:

'The Palestinians had no better friend than Jenny, the rock of Portsmouth PSC, a socialist and a friend to the oppressed.' I found that very humbling. The crematorium will be posting in 3 days a video of the service and if possible I will post it here.

Tony Greenstein

Tragically Jenny Flintoft died last Monday from this accursed virus.  She was born in Rowley Regis, Staffordshire. I found it hard to believe it when I was informed that Jenny had passed away because she seemed like the rock of Gibraltar – indomitable and always there - a permanent feature of Palestine solidarity work.

I knew Jenny from joint Palestine solidarity work. We took to each other as we shared similar views about the pussyfooting diplomacy of the Executive of Palestine Solidarity Campaign.

When I need someone to second a motion to PSC AGM on ditching their support for the Apartheid 2 State Solution I knew I could rely on her.  When I stood for PSC Secretary last year Jenny was only too willing to second my nomination, even if she did sometimes caution me not to be too outspoken!

Before the onset of COVID-19 Jenny would invite me every year to speak to a meeting of Portsmouth and South Downs PSC.  Many are the memories I have of trying to navigate my way around windswept Portsmouth housing estates in the bitter cold of winter before alighting on a community centre where the meeting was scheduled to start and it was always a pleasure to engage in debate and discussion with fellow comrades.

Jenny was a vivacious and outgoing person with a wicked sense of humour. It was an honour and privilege to know and meet someone who was so self-sacrificing and committed to ending the tyranny that Israel exerts over the Palestinians.

Although Jenny didn’t live to see the end of the Jewish Supremacist regime in Tel Aviv I am under no doubt that Jenny made a vital contribution to the struggle to end Zionism and its terrorist rule. Slowly, despite the vicious and mendacious accusations of anti-Semitism, the Zionist State is slowly but surely losing its legitimacy. The latest blow is the decision of Israel’s foremost human rights group, the liberal B’Tselem to describe Israel as a Jewish Supremacist state.

Jenny had no time for the time servers and apologists for Zionism who resorted to identity politics in order to defend Apartheid in Israel. I shall fondly remember Jenny Flintoft as a shining light in the darkness that Israel has cast over the Middle East and beyond.  She will always be remembered.

Below are a number of people who want to pay their respects and recall the contribution that Jenny made to a better world for all.

Tony Greenstein

From Portsmouth & South  Downs PSC

Very sadly Coronavirus claimed the life of Jenny Flintoft on 11 January.  For many years Jenny has been Secretary of the Portsmouth & South Downs PSC. Through PSDPSC she worked tirelessly for the rights of the Palestinian people, convening the monthly planning meetings, inviting speakers, helping organise demonstrations, keeping everyone up to date with events in Israel/Palestine and with local and national campaigns, and representing PSDPSC at PSC branch meetings and AGM.  It was her enthusiasm for folk music that led PSDPSC to raise funds through folk concerts, often with local artists, mostly for Medical Aid For Palestinians.  Israel’s ill-treatment of Palestinian child prisoners was perhaps the thing that angered her most.

PSDPSC supporters join with Momentum and Stand Up to Racism in saying our thoughts go out to Jenny’s husband Gerry and her family.  We send them our heartfelt condolences.

We received the terrible news about Jenny yesterday at the office. Deepest sympathies and all of our thoughts and best wishes with everyone in Portsmouth from all of us, it really is awful, shocking news.

From Palestine Solidarity Campaign:

We received the terrible news about Jenny yesterday at the office. Deepest sympathies and all of our thoughts and best wishes with everyone in Portsmouth from all of us, it really is awful, shocking news.

 Lewis Backon

Palestine Solidarity Campaign Campaigns Officer

Portsmouth & District Momentum group writes,

Last year Jenny became Vice Chair of the Portsmouth & District Group of Momentum.  She was an active member of Portsmouth Stand Up To Racism too and one of the organisers of the local Stop the War Coalition.  She was a dogged and passionate campaigner and shared information and campaigns across all the groups she was involved in.

 “She was an inspiration to all of us as she worked hard to make people aware of inequalities and oppression in the world.  We will miss her as a comrade, activist and friend.” 

In solidarity

Jackie Lederer

joint Secretary of Momentum Portsmouth and District Group.

Portsmouth Stand Up To Racism reacted

"We are shocked and saddened by the news of Jenny's death.  Jenny was a socialist and an anti-racist, who put her beliefs into action and argued for others to do the same.  People who knew Jenny will miss her tenacious spirit and her willingness to stand up against injustice." 

From Sue Castillon

I first met Jenny and Gerry in 2015 at the first of many Momentum meetings where she distributed Palestine solidarity campaign leaflets and spoke of the organisation, campaigning against the Israeli oppression of the Palestinians. She organised many fundraisers for PSC. Jenny was a tireless campaigner for this cause and it is imperative that we continue her work in her memory. 

She was with us on many London and Portsmouth rallies for the NHS and anti racism for instance.

We spent a very happy evening together at the international women’s day dinner at Portsmouth Football Club and she was with us for fundraising at my house for my campaign to stand in Hilsea ward 2018.

She always supported me for various campaigns and was a clear role model for never giving up if passionate about an issue.

I will really miss her and hope Gerry receives all the care and support he needs.

From  Robb Johnson

It was a pleasure and a bit of an honour to have known Jenny Flintoft. It was also great fun, & sometimes a bit exasperating, because words like indomitable, indefatigable, strongwilled & determined don’t do her justice, & she had standards & convictions that you often felt you were unlikely to live up to. But she was also an incredibly kind & affectionate friend, & so I think she kind of overlooked most of my shortcomings. 

I met Jenny, & her partner in every sense of the word, Gerry, when they came to the Hove Folk Club. This was held in the oak-panelled room above The Poet’s Corner pub in Hove. I got the impression that they were delighted to find a Sussex Folk Club that liked political songs & hated the Tories. This was in the days when they were still driving. Jenny had a wonderful voice, that was part sweet girlish treble & sincerity, & part wise woman anger & authority, & Gerry made absolute magic come from his concertina. Jenny invariably arrived with a sheaf of lyrics & a rough idea of what she might sing. She had the sort of repertoire of songs that to me represents the very best of folk singing. She would do a hilarious song involving Father Christmas in December, & knew the best feminist version of “House of the Rising Sun” anybody has ever heard. She also modestly wrote songs too, vivid, powerful songs supporting the oppressed & savaging the oppressor. One song “He Refuses to Fight” started with an aching, understated verse about a conscientious objector in the Second World War, & then moved perfectly into a verse about as Israeli soldier also refusing to fight. The conscientious objector was her father. I wish I had carried out a plan several of us at the club toyed with: when Gerry stopped driving, they stopped coming to the club, so we thought about  going to where Jenny & Gerry lived to record them, & archive Jenny’s wonderful songs. But they found they could get to Hove by train, & so… we never did. 

When the pub became increasingly uninterested in not to say hostile towards having a folk club upstairs, I suggested we could move to the Railway Inn opposite Portslade train station. There, there was a very nice back room & a house PA. Jenny & Gerry were appalled at this development & spoke out about it with great displeasure. Nonetheless, they kept coming anyway – Portslade station was after all just over the road from the pub - & continued to complain volubly whenever they thought the PA was too loud. They also always sat at a table right in the middle, at the very front, the better to monitor the volume level & to eat the evening meal they ordered. Jenny even occasionally used the microphone & stood on the stage, but was also very happy to wave it away & sing accapella if the mike or the mike stand were being uncooperative.  Jenny & Gerry also managed to persuade fellow Labour leftist Graham Noble to come to the club, which meant they could rely on his van & his comradely kindness rather than the last Southern Rail train west. One time, Remembrance Day 2018, Jenny & Gerry turned up at a folk club gig I was doing in the middle of nowhere near Bournemouth. Gerry had been hospitalised. Jenny sprang him to go to a classical music concert in the afternoon, then on to a folk club in the middle of nowhere near Bournemouth. As the evening drew to a close it became apparent that Graham wasn’t available. Luckily we had a car, & we were going back past Portsmouth & Southampton. Jenny said we could drop them off on the A27 because they lived “just up there” & they would get a cab, at 12.30 am on a wet November night. We drove them home, & of course it wasn’t “just up there” at all. But distance didn’t seem to worry either of them. They used to drive to Greece every year, & even when Gerry couldn’t drive, they still made it to Crete, & Jenny swam in the Mediterranean. We said we like Lemnos, so one year they went there too, & thought it was awful because there was disco music on the beaches, & it was obvious they held us responsible for providing an inaccurate recommendation. We also bumped into them on the Eurostar to Paris one December; they were travelling onwards. Nothing stopped Jenny. One night at the Railway Inn she sailed as majestically as usual, & as usual half an hour before the gig was supposed to start. There was no Gerry. “No Gerry tonight?” I asked. She rolled her eyes. “He missed the train. He didn’t get on quickly enough at Havant. He’ll be along later.” & sure enough, he was. 

Jenny very kindly got me gigs – usually in dodgy pubs – raising money for the Labour Party or Palestine. In 2019, during the commemoration of the 25^th anniversary of D Day, she got me a gig singing at the anti-Trump rally in a square in Portsmouth. While I was singing, a herd of EDL turned up on their way to the nearest Wetherspoons. One of them took a particular dislike to me singing & ambled towards me. I was a bit worried about this trajectory. Jenny wasn’t.  Jenny stood in his way. He tried to get round her. She stood in his way again & again, & again, until he gave up.

One of the benefits she arranged involved all three of us meeting at Havant then taking a train somewhere else. I found out how Jenny & Gerry had met. It was at a student union event in the early 1960s. Jenny was doing English literature at University, & Gerry was doing as much science as possible. Gerry said he was the first member of his family to go to university. He hadn’t particularly wanted to go to university, but he’d noticed that if you went to University, you didn’t have to do National Service, & he was determined he didn’t want to go off to shoot people in Cyprus on behalf of British Imperialism, so he became a student, & that where, & how they met. & lived happily, I think, ever after. It is okay, I think, to talk about Jenny as part of this partnership, because it was a partnership of equals, with Jenny generally tacitly taking a leading role, & Jenny was very happy to be an equal part of that partnership. 

This remembrance has probably gone on for too long. I haven’t said enough about her energy, her delight in life & I don’t think I have done her love of singing justice, or her principled commitment to justice. One year we were going to have a Folk Club Christmas gig where everybody was supposed to sing a Bob Dylan song. Jenny had no time for Dylan because of his pro-Israel politics. She was adamant that she wouldn’t be singing a Dylan song; in fact she was adamant that Jenny & Gerry would not be in attendance that night. Well, just come & sing whatever you like, I said. They didn’t. 

I haven’t said enough, because you can never say enough, because there are never enough good words for people like Jenny Flintoft. 

It was a pleasure, & a honour, to have known her. 

IN MEMORY OF JENNY FLINTOFT - Tom Suarez

Tuesday, 12 Jan 2021: Tragically, Jenny Flintoff, well known to many of us through her selfless work for human rights, died yesterday of Covid19.

I first met Jenny in 2017 when Portsmouth & South Downs PSC invited me to speak about the British Mandate. On the day of the event, as I was on the train to Portsmouth, my mobile rang. It was Jenny. PREVENT, the UK’s notorious supposed anti-radicalisation and anti-terror unit, had closed us down, not just at the scheduled venue, but throughout the city, "due to the nature of the speaker". While no further explanation was forthcoming, this was but one incident in a long history of stifling any open debate on the Middle East.

Jenny was furious. Here we were in Britain, trying to discuss British source documents from Britain’s own archives about the British Mandate, closed down by a British institution with British tax money at the orders of individuals acting on behalf of — ironically — the pariah state the British had jump-started with the Mandate.

The Daily Mail took advantage of the ‘scandal’ of the forbidden talk to condemn, by alleged ideological association, Jeremy Corbyn. The tabloid lined Corbyn and me up with side-by-side mug shots and a slanderous headline.

Jenny would not be intimidated. She demanded to meet with the local PREVENT Coordinator, Charlie Pericleous, and I returned to Portsmouth to be present. Jenny grilled Mr. Pericleous tenaciously for two hours. Despite his steadfast refusal to provide any explanation or even clear my name of suspicion, Jenny persevered, was never intimidated, and never fell for decoy replies.

She will be terribly missed.

Jenny Flintoft, who was born on 15th February 1943 died on 11th January 2021 

Manipulating Antisemitism Statistics - the CST and CAA

The Community Security Trust – Israel’s Vigilantes on the Streets of London

Seven Jewish Children - The CST have branded this play antisemitic, watch it and judge for yourself.

Caryl Churchill's brilliant 7 Jewish Children - which the CST branded as 'antisemitic' 

This is an old post updated . As Tony Lerman documented in his essay Antisemitism Redefined [Haymarket Book, Jewish Voice for Peace, 2017], in the 1990’s the Israeli state moved to take over the monitoring of statistics on anti-Semitism:

I had close personal experience of the role the Mossad played in establishing Israeli hegemony over the monitoring and combating of antisemitism. While I was director of the Institute of Jewish Affairs (IJA) and its successor, the 'Institute for Jewish Policy Research OPR) in the 1990s, I founded and was principal editor of the annual Antisemitism World Report, the first objective, independent , country-by-country survey of anti semitism worldwide. The London Mossad representative dealing with antisemitism made it clear to me that they were very unhappy about our independent operation and then tried to pressure us into either ceasing publication or merging our report with one that the then new Project for the Study of Antisemitism at Tel Aviv University, headed by Professor Dina Porat and part-financed by the Mossad, was beginning to produce. [On Anti-Semitism, p.12].

What you ask is Mossad, Israel’s equivalent of MI6 or the CIA doing in charge of monitoring statistics about anti-Semitism amongst the Jewish diaspora?  What relationship does an intelligence service have to a question of racism unless it is engaged in Black Ops?

The CST operate under the aegis of the Board of Deputies, a thoroughly Zionist organisation

The only logical explanation for why Israel muscled in to take over something that clearly has nothing to do with them is because the inexorable ‘rise of anti-Semitism’ has become a Zionist theme whose counterpart is that only the ‘Jewish State’ is safe for Jews.  Further anti-Semitism is and has become a weapon in the fight against anti-Zionism, BDS and support for the Palestinians. Indeed the irony of the current ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign is that Jews should do what the anti-Semites want – which is get the hell out of the countries they live in. There is no other explanation.

It is the prominence of ‘anti-Semitism’ that explains the sudden appearance from nowhere of groups like the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism. The CAA arose amid Operation Protective Edge, Israel’s genocidal attack on the Gaza Strip.

When it comes to genuine anti-Semitism the misnamed Campaign Against Anti-Semitism is reluctant to call out its right-wing allies

The CST has had the responsibility of compiling statistics of anti-Semitism in Britain. They have been careful not to overplay their hand. That is why they reject many complaints of anti-Semitism. This has ironically meant rejecting in practice the IHRA definition because this would make it too obvious that they are engaging in statistical fraud. This despite their support for the IHRA politically, as befits a Zionist organisation. They have done this because they know that once their statistics match the IHRA definition, i.e. that any manifestation of anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism their statistics would lose all credibility.

Nonetheless the CST has massaged the figures, highlighting social media anti-Semitism (which could be infinite since a single individual can post thousands of ‘anti-Semitic incidents) as well as providing an elastic and fuzzy definition of what constitutes anti-Semitism.

It would be more honest to say 'protecting Israel and Zionism'

The CST’s figures show an almost inexorable statistical increase year on year, thus feeding into the myth of increasing anti-Semitism. They depend on self-reporting and thus the perception of the ‘victim’. There is no way of judging whether the reports are true or false since the vast majority never result in prosecution or conviction. There has also been a continual and marked divergence between their statistics and those of the Police.

Of course the CST are not in the same league as the CAA whose venture into the field of anti-Semitism statistics bear a distinct resemblance to the adventures of Inspector Clouseau minus the humour. This is documented Eve Tyktyn’s ‘Exposing the Vigilantes’ in The Anti-Semitism Wars, 2018, Skyscraper Publications, pp. 115‑138).

Tyktyn documents how the CAA’s 2016 grandiosely titled ‘Anti-Semitism Audit’ (which was anything but) managed to produce a 14.9% increase in ‘anti-Semitic crimes’ yet at the same time, buried at page 6 of a 73 page document, it reveals that there was a 44.7% drop in violent anti-Semitic attacks. Their only explanation is that ‘It seems that the drop in 2016 might be a correction to the spike in 2015 and not part of a trend’ Unfortunately or fortunately this is not true. The drop in violent anti-Semitic attacks continued to drop into 2017. The CAA of course ruled out the most obvious explanation, which is that there was no increase in anti-Semitic incidents and that their report was, to put it bluntly, a load of crap.

The CAA, since it doesn’t have access to each Police force’s statistics and since there are no national records ‘solved’ this problem by asking each force to conduct a key word search in their files using ‘Jew’! Northumbria force, which described the whole exercise as a ‘fishing expedition’ warned the CAA that not ever mention of ‘Jew’ or ‘Jewish’ is in connection with an anti-Semitic incident but the CAA ploughed on regardless. The result is an ‘audit’ which has no statistical or methodological credibility.

So in Derbyshire there was a rise of 1050% in anti-Semitic incidents. Tykytyn asks whether a pogrom occurred in Derbyshire that year.  In fact the number of such incidents increased from 2 to 23 and as the Police explained, the change was due to a difference in how they record incidents.  Not that this stopped the CAA from including these flawed statistics. The same level of increase was true for Hertfordshire and West Yorkshire.

Wiltshire’s 514 Jews seem to have endured almost Nazi levels of persecution. There was a 13,900% increase in anti-Semitic incidents! Even the CAA realised that something was amiss and decided exclude Wiltshire entirely from their ‘audit’!

However although the CST’s use of statistics isn’t as obviously slapstick as the CAA’s it is still deeply suspect. For example their Anti-Semitic Incidents Report 2018 show an increase of 16% from 2017, 1,652 as opposed to 1,420 incidents last year.  An increase of 232.  But 23% of these (384) were social media posts, an increase of 59% (249) over last year. In other words 135 of the 232 increased incidents were from social media.

This is completely absurd.  I’ve probably come across 100 incidents alone of social media anti-Semitism or Holocaust denial.  How can you possibly measure social media anti-Semitism and more to the point is it really comparable to face to face verbal and physical anti-Semitism? No one has ever died from a tweet or a Facebook post. Anti-Semitism used to be being hit over the head or stabbed with a knife.  Now it is being offended by some idiot’s Twitter meanderings.

If CST had any self-respect they would strip out social media anti-Semitism entirely but that would not serve its purposes.

Like the CAA, hidden away in their statistics is the admission that ‘CST recorded a 17 per cent decrease in the number of violent antisemitic assaults, from 149 in 2017 to 123 in 2018. One of these violent incidents was classified by CST as ‘Extreme Violence’, which means it involved potential grievous bodily harm (GBH) or a threat to life.’ Yes that’s right – a 17% decrease in violence.  Now verbal abuse, however defined is not pleasant, although it is also subjective (was it about Israel?) but the anti-Semitism that really counts is when someone hits you over the head with a cosh.  For the previous two years there have been NO extreme acts of violence. This year there is one, which I guess means that statistically there has been an infinite increase! Or to put it another way, at a time when stabbings and killings of Asian and Muslim people are only too common, just one Jewish person in 3 years has been the subject of a violent anti-Semitic attack. 

What is interesting is that of the 1652 alleged anti-Semitic incidents, just 123 i.e. 7.44% were violent. For other ethnic minorities violence usually forms from between a quarter and one-third of all racial incidents yet in the case of Jews it would seem that the number of violent attacks is shrinking as a percentage of overall incidents, down from 10.5% last year to 7.44% this year.  It would seem that the CST is extremely good at documenting false and padded out statistics but there is one area that they cannot fake the stats and that is where there is actual violence.

The CST also betray their Zionist politics when they say that:

‘Also in April and May, several Palestinians were killed and many injured in violence connected to protests at the border between Israel and Gaza.’ This is an outrageously racist statement.  Some 300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli snipers in Gaza.  Not at the ‘border’ because there is no border between Israel and Gaza but at the fence which separates Prison Camp Gaza from Israel. A fence designed to keep the untermenschen from polluting Israel proper. Thousands have been severely injured by explosive bullets but the Zionist CST talk about violence without ever once mentioning where the violence comes from. One wonders if 300 Jewish people had been killed whether the CST would talk about it in such a dismissive way,

I have done a number of posts on the CST in the past such as:

The Community Security Trust - Policeman of the Jewish Community

Proof that the Community Security Trust's statistics of 'anti-Semitism' are subject to Political Manipulation

CST Gets Too Big for its Boots as Jewish Critics Multiply

Zionist Community Security Trust in Dilemma over Islamaphobic Conference

The Community Security Trust cites the racist Hebrew University Professor Raphael Israeli to denounce the ‘anti-Semitism’ of Sheikh Raed Salah.

Community Security Trust Supplies False Information to Deport Sheikh Raed Salah

Israeli Professor Moshe Machover is the target of a Renewed Attempt at Expulsion by the Zionist Community Security Trust

CST Thugs Violently Eject 2 Jewish People from Zionist ‘Environmental‘Meeting

How the Zionist Community Security Trust and Theresa May Colluded at the Behest of Racists to Deport Raed Salah & Prevent Free Speech

Article From the CST's Racist Professor Raphael Israeli

See also How Feelings of Jewish Insecurity are Aggravated by the Community Security Trust by Tony Lerman

Labour to give £50K tax payers money to Zionist militia

inminds
24 April 2010

For the second year running the government is to fund the CST - Community Security Trust, a Zionist vigilante group often referred to as the the private militia of the Board of Deputies of British Jews[14], to the tune of £48,869[11], last year it was also given £54,354[8], the money apparently comes from the Hate Crime Victims' Fund!

The man in the foreground might look and act like a police officer but he's not part of the police force, he belongs to a private police force - the CST, which takes its orders not from the British government,  but from Israels lobby in the UK - the Board of Deputies of British Jews

Funding

According to the charity commission[12], the CST has an annual income of just under £6 million (2009), and has assets of over £10 million.

CST founder and chairman Gerald Ronson, also founder and Chief Executive of Heron International Plc ('one of Europe’s leading property investment and development companies'[4]), has donated nearly £400,000 over the past three years to the CST through his foundation[5] (other recipients of the foundation include the Jewish National Fund, United Jewish Israel Appeal, New Israel Fund, Women`s International Zionist Organization and a charity to help Israeli war veterans[7]).

CST chairman and convicted fraudster Gerald Ronson with Home Secretary Jacqui Smith (May 2008)

Gerald Ronson is a convicted fraudster (Guinness share-trading fraud). Interestingly the Jewish Telegraph reports that whilst Gerald Ronson was in prison, Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir was "desperate to speak to him in prison"[3]. Now out of prison it reports he dines with "Britain's top police chiefs".

Private Militia

The CST is essentially, on one level, a private security contractor called upon to provide security at all pro-Israel activities from demos, conferences, fund-raisers, and to protecting the odd visiting Israeli war criminal. It has three offices and employees 69 people with an additional 3,000 trained CST troops ('volunteers') on call. Apparently the CST 'mainly consists of ex-Israeli security personnel'[19]. The CST also give combat training (self-defence) to 12,000 Jewish youth a year(2008).

The CST has a special relationship with the Metropolitan police, it receives its training from them and is granted special privileges during the policing of demos, etc. Whilst stewards and legal observers from the pro-Palestine side of a demo are not allowed to cross the police lines to approach Zionist side, the CST which stewards the Zionist side are free to cross the police line and approach the pro-Palestinian side to intimidate, take photos, etc.

CST are given free reign to cross the police line and walk behind the police line separating the two demos, on the other side the stewards and even the legal observers were not permitted to cross the police line and had to stay on their side of the police line with threats of arrest if they approached the line! (photo from pro-Israel rally Jan 2009)

The CST has a particularly brutish reputation, especially in dealing with anti-Israel protesters at pro-Israel events. Their special relationship with the MET means they have not been brought to book for their thuggery.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews claims to be "the voice of British Jewry" - in reality its the voice of Israel in the UK

In January 2009, during the Israeli slaughter of children in Gaza, the Board of Deputies of British Jews who claim to be "the voice of British Jewry" - in reality the voice of Israel in the UK, held a rally in Trafalgar Square in support of Israel, essentially a celebration of genocide. The CST provided the security for the event. One brave young Jewish man, Dovid Von Neumann, interrupted the Chief Rabbi Sacks pro-Israel rant with a Jewish children's song, highlighting how Israel has perverted a line from a Jewish children's poem about a spinning top which were traditionally cast in lead to name their military operation "Cast Lead" which murders Palestinian children. He was pushed into the frozen fountain and stoned him with lumps of ice, then the CST thugs smashed his megaphone and dragged him out of the fountain throwing him on to the pavement. The police did nothing to arrest his assailants - the CST, instead they incredulously detained the victim for several hours before they were forced to release him without charge[9].

CST thugs in action silencing dissent in the Jewish community. The young Jewish man, for interrupting the Chief Rabbi's speech, was pushed into the frozen fountain and stoned with lumps of ice, then the CST thugs dragged him out of the fountain, smashed his megaphone, throwing him on to the pavement. (Jan 2009)

In December 2009 when the CST was providing security to a JNF conference, the Israeli ambassadors speech was interrupted by two protesters. The Jewish Chronicle reported the protesters were "punched and kicked" and dragged out of the conference[10], again the assailants went scot-free.

On February 9th 2010 the CST provided the security for the "Israel: Blue White and Green" seminar at the Institute of Education (IoE). The seminar attempted to 'greenwash' the occupation, its key note speaker David Bellamy didn't turn up after receiving many letters urging him to boycott the 'greenwash'. During the questions session a Jewish member of the audience asked a critical question about Israel's role in depleting Palestinian water resources, he was prevented from finishing the question and was "carried out bodily by members of the CST and denied re-entry". When another member of the audience, a woman this time, wished to put a question on Israels denial of water to Palestinians as outlined in the Amnesty 2009 report she was "physically dragged out of the meeting by members of the CST. “I was frog-marched up the stairs”, she said afterwards. She later telephoned the Institute of Education to complain about the treatment she and her fellow activist had received, and received an apology. “From the reports the IoE have received from their own staff, they seem to feel that the level of restraint used by the CST was inappropriate for the situation", she said. The two ejected activists are considering taking legal advice."[18]

It seems after every massacre the Zionists hold a celebration, like the celebration after Gaza in 2009, in 2002 after Jenin the Israel Solidarity Committee organised a celebration 'Stand Up For Israel'. Funded by the United Jewish Israel Appeal(UJIA)[32], the celebration was held in Trafalgar Square with the CST in charge of security. It was a particularly ugly event with an elderly anti-Zionist Rabbi in the counter-demo being punched in the face whilst police officers two metres away stood by and did nothing. After the rally Zionist gangs roved the streets attacking Muslims with impunity, easy visible targets being women with hijab - several were attacked. Even the Saudi ambassadors son was attacked by a Zionist mob. Both the MET and the CST were castigated for their roles.

CST checking Press IDs in Trafalgar Square. The CST had issued its own Press passes, without it journalists were prevented from filming in Trafalgar Square even though they had NUJ Press passes which the police are supposed to recognise. (6 May 2002)

The IHRC report on the 'partisan' policing of the rally with eyewitness statements is particularly damming[29]. It reveals that whilst the police prevented Muslims from approaching the Zionist rally and even helped the CST eject any Muslims found in Trafalgar Square, they at the same time allowed free movement for the CST and other Zionists to approach, even walk through the counter demo draped in Israeli flags, and ultimately attack its speaker, Rabbi Grohman, whilst he was addressing the counter-demo. The thug was simply allowed to walk through two police lines unchallenged to carry out his assault.

The Jewish Chronicle reports that the Muslim Lawyers Committee complaints against the police included charges against the CST, one, the police's 'failure to prevent assaults against Muslims by CST officials' and two, 'the intimidation of Muslim women by CST officials'[30][31]. The latter may be a reference to an incident where some Muslim women in hijab were enjoying a friendly conversation with some Arab Jews from Iraq in Trafalgar Square when suddenly they were surrounded by 'blue caps' - CSTs, who forcefully separated the Muslims from the Jews and with police help removed the Muslims from the Square despite protests from the Iraqi Jews.

Eyewitness - CST 'policing' of Israel's 60th Anniversary Parade and Rally

In June 2008 when Zionists celebrated 60 years of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, over 500 CST were mobilised on to the streets of London. The CST were providing security for a parade of floats starting on Piccadilly, down Haymarket to culminate in a rally in Trafalgar Square.

[1]The CST in the black flak jacket and professional communications kit is in charge of a unit of volunteer CSTs (blue caps).

[2]Member of the Jewish Police Association with CSTs helping give out whistles during Israels 60th anniversary parade.

[3]Moments after this photo was taken of the police van behind the float sponsored by the Jewish National Fund, the CST man pointed the cameraman out to the police officer who then, accompanied with the CST, challenged the cameraman asking whether he had a permit to film as the parade was a restricted area. When the cameraman, looking around seeing dozens of other people freely filming and photographing the parade at that very moment without being harassed, asked what permit was required to film in Piccadilly?

[4]He was shown a CST 'contractor' badge which the police officer was himself wearing around his neck and told this is the permit that is required! When the cameraman ridiculed this absurdity the police officer told him to wait whilst he checked with his superior in the police van, emerging minutes later grudgingly accepting that 'on this occasion' no permits were required to film on a public road in London. An example of racial profiling and harassment by the police at the behest of the CST. An important question remains - what was a MET police officer doing wearing a CST Contractor badge around his neck - if he was not on police duty and was contracting for the CST he shouldn't be in police uniform, if he is on duty then he shouldn't be wearing the CST badge - who is he working for?

[5]The other CST badges on display on the day were the 'security' badges worn by the CST volunteers.

[6][7]For the rally at Trafalgar Square, the CST set up its own checkpoints (at least four were set up). Using police barriers the CST blocked all approaches to Trafalgar Square. They created separate gates for people entering and for people leaving the vicinity of the Square, so for example a tourist wishing to visit the National Gallery, which is adjacent to Trafalgar Square, would have to go through at least one CST checkpoint.

[8]Two police officers were positioned near each checkpoint (yellow circle) specifically for this task. Its seems the Zionists, accustomed to building checkpoints on other peoples land in the West Bank, are now doing the same in London with impunity.

 [9][10]Everyone entering was questioned by the CST and their bags were checked before being allowed to pass. If the CST weren't happy with someone they would call the police to remove them. 

This cameraman, having succeeded in circumventing the checkpoints and enter Trafalgar Square was then hounded by CST 'minders' for the whole duration of his stay in Trafalgar Square. On two occasions they called on the police to remove the cameraman but this time the police were reluctant to enter the Square and drag someone out for no reason. They would however, on CST request, prevent someone from entering the Square. So the CST told the cameraman that the police officers wanted a word, if he would follow them to the checkpoint where the officers were. The cameraman declined, if the officers wanted to talk they should come to him.

He later found out that another cameraman had been forcibly removed from the Square, near a checkpoint, by the police and 'stopped and searched' because he was 'caught' photographing the CST, which apparently was reason enough for the police to act.

Next the CST tried a different tactic, they coaxed an elderly Jewish woman to block the camera lens of the cameraman every time he went to use it, in the hope of eliciting a response which could be used as pretext by the police to remove him. The old woman was so clumsy she ended up annoying the other pro-Israelis in the crowd, nearly poking one persons eye out, hitting another's head with her flag pole, and pushing a child dangerously from behind. After people got upset with her the CST had to call her off.

Even after the event, when the cameraman had left the Square to go home, the CST still continued hounding him - pointing him out to the police officers requesting they stop and search him. By this stage even the police had had enough and refused.

Anti-Semitism

A major part of the stated work of the CST is to collect, analyse and publish statistics relating to antisemitic figures. Its annual Antisemitic Incidents Reports are used by the media, academic bodies, law enforcement and the government as the basis for policy making. According to the CSTs Director of Communications, Mark Gardner, their figures on antisemitism are "acknowledged by police and government as being more accurate than the police’s own figures."[22] Yet experts on antisemitism in the Jewish community, like Antony Lerman who headed the Institute for Jewish Policy Research for nine years and served on the Runnymede Trust's Commission on Antisemitism, and interfaith activist Rabbi Herschel Gluck, have themselves attacked the CSTs figures suggesting the CST "bumps up" the figures on anti-Semitic attacks thereby stoking up paranoia within the community[20][21].

Is this placard antisemitic?

Cynics suggest that such paranoia helps generate revenue for the CST, an organisation whose raison d'etre is antisemitism, which for a charity is remarkably well funded with an annual income of around £6 million, affording to pay its top half dozen employees over £60,000 each, with the top spot getting over double that, up to £150,000 in 2008[34].

Apart from the CST being "disingenuous in the presentation of data"[21] Antony Lerman has also critised what the CST classifies as being antisemitic. Lerman points out that the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia(EUMC) working definition of antisemitism which the CST uses to determine what is antisemitism "contains highly contentious examples of when critical discourse on Israel is antisemitic. This is one of the unfortunate consequences of the mistaken but commonly-held notion that anti-Zionism is the 'new antisemitism'."[23] According to the EUMC working definition of antisemitism "claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor" or "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis" can be regarded as manifestations of antisemitism![24]

So according to the CSTs warped definition of antisemitism this placard from a recent demo could be regarded as antisemitic on several levels. Firstly equating Zionism with racism suggests that the "existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor" hence antisemitic, secondly showing a photograph of Jewish Defense League (JDL) graffiti "GAS THE ARABS!" sprayed on a Palestinian home in Hebron could be construed as "drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis" hence antisemitic. Interestingly the graffiti itself, calling for the gassing of a semitic people would not fall foul of CSTs definition of antisemitism (because its Arabs not Jews who are to be gassed), but to show the photo of it - to show Zionist racism is a problem because of its similarity to Nazi racism! Calling for a boycott of Israel is also, according to the CST, problematic as it "leads to antisemitism".

Lobby

The CST, under the cloak of fighting racism i.e. anti-Semitism, also forms a formidable lobby for Israel and is wheeled out whenever Israel is criticised. For example, the CST have attacked award-winning principled journalist John Pilger for what they refer to as his "feverish rhetoric against Jews"[1], thereby painting him as an anti-Semite, and they attacked the new Statesman for publishing Pilgers articles, pressuring it to censor him, or as they put it "moderate or edit his rhetoric". Their claims against him are of course utter nonsense[2] - their reasoning goes Zionism shouldn't be attacked because "large numbers of Jews" choose to be Zionists (their word is "self-define") so "if Zionism is depicted in exclusively hateful terms, then all Zionists will be hated" hence Pilger must be an anti-Semite!

When the Channel 4 Dispatches programme did an expose on the Israeli Lobby funding of the Conservative Party, the CST was again wheeled out to condemn it, saying the programme was "playing up to antisemitic stereotypes"[6].

Caryl Churchill's 2009 acclaimed play 'Seven Jewish Children' upset the Zionist establishment. The 10 minute play consisted of seven short scenes marking seven moments in Israeli history from the Holocaust via the first intifada to the present day. Having been written during Israels attack on Gaza the play is critical of Israel, this was unacceptable. So once again the guns of the CST were brought out. Two of its most senior employees, Dave Rich and Mark Gardner branded the play antisemitic in a Guardian comment piece titled "The blood libel brought up to date", saying the play 'resonates' with antisemitism[25]. In case people didn't get the message, the Zionist anti-boycott lobby 'Engage' within hours ran a piece titled "When the CST say 'Seven Jewish Children' is antisemitic, it is time to take the charge seriously"[26]. The fact that a Hebrew production of the play ,performed in Rabin Square in Tel Aviv to audiences of hundreds of Israelis, received positive responses didn't matter[27]. Antony Lerman, who served on the Runnymede Trust's Commission on Antisemitism, ridiculed the CST charge as "utterly unconvincing" and stated that "the fight against antisemitism gains nothing from trying to turn the play into an antisemitic incident. All that's achieved is a further slide down the slippery slope towards rendering the word antisemitism meaningless."[28]

Surveillance

At a CST fundraising dinner on 4th March 2008 David Cameron alluded to another disturbing function of the CST[13]:

"This dinner has a very clear purpose: to ensure that the CST can carry on protecting the people and events that we know are potential targets. Carry on monitoring those who would harm this community."

He went on to describe those people who would harm the community, those who he labeled as having an "extremist mindset":

"During protests against the conflict in Lebanon, we witnessed the nauseating sight of well-scrubbed, middle class English people marching through central London holding placards that read 'We are all Hizbollah'. That is the extremist mindset in action. These are the same people who urge a boycott of Israeli goods and academics.. ..while saying nothing about China, Iran or Zimbabwe."

In the past activists have requested the CST, under the Data Protection Act, to release the files it holds on them[17]. The CST has rebuffed them by insisting they provide personal details like their home address, which would compromise their family's security, before considering the release of the files. This contrasts sharply with CST's own practice of hiding the names of its trustees. The Charity Commission confirms "this charity has been given a dispensation by the Charity Commission from publishing the names of its trustees"[15], this is highly irregular for a charity.

According to the Jewish Chronicle, in a BBC interview in 2005, CST head Mike Whine went further than Cameron by not denying that the CST has "undercover intelligence agents". “You didn’t say you didn’t have undercover agents,” pressed BBC reporter-presenter Gerry Northam. “That’s right,” Mr Whine responded. “I didn’t.”[21]

In July 2002 former Home Secretary David Blunkett affirmed that the CST and security services engage in 'intelligence sharing'[33].

Demonising Muslims

The Islamic Human Rights Commission in May 2009 published a damming report outlining how CST publications demonise Islam and Muslims[16]. The report is available here.

So rather than fight racism, which the CST claim they are doing, the report shows they are actually contributing to the racism against the Muslim community, and ironically the government are funding it through the 'victims of hate crime fund' for the second year running.

References

[1]        http://thecst.org.uk/blog/?p=1271

[2]        http://thecst.org.uk/blog/?p=1242

[3]        http://www.jewishtelegraph.com/prof_8.html

[4]        http://www.heroninternational.co.uk/about-heron

[5]        http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/SHOWCHARITY/RegisterOfCharities/DocumentList.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1111728&SubsidiaryNumber=0&DocType=AccountList Donations to the CST from The Gerald Ronson Foundation

             2007 £175,000
2008 £106,620
2009 £102,500

[6]        http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/22054/dispatches-israel-lobby-%EF%AC%81lm-the-reaction

[7]        http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/ScannedAccounts/Ends28%5C0001111728_ac_20070331_e_c.pdf

[8]        http://thecst.org.uk/blog/?p=534

[9]        http://www.inminds.co.uk/counterdemo.2009.01.11.php

[10]     http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/25187/screaming-protesters-disrupt-jnf-meeting

[11]     http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/30500/%C2%A350k-cash-boost-cst

[12]     http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/SHOWCHARITY/RegisterOfCharities/CharityWithPartB.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1042391&SubsidiaryNumber=0

[13]     http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=news.story.page&obj_id=142782

[14]     If the Evening Standard is to be believed, even the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, in 1984, referred to the CST as "paramilitary groups which resemble fascist organisations", put together by the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-mayor/article-23478856-anti-semitism---and-a-timely-question-for-ken.do

[15]     http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/SHOWCHARITY/RegisterOfCharities/ContactAndTrustees.aspx?RegisteredCharityNumber=1042391&SubsidiaryNumber=0

[16]     http://www.ihrc.org.uk/publications/briefings/9183-ihrcs-briefing-concerns-regarding-demonisation-of-islam-and-muslims-by-community-security-trust-publications-and-the-various-cst-and-ihrc-responses

[17]     http://www.ihrc.org.uk/attachments/9183_IHRC_CST.pdf (p23)

[18]     http://www.bricup.org.uk/documents/archive/BRICUPNewsletter26.pdf

[19]     http://www.jewdas.org/2009/11/anti-semitism-in-the-service-of-war-crimes
From an article by Tony Greenstein, it gives right of reply to CST spokesperson Mark Gardener. In Mark Gardener's reply he raises other issues in the article but does not challenge this assertion that the CST "mainly consisting of ex-Israeli security personnel".

[20]     http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/awaragainstprejudice/pip/6zvws/

[21]     http://website.thejc.com/home.aspx?AId=39748&ATypeId=1&search=true2&srchstr=+%2BCST+&srchtxt=0&srchhead=1&srchauthor=0&srchsandp=0&scsrch=0

[22]     http://www.european-forum-on-antisemitism.org/documents/speech-by-mark-gardner/

[23]     http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/13/israelandthepalestinians

[24]     http://www.european-forum-on-antisemitism.org/working-definition-of-antisemitism/english/

[25]     http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/01/carylchurchill-theatre

[26]     http://engageonline.wordpress.com/2009/05/01/cst/

[27]     http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/jun/12/caryl-churchill-seven-jewish-children-tel-aviv

[28]     http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/04/caryl-churchill-antisemitism-play

[29]     http://www.ihrc.org.uk/attachments/7529_02Aug22_Muslim%20Profiling.pdf

[30] http://website.thejc.com/home.aspx?AId=12604&ATypeId=1&search=true2&srchstr=+%2BCST+&srchtxt=0&srchhead=1&srchauthor=0&srchsandp=0&scsrch=0

[31]     http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/index/press.php?pr=148

[32]     The Jewish Chronicle 19th April 2002 stated that UJIA (United Jewish Israel Appeal) was the main funder of the event.

[33]     London Jewish News (26 July 2002)

[34]     http://www.charity-commission.gov.uk/ScannedAccounts/Ends91\\0001042391_ac_20081231_e_c.pdf
Number of employees whose annual emoluments were £60,000 or more in 2008:
£60,001 - £70,000 : 3
£70,001 - £80,000 : 1
£80,001 - £90,000 : -
£90,001 - £100,000 : 1
£120,001 - £150,000 : 1