By Banning Parents for Palestine after Zionist objections. Presumably the Death of
25,000 women & children in Gaza isn’t enough
Genocide in Gaza through the eyes
of Israeli soldiers
On 5 November 2023 Anita
Patel wrote a guest blog Women’s Place UK
: Whitewashing Zionism. Anita wrote, in reference to their statement of 28th
October “Israel & Palestine – Peace,
Equality, Freedom, Justice”, that it was:
an
evasive and impossible fudge, between advocates of apartheid, ethnic cleansing
and genocide on the one hand, and a people who are fighting for their survival
on the other.The statement frames the
attack on Gaza as a conflict between two equivalent hostile parties, failing to
distinguish the oppressor and the oppressed, and making the same demands of
both those parties, on the grounds that all the women involved share the same
experience of war.It is as though
Israeli women were not part of the oppressor and Palestinian women were not
part of the oppressed people.
Brighton Women's Centre
BWC has provided a good example of how this statement
has been interpreted by radical and liberal/bourgeois feminists when they
banned Parents for Palestine from having a stall at their celebrations in Brighton
Dome.
UKLFI is
a far-right Zionist organisation. Listed among its Directors is Daniel
Berke, lawyer for Tommy Robinson. As the film below makes clear he is politically
close to Robinson. Berke was also the solicitor for Jonathan Hoffman, the link
person between British fascists and far-right Zionists.
Regavim was founded in 2006
by Bezalel Smotrich, the then leader of the far-right National Union party.
Smotrich calls himself a “proud homophobe” and is an open fascist. Today Smotrich is Israel’s
Finance Minister and the Gauleiter of the West Bank.
In February this Judeo-Nazi called
for the ‘wiping out’ of the Palestinian town of Huwara where the settlers had staged a
pogrom.
Others involved in
alleging ‘anti-Semitism’ and support for Hamas were Sussex Friends of Israel and
its alter-ego the Sussex Representative Council.
I have written before on the
theme of Zionist Feminism in articles such as
BWC not only refused to
talk to P4P about the allegations, they refused to disclose who had made the
allegations or what they were. Instead they just went ahead and cancelled P4P’s
stall.
This is the kind of ‘justice’
that Palestinians receive in the West Bank where you can be detained without trial
(Administrative Detention) without knowing who has made the allegations or what
those allegations are. So well done BWC. You are certainly good Zionists.
What BWC did was to cave
in to the supporters of genocide in Gaza taking their side. BWC has always been
a nest of right-wing radical and Zionist feminism and so it’s no surprise that
they were happy to cover for the supporters of Israel.
When I was Secretary of
the local Anti-Nazi League 40 years ago I wrote to them suggesting that we work
together in combating the National Front which was active in Brighton at that
time. Their response was that since fascists and anti-fascists were men they
were going to abstain!
In practice BWC has been
abstaining from the fight against racism and fascism ever since. Now they have
taken it a step further and openly declared their sympathies with those who are
perpetrating genocide in Gaza.
🚨Harrowing scenes document the moment Israeli soldiers execute elderly civilian inside a home west of #Gaza City. pic.twitter.com/jZCv0v1nN8
Palestinian women and girls
have reportedly been arbitrarily executed in Gaza, often together with family
members, including their children, according to information received. “We are
shocked by reports of the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of
Palestinian women and children in places where they sought refuge, or while
fleeing. Some of them were reportedly holding white pieces of cloth when they
were killed by the Israeli army or affiliated forces,” the experts said.
The experts
expressed serious concern about the arbitrary detention of hundreds of
Palestinian women and girls, including human rights defenders, journalists and
humanitarian workers, in Gaza and the West Bank since 7 October. Many have
reportedly been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, denied
menstruation pads, food and medicine, and severely beaten. On at least one
occasion, Palestinian women detained in Gaza were allegedly kept in a cage in
the rain and cold, without food.
The Guardian reported
on 22 February that there was evidence
of at least two cases of rape of Palestinian women captives, alongside other
cases of sexual humiliation and threats of rape. Reem Alsalem, the UN special
rapporteur on violence against women and girls, said the true extent of sexual
violence could be significantly higher.
Palestinian children in the
Israel military detention system face physical and emotional abuse, with four
out of five (86%) of them being beaten, and 69% strip-searched, according to
new research by Save the Children. Nearly half (42%) are injured at the point
of arrest, including gunshot wounds and broken bones. Some report violence of a
sexual nature and some are transferred to court or between detention
centres in small cages, the child rights organisation said.
Palestinian
women and children are also being starved to death by Israel.Reports of sexual abuse and violence against
women by Israeli soldiers are rife, which is not surprising since the Chief
Military Rabbi of Israel, Eyal Karim has ruled
that rape is permitted in war.
The haunted face of a 10 year old who died of starvation
In answer to
a question on the religious website Kipa when asked if soldiers
were permitted to rape women during war. Karim replied that, as part of
maintaining fitness for the army and the soldiers' morale during fighting, it
is permitted to
"breach"
the walls of modesty and "satisfy the evil inclination by lying with
attractive Gentile women against their will, out of consideration for the
difficulties faced by the soldiers and for overall success."
It is no surprise that
the sisters of BWC have, given the choice, chosen to side with those who have
forced Palestinian women to have caesarean sections without anaesthetic, who
are deprived of basics hygiene such as sanitary towels, wipes and above
all, of food. To these racist harridans, Palestinian women are lesser human
beings compared to their White counterparts.
The fact that BWC lied when
it said in a statement that it had offered to speak to P4P when it hadn’t and
then accepted the allegations from the Zionists at face value demonstrates
beyond doubt where their sympathies lie.
The Zionist Apologists for Rape & Violence Against Women
Radical feminism has always given cover to imperialism,
be it in Ireland or Palestine so we shouldn’t be surprised. The darlings of
American feminists – Betty Friedan, Letty Pogrebin and Andrea
Dworkin– were all Zionists.
American feminism has until recently, and under the pressure of Black Lives
Matter and third world women, been a bastion of support for imperialist ventures.For example Susan Nossel. former head of Amnesty USA justified the Afghan
war with feminist arguments.
Feminism
as a western movement has, by its very nature, viewed society as primarily divided
into men and women. Race and class has been largely absent from Western
feminist narratives and it is no accident that the racist trollops of Brighton Women
Centre have come to dominate the women’s movement and feminism.
Western
feminists such as Betty Friedan fought hard against Palestinian demands for
liberation and in practice what wascalled second wavefeminism ended
up in the right-wing feminism of the ‘Blair
babes’ who voted overwhelmingly in Parliament for the Iraq War in 2003.
The
election of 100 Labour Women MPs in 1997 resulted in a
situation where 25% of women MPs (mostly old-style socialists like Alice Mahon)
voted against the war compared to 40% of male MPs. So much for the sexist idea
that women are more peaceful.
In
more recent years it has been female Zionist MPs such as Margaret Hodge, Louise Ellman,
Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth who led the ‘anti-Semitism’ fight against Jeremy
Corbyn and the left in the Labour Party.
The Zionist counter-picket
This
is why on Saturday March 9 we held a silent picket of the IWT
celebrations at the Dome. Opposite us were a group of Zionist women chanting ‘Rape
is not Resistance’.Their message was
that the break-out from Gaza on October 7 had been an orgy of
rape.
Dabke
at Womens Day Celebrations
Allegations
of systematic rape have been the main narrative of the Israeli state in order to
demonise Hamas and justify its genocide in Gaza. BWC has gone along with this
false narrative. It has been comprehensively
debunked.
Palestine Solidarity Lobby
However
allegations of rape have always been the stock-in-trade of racists and imperialists against
indigenous people from Southern Africa ‘the black peril’ to the
lynch mobs of the Deep South. Indeed allegations of rape and sexual assault
were common to Nazi propaganda against German Jews. So it’s no surprise that Brighton
Womens Centre has adopted this narrative.
On
Saturday March 8th Palestine solidarity activists and other
anti-racists therefore held a silent demonstration outside the Dome. Opposite
us was a small band of Zionists chanting ‘rape
is not resistance’ thereby playing into this deeply racist trope.
Ironically
when a woman went up to them to say that she was a victim of rape and she found
their demonstration upsetting and disturbing a male Zionist told her that she
should be raped again.It was reported
to the Police but the man in question was protected by the Zionist women thus
demonstrating that their concern was not rape but support for Israel’s genocide
in Gaza.
The 2 men suspected of telling a woman she should be raped again
People
may wish to consider whether a demonstration should be held
outside BWC to highlight their complicity in support for
genocide but in the meantime you might wish to contact these racists feminists at admin@womenscentre.org.uk.
There
was an interesting discussion on Mumsnet
in the Feminism thread on BWC’s cancellation of P4P’s stall.
Brighton Women’s
Centre cancelled a stall celebrating Palestinian women for #IWD
Fortitudinal · 09/03/2024 12:06
What the fuck? Brighton Women’s Centre and the Dome
cancelled this stall at the last minute. How can they possibly justify this?
It’s heartbreaking.
Brighton Women’s Centre is a captured male-including
organisation now anyway. A long way from its fantastic beginnings as a truly
feminist space.
Cynical, corporate-controlled bullshit.
TodayIsNotMyDay
· 09/03/2024 14:38
White / Imperial feminism strikes again.
The ”we stand for ALL women” has always been bullshit,
but it has been a true mask off during this genocide.
WhereAreWeNow · 09/03/2024 17:41
What reason did they give? That seems really weird.
fakeprofile · 09/03/2024 17:42
What is going on in Brighton?? The blatant misogyny on
display in recent years has been shocking
Fortitudinal · 09/03/2024 18:26
I know. I don’t know if they gave any reasoning at
all. I suppose in a cowardly bid to avoid anything ‘controversial’ with regards
to Israel/Gaza?
It’s fucked up.
TodayIsNotMyDay
· Yesterday 12:59
It’s fucked up.
It truly is.
How can someone keep a straight face and claim to
support women if they don’t support all women?
The women and girls are going through the worst anyone
possibly could*.
I think this IWD has turned into Valentine’s Day #2,
it’s mostly just another day to buy stuff and some chant about being strong
woman, without any actual substance.
(*I do not mean
to make this into a competition who has it worst)
ssd · Yesterday 13:09
That is really not on.
And
that is right. What Brighton Women’s Centre has done is really not on.
The Church of England doesn’t
have a good record when it comes to fighting racism, including anti-Semitism. Cosmo
Gordon Lang, who was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1928 to 1942, suggested
to American diplomat James McDonald shortly before World War II that the Jews
were responsible for their persecution by the Nazis.
Terence
Tastard writes
in his PhD thesis ‘The Response of the
English Churches to the Nazi Persecution of the Jews 1933-1945’ that:
the response
by Church of England leaders during the 1930s was fitful and issue-led. Despite
his sudden eruption over the cartoon [in the Nazi paper Der Sturmer] , Lang had little to say about the situation of the
Jews as the crisis in Germany deepened between 1934 and 1938.
In recent times, with
the exception of Archbishops of Canterbury George Carey and Justin Welby, who both
protected
child-abusers within the Church, senior prelates like Robert Runcie and Rowan
Williams have tended to the more liberal side of politics.
Archbishop Justin Welby
With the advent of Justin Welby
to the Archbishopric of Canterbury things changed. Welby came from a deeply
conservative family. Father Gavin stood for Parliament in the 1951 and 1955
general elections as a Conservative candidate. Welby, educated at Eton and
Trinity College, Cambridge was born to the ruling class.
Welby is the
most reactionary Archbishop of Canterbury since Carey, who was appointed by
Thatcher after his predecessor Robert Runcie had issued Faith in the City, which was ‘an indictment of Thatcher’s free-market policies.’ Almost
immediately Chief Rabbi Jakobovits leapt to her defence with From Doom to Hope, arguing:
blacks should
not look to the state but instead to themselves and take responsibility for
their poverty. He argued that they should learn from the Jewish experience of
working themselves out of poverty, educating themselves and building up a
"trust in and respect for the police, realising that our security as a
minority depended on law and order being maintained
leading
Thatcher to remark
“Oh, how I
wish our own [Anglican] church leaders would take a leaf out of your Chief
Rabbi’s book.”
British Jewish
hostility to socialism did not start with Corbyn!
Thatcher
was known to have protected paedophiles such as her closest aide
Peter Morrison, so Carey was a natural choice for
her.
It is
inconceivable that Welby would author anything but the mildest rebuke of the
government’s political and economic policies. He is a died-in-the-wool
reactionary and so Zionism is second nature.
Welby
worked for 11 years in the oil industry and in 1984 he became treasurer of Enterprise Oil. He also became a member of the
Evangelical Anglican church of Holy Trinity in Brompton, London. He retired in
1989 and suddenly sensed a calling from God.
In July
2013, following a Parliamentary Report on Banking Standards, Welby leapt to the
defence of bankers, warning against punishing by naming and
shaming individual bankers, which he compared to the behaviour of a lynch mob.
It was the behaviour of the bankers which led to the 2008/9 crash which led to over 300,000 deaths from austerity as the poor paid the
price. Welby’s sympathies however were firmly with the bankers not the poor.
Mehdi Hassan on ISIS
and Blowback
Welby also
joined in the state’s Islamaphobia campaign that accompanied the ‘war against
terror’ and the fight against ISIS. In November 2016 he was quoted as saying that
Claims that
the atrocities of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have “nothing to do with
Islam” are harming efforts to confront and combat extremism.
Isis did
not exist before the US invasion of Iraq destroyed the existing society,
killing a million people in the process. It was a war for oil masquerading as a
war for democracy. By deliberately stoking up sectarian divisions in Iraq, the
old divide and rule, the US created first Al
Quaeda in Iraq and then ISIS. Welby
of course kept silent because, as an oil trader, he benefited from the genocide
in Iraq.
Welby was following in
the footsteps of Carey, a Christian Zionist, in more ways than one. In February
2017, Welby had to apologise after allegations that barrister and evangelical
Christian John Smyth
beat boys in the late 1970s until their wounds bled and left permanent scars.
Smyth was a senior member of Christian charity the Iwerne
Trust in the 1970s and 1980s.
Welby was a
dormitory officer at camps held in the Dorset village of Iwerne Minster. Smyth
was described by Welby in 2017 as "charming" and
"delightful."
They even swapped Christmas cards for some years. Andrew Atherstone in Risk
Taker and Reconciler, described Welby as having been
involved in
the camps as an undergraduate […] businessman and theological college student
in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Welby
stated that "I had no contact with
them at all". It later materialised that Welby had attended the camp in this period and had continued to receive the camp newsletter.
In 2012, a
victim of Smyth reported the abuse to the CoE and Welby was informed in 2013. Welby
maintained that this was the first he had heard
of the abuse by his old friend. The New York Times on 14 October 2017 quoted a senior Church of England figure as
saying that
“all senior
members of the trust, including officers like Archbishop Welby, had been made
aware of the allegations against Mr Smyth, even those who had been
abroad".
Questions
have remained among Smyth victims as to when Welby first knew. Some have
labelled the Archbishop an "observer",
a term denoting a person who knew about abuse but who did not report it.
None of this stopped
Welby, on 30 January 2023 issuing
a statement on Stephen Sizer. Hypocrisy is, after all, the tribute that vice
pays to virtue. Welby pontificated that:
It is clear
that the behaviour of Stephen Sizer has undermined Christian-Jewish relations,
giving encouragement to conspiracy theories and tropes that have no place in
public Christian ministry and the church. I renew my call for the highest
possible standards among ordained ministers of the Church of England in
combatting antisemitism of all kinds.”
UnfortunatelyWelby refused to take his own advice on
‘the highest possible standards’. Despite
multiple
callshe has refused toresign.
The Crucifixion
of Stephen Sizer
From 1997 to 2017 Sizer
was the Vicar of Christ Church, Virginia Water. Stephen was an expert
on Christian Zionism.
Christian Zionism is a
deeply racist, genocidal ideology that justifies the colonisation of Palestine because
god ‘gave it’ to the Jews. It justifies persecution in the name of god. There
is nothing that Jewish settlers or Israel do which it can’t justify in order to
reach End
Times.
Christian Zionism is a
fundamentalist reading of the Bible that ignores context and even Jewish
theology. The idea that colonists have the right to expel an indigenous people
because ‘god’ gave them permission is by definition inherently racist.
God also blessed the American
settlers as they exterminated the Native Indians. Likewise with the Spanish. This
is the god that Welby prays to. The CoE was also an active
participant in the slave trade
Upon the death of
Christopher Codrington in 1710, his two estates were left to the Society for
the Propagation of the Gospel. The plantations were
reliant on regular supplies of new slaves from West Africa. Four
out of every 10 slaves bought by the plantation in 1740 died within three years
as it was cheaper to work them to death.
Whilst acknowledging
that the CoE is ‘institutionally racist’
Welby has failed to recognise his own part in it. The establishment of a medieval
church tribunal to try Sizer for ‘anti-Semitism’
allegations made by the Board of Deputies is an example of this racism.
The
Racist Board of Deputies [BoD] of British Jews
There is a saying in law that “He Who Comes Into Equity Must Come
With Clean Hands.”
In other words you cannot accuse others of a crime if you are also guilty! So
it is with the Board of Deputies.
The Board of Deputies is primarily an advocate and defender of Israeli
Apartheid. It is riddled with Islamaphobes and racists.
Samuel Hayek, Chair of JNF UK agreed
with the neo-Nazi White Replacement Theory in which Muslims are driving White people
from Europe. Its anti-Semitic version has Jews behind it. Hayek declared that “Jews have no future in England”:
The evidence
is the number of immigrants to England. The demographic of British society is
changing.
Asked if he was referring to Muslims,
he confirmed that was so:
Our problem in
the West is that we do not understand Islam. In Islam there is not a term for
‘peace’.
Gary Mond, another JNF trustee and also Senior
Vice-President of the BoD spoke of his “respect” for Hayek over the comments.
Mond also liked two tweets by Pamela
Geller – a White Supremacist and fascist, who has been banned from entry to the
UK. According to the Southern Poverty Law Centre
"We just have to hope that our
leaders wake up to the fact that all civilisation-west and east… is at war with
these evil bastards, and I have to say it at war with Islam. And, just as Islam
has lost before in history, it will lose again."
Mond was
not alone. Three years ago the BoD suspended for 6 years Roslyn Pine for
describing Arabs as “the vilest of
animals.” Three years previously Pine had said that it was a pity that the
pro-Palestinian Swedish foreign minister was “too old to be raped.”
This
didn’t stop the BoD Executive ruling that Pine could return early from
her suspension if she ‘apologised, showed
contrition and expressed remorse’. Contrast that with the 12 year ban on Stephen Sizer for a concoction of
tittle tattle and links made in error, as the BoD demanded its pound of flesh
or the demand of the BoD that Labour members
expelled for ‘anti-Semitism’ ‘will never
be readmitted to membership’.
What was the
reaction of Pine’s Finchley United Synagoguewhich she represented? The Jewish News reported that
Finchley
Synagogue will look into the plight
of its suspended deputy Roslyn Pine as a matter of “urgency”. (my emphasis)
Pine’s
suspension has not prevented her from taking part in the ‘BoD caucus’ group, which attempted to
remove Board President Marie van der Zyl in favour of far-right-winger Jonathan Neumann. Zyl only just won as
Neumann gained 43.7%. According to the Jewish News
Leaked emails show Roslyn
Pine has contributed to the online BoD-caucus group in recent weeks despite being
removed from the Board in 2018 …
One post, made on the
subscriber-only Google group on 18 March, lambasted the incumbent President
Marie van der Zyl after the Board released a statement expressing solidarity
with the traveller community and claiming a “shared history”.
Pine’s post included the
claim: “The idea that traveller
communities share a commonality with us is absurd.”
Board of Deputies Representative Robert Festenheim appears in Tommy Robinson Propaganda Video
If the Board
were serious about getting rid of its racists it would have removed Robert Festenheim, the Prestwich Deputy, solicitor and advisor
to Tommy Robinson and Robinson’s solicitor Daniel Berke.
In January 2022 Mond,
who received the highest vote of the 3 Vice-Presidents, was forced to resign. Mond had written on Facebook and tweeted that ‘all civilization’ is ‘at war with Islam.’ Note the contrast
with the Board’s fulminations against Stephen Sizer.
The tribunal ignored the fact that Section
3(d) of the Board’s Constitution states that the BoD shall:
(d) Take such appropriate action as lies within its
power to advance Israel's security, welfare and standing.
‘that
part of the constitution refers to promoting a sympathetic understanding of
Israel, nevertheless she maintained that, on occasions, the Board does
criticise the state of Israel.’
In fact the Board never criticises the Israeli State. When
Israeli snipers murdered 234 unarmed Palestinians who were demonstrating as
part of the Great Return march, the Board defended the murders and criticised the victims. Arkush and
Zyl, who both gave evidence to the tribunal, issued a press release stating:
“No state could allow its
borders to be breached by those who openly wish harm to its civilians. Israel
is defending its people from repeated violent attempts at mass invasion.
“The
responsibility for the violence lies with Hamas, a terrorist organisation with
the explicit stated aim of murdering Israeli civilians and the ultimate
destruction of the State of Israel.
It was a lie from start to finish.
Those who were murdered were unarmed civilians. Arkush and Zyl claimed that Israel’s
border was breached (there is no border, it’s a fence) but even if it had been
breached shooting down refugees in cold blood is still a war crime.
Palestinians at a distance from the fence like 21 year old Palestinian medic Razan al Najar were shot dead and thousands were
injured. The Board defended this and all Israel’s other crimes.
21 Year Old Palestinian Medic Razan al Najar was murdered by an Israeli soldier - she was considered a 'terrorist'
Hundreds of British Jews signed a letter protesting at the BOD’s support
for the murder of civilians. Yet the Tribunal preferred to accept the claim that
the BoD represents British Jews at face value.
When Israel passed the Jewish
Nation State Law in 2018, which affirmed that Israel was a state,
representing only its Jewish citizens, the BoD refused to criticise it. It expressed ‘concern’
Nor has the BoD expressed even the
slightest concern at the fact that the new Israeli government contains Jewish neo-Nazis as Ministers. Like
the 3 wise monkeys the Board says, sees and hears nothing.
The BoD Complains Again About
Stephen Sizer
If at first you don’t
succeed try and try again. Especially if there is a new, racist Archbishop of
Canterbury in place.
In
January 2015 Arkush made another Complaint, this time to Bishop Andrew, the new
Bishop of Guildford. On 30 January 2015, the Diocese published a press
statement quoting Sizer:
“I
have never believed Israel, or any other country was complicit in the terrorist
atrocity of 9/11, and my sharing of this material was ill-considered and
misguided.”
In
a press statement of February 2015, Bishop Andrew said
"Having now met Stephen, in my brand-new role as Bishop of Guildford, I
do not believe that his motives are anti-Semitic…”
‘Anti-Semitism’ was
not why Arkush complained. His purpose was to silence a critic of Israel’s
treatment of Christian Palestinians. This is why the witchhunt continued to its
medieval conclusion.
Nick Howard, son of former Tory leader Michael Howard, member of Christian Messianic sect, repeatedly defamed Stephen Sizer. He was refused ordination as a priest because of an "unwillingness to listen" to others' viewpoints."
Amazingly throughout this whole affair the BoD, the CCJ and
the various Evangelical defamers, Howard et al. have not been able to produce
one anti-Semitic word or phrase that Sizer has used.
The agenda of those persecuting Stephen
Sizer was crystal clear and Welby was aware from the start what it was. The
Church Tribunal under David Pittaway behaved in exactly the same way as the Congregation
of the Doctrine of Faith under the Inquisition.
At
times the tribunal descended from comedy to farce, for example when Van der Zyl
became hysterical and was rebuked by the Chair for refusing to answer questions
under cross-examination or when Arkush suffered a senior moment when being
reminded that a Subject Access Request to the CCJ had revealed that Nick
Howard, (son of Michael Howard) a Messianic (Christian) Zionist had been
drafting his crib sheets when he confronted Dr Sizer’s bishop.
What
on earth was the President of the Board of Deputies doing relying on crib
sheets prepared by Messianic Jews (who are not even recognised as Jews in
Israel)? Because they even more Zionist than the Zionists. What would members
of the BoD make of that?
And
where were the prosecution witnesses? Could they not find a single person
within the Jewish community who was offended by his Facebook posts or what he
had written?
But
embarrassing moments were shared equally between the Board of Deputies and the
Church of England.
On
the fourth day of the tribunal, we were convinced that the case had collapsed
when the expert witness for the prosecution, Bishop Ipgrave, chair of CCJ,
admitted under cross examination that he was not an expert witness and had either
not read or just plain ignored the instructions given him about what to include
and not include in his definition of antisemitism.
Exasperated,
at that point, the Chair turned to the only expert witness left standing, Tony Lerman,
and asked him to please help them out and provide a simple definition of
antisemitism.
When
Mr Lerman spelt out the blindingly obvious, namely that the discredited IHRA
misdefinition of antisemitism (on which the entire case against Dr Sizer
rested) fell at the first test of a definition, in being indefinite, it seemed
clear that the complaint had collapsed.
Perhaps
that is why the panel took six months to recover their composure before finally
publishing their decision, which, surprise, surprise, included the entire
wording of the aforementioned IHRA misdefinition. Perhaps they did so to
placate the BoD (who had coerced the Archbishops to adopt it) and make the
House of Bishops look less foolish for adopting the IHRA, (coincidentally within
days of the complaint being lodged).
Was
the shockingly disproportionate severity of the penalty in part because the
panel were miffed at being contradicted by the former Bishop of Jerusalem? In
his letter of support for Dr Sizer, Bishop Assal observed that they had clearly
not consulted a Middle East bishop on the necessity of wearing clerical attire,
in particular in a war zone like Southern Lebanon. The bishop pointed out that
clergy were required to wear a clerical shirt at all times and NOT doing so
would be regarded as irresponsible and ‘conduct unbecoming’.
In
what was clearly a rebuke to the Anglican hierarchy, this feisty octogenarian,
wished there were more courageous bishops and clergy like Dr Sizer willing to
challenge Israeli apartheid and their Christian Zionist fan club. He insisted
‘western appeasement’ (read silence of the CoE) was leading to the extinction
of Palestinian Christians in the Holy land. Not the legacy Welby might wish to
be remembered for.
The Decision
The Tribunal
consisted of 5 members - The Worshipful David Pittaway KC (Chair), The Rev. Geoffrey
Eze, The Rev. Canon Liz Hughes., Canon Andrew Halstead and Ms Gabrielle
Higgins.
My first impression on reading the Decision
was its superficiality. It was as if the tribunal found issues of racism,
anti-Semitism and Zionism too difficult to comprehend. Where decisions were
reached there was little or no explanation. It was intellectually lightweight.
Counsel for the Prosecution, Mr
Leviseur argued that Stephen Sizer’s
‘course of conduct, taken collectively, provokedand offended the Jewish community’.
And sure enough, the tribunal at
para. 95 of its decision, repeats this without even pausing for thought. They found
that:
the question is not whether
the Respondent intended to offend or provoke anyone nor whether the Tribunal is
offended by his behaviour but whether the Jewish community was offended and
provoked by his conduct
What if ‘the Jewish community’ (a
non-existent entity) were offended? A tribunal with a slightly greater cerebral
capacity would have asked whether you can have free speech if you don’t have
the right to offend people?
In the case of Katherine Elizabeth Scottow v CPS the Court of Appeal ruled that the right
to offend is an integral part of freedom of speech: “Freedom only to speak inoffensively is not worth having.” Not once
in their decision did the tribunal even begin to appreciate that even had this
mythical ‘Jewish community’ been offended by Sizer’s writings then that was the
price of free speech.
In para. 91 of its decision the
tribunal was reminded that Article 10 of the European Convention of Human
Rights affirms the right of free speech. The tribunal in its decision simply
ignored the submission.
In Handyside v. The United Kingdom, the European Court of Human Rights
held that the right to freedom of expression in Article 10 of the ECHR protects
not only expressions that are favorably received but also those that ‘offend, shock or disturb’.
The tribunal simply ignored case law
finding (para. 117) that:
To the extent that it was submitted on behalf of the
Respondent that any of the matters complained of come within section 8(3) of
the CDM, namely that they were the consequence of lawful political opinions or
activities, the Tribunal rejects that submission.
Again there was no reasoning. It is
difficult to avoid the conclusion that the tribunal was out of its depth.
Racists are undoubtedly offended by
anti-racism. Israeli Jews are offended by the idea that the Israeli state
should be a democratic state of all its citizens. Should we bow to Jewish
Supremacy?
Likewise the BoD wasn’t offended by
Stephen Sizer’s ‘anti-Semitism’ but his persistent and consistent advocacy for
the Palestinians. That and that alone has resulted in his being banned.
The
tribunal indulged in mundane clichés. How do you offend a whole community? What evidence was
there for such an assertion? 99.9% of British Jews have probably never read a
word by Sizer. Opposition to Zionism and support for the Palestinians certainly
offends the BoD because it is an aggressive pro-Israel lobby group.
The most cogent evidence was given by
Frances Webber of the Institute for Race Relations. The accusations against
Sizer had nothing to with either racism or anti-Semitism. ‘Causing offence’ was really about ‘thought policing’.
Webber emphasised that causing
offence is not synonymous with racism. Racism is certainly offensive but not
everything that is offensive is racist. The tribunal was incapable of moving
beyond ‘giving offence’ to the BoD and asking why the knives were out for Sizer
by an assortment of Zionist groups and individuals.
Summary of the Allegations
Against Stephen Sizer
The
first Board of Deputies complaint was made by Jonathan Arkush on 26 October
2012. It consisted of a series of trivialities such as inadvertently linking to
anti-Semitic sites such as the Ugly
Truth.
Another example of ‘anti-Semitism’
was posting photographs of the Israeli army under the title “Herod’s
Soldiers Operating in Bethlehem Today” Arkush drew the conclusion
that
Rev
Sizer is therefore insinuating that Israeli soldiers are therefore both child
killers and potential killers of Christ, or that any Jew in uniform becomes
these two things.
What Arkush was saying was that these
armed thugs should not be criticised because they were Jewish. The dishonesty
in Arkush’s argument is plain to see. He elides Jews and the Israeli army into
one. The Israeli army are child killers. Nearly 40 Palestinian children were killed out
of over 230 murdered Palestinians in 2022.How can the truth be anti-Semitic? The tribunal didn’t say.
On 13th June 2011 Sizer gave a TV interview in which he claimed that the British far
right and Zionists were forming
an alliance because their common enemy
were Muslims. But this is true but apparently still anti-Semitic! Was Tommy
Robinson attending the Board’s own demonstration in support of Israel an illusion?
On 5th July
2011Sizer linked to an article in the Palestine Telegraph
which accused Israel of killing scientists all over the world. Apparently that
is anti-Semitic although it is true.
On 24th
December 2011Sizer
gave an interview to Qods News Agency. Qods News Agency is apparently a
Holocaust denying website. Does that mean that Sizer is a holocaust denier?
On 31st December 2011Sizer’s blog linked to a piece by Uri
Avnery on the Redresswebsite.
It is not immediately obvious that Redress has anti-Semitic content. Avnery was
a former member of the Israeli Knesset and a founder of the Israeli peace camp.
A more absurd accusation is difficult to imagine.
On 1st March 2012 Sizer posted a picture of American bases surrounding Iran on his
blog. Because it came from the Veterans
Today site it is also not kosher.
Later in March 2012 Sizer, in an interview with
Arab radio, referred to the “power of the
Zionist lobby” and recommended Al Manar TV which apparently hosted a
programme on a global Jewish government. Was Sizer aware of this? Very
unlikely.
Marie van der Zyl complained that Sizer
had supported Raed Saleh, a Palestinian Israeli who is ‘known for spreading the blood libel claim against Jews and otherwise
inciting antisemitism.’ But that was a lie. Raed Saleh was accused of this by
the Home Office in 2011. The Upper Immigration Tribunal found that the
allegations against him were false and that the evidence had been tampered
with.
It is true that an Israeli court
subsequently found him guilty of racial hatred but here’s the problem. In
Israel Jews are never convicted of this offence even when they demonstrate
chanting ‘Death to the Arabs’. It is
only Palestinians who are ever found guilty of racism in Israel! See May
warned of weak case against Sheikh Raed Salah. Mr Justice Ockelton ruled on the blood libel issue that:
“...there is no reliable evidence of [Salah]
using words carrying a reference to the blood libel save in the single passage
in a sermon delivered five years ago. ... The absence of other evidence is
striking ... [Salah] is a prominent public figure and a prolific speaker. ...
his speeches are of interest to the authorties in Israel. ... We think it can
be fairly said that the evidence before us is not a sample, or 'the tip of the
iceberg': it is simply all the evidence there is.”
Raed Saleh denied that
he had referred to the blood libel but contrast that with van der Zyl’s
statement that he was ‘known for
spreading the blood libel claim against Jews’. Van der Zyl is a bad liar.
Jeff Halper and Stephen Sizer
There were many
supporting statements, including my own, in the tribunal but because of
procedural manoeuvring they were unable to be used because the Prosecution had
a veto on which witnesses were called. I want to quote from just one supporting
statement
by Dr Jeff Halper of the Israeli
Committee Against House Demolitions.
No one in the world has stood with the besieged Christians
of Palestine more than Dr Sizer. He has given voice to their distress when the
Church of England has been silent. The fact that the Church has gone to the
extreme of accusing Dr Sizer of anti-Semitism because he speaks up in defence
of Palestinian Christians only compounds the sin. It is morally grotesque that the Church of
England is submitting Dr Sizer to a medieval Tribunal (euphemistically called a
“Clergy Discipline Measure”) at the instigation of the organized British Jewish
community instead of examining its own role in facilitating Israel’s
persecution of Palestine’s Christians. And it is equally outrageous that Jews
even consider participating in religious Tribunals given what Jews experienced
in the Inquisition. “Support for Israel,” it seems, is exposing the immorality
and cynicism of the highest figures in our major religions.
I have known Dr. Sizer for over twenty years. I respect his
moral position on Israel. I certainly respect his academic work on Christian
Zionism, one of the most insidious and antisemitic religious doctrines in
modern history and profoundly anti-Israel (Israel exists to bring on the
Christian End of Days in which virtually all Jews die or become Christians). I
respect Dr. Sizer’s willingness to go beyond the comforts of parish life to
engage critically in an issue of central concern to us all: how to prevent
Israel from becoming the next apartheid South Africa, how to prevent Jews from
becoming Afrikaners, and how to liberate the Palestinian people from the yoke
of occupation and apartheid – causes Christians and Jews should be engaged with
rather than outdated and discredited Tribunals. And while I don’t use Dr.
Sizer’s faith-based language, I have never heard him utter a word that I would
consider antisemitic. To accuse or “convict” him of such is truly medieval. It
is all the more outrageous if you and your Tribunal are basing your judgement
on the false and tendentious position represented by the IHRA assertion that
any criticism of Israel is de facto antisemitic – a position disavowed by
Kenneth Stern, who drafted the IHRA paper (only intended as a “working
definition”), as well as by dozens of prominent Jewish and Israeli scholars and
progressive Jewish and Israeli organizations
The reality is that
Justin Welby, who covered for child abuse, has allowed this Medieval
Inquisition to take place because he is himself a Christian Zionist. In so
doing he has deliberately turned a blind eye to the ongoing attacks on the
Palestinian Christian community.
Christian protest in Jerusalem against repeated Zionist Attacks and Vandalism - Welby remains silent
Palestinian Christians
don’t suffer from taking offence at criticism. They suffer from arson at their
churches, repeated vandalism in their graveyards, spitting on the streets of
Jerusalem by Jewish nationalists, physical attacks by the Police and state.
It’s not hurt feelings but attempts to drive them out altogether that they
experience and in this Justin Welby is complicit because he refuses to condemn
the racism of Zionism. Like all Christian Zionists he believes that Jews will
‘return’ to Palestine in order that the Battle of Armageddon can take place and
then he and his fellows will rapture to heaven. Most Jews will perish but that
is a small price to pay for everlasting salvation.
Below are just some of
the headlines concerning, not fake ‘anti-Semitism’ or taking offence at
criticism but real racist attacks:
On the
morning of Thursday, February 2, a man entered the Chapel of Flagellation in
the Old City of Jerusalem, allegedly built on the site where Pontius Pilate
handed over Jesus for execution, the first of the Stations of the Cross in the
Catholic tradition. The vandal struck a wooden statue of Christ with a hammer….
This was the
fifth attack in five weeks against Christians, their places of worship and
their properties in the Holy Land, compared with 13 in the whole of 2020 and
nine in 2021.
Whereas Benzi Gopstein (left) was freed without charges, Raed Saleh was imprisoned for 3 years - Jewish racists are rarely prosecuted
Churches burned
Since 2015,
far-right Israeli activists have attacked several churches in Israel and
Palestine.
Some Israeli
figures
close to the growing Religious Zionism political movement, which has four MPs,
have been outspoken about banning Christmas and said that churches are places
of worshipping idols, calling for their destruction.
The Church
of the Multiplication on the Sea of Galilee suffered from an arson attack in 2015 at the
hands of an Israeli far-right group.
Last December, an
Israeli man attempted to set fire to East Jerusalem's historic Gethsemane
Church,
also known as the Church of All Nations, before being arrested.
On Thursday evening,
a group of settlers swarmed the Taboon Wine Barat the New Gate in the Christian
Quarter of Jerusalem. CCTV footage shows the group carrying banners and
throwing chairs violently toward the restaurant and those seated inside.
Israeli police,
who arrived an hour after a call had been made, ushered the crowd away but
reportedly made no arrests.
Clergymen
in the Armenian Church in Jerusalem say they are victims of harassment, from
senior cardinals to priesthood students; when they do complain, the police
don't usually find the perpetrators.
Ultra-Orthodox
young men curse and spit at Christian clergymen in the streets of Jerusalem's
Old City as a matter of routine. In most cases the clergymen ignore the
attacks, but sometimes they strike back. Last week the Jerusalem Magistrate's
Court quashed the indictment against an Armenian priesthood student who had
punched the man who spat at him.
Instead of conducting an
Inquisition and crucifying Stephen Sizer, Welby and the CoE would do well do
address the racism of an Israeli state that the BoD has repeatedly defended. It
doesn’t take a genius to work out that the close monitoring of Stephen Sizer’s
blog and social media output has nothing to do with anti-Semitism and
everything to do with Israel and Zionism.
When Jewish neo-Nazis
such as Itamar
Ben Gvir, who even Israeli courts have convicted of racial
incitement becomes Israel’s Police Minister and when proposals are being made to
repeal
a law preventing racist candidates standing election to the
Knesset, it is obscene that the CoE and its Christian Zionist defenders are
allowed to persecute a brave and fearless defender of the weak and oppressed.
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