Chakrabarti has been abandoned - Jenny Formby is Flying the White Flag as Labour heads back to the days of Iain McNicol

Asa Winstanley is suspended for calling the JLM an Israeli Embassy proxy and Kinnock Calls for Darren Williams' Head 
Are these the last days of Jeremy Corbyn?

The latest victim of the growing witchhunt inside the Labour Party is Asa Winstanley, a journalist with Electronic Intifada. Asa learnt of his suspension, not from the Labour Party but from the Jewish Chronicle to whom it was leaked. His offence was to call the Jewish Labour Movement a ‘proxy for the Israeli Embassy.’

Telling the truth about the JLM relationship with the Israeli Embassy is apparently 'antisemitic' & a suspension offence

Once again the Compliance Unit has leaked personal information and details of Labour’s disciplinary process to the press before the person themselves has been notified. This is in clear violation of the GDPR.  This used to be regular practice under Iain McNicol. It has now resurfaced.

It would appear that nothing has changed since the days of Iain McNicoll. After writing one strong letter to Tom Watson, Jennie Formby has now surrendered. Instead of questioning suspensions for expressing one's opinions about the witch-hunt (how is that anti-Semitic?) she has given the Compliance Unit a green light to purge the Left. The pace of suspensions is thus increasing and once again we have the situation of old tweets being microscopically examined for any signs of dissidence.

It isn’t anti-Semites who are being suspended it is journalists, activists, socialists.  Due process has gone out of the window.

The suspension of Asa Winstanley is an attack on freedom of speech. Asa has written many well researched articles proving how the ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign in the Labour Party has been manufactured by Israeli state front groups such as the Jewish Labour Movement. Articles such as How Israel lobby manufactured UK Labour Party’s anti-Semitism crisis and Jewish Labour Movement was refounded to fight Corbyn. Asa has shown how e.g. at Oxford University Labour Club the allegations of ‘anti-Semitism’ were manufactured by a former intern for Israeli propaganda group, BICOM.

The JLM is a scab organisation inviting the State to interfere in the Labour Party 

Asa’s last article, showing how the JLM had almost ceased to exist until the Israeli Embassy revived it in 2015 and injected money into it, with the express purpose of waging a war against Jeremy Corbyn, caused them particular grief. The JLM was until recently chaired by fraud and crook Jeremy Newmark who, despite being exposed in the Jewish Chronicle and being subject to a Police investigation is still a Labour councillor.

In Israel they murder journalists they don't like

I am not surprised that the Zionist movement has targeted Asa Winstanley. He should count himself lucky. In Israel they shoot disagreeable journalists!

The suspension of Asa Winstanley takes place hot on the heels of the suspension of Sean McCallum, the Mayoral candidate in Mansfield on the basis of two tweets posted two years ago.

One member of Mansfield CLP describes what happened:

‘We had already elected a prospective candidate who then withdrew, so we went through the process again. After the new candidate was chosen, someone with too much time on their hands and an axe to grind went through his social media posts and found 2 posts from 2 years ago, complained, and Sean McCallum was immediately suspended. This man is NOT anti-semitic or racist in any way, he was devastated and has resigned from the Labour party with immediate effect, he says that once his term as a councillor comes to an end he will walk away from politics.’

Sean, who is a firefighter and who served in Iraq, spelt out his feelings in a letter to members of Mansfield CLP:

‘The first, was an online article which explained the origins of an illustration used by Labour MP Naz Shah in a tweet for which she was suspended and later apologised. The article explains that the creator of the illustration was an eminent Jewish Professor Norman Finklestein, an analyst and expert in the Israeli/Palestine conflict, whose parents survived the holocaust. My comments on this article are correct, there is no evidence of anti-Semitism within it. I do not accept that this indicates that I am of an anti-Semitic disposition".

Regarding the other post he says: "I was (poorly) attempting to express my anger and frustration towards the government of Israel, and its political and military policies regarding Palestine. This does not make me an anti-Semite –it makes me someone who cares deeply about the loss of life on both sides of that conflict".

"I have no faith at all that a fair and equitable process would indeed take place-there is a battle raging within the Labour Party which has nothing to do with racism, and everything to do with power and control.

Whilst it is absolutely vital that the importance of tackling anti-Semitism is not minimised, and that my poor choice of words is acknowledged, it is also apparent to many observers and Labour Party members that the issue is also being weaponised, as factions within struggle for control and ultimately power. This in itself is cynical, and  in my view dilutes the seriousness of fighting racism in all forms."

We have to call a halt now to the suspension of people for whom anti-Semitism is a pretext. As an unnamed member of Mansfield CLP wrote:

‘So the Labour party has lost another good councillor and dedicated member and we are the poorer for it, because of this nonsense. We also have no mayoral candidate and we desperately need to remove the "Independent" mayor (basically a Tory) who seems to be able to veto everything that the council wants and control everything in a way that seems totally undemocratic.

I know he doesn’t want to challenge the Labour party on this, but I am letting you know because I really feel that it is a witch hunt, anyone who wants to discredit someone for any reason only seems to have to utter the words “anti-semitism” and that person is suspended regardless of whether they are or not. I have no idea what we can do to stop this nonsense but in the mean time, good people are being victimised and driven out of the party/politics and the real racists are still out there causing problems. In my opinion someone independent and with common sense should look at complaints like this and others such as Jo Bird and Chris Williamson and simply throw out complaints where there is no anti-semitism rather than automatic suspensions for everyone (especially the left wing members). I have no idea how we can achieve a fairer system but it can’t go on like this.

Idiot Jennie Formby has brought in Blair's right hand man Charlie 

What is even more unforgivable is that Formby has called in Blair’s flat mate, friend and former Lord Chancellor Charlie Falconer, someone who went along with all Blair’s wars and privatisations and who is a deadly enemy to the Corbyn Project.  No wonder that he is now calling for an investigation into Corbyn’s own advisers. The net is closing in and the witch-hunters are getting closer to Corbyn himself .

Coming in the wake of the suspension of Jo Bird, a Jewish councillor in the Wirral and the suspension of Chris Williamson MP we are facing a full witchhunt of anyone who dares speak out about the McCarthyist madness that is gripping the Labour Party.

None of the above have been disciplined for anything remotely anti-Semitic.  It has now become an offence merely to question the assertion that there is widespread anti-Semitism. This is Orwellian and resembles Israeli democracy.

Israeli democracy - you can vote for any party that accepts Israel is a Jewish state not a state of all its citizens

What this really is about of course is Israel.  At the moment a General Election is taking place in Israel where the main battle is between two Zionist parties – Likud and Blue & White where the main debate is as to who has killed the most Arabs. It is an election in which 2 Arab parties and a Jewish member of the Communist  Party have been banned, a decision currently under appeal to the High Court. That is what happens in an ethno-nationalist state. Israel is the most racist state in the world and this is what Labour’s ‘anti-Semitism’ smear campaign is about, defending the West’s armed watchdog in the Middle East.

Scab MP Stephen Kinnock calls for Darren Williams to be Suspended

Darren Williams  is the latest target of son of scab Stephen Kinnock

Jewish Labour Movement MPs such as Louise Ellman have defended through thick and thin the Israeli army’s occupation of the West Bank.  This MP, who I have called the MP for Tel Aviv South, has even defended in a debate in Parliament on Palestinian child prisoners Israeli army practices such as kidnapping them in the early hours of the morning and blindfolding and beating them. 

This is what it's really about - Zionism and racism in Israel

Only yesterday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responding to the suggestion that Israel is a country of all its citizen, wrote to actress, Rotem Sela:

"Dear Rotem, an important correction: Israel is not a state of all its citizens. According to the Nation-State Law that we passed, Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish People - and them alone.

This is the racism that Labour’s current witchhunt is designed to defend.  We stand in full solidarity with Asa Winstanley, Jo Bird, Sean McCallum, Jackie Walker and Chris Williamson.

The leaking of peoples’ details to the press is a blatantly illegal and we demand that the Compliance Unit is closed down.  It is not fit for purpose. 

This is what Jennie Formby’s craven cowardice and bending the knee to Tom Watson is about.  As the local elections get nearer so the ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign will grow louder.  The latest potential victim is Darren Williams who is on Labour's NEC. But, as I have said repeatedly in the past, the real target is not me nor Chris Williamson or any of the people in t his post, it is Jeremy Corbyn.  Unfortunately the fool does not realise it and appointing Blair’s buddy to reinvestigate cases will only lasten the day that Corbyn is overthrown by a coup of his own  MPs.

Tony Greenstein

Jewish Labour Movement’s Rule Change is Gutted

Zionist attempt to make support for the Palestinians an expulsion offence fails

The first allegations of 'anti-Semitism' were made against Corbyn himself and the Guardian joined in with the Mail and Express

Ever since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party, Netanyahu’s friends in the Jewish Labour Movement and Labour Friends of Israel have waged a false anti-Semitism campaign, whose purpose was to create the impression that anti-Semitism is rife within the Labour Party. 

Jonathan Freedland, the Guardian’s house Zionist, led the way with articles such as Labour and the left have an antisemitism problem. Despite the BBC, Daily Mail and Guardian singing from the same hymn sheet, no evidence of anti-Semitism has ever been produced. What was remarkable about this furore about 'anti-Semitism' in the Labour Party was a complete lack of concern about State Racism, Islamaphobia and racism against Black people.  Racism against a privileged white minority was seen as more important than Black deaths in custody, hostility to asylum seekers and violent attacks against Muslims and mosques.  

Jean Fitzpatrick was fitted up by anti-Corbyn MP, Joan Ryan, as an anti-Semite.  The allegation was later shown to be without merit

This more than anything demonstrated the contrived nature of this campaign.  It was about Israel not Jews.  In the third of the Al Jazeera undercover programmes ‘The Lobby’, the Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, Joan Ryan MP was filmed manufacturing a false allegation of anti-Semitism against Jean Fitzpatrick, a Labour Party conference delegate.

Joan Ryan campaigned in the General Election as an anti-Corbyn candidate who stated that 'people have more confidence in Theresa May than Jeremy Corbyn'

Ms Fitzpatrick had gone to the LFI stall and asked a question about their apparent support for a 2 States Solution.  What about the Occupation and the Settlements she asked?  She soon found out that ‘2 States’ was a slogan designed to cover up continuing colonisation.  LFI and JLM have never opposed the Occupation or the Settlements.  

The JLM’s real aim has been to criminalise support for the Palestinians and opposition to Zionism, an ideology of racial supremacy.  It is hard to defend jailing and torture of children as young as 12 and , the administrative detention of Palestinians without charge or trial for 6 months at a time, the demolition of EU funded schools and clinics, homes and facilities.  It is much easier to attack Israel’s critics as 'anti-Semitic' than to defend the practices of the Israeli state.

Jeremy Newmark is seen in between Israel agent Shai Masot, who was forced to leave Britain earlier this year, and Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev, second from right.

Prominent in this campaign has been the Chair of the JLM, Jeremy Newmark, an Israeli state agent and propagandist.  Newmark was accused of perjury in an Employment Tribunal case Fraser v University College Union. A Zionist academic Ronald Fraser had argued that the UCU, by supporting the academic boycott of Israel, was anti-Semitic.  He reasoned that support for Israel was an integral part of Jewish identity and therefore opposition to Israel was an attack on Jews i.e. anti-Semitic.

By the same ‘logic’ criticism of Apartheid in South Africa was anti-White racism.  By this criteria, criticism of Burma could be considered anti-Burmese racism. The threat to free speech is obvious but Zionism has consistently sought to close down free speech for anti-Zionists and in Israel even Palestinian poets are imprisoned.  

Jeremy Newmark - The JLM's perjurer in chief

The Employment Tribunal ‘rejected as untrue the evidence of Ms Ashworth and Mr Newmark’.  It described his evidence of the harassment of Jewish speakers as ‘false’ and described his claim that he was treated as a ‘pushy Jew’ as ‘preposterous’.

In ‘The Lobby’, which broadcast last January Newmark was filmed working hand in glove with Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev, a man whose previous role had been, as Netanyahu’s PR representative, to justify the murder of 2,200 Palestinians in Gaza in 2014, including over 500 children. [The real question is why Panorama, Channel 4 and the Guardian didn’t Investigate the Israeli Embassy's Political Destabilisation]

The JLM proposed a rule change last year which would outlaw ‘anti-Semitism’.  Its purpose was made blindingly clear by the ‘Supporting argument and rationale’ which stated that ‘This rule change would recognise that it is not acceptable to use Zionism as a term of abuse or to substitute the word Zionist for where the word Jew has been commonly used...’

The Genesis of a False Allegation of Anti-Semitism Courtesy of Joan Ryan MP

The JLM decries the very thing it is proposing! What has Zionism to do with anti-Semitism? Nothing unless one considers Jews and Zionists are the same. The reality is that those who confuse Jews and Zionists are the same people who regularly state that anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is one and the same thing.  The Israeli state calls itself a ‘Jewish’ state.  As for not using Zionism as a term of abuse, well Zionism is very abusive. 

Extract from Shami Chakrabarti's Report on Racism

The heart of the JLM’s proposed Rule Change was its attempt to use the Report of the MacPherson Inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence in order to make anti-Zionism an expulsion offence.  The JLM defined a ‘hate incident’ as ‘something where the victim or anyone else think it was motivated by hostility or prejudice’.  If the JLM had had their way then anyone who claimed that criticism of Israel or Zionism was anti-Semitic could say they were a victim of anti-Semitism. Racists would be turned into ‘victims’. What MacPherson actually proposed was that where someone alleged that they had been the victims of a racial attack the Police must record it as such. What was not proposed was an allegation of racism was to be proof of guilt.

Darren Williams Report of last week's NEC

It is clear from reports of Labour’s National Executive meeting last week that the JLM’s attempt to make anti-Zionism an expulsion offence has been rejected.  What has taken place since is a battle of spin.  According to NEC member Darren Williams, a rule change was approved ‘that avoided the more draconian approach favoured by the Jewish Labour Movement’.  Williams, like most NEC members, has a limited grasp of what the JLM were trying to do.  It had nothing to do with being draconian and everything to do with an attempt to outlaw criticism of Israel and Zionism.

Jeremy Newmark claims a victory despite the JLM Rule Change having been gutted

The Zionists have since been trying to dress up their defeat as a victory.  Ella Rose, the JLM’s Director, a free transfer from the Israeli Embassy, posted a press release: ‘We are heartened that the NEC has adopted our rule change.’  The Jewish Chronicle Report Labour executive gives backing to new measures on antisemitism talked up the JLM’s ‘victory’.    Newmark claimed that “These constitutional amendments, if passed, will simply bring Labour’s rules to the place that should have been expected from a political party rooted in values of equality and anti-racism.’

Jessica Elgot of the Guardian (& former JC journalist) was part of the Zionist spin operation

The Guardian’s Jessica Elgot (who didn’t reveal that she was formerly a senior journalist on the Jewish Chronicle) was part of the same operation.  She wrote an article which was little more than a JLM press release. Jeremy Corbyn will back change to allow tough line on antisemitism.

There is something sickening in the JLM, an affiliate of the World Zionist Organisation, which believes that world Jewry owes allegiance to the State of Israel, talking about combating racism.  It is an organisation which funds Jewish settlements and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.

The Israeli state defines itself as the State of all Jews, including those who live outside Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu has often stated that he is the Prime Minister of all Jewish people, not merely those living in Israel. The Director-General of  the Prime Minister’s Office, Eli Groner described Netanyahu as “by design, the leader of the Jewish world.”  Is it any wonder that some people associate Jews with the actions of the Israeli state?

The JLM speaks of the openly racist Israeli Labour Party, a party of ethnic cleansing, as ‘our sister party’.  For the Jewish Labour Movement to talk about racism is akin to the Yorkshire Ripper lecturing people about violence against women.  It says something of the retreat that Corbyn has made since he was elected that the JLM was even given the time of day.  There is little excuse for Corbyn’s behaviour.  In his 30+ years working with the Palestine solidarity movement he was repeatedly criticised as anti-Semitic and when he first stood as Labour leader he was attacked as being an associate of Paul Eisen, a holocaust denier. See e.g. Jeremy Corbyn's 10-year association with group which denies the Holocaust

For all the huffing and puffing, the JLM have suffered a severe reverse.  There is no sympathy in Labour’s ranks for their preposterous false ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign.  No one in the Labour Party seriously believes that there is an anti-Semitism problem.  It is a hyped up campaign perpetrated by the Tory media and the BBC.  With the excellent result of Labour in the General Election, the JLM's false anti-Semitism campaign has been sidelined.  It has been demonstrated to have no effect on Labour's voters.

Skwawkbox version of proposals before NEC - the proposal on the right was carried

According to Ann Black, a right-wing member of Labour’s NEC the following proposal was agreed:

No member of the Party shall engage in conduct which in the opinion of the NEC is prejudicial, or in any act which in the opinion of the NEC is grossly detrimental to the Party. The NEC shall take account of any codes of conduct currently in force and shall regard any incident which in their view was motivated by hostility or prejudice based on age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; or sexual orientation as conduct prejudicial to the Party. ... The NCC shall not have regard to the mere holding or expression of beliefs and opinions.

According to Skwawkbox, Black is wrong.  The phrase ‘was motivated by’ was removed.  It has been replaced by ‘which in their view might be reasonably seen to demonstrate hostility or prejudice based on age...’.  It is unfortunate because the key thing about racism is indeed the intent or motivation of the accused.  It makes it easier to bring disciplinary charges.  The previous rule, which allowed for ‘the mere holding or expression of beliefs and opinions’ has had added to it, the words ‘except in any instance inconsistent with the Party’s aim and values, agreed codes of conduct or involving any prejudice towards any protected characteristic.’  It has the fingerprints of Shami Chakrabarti all over it as it uses the objective test of reasonableness.  However this is a far cry from the attempt to frame people for racism when they are clearly not.

Despite their bluster and spin, it is clear that the JLM has suffered a serious defeat. Their attempt to close down debate in the Labour Party about Palestine, using ‘anti-Semitism’ as the excuse, has been rebuffed.  Articles in The Canary and Skwawkbox plus the willingness of people like Chris Williamson MP to speak out turned the tide against the JLM.  What they are engaged in is face saving.  What they wanted was the automatic expulsion of anti-Zionists on the say so of Zionists who posed as ‘victims’.  

Jewish Labour Movement Original Proposed Rule Change

Add an additional sentence after the first sentence:

‘A member of the Party who uses antisemitic, Islamophobic, racist language, sentiments, stereotypes or actions in public, private, online or offline, as determined by the NEC, shall be deemed to have engaged in conduct prejudicial to the Party.’

Add at the end of the final sentence after “opinions”:

…” except in instances involving antisemitism, Islamophobia or racism”

Insert new paragraph E:

“Where a member is responsible for a hate incident, being defined as something where the victim or anyone else think it was motivated by hostility or prejudice based on disability, race, religion, transgender identity, or sexual orientation, the NEC may have the right to impose the appropriate disciplinary options from the following options: [same as D]”

see Did the Jewish Labour Movement get its way over Labour Party rule changes?