Looking Back at 2024 - Some Of The Interviews I Gave & the Speeches I Made

 For those who don’t like to compare Israel & Nazi Germany my message is ‘Compare, Compare, Compare’ – At A Time Of Extermination it's Important to Understand Just What Kind of State Israel Is

Demonstration Outside Westminster Magistrates Court

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv2lxMBpW-0&t=235s

Crispin Flintoff & Tony Greenstein Outside Westminster Magistrates Court

2024 has been a very busy year for me and below are some of the things that I did.  I had a tour of Scotland and speaking engagements in Ireland and the Netherlands as well as speaking at demonstrations in Glasgow, Liverpool and my home town Brighton.

I continued to promote my book which came out at the end of 2022. Quite remarkably sales were higher by far in the first half of 2024 than in the first half of 2023. You don’t get to learn of the sales figures until about 3 months after the end of the half year but I expect they will have increased again.

I did a wide range of interviews and talks, only some of which are below with audiences in the United States, South Africa and Australia. The theme of my book can be summed up in that Jewish Chronicle headline ‘Infamous anti-Israel activist Tony Greenstein called Jewish state 'Hitler's bastard offspring’. Israel has demonstrated that the only thing it learnt from Nazi Germany was how to emulate them.

On 21^st December Katie Halper and I finally managed to arrange an interview. Katie was a stand-up comedian before taking to podcasts and political commentary. She runs her own Katie Halper Show and is co-host of the podcast Useful Idiots with Aaron Maté.

Katie was a very challenging interviewer and I was pleased with the outcome. Recorded separately were interviews with Jenny Manson, the co-chair of Jewish Voices for Labour and Rabbi Herschel Gluck.

On November 7 I was invited to Cork in Ireland to speak. The atmosphere in Ireland is totally different from that in Britain where the State is breathing down our necks and harassing our marches. Ireland doesn’t have a genocidal supporting government supplying Israel with more weaponry to murder civilians and destroy hospitals.

I spoke in a hotel on the evening of the November 7 and the room was packed and I nearly sold out of books. At the end of the meeting I was taken aback when I was given a standing ovation. It shows the enthusiasm and solidarity of the Irish with the Palestinians.

On the Friday night I spoke at a bar in a small town in West Cork, Skibbereen. I’d never heard of the place before but again the room was packed to the rafters. The following day I took part in a march in the town and afterwards spoke at the rally.

This was in the middle of the Irish General Election. There were sarcastic comments about the Social Democrats taking part in the march having never done previously! The experience of British colonialism has ensured that the Irish understand what is happening and it is no surprise that Israel has closed its Embassy in Ireland.

My relationship with Electronic Intifada has been for over 15 years. It has been a very productive and comradely one. EI first asked me to write an article Histadrut: Israel's racist "trade union" in March 2009. I have since written a number of articles. Their podcast How Zionists collaborated with the Nazis, in conversation with Tony Greenstein has gained over 320K views and is one of their most highly viewed. Asa Winstanley also reviewed my book under the title How Zionism helped the Nazis perpetrate the Holocaust.

Asa himself has recently written the most comprehensive account of anyone of the anti-Semitism smear campaign under Jeremy Corbyn, Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn.

I was therefore pleased to be invited to an interview with EI on my birthday, 30 December! It was a very useful and productive interview. Electronic Intifada is the premiere Palestine Solidarity website. Having written for many papers, journals and sites I have to say that no one gives you such a hard time as EI! They check virtually every word and quote to see that you can back it up.  Nothing escapes the scrutiny of their fact checkers. Would that the British tabloids or Elon Musk had to undergo the same level of scrutiny!

Another interview, in fact two interviews was with Rania Khalek, a young Lebanese woman who runs Breakthrough News. Rania is a feisty interviewer who clearly feels the pain of what has happened in Lebanon with Israel’s savage bombing of its civilian population.

Rania first interviewed me in Budapest on 10 April, where I had gone for dental implant surgery.  However the Internet connection was not good and my computer had problems so we completed the interview on 15 April back in Brighton. This is the full interview and this is the cut down version.

 

On 14 June Rania interviewed me about my book and this time it was completed in one session. I found it a fascinating interview and thanks to Rania for the time she took over this. Subsequently Rania was invited to speak at a meeting of the Socialist Labour Network and Jewish Network for Palestine on a Jewish or a Democratic State and on January 27 she will speak at our Holocaust Memorial Day meeting. You can go here for the full length interview.

I have never been attracted to the idea of an autobiography or even a biography. Life is too short to waste time describing what you have done with your life and its bound to be partial and self-exculpatory. However I was happy to work with Helen Aksentijevic to produce a short, half hour film summarising some of the things I’ve tried to do.

Helen has produced similar films on other Jewish anti-Zionist  such as Moshe Machover, Haim Bresheeth and Sabby Sagall so I was very flattered to be asked.

Tony Greenstein - An Ordinary Rebel plus Question & Answer Session at the P21

At the end of October I was invited to the wedding of an old friend, a long standing Palestine solidarity activist, Susan  Blackwell.  She lives in the Netherlands and so I said that I would be happy to do a meeting whilst there.

Sue got in touch with students at the main technical university in the Netherlands, Delft University, and I was invited to speak to a meeting. The only problem was that the university, which was happy to invite Admiral Ellis, a representative of US arms company Lockheed Martin to campus and a ghoul of many US wars, they didn’t want me to speak because I might hurt the feelings of those students who supported the genocide in Gaza.

Of course when you contrast the hurt feelings of Zionists with the dead bodies of Palestinian children there is no contest.  So I wrote to the Rector His Magnificus (yes that’s his title) Timothy van der Hagen suggesting that freedom of speech is worth preserving. After all Hagen had written on the university website that

‘The most important task of TU Delft is to make a contribution towards building a better society’.

Yet Magnificus Hagen’s idea of a better society and mine were not the same. Hagen is just another ruling class hypocrite.

However the students had other ideas. Although I was banned from campus I turned up anyway and with just 2 hours notice over 100 students gathered to listen to me on the steps of the library. Not only had the stupid Magnificus built my meeting for me but by his own actions he had ensured that my message went out to thousands.

The Rector of Delft University - the Magnificus Timothy van der Hagen

The security, although watching, did not intervene.  A magnificus victory! I did write to Magnificus Hagen afterwards but he seems to be a man of few words and even fewer thoughts!

Tony Greenstein's Speech at Delft University Which the Administration Tried to Ban

As readers of this blog will know I was arrested a year ago on ‘terrorism’ charges and my last court appearance was on 19 December at Westminster magistrates court. There was a demonstration outside and I will be next appearing at the Old Bailey on 31 January where I hope people will also demonstrate their opposition to the use of terrorism legislation to silence Palestine solidarity activists.

Tony Greenstein's speech outside Westminster Magistrates Court

On the 4 August  I came back from my holiday in the Outer Hebrides and stopped off in Liverpool, where I spent my childhood, to speak to the Palestine demonstration outside the Roman Catholic Cathedral. I always enjoy going back to Liverpool with its magnificent waterfront and city buildings.

On 3 December I spoke on behalf of Jewish Network for Palestine at a seminar organised by the Open University Palestine group. Other speakers were Tony Lerman, an expert in anti-Semitism and former Director of the Institute of Jewish Policy Research, Barnaby Raine, a Ph D student and young firebrand and Michael Richmond who spoke about philosemitism, the other side of the anti-Semitism coin. The title was ‘How anti-Semitism has complemented Zionism’.

How antisemitism has complemented Zionism – Tony Greenstein

(for the full video go to here)

The JNP and SLN organised a seminar on the 12 November in the wake of my review of Jonathan Freedland’s dishonest biography of Rudolf Vrba, The Escape Artist, about the anti-Zionist Jewish hero who escaped, with Alfred Wetzler, from Auschwitz in order to warn Hungarian Jews of preparations being made to exterminate them.

Speakers included Stephen Kapos, a survivor of the Hungarian holocaust, Haim Bresheeth, an anti-Zionist Israeli and member of JNP and Tom Suarez, author Palestine Hijacked and State of Terror. Below is my contribution. A comprehensive website on Vrba has been set up by Alan Twigg, a journalist who knew him.

Zionism & the Holocaust – Tony Greenstein

The Complete Seminar – Rewriting the Holocaust

To commemorate the one year anniversary of October 7, the SLN and JNP organised a seminar to discuss the Gaza holocaust. Speakers included Ghada Karmi, a refugee from 1948, Rania Khalek, Haim Bresheeth and myself. Below is my speech but people can go to the SLN’s Youtube channel to listen to the complete seminar, ‘A Jewish State or a Democratic State’. Most most people agree that it was an extremely good seminar and I highly recommend listening to the whole seminar as I do the previous one on Vrba.

For One Democratic State

In the wake of Starmer’s election, the SLN organised a star studded panel including myself! Speakers included Ian Hodson, General Secretary of the Bakers Union,  Graham Bash – founding editor of National Labour Briefing, David Miller – who was sacked for his anti-Zionist views by Bristol University and who later won a landmark employment tribunal, Chris Williamson, the former Labour MP who was forced out of the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn and Crispin Flintoff, presenter of the Not the Andrew Marr show and latterly the Crispin Flintoff show which has a regular attendance of 500 every Sunday morning. You can hear the full video on the SLN Youtube channel here.

SLN Tony Greenstein – Where to for the Left 12 07 24

Every year for the past 2 years the SLN and the JNP have organised a meeting on Holocaust Memorial Day, January 27. As the Zionists weaponise the holocaust we have to be prepared to stand up and say ‘Never Again Means Never Again for Everyone’. For the Zionists of course, Never Again means never again only for Jews, or the right kind of Jew.

On January 27 2024 we had an excellent line up including Professor Ilan Pappe, Ghada Karmi, Ronnie Kasrills – the former head of Umkonte We Sizwe, the ANC’s military wing as well as former South African Police Minister , Stephen Kapos – a child holocaust survivor from Budapest, Suzanne Weiss – a child survivor from France and myself. Again a remarkable meeting. For the full meeting go here or here.

When Israel had been a month into the genocide in Gaza the JNP and SLN organised a webinar on the theme of stopping Israel’s onslaught. Speakers included Huda Ammori from Palestine Action, Asa Winstanley of Electronic Intifada, Stephen Kapos, Ronnie Barkan – an Israeli anti-Zionist activist and Tony Greenstein. You can watch the complete video here.

Stop the Genocide in Gaza 10.11.23

Last January I undertook a tour of Scotland at the invitation of Scottish PSC. I spoke in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee. I also spoke at a large demonstration in Glasgow city centre.

Tony Greenstein speaking at Palestine Demonstration in Glasgow January 6 2024

Two months later I was back in Glasgow. It was March 16, UN Anti-Racism Day and the SWP’s  Stand Up to Racism were also holding a march. On the tiny SUTR march was none other than Glasgow Friends of Israel. Ever since 2017 the SWP/SUTR have insisted on marching with Zionists against racism! It’s like campaigning against rape alongside rapists.

This has been the subject of heated controversy in Scotland and the Police were always willing to lend a helping hand to ensure that the Zionists could march. This year, at a time of genocide in Palestine, the SWP’s decision to march with Zionists was particularly disgraceful.

Tony Greenstein speaking at the Anti-Racism Demonstration in Glasgow March 16 2024

On October 4^th, the 88^th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, when the Police unsuccessfully tried to batter a way through the East End of London for the British Union of Fascists. The same Metropolitan Police arrested me after a picket of racist Israeli Ambassador Tzipi Hotoveli for comparing Israel’s genocide in Gaza to the Nazi holocaust. Their pretext was that I had committed a ‘racially aggravated offence’ under the Public Order Act. After being held for 7 hours I was released from  Holborn Police Station. A few weeks later I was informed that I would not be charged with any offence.  This is the speech that so annoyed the Met!

Tony Greenstein Speech Which Led to his Arrrest at Picket of Tzipi Hotoveli 4 Oct 2024

At 8 a.m. on the 26 November 2024 I gave a talk to listeners in Australia about my book, Zionism During the Holocaust. It was 7 pm there!

In this interview with Crispin Flintoff I tried to explain why people believe I’m outspoken and what motivates me

Interview Tony Greenstein on the Crispin Flintoff Show - Why I'm Outspoken

On 23 November 2023 I spoke to a meeting of the Labour Left Alliance in the wake of October 7. There was then an extensive Question & Answer session.

LLA meeting 23 November 2023

On 15 November I spoke at a demonstration organised by the Trades Council outside Hove Town Hall

And finally the one time I appeared on Question Time at Sussex University’s Gardener Centre. It was when Norman Tebbit, the Chingford skinhead was on the panel. I spoke from the audience attacking him for his racist cricket test directed against immigrants from the Indian sub-continent. Also on the panel was Clare Short. Peter Sissons was in the Chair. I don’t think I would have got away with it with today’s far-right Fiona Bruce!

Tony Greenstein on Question Time

Open Letter to an Academic War Criminal – Timothy van der Hagen, President & Rector Magnificus of Delft University, Netherlands

 When you banned me from speaking at Delft what you were doing was perpetuating the myth that Jews support Genocide in Gaza –that is anti-Semitic – Jews are not your moral alibi or your colonial pets

Nazi Propaganda Portrayed Jewish Men as Sexual Predators - Zionist Students Have been Allowed to do the  same at Delft - on the grounds of 'freedom of speech' unlike anti-Zionism

When the authorities at Delft University banned me from speaking on 28 October, I wrote an Open Letter to its Rector, Professor Timothy van der Hagen. Because the silent Rector, like the silent intellectual, has chosen not to say anything, I thought I would help him with a second letter.

Meanwhile students at Delft have produced this wonderful Instagram Video highlighting sections of my speech.

The Curt Memo Banning My Meeting

As people will know from my previous blog I defied the ban and spoke on campus anyway to an audience of 100. Given that they literally had a few hours notice, the attendance was remarkable. Delft authorities did not seem inclined to disgrace themselves any further, having behaved as if they were a police-state university, and left us alone. I can only assume that they realised that banning free speech is the hallmark of a university under fascism.

When the Zionist Student Association showed a film Screams of Silence which falsely alleged that the Palestinian resistance on October 7 had indulged in a mass orgy of rape, despite the lack of any evidence, Delft authorities defended its showing on the grounds of ‘freedom of expression’.

However the right of Palestinian students to invite a Jewish anti-Zionist did not come under freedom of expression. The reason given was that

The views of the invited speaker goes against the values that TU Delft stands for: an open and inclusive community where everyone feels safe.

It’s strange how some views are deemed a threat to people’s ‘safety’ whereas others come under the rubric of ‘freedom of speech’ I am sure Professor van der Hagen will be more than able to demonstrate  his talent for verbal gymnastics when explaining the differential treatment of Zionists and anti-Zionists.

Israel is destroying every hospital in Northern Gaza and Starving the Population Just Like the Nazis did in the Ghettos of Poland

Perhaps the real reason for my ban was Delft not wanting their ties with the Israeli universities and the military-industrial complex that is engaged in genocide to be questioned or held up to scrutiny.

Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda against Jews is similar to that of Zionist students exercising 'free speech' at Delft

One can only conclude from this that the safety of Palestinian and Muslim students is of no concern to this racist university. Allegations of rape have been the standard weapon of white and anti-Jewish racists historically – it was the justification for lynching and murder and the demonization of Jewish men in Nazi Germany.

To Professor Van der Hagen racist incitement, because that is what the film is really about, is covered by free speech but allowing a Jewish opponent of Zionism threatens peoples’ safety. The hypocrisy of this genocide complicit university is there for all to see.

Even the Nazis left the Jewish Hospital in Berlin alone and it survived until Berlin was liberated in May 1945 - not so in Gaza where Israel is destroying the health sector

The justification of a Zionist student Bensignor for showing the film was that “when women say that they’re raped, I believe them.” So does he believe the hundreds of Palestinian women raped by the Israeli military? Or the victims of mass torture? Or is it only some victims that he believes?

But it wasn’t women who made the accusations of rape. It was Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli propaganda, for the sole reason of justifying genocide in Gaza. Any ‘witnesses’ subsequently corralled can be treated with a pinch of salt. There are no victims and there is no forensic evidence. The New York Times article on which this film is based Screams Without Words has been widely discredited. The main victim’s family, Gail Abdush denied she had been raped.

I have therefore penned a second letter to Rector Magnificus as he likes to be called.  Let us see whether or not he will behave like his 1940 pro-Nazi counterpart and keep his silence.

Tony Greenstein

Victory For Free Speech on Palestine & Zionism at Delft University, Netherlands as I defied the ban on speaking on campus

  According to Rector Professor Timothy van der Hagen’s Lackey I Posed a Threat to Delft’s ‘open and inclusive’ community unlike Lockheed Martin’s Admiral James O Ellis

The Student Magazine at Delft's Report of My Visit!

The Rector’s anonymous lackey was curt, short and to the point

‘The views of the invited speaker goes against the values that TU Delft stands for: an open and inclusive community where everyone feels safe.’

There was of course no explanation. The Rector’s lackey merely referred to the guidelines for demonstrations on the TU Delft Campus and the Code of Conduct. ‘gatherings on the TU Delft premises in which these values are violated are not permitted.’

Tony Greenstein speaking on the steps of the library at Delft University

There was of course no explanation as to which parts of the Code had been infringed nor why. This is how bureaucracies work. I was banned for being a Jewish anti-Zionist. We could of course guess that my presence was as welcome at a university liked Delft as a ham sandwich in a synagogue! But this is mere speculation.

Admiral James O Ellis, a warmonger extraordinaire is welcomed to Delft by its Administration

Two weeks before I spoke Admiral James O Ellis, who was on the Board of Lockheed Martin (2004-2024) was invited to speak at Delft. Lockheed Martin is one of the largest arms companies in the world, whose fighter aircraft have been prominent in the shredding of children in Gaza and in committing genocide.

Tony Greenstein speaking on the steps of the library at Delft University

Ellis was also President and CEO of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations until May 2012 and Commander of the US Strategic Command. One of the key ghouls in the US Empire, which has been responsible for the overthrow of elected governments and the invasion of countries, as well as the waging of war in the Middle East.

Tony Greenstein speaking on the steps of the library at Delft University

Ellis was considered a suitable speaker whose presence was quite compatible with the ‘values’ of their code of conduct. Clearly the code of conduct which I was held to be in potential breach of had nothing to say about warmongers and supporters of genocide.

Tony Greenstein speaking on the steps of the library at Delft University

I was only travelling to The Netherlands because an old friend, Sue Blackwell, who had been prominent in the launch of the Academic Boycott in Britain in 2005, was getting married to Egbert Harmsen. Both are involved in The Netherlands BDS. I let it be known that I was happy to speak to meetings while I was there and one was arranged at Delft University of Technology, the largest technical university in the country, ranked no. 49 in the world’s rankings.

Activists in the Palestine Collective at Delft therefore faced a dilemma, whether or not to go ahead. Understandably some were worried about attempts to victimise them but in the end it was decided that I would speak on the steps of their impressive library and that is what I did to a crowd of about 100 students.

Tony Greenstein speaking on the steps of the library at Delft University

In his profile the Rector of Delft, Professor van Der Hagen, stated:

The most important task of TU Delft is to make a contribution towards building a better society.

I felt sure that despite being professor nuclear physics he had a broad mind and would countermand his flunkeys.  It was not to be.

When I learnt that I was banned from speaking I decided to write Hagen an Open Letter which students distributed around campus. I’ve always believed in going to the organ grinder rather than the monkey.

I explained that there was a genocide taking place in Gaza with the murder of 16,000+ children about which Israeli soldiers have boasted. I also explained that the Netherlands has a long history of colonial war crimes and in banning speakers exposing Israel’s war crimes, in which his university is intimately involved, given its collaboration with Israeli universities, he wasn’t setting a good precedent.

I pointed out that I had recently brought out a book Zionism During the Holocaust which explains the relationship of the Zionist movement towards anti-Semitism and the Nazis during the holocaust.

It is this which Delft’s thought police are trying to suppress. Genocide in Gaza does not come from nowhere. Zionism has always been a movement of racial supremacy.

I pointed out that my book carries blurbs from Ilan Pappe, Professor of Middle East History at Exeter University; Richard Falk Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and Professor of Global Law at Queen Mary College, London; Moshe Machover, Emeritus Professor at King’s College, London as well as Ken Loach, twice winner of the Palme d’Or. All the aforementioned academics are Jewish and two of them are Israeli.

I felt sure that the good professor would take note and rescind my banning. I also pointed out that famous Jews such as Einstein, Hannah Arendt and Sigmund Freud had opposed the nationalist madness of Zionism in their time and warned of the consequences.

Tony Greenstein speaking on the steps of the library at Delft University

I also pointed out that contrary to the usual jibe of ‘anti-Semitism’ which is directed against opponents of Zionism, it is the anti-Semites themselves who are the best friends of Zionism. Indeed it was leading Nazis who were most fulsome in support of Zionism, because they both shared the belief that Jews did not belong in Germany. I quoted Alfred Rosenberg, the Nazi Party’s theoretician, who was hanged as a war criminal at Nuremberg, who wrote in 1919 that

‘Zionism must be vigorously supported in order to encourage a significant number of German Jews to leave for Palestine or other destinations’

Mientje Meijer - the leader of the sewing girls strike

I pointed out that in Netherlands during the Nazi occupation, 75% of the Jewish population was exterminated. This was despite the fact that in February 1941 Dutch workers staged the Amsterdam General Strike, the only strike in Nazi occupied Europe against the deportations. The working class of The Netherlands was magnificent but not so the Dutch state. The strike was savagely repressed with 389 being deported to Mauthausen concentration camp where most died.

Dutch Nazi Collaborators from the NSB

The Dutch state, the Blue Police and its academic functionaries, collaborated extensively with the Nazi occupiers. The Dutch civil service produced an identity card which was almost impossible to forge making the life of Jews in hiding extremely difficult.  The Dutch State adopted the Aryan Paragraph which deprived Dutch Jews of citizenship and allowed the deportations to be legally carried out. Jewish Supreme Court judge Lodewijk Visser was removed without protest from fellow judges from the Court by the Nazis.

In The Netherlands the Nazis set up a Jewish Council, the Joodsche Raad, under David Cohen, a leading Zionist official and Abraham Asscher. They assiduously compiled lists on Jews to be deported and carried out the Nazi instructions faithfully.

After the war Willy Lages, Commander of the German Security Police, was asked ‘How was the Jewish Council used?’ to which he replied, ‘In every possible way.’ To the question ‘Did you find them easy to work with?’ he responded, ‘Very easy, indeed.’

By way of contrast in France, where the Communists led the resistance and organised the rescue of Jewish children in particular, 75% of the Jews were saved. In Belgium half the Jews were saved. In both of these countries the Judenrat were forcibly prevented from operating and in Belgium its leader Robert Holcinger was executed by the resistance. Tragically the Joodsche Raad was not terrorised.

The Rector of Delft Professor Timothy van der Hagen 

I explained all this to Rector van der Hagen but to no avail. I pointed out that his own University, Delft had a magnificent record.

Its students were the first to protest and strike on 25 November 1940 against the Nazi order 1940 barring the employment of 6 Jewish professors. When Professor Joseph Jitta was barred from giving his final lecture, the students decided to boycott his replacement. But as this report explains

‘While the Rector tried to prevent the strike the next day, the lecture hall seats on 25 November were virtually empty.’

It seems that the current Rector at Delft has a predecessor who did everything in his power to prevent solidarity by the students with a Jewish professor. The parallels go even further. His worthy predecessor did all he could to bar Jews from Delft’s campus and Prof. Hagan has approved the banning of a Jewish anti-Zionist. 

A plaque to Frans van Hasselt, a Delft student murdered by the Nazis in Buchenwald - the present Rector has ignored the history of the anti-Nazi struggle at Delft in favour of wining and dining arms merchants

Most Jews in Europe before the holocaust were anti-Zionist. One of the reasons that the Zionists say little about Anne Frank is because in her diaries she didn’t dream of going to Palestine but living in a free Netherlands.

One of the University’s students, Frans van Hasselt, who inspired the strike with a rousing speech, was arrested by the Nazis the following April. He was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp where he died.

Dutch fascist leader Geert Wilders is welcome at Delft

I also asked Van Der Hagen whether in view of the ban on me he would also ban Geert Wilders from campus. But I guess not as it would appear that it is only Jewish anti-Zionists and supporters of the Palestinians, not fascists who are banned.

I also explained to Professor Hagen that the Nazis began with ethnic cleansing and ended with genocide and that is now the path that the Israeli state is taking with the complicity of the Dutch State.

I quoted Heinrich Heine who once remarked that ‘those who burn books will in the end burn people.’ It turned out to be prophetic and I offered to send him a copy of my book in order that he might have the opportunity of burning it.

I ended my letter by thanking Rector Magnificus Van der Hagen for what he and his flunkeys had done.

If I had been allowed to speak on campus perhaps 50 people would have heard me. As a result of your actions hundreds if not thousands will.

On Monday morning I arrived early on campus to meet with the organisers and have lunch. At close to 1 pm the meeting began on the steps of the library since we had been barred from any meeting rooms. About 100 students stopped to listen to this hastily organised meeting, literally at one day’s notice. I was introduced by Sue Blackwell who also finished the meeting. I took questions from anyone who wanted to ask one. Unfortunately so far only half an hour of the meeting has been caught on film though more may be available later on.

Tony Greenstein speaking from the steps of Delf's library

I also sold over 20 of my books to students who were interested in learning the history of the holocaust that is not taught in the Dutch or Western education systems. How the Zionists, who never hesistate to use the Jewish holocaust against the Palestinians and their supporters, were a quisling movement who betrayed the Jews of Europe.

I ended my speech to the students by saying that although Israel claims it inherits the memory of the Jews who died in the holocaust in reality it inherits the memory of those who killed them. That today, just as in the past, it is the anti-Semites above all who love Israel – from Geert Wilders in The Netherlands, to Marine Le Pen in France to Germany’s Alternative for Germany.

After the meeting two Jewish Zionist students came up to me. They didn’t seem particularly afraid for their safety and asked me the usual Zionist talking points – why there were no Arab democracies and about the collaboration of the Mufti of Jerusalem with Hitler.  My response was simply that US imperialism which backs Israel has done its best to ensure that democracy doesn’t exist in the Middle East as their main interest is oil. Israel has helped them in that task. As for the Mufti, well he was appointed by Britain’s Zionist High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel in 1921 despite coming fourth in elections.

It wasn’t the Palestinians who elected him but the British and the Zionists! Nonetheless it was a common feature of the struggle against colonialism that the resistance adopts the position of ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ although in fact thousands of Palestinians did serve in the British army during the war, unlike the Zionists who until near the end abstained from the war effort.

I also asked how it was that the Zionist terror organisation, the Stern Gang made not one, but two offers of military co-operation to the Nazis?  One of their leaders, Yitzhak Shamir twice became Prime Minister of Israel and today the pro-Nazi leader, Yair Stern, is honoured in Israel. Postage stamps in his honour, streets are named after him.  There is even a town, Kochav Yair.

However this meeting was important because it said that come hell or high water we will not allow the Dutch state and its academic servants, who collaborated so willingly with the Nazis during the war, to prevent our right to speak out. I have made it clear that I am happy to come back and speak if the students wish me to and to speak at other universities in The Netherlands too.

What the determination of the students at Delft proved was that the enemies of free speech on Palestine will back off when they are confronted because they have no arguments. They refer to codes of conduct and peoples’ safety all the while entertaining US Generals and Admirals and others who profit from death and destruction.  Our message should be that

The racists and the imperialists  will not silence us

My thanks go out to the students at Delft University and all those who helped make this meeting a success.  Now let Professor van der Hagen live up to his words about making the world a better place by cutting his ties with Israel’s complicit universities and its military-industrial complex.  Actions speak louder than words.

Tony Greenstein