For over 40 years the Union of Jewish Students, has labelled critics of Israel ‘anti-Semites’ Last year it was Ken Loach today it is Shaima Dallali
The suspension of Shaima Dallali,
by the National Union of Students, is a shameful and cowardly response to the
attacks on a Black Muslim student leader by the apartheid supporting, Israeli funded
Union of Jewish Students.
Faced with an attack
on Shaima by the Conservative Government and the political establishment, for
example the letter signed by 21
former NUS presidents, NUS simply caved in as Islamaphobic bigots like
former Home Secretaries Jack Straw and Charles Clarke sought to oust Shaima.
After the ex-presidents’ letter, a letter in support of Dallali was
circulated which called for there to be a simultaneous NUS investigations into Islamophobia and
racism, as well as antisemitism. This was ignored.
Instead of setting up an ‘investigation’
into the bogus allegations, NUS should have gone on the offensive and called
out the hypocrisy of a government that has demonised asylum seekers and is
currently trying to send Black refugees (not white Ukrainians) to Rwanda whilst being concerned about 'antisemitism'.
Former Conservative Education Minister, the corrupt Nadhim
Zahawi, warned about allegations of “systemic antisemitism” within NUS, threatening that the government
may sever links with them. According to the Guardian
Zahawi’s intervention followed ‘concerns
raised by the Union of Jewish Students’.
Even more absurdly, James Wharton, Chair of the Office for Students, England’s higher education
regulator, also cut
off contact with NUS for ‘anti-Semitism’ in the same week as he addressed a political conference in Hungary that attracted far-right and
antisemitic speakers. Wharton publicly endorsed the re-election of the openly
anti-Semitic Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister! But then there is
‘anti-Semitism’ and ‘anti-Semitism’. Hatred of Jews is fine. Hatred of Israel and Zionism isn’t fine.
The pretext for the attack on Shaima was a tweet she made 10
years ago when 17. The comment read “Khaybar
Khaybar O Jews … Muhammad’s army will return Gaza”, referencing an assault
on Jews 1400 years ago. It is doubtful whether she even understood what this
meant. Nonetheless Shaima has apologised
for the tweet, saying she is not the same person she was then. That should be
the end of it.
But of course for UJS an apology is merely grist to the Zionist mill because
their concern is not anti-Semitism but her opposition to the fake IHRA
definition of anti-Semitism and Zionism.
As Shaima observed, the Zionist backlash against her election was part of a pattern, first seen with Malia
Bouattia, who in 2016 became the first black Muslim woman to become NUS President.
Just as with Shaima UJS began a systematic campaign of denigration against
someone who was an anti-Zionist. NUS, with all its ‘liberation strands’, has
succumbed to an identity politics that equates the identity of privileged white racist Jewish students with that of a refugee like Malia and a Black Muslim Shaima. Shaima
wrote:
“Unfortunately, as a black Muslim woman, it is
something that I expected because I’ve seen it happen to other black Muslim
women when they take up positions in the student union or the NUS, where they
are attacked based on their political beliefs or their pro-Palestinian stance.”
She
said she had received a lot of Islamaphobic, racist online abuse.
“I’ve had private messages of people calling me a
raghead, people telling me to go and kill myself, calling me a Jew hater and an
antisemite. That has been difficult to read.
“And so many threats as well – if I continue to do
this then things will happen to me. I just try to delete, to block, I try not
to let it get to my head. It’s something I receive every day and I’m continuing
to receive. It’s affected me mentally and physically. Sometimes I don’t feel
safe.”
As a result of the attacks by UJS
and others Malia Bouattia also began getting
the normal Zionist abuse, including death threats. This is the effect of UJS’s
lying allegations. UJS is a threat to the safety of Black and Muslim students
not them to Jewish students.
UJS are well aware of the effect that their scurrilous
racist campaigns have and yet they never condemn it. Indeed it almost normal
for Zionist campaigns like this to engender vile racist attacks. Only tonight
in the second episode of Al Jazeera’s The
Labour Files, we heard the voice of a Zionist in a phone message for
Jenny Manson, Jewish Voice for Labour’s Chair, telling her he wishes
that she die in a gas oven. I’ve had the same.
Prick a Zionist and you will find an anti-Semite lurking below.
During the Zionist campaign against Malia, more than
50 heads of Jewish societies across the country wrote an open letter to her
because of her anti-Zionism asking her to clarify her position on antisemitism,
including comments in an article where she described the University of
Birmingham – with its large Jewish society – as being “something of a Zionist outpost in British higher education”. This
is only anti-Semitic if you conflate Zionism and being Jewish. Malia made
it clear that:
I celebrate the ability of people and students of
all backgrounds to get together and express their backgrounds and faith openly
and positively, and will continue to do so
Despite its verbal opposition to
‘anti-Semitism’ UJS has never taken part in anti-fascist campaigns directed
against genuine anti-Semites on the far-Right. When I was on the Executive of
Anti-Fascist Action, UJS attacked AFA because it was seen as anti-Zionist. In
the 70s with the Anti-Nazi League they did exactly the same.
The Board of Deputies was even
worse. When the ANL was formed in 1977 the Board launched vehement attacks on
it, not the National Front, because of the presence of anti-Zionists in it.
Even Searchlight anti-fascist
magazine, which under the late Maurice Ludmer was scrupulous in avoiding the
question of Zionism, wrote in an editorial
In
the face of
mounting attacks against the Jewish
community both ideologically and physically, we
have the amazing sight of the Jewish Board of Deputies launching an attack on
the Anti Nazi League with all the fervour of
Kamikaze pilots... It was as though
they were watching a time capsule rerun
of the 1930's, in the form of a flickering old movie, with a grim determination to repeat every mistake of that era. [Searchlight 41, November 1978].
Zionism begins where
the fight against anti-Semitism ends. Zionism accepts the anti-Semitic argument
that Jews don’t belong living among non-Jews. In
1895, during the Dreyfus Affair, the founder of Political Zionism, Theodor Herzl
wrote in his Diaries that
In Paris... I achieved a freer attitude towards anti-Semitism, which I now began to understand historically and to pardon. Above all, I recognise the emptiness and futility of trying to 'combat' anti-Semitism.
The Zionist belief that Jews should ‘return’ to Palestine chimed
in with what the anti-Semites demanded. In a speech by Israeli Ambassador Yehuda
Avner to Conservative Friends of Israel at the 1983 Tory Party Conference, Zionism was described as a movement of
‘self-repatriation’. [JC 21.10.83]
Herzl understood this well when he wrote
in his Diaries on June 12 1895:
The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.
Today it is anti-Semites, from Christian Zionists
to Viktor Orban, Tommy Robinson and Steve Bannon who are the most ardent
Zionists. As Israeli historian, Yigal Elam wrote:
Zionism did not consider anti-Semitism an abnormal, absurd, perverse or marginal phenomenon. Zionism considered anti-Semitism a fact of nature, a standard constant, the norm in the relationship of the non-Jews to the presence of Jews in their midst… a normal, almost rational reaction of the gentiles to the abnormal, absurd and perverse situation of the Jewish people in the Diaspora. [Zionism and its Scarecrows, Khamsin 6]
UJS has a long history of attacking anti-Zionists as ‘anti-Semitic’. UJS is not a Jewish but a Zionist organisation. It is not open to anti-Zionist Jews nor would they want to be members. Section 2.1.1. of UJS’s constitution commits the organisation to:
Creating meaningful Jewish campus experiences and inspiring Jewish students to make an enduring commitment to their Jewish identity, Israel, and the community.
When Shaima was elected as NUS
President UJS got to work attacking her. In what was a repeat
of the playbook tested out during the Corbyn era, UJS spoke of attacks on the
Jewish community. And what were these attacks?
Not supporting Israel.
Shaima is just one more victim of
UJS’s witchhunting. Victims have included George Johannes of the ANC, Ken
Loach, Professor David Miller, Shahd Abusalama of Sheffield Hallam University
and Jewish opponents of Zionism, myself included, though most of their recent
victims are Black and Palestinian students.
In my blog
I described how in 1986 UJS attempted to stop me speaking at the London School
of Economics by making false accusations of, yes you’ve guessed it,
anti-Semitism! When LSE’s Labour Club investigated the allegations they were
found wanting. The Labour Club were then accused of ‘anti-Semitism’ and
‘fascism’!
UJS is affiliated to the World Zionist Organisation. The WZO is a funder and co-ordinator of the settlements in the West Bank. It even has a ‘land theft division’. Of this UJS says nothing. Indeed at no time has UJS ever criticised or condemned Israel for its flagrant breach of Palestinian human rights. Nothing perturbs it, be it torture of children, demolition of Palestine homes, imprisonment without trial. Its only concern is ‘anti-Semitism’, which it defines as opposition to Zionism.
If Jewish students in Britain were subject to a fraction of what Palestinian
students face under occupation, including invasions of campuses, beatings,
checkpoints and torture, then they would have just cause to complain of
anti-Semitism. As it is we should treat
members of UJS for what they are - spoilt White Jewish racists.
Al Jazeera’s documentary ‘The Lobby’ showed Adam Schapira, a candidate for UJS President, openly admitting that
UJS was funded by the Israeli Embassy.
From Vetting in Practice
The Experiences of Emma Clyne
Emma become Chair of the Jewish society at SOAS in 2006-7 despite not being a Zionist. Emma described the ‘intense pressure’ from UJS:
Before she became the chair of the SOAS Jewish Society, she had found it was like an Israel Society…. She took over the chair on condition that there was to be a clear distinction between the Jewish Society and the Israel Society. This led to a furious reaction from UJS which told her: “That’s not what the Jewish Society does. You can’t separate Israeli politics from Jewish identity. It is all the same.”
The antagonism reached a peak after she went to the launch of Independent Jewish Voices in 2007 and found the speakers “honest articulate and inspirational.” When she invited some of the speakers [like Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC] to a meeting at SOAS to discuss “the impact of nationalism on Jewish identity” the pressure on her increased, and she was told that UJS and the Israeli Embassy were very concerned about the meeting.
In an article for the Guardian’s Comment is Free [before anti-Zionists were banned] I described what happened next:
According to... Emma Clyne, posters for a meeting the society put on were repeatedly torn down. Ms Clyne told a meeting of Independent Jewish Voices on May 15 that she had to put new ones up every day.
A clue as to the reason for its silence might lie in an article in the Jewish Chronicle of April 27 ("Students in censorship row over IJV debate").
From Vetting in Practice
The then Chair of UJS, Mitch Simmons, stated
‘"It is the view of the
UJS that certain views are not acceptable under free speech."
Netanyahu's comments are clearly racist and they describe Israel as it is. Yet to call it racist is 'antisemitic' according to the IHRA even though it is true!
Imagine if a White South African student group had described certain views opposing Apartheid as ‘not acceptable’. Yet NUS Executive has granted UJS their wishes. All of course under the guise of defending poor Jewish students who are too fragile to withstand criticism of their favourite racist state.
In Vetting
in Practice I described UJS as
“an organisation whose primary purpose is defence of
Israel, right or wrong. It has consistently sought to portray opponents,
especially Jewish anti-Zionists, as anti-semites. That is why it receives,
according to the Jewish Chronicle (May 11) hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Silencing opponents of Zionism and supporters of the
Palestinians is its stock-in-trade. I have personally spoken on most major
university campuses in Britain and I cannot remember an occasion when the UJS
didn't try to prevent the meeting going ahead.
Ken Loach
Another target of UJS was the veteran left-wing film-maker, Ken Loach. He was invited by his alma mater, St. Peter’s College, Oxford
to speak. All hell broke out and UJS was at the centre of this McCarthyist
witchhunt. Loach was accused of
‘anti-Semitism’ although no one seemed able to produce a single statement of
his that was anti-Semitic.
UJS does its best to have Ken Loach banned - they failed
Oxford
J-Soc tweeted:
“Oxford University Jewish Society is deeply disappointed by the decision of Professor Judith Buchanan, Master of St Peter’s College, to host an event with filmmaker Ken Loach. On numerous occasions, Loach has made remarks that are antisemitic under the IHRA definition,
Calling Israel a racist state, or saying you don’t
believe in a Jewish state or comparing Zionism to Nazism is ‘anti-Semitic’
under the IHRA. That’s why the Zionists fought so hard to have it adopted. The IHRA conflates anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism.
Its sole concern is with anti-Zionism not the genuine anti-Semitism of the
far-Right.
UJS issued
a statement along similar lines:
St Peter’s College, University of Oxford, should not
be platforming a person who has repeatedly been accused of and has been an
apologist for antisemitism.
Strangely enough neither group quoted what Loach had
actually said. For UJS it’s enough to be accused of anti-Semitism to be
guilty. And what does an ‘apologist for
anti-Semitism’ mean? Again no quotes.
The President of the Board of Deputies Marie van der Zyl issued
a statement telling Professor Judith Buchanan, Master of St Peter’s College
that
‘the decision to invite him [Loach] to speak at the college [was]
‘entirely unacceptable’ and calling for the event to be cancelled. That an
Oxford college would not conduct its due diligence and allow Ken Loach to
address students is entirely unacceptable. Higher education institutions have a
duty of care to their students
Let us dissect that.
By inviting Ken Loach, an 85 year old man, to address a group of
students these poor Jewish snowflakes might suffer irreparable harm! It’s as if words don’t mean anything to these
died-in-the-wool racists.
What was Ken Loach’s real offence? That he produced the play Perdition 35 years
ago. The play was a fictional account of the Kasztner trial in Israel
which the Zionists never refer to today.
Kasztner was the leader of Hungarian Zionism.
The Jerusalem District Court upheld the allegations of collaboration against
him. In the words of Judge Benjamin Halevi, Kasztner ‘sold his soul to Satan.’
Although the conviction was overturned 4-1 by the Supreme Court this was
patently political and used dubious legal technicalities.
In fact on one charge of collaboration, giving testimony at
Nuremberg in support of a Nazi war criminal, Kurt Becher, the allegation of collaboration was upheld by the
Supreme Court. The Court didn’t know that Kasztner had also given testimony in
support of Eichmann’s deputy, Hermann Krumey and another mass murderer Dieter
Wisliceny. Krumey lived out his life in Germany, until Rudolf Vrba gave
evidence against him. Wisliceny was
executed by the Czechs. See “Anti-Semitism”
accusations used in attempt to prevent Ken Loach speaking at Oxford University
The Kasztner trial is covered in my forthcoming book Zionism During the Holocaust. Kasztner made an agreement with Eichmann for 600, increased to 1,684, of the Zionist and Jewish elite escaping deportation in a train out of Hungary.
In return Kasztner suppressed the
Auschwitz Protocols, which 2 escapees from Auschwitz, Vrba and Wetzler had
written exposing Auschwitz as an extermination camp.
The result was that Hungarian Jewry were kept in the dark as to
where they were being ‘resettled’ and were told by Kasztner’s Zionist friends,
that they were merely being taken to a safer place in Hungary.
It is to be hoped that after the investigation concludes that
NUS will defend its President Shaima Dallali against any further attacks by
racists, UJS included.
