Zionists Openly Admit to trying to Disrupt Public Meetings on Palestine as the Attempt to Prevent Haneen Zoabi Speaking at SOAS Fails

Jonathan Hoffman and his Zionist thugs tell a Jewish Holocaust Survivor that she is a ‘disgrace’ for opposing racism and Zionism

On Friday evening there was an attempt by a group of fascist Zionists, led by the notorious Jonathan Hoffman, who was convicted of various public order offences last summer in connection with an assault on a Palestinian woman at a demonstration outside Puma. This time Hoffman’s mission was to attempt to disrupt and prevent the brave former member of Israel’s Knesset, Haneen Zoabi from speaking.

Hoffman is well-known for working with Fascists and Anti-Semites - Just So Long as They Support Zionism and Israel

Jonathan Hoffman with Gemma Sheridan of the JDL in the middle and Paul Besser in the blue cap of Britain First on the right - they were protesting about 'antisemitism'!

Hoffman with Harvey Garfield (left) and Roberta Moore (middle) of the Jewish Defence League - The EDL are in military fatigues to the rear - 'protecting' the Ahava shop from Palestinian demonstrators - we nonetheless succeeded in closing it down!

Hoffman should know that Haneen has faced far more serious attempts by the Zionist regime and its military to stop Haneen speaking and organising. Zionism’s pale imitations of Oswald Moseley were nothing more than a mild nuisance. What is interesting though is the rationale and ‘logic’ behind Hoffman and friends.

Hoffman and fellow fascists openly boast that 'we disrupted this vile meeting'  

According to Hoffman’s blog, laughingly titled Thrown out at SOAS for telling the truth, he is entitled to disrupt or prevent any meeting that he classifies as ‘anti-Semitic’. What was the truth he told? That it was all ‘lies’. That was his sole rationale.

Anti-Semitism according to Hoffie is anyone who supports the Palestinians or who opposes Zionism, because in his world view, anti-Zionism = anti-Semitism.  Thus he calls SOAS, a multi-national institution, the pride of London University, an ‘anti-Semitic sewer.’ According to Hoffman ‘Calling Israel an Apartheid State is anti-semitic.’ Which logically means that telling the truth is anti-Semitic. In which case the anti-Semites are right after all! This is how Zionism ends up justifying and supporting anti-Semitism.

The Failure by SOAS Centre for Palestine Studies to Take Security Precautions is Totally Unacceptable

Haneen Zoabi was the most reviled and detested Arab member of the Knesset. She has, as you can see in these FB posts, been called a 'terrorist' on innumerable occasions. It is quite possible for some deranged lunatic like Hoffman to make an attempt of her life.

The failure to provide strict security is lamentable and I shall be writing to them. It is utterly unacceptable.

I have carefully documented the activities of these people, including providing names and photographs. Hoffman and co. have complained bitterly, including trying to hold me responsible for the suicide of one of their number! I have shown how Hoffman has continually and regularly consorted with a variety of fascists from the EDL to Britain First and Tommy Robinson. I have shown how the Board of Deputies has been happy to demonstrate alongside the Jewish Nazi Jewish Defence League and Tommy Robinson supporters.

Where this information has been used, Hoffman and friends have been left kicking their heels outside the meetings they hoped to disrupt. It is therefore extremely disappointing that the Centre for Palestine Studies at SOAS did not avail themselves of this information. Despite saying that ID was required there was no attempt to do this on the night. The lack of security was not only depressing but it gives encouragement to these thugs.  I hope that SOAS’s Centre for Palestine Studies takes note because you are making things difficult for other meetings and organisations. Your decision to have no security on the night was highly irresponsible.

Here are just some of the posts I have done in the past few years:

EXCLUSIVE – Lifting the lid on EXCLUSIVE – We Name the Gang of Zionists Whose Purpose is to Disrupt Palestinian Events in London Collaboration between the Far Right and Zionist Activists 25 August 2017

EXCLUSIVE - Board of Deputies and Zionist Federation Hold Joint Demonstration with Fascistsb 10 January 2017

9 December 2017

Jonathan Hoffman’s Gang of Zionist Fascists Blame Anyone but themselves for the Suicide of their friend Jason Silver 15 February 2018

EXCLUSIVE - The Lies of David Collier (Gnasher Jew) and his Dodgy Dossiers 11 March 2018

EXCLUSIVE: David Collier – the ‘Independent Researcher’ who accused Corbyn of anti-Semitism keeps company with White Supremacists, Neo-Nazis and Islamophobes 21^st March 2018

The Zionist – Fascist Alliance was Consummated at the Al Quds Demonstration 11 June 2018

EXCLUSIVE: More Revelations about Zionism’s Fascist Wing 3 August 2018

Exclusive – Leader of the Confederation of Scottish Friends of Israel, Nigel Goodrich is a member of a Secret Fascist Facebook Group, the Jewish Defence Forces 13 March 2019

EXCLUSIVE - MICHAEL ENGLISH, CLOSE ASSOCIATE OF JONATHAN HOFFMAN VISITED BY MANCHESTER COUNTER-TERRORISM POLICE . 20 May 2019

Al Quds Demonstration Sees the Zionist Federation and the Board of Deputies Join Hands with the Far Right 4 June 2019

Hoffman effortlessly gives his far-Right connections away when he tells us that Haneen Zoabi ‘is not even supported by many Arabs in Israel.’ He quotes Arab Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh who wrote an article Israel's Arabs: A Tale of Betrayal which informs readers that

‘some of the Israeli Arab community's elected representatives and leaders have worked harder for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip than for their own Israeli constituents.’

Divide and Rule is an old trick of racists and imperialists. Who is Khaled Abu Toameh? A writer for the right-wing Zionist Jerusalem Post. And where did the article appear? On the web site of the Gatestone Institute where he is styled as a ‘Distinguished Senior Fellow’.

And what, you may ask, is the Gatestone Institute?  A respected academic institution or think tank? Well if you go to Wikipedia you will learn that:

‘Gatestone Institute is a far-right think tank known for publishing anti-Muslim articles. It was founded in 2008 by Nina Rosenwald, who serves as its president. Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and former national security advisor, John R. Bolton, was its chairman from 2013 to March 2018. Its current chairman is Amir Taheri.’ Taheri himself

‘has been the subject of many controversies involving fabrications in his writings, most notable of which was the 2006 Iranian sumptuary law controversy.’

One of its board members is billionaire Rebeka Mercer, who also happens to fund the far-Right Breitbart which Steve Bannon edited before he fell out with Trump. Breitbart combines racism, hostility to feminism, gay rights and anti-Semitism. A quite heady brew.

Below the Fascists Debate Their Attempted Disruption of a Lawful Meeting

It should be noted that Roslyn Pine was suspended for 6 years by the Board of Deputies after having described Palestinians as the 'vilest of animals' - it is unclear whether the sentence was lifted on appeal

According to Wikipedia, Gatestone

‘regularly publishes false reports to stoke anti-Muslim fears and has published false stories pertaining to Muslims and Islam. Gatestone frequently warns of a looming "jihadist takeover" and "Islamization" of Europe, leading to a "Great White Death". 

Just the kind of publication that you would expect Hoffman to quote from!

Hoffman tells us that

‘The disorder then increased. Cries of ‘Israel is a democracy’ were met with a sinister chorus from the mob of “Zionists Out”, chillingly redolent of the cries of “Juden Raus” on Kristallnacht in 1938 in Nazi Germany.’

Jewish Chronicle report of 12.7.18.

This is how Zionism cynically exploits the Holocaust, whilst keeping Holocaust survivors in poverty in Israel. The Holocaust to Zionists is no more than a means to defend the world’s most racist state. How does ‘Zionists out’ equate to ‘Juden Raus’?  Zionism is a political not an ethnic ideology. It’s like saying that ‘fascists out’ is a threat to all British people  Nonsensical as well as dishonest. Hoffman then recalls how:

An elderly woman dressed in pink in the front row announced herself as a ‘Holocaust Survivor’ (video here). The truth is that she was born in Budapest in 1944 so knew nothing about the Holocaust. She’s a charlatan, she was never in a death camp. But to call herself a ‘survivor’ adds to her cachet among the antisemites when she maligns Israel...’

The IHRA is giving fascists and Zionists a pretext to ban meetings they don't like - under the guise of 'antisemitism'

Because it is Israel uber alles Hoffman will even traduce someone born in Nazi occupied Europe in order to defend his racist rat hole. This common and garden racist, who demonstrates side by side with Britain First members, attacks a Holocaust survivor who unlike Hoffman is able to relate her own experiences to the suffering of the Palestinians.

Board of Deputies only acts against Roslyn Pine after years of her racism - in this case calling Arabs 'the vilest of animals' - but what Pine says openly is in the throat of many other racists in the Board of Deputies

If Hoffman knew anything about the Holocaust, he would not doubt that the woman in question was a Holocaust survivor. The definition of which is being born under Nazi occupation not being in a death camp or a concentration camp.

In 1944 nearly half a million Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz whilst the leader of Hungarian Zionism,  Rudolph Kasztner was reaching an agreement with Adolf Eichmann to secure a train out of Hungary containing the Zionist leadership.

Jonathan deciding to boycott Israel

Kasztner deliberately kept information on Auschwitz from Hungarian Jews. As Elie Wiesel, an ardent Zionist wrote:

‘We were taken just two weeks before D-Day, and we did not know that Auschwitz existed… everyone knew except the victims.’ Wiesel asked ‘Why didn’t we know? To this day I try to understand what happened. If ever there was a tragedy that could have been prevented, it was that one.’

Wiesel was also quoted in the LA Times 23.5.93. as saying that:

‘Jewish leaders of Palestine never made the rescue of European Jews into an overwhelming national priority. We know that Zionist leader Itzhak Gruenbaum... considered creating new settlements more urgent than saving Jews from being sent to Treblinka and Birkenau.’ 

In 1944 the Jews of Budapest survived the deportations because of massive world pressure which forced Hungary’s pro-Nazi leader Admiral Horthy to call a halt to the deportations on July 7^th 1944^. However the Nazi Arrow Cross government that the Nazis installed on October 15^th terrorised the Jews of Budapest and some 50,000 out of 200,000 were murdered by their militia.

The woman in pink at the meeting is, in every sense, a Holocaust survivor. The fact that Hoffman, in his desperation to defend an Israeli state, should query this indicates how despicable and contemptible this wretched apology for a human being is.

There is not one redeeming feature about Jonathan Hoffman, a disgusting apologist for Israeli apartheid.  When his death comes it will be hard to find even 1 good word to say about him. As Malcolm noted in MacBeth about the execution of Thane of Cawdor, ‘nothing in his life became him so much as his leaving it.’ We can only hope that Hoffman will not have too long to wait.  Let’s hope God is a Zionist because he will have a shock if he isn’t!

There can be no doubt today that Israel is an apartheid state. It is, by its own definition a state only of its Jewish citizens. A state which passes a law (Reception Committee Law 2011) allowing Jewish only communities to bar Arabs on ‘suitability’ grounds.

Hoffman, in his manic ramble tells us that ‘SOAS is virtually a Jew-free university.’ Having studied at SOAS as part of my own MA I can say, without fear of contradiction, that I never experienced any anti-Semitism at SOAS.  But then my definition of anti-Semitism is hostility to Jews, not hatred of a racist ideology called Zionism!

What is though disturbing is that Hoffman and his fellows openly boast of organising to disrupt meetings.  If a group of left-wingers were to do the same then the Police would no doubt be interested. Pressure should be put on the Metropolitan Police to consider pursuing charges against Hoffman and his fellows.

There is no limit to Hoffman's self-deception

And let it be remembered that Hoffman is someone who has no hesitation in working with the Holocaust denial Britain First, the English Defence League, Tommy Robinson supporters and of course he quotes from the openly Islamaphobic Gatestone Institute.

Hoffman and company don't even bother to hide the fact that they think they have the right to disrupt meetings they disagree with under the rubric 'antisemitism'

The attack on Palestine and anti-Zionist meetings is at one with the Tory attempt to impose the IHRA misdefinition of anti-Semitism on universities whose sole purpose is, in the words of the person who drafted it, Kenneth Stern, to ‘chill’ free speech.

Hoffman has also attacked SOAS academic Dr Dina Matar who chaired the meeting. Hoffman ‘reveals’ that Dina agreed that ex-Israeli Professor Haim Bresheeth, of Jewish Network for Palestine, could book a room for a meeting! But then, according to Hoffman, JNP is ‘hate-infested political group set up explicitly to attack mainstream British Jewry’  As a member I can assure Hoffman that its remit has nothing to do with an attack on Jews. Zionism is our only target. According to the demented Hoffman anyone who is not a signed up Zionist is an anti-Semite because the definition of ‘anti-Semitism’ to the Zionists has nothing to do with Jews and everything to do with Israel.

For more see Hoffman’s FB page

It’s time to expel the Zionist ‘Jewish’ Labour Movement from the Labour Party

An anti-racist party should not tolerate a racist affiliate which  supports Apartheid

In 2004 Poale Zion (the Workers of Zion) changed its name to the Jewish Labour Movement.  Like most things the JLM does, it was an act of deception.  It sought to put a distance between its Zionist origins and the newly renamed group.

 

Israeli Labour Leader Avi Gabbay reiterates  Israeli Labour's traditional hostility to the Palestinians and Israel's Palestinian citizens

To most people the Jewish Labour Movement was exactly that.  The representative of Jewish people in the Labour Party.  In fact the JLM contains a majority of non-Jewish people.  What it doesn’t contain are non-Zionist still less anti-Zionist Jews.  No Jewish person who isn’t a paid up supporter of Israel can join the JLM.  If it was honest it would call itself the Zionist Labour Movement but that would give the game away.

 

If you look at the small print on its site then you find that the JLM is an affiliate of the World Zionist Organisation and the local Zionist Federation.  It is effectively the British branch of the Israeli Labour Party which it calls its ‘sister party.’

The JLM is unique.  No other overseas party has a British branch which has all the privileges that come with being an affiliated socialist society.  If for no other reason than this, the JLM should be disaffiliated.

A poster in the campaign for Jewish Labour i.e. no Arabs 

Although the JLM spends most of its time calling for its opponents, most of them Jewish, to be expelled, Jewish anti-Zionists are not proposing that the members of the JLM are expelled.  Simply that they no longer have the privileges that they presently enjoy.   The JLM have secured the expulsion of veteran Israeli anti-Zionist Moshe Machover, a long standing Israeli Jewish anti-Zionist for the crime of writing about relations between the Zionist movement and the Nazis between 1933 and 1939.  It has lobbied for both my own and Jackie Walker’s expulsion as well, of course that of Ken Livingstone, someone who has done more for anti-racism in the Labour Party than any single individual.

A poster in the campaign for Hebrew Labour

It is a disgrace that an organisation affiliated to the WZO, a body which actively funds and supports settlements in the West Bank, which supports the ‘Judaification’ i.e. destruction of Bedouin Arab villages inside Israel should be part of the Labour Party.  However what is most iniquitous is that it considers the Israeli Labour Party its sister party.  The ILP is an out and out racist party of ethnic cleansing.  The Labour Zionist movement founded the Zionist settlement in Palestine by evicting Arabs from the land.  They campaigned for Jewish labour i.e. an expulsion of Arab labour. 

Add caption

The ILP formed the government of Israel between 1948 and 1977.  It was responsible for the expulsion of over ¾ million Palestinians. It established military rule over Israel’s Arab population until 1966.  It barred Arabs from its trade unions until 1959 and then corralled them in an Arab section.  There is nothing socialist about the ILP nor has it ever claimed to be socialist.  As its former leader Shelly Yacimovich said ‘to call Labor left-wing is a historic wrong.”  I can vouch for that!  It is about as socialist as the National Socialists were. 

As Israeli society moves further and further to the Right so the ILP follows them.  Its last leader Isaac Herzog   declared that his nightmare was waking up to find that Israel had a Palestinian Prime Minister and 61 Palestinian Members of Israel’s Knesset .  Who needs the Right when we have Isaac Herzog?  Herzog also declared that he wanted to dispel the false impression that the ILP were ‘Arab Lovers’ Herzog slammed for remark about ‘Arab lovers’.  Imagine that someone were to say that their nightmare was to wake up and find Britain had a Jewish Prime Minister or that the Labour Party was not a ‘Jew lovers’ party.  The term ‘Jew lover’ and ‘N***** Lover’ used to be part of the language of the National Front and BNP.  The fact that it trips off the tongue of the head of the Israeli Labour should be an indication of what Zionism and the JLM are really about.

Israeli Labour supports the Apartheid Wall and calls for more repression in the West Bank

Herzog has recently been replaced as leader by Avi Gabbay, who served in the Cabinet of Benjamin Netanyahu.  If anything he is to the racist Right of Herzog.  He has just declared that “We will not sit in the same government as the Joint List I don’t see any [connection] between us.”  The Joint List is the 3^rd largest group in the Knesset.  It comprises 3 different parties including nationalist Balad and the Communist Party.  It is group representing the most marginalised and oppressed section of Israeli society, its Palestinian citizens.  To say you will not have Arabs in a government and since Israel was formed there has never been an Arab party in Israel’s government is racist in itself.  But the full measure of this racism is that Gabbay did not rule out sitting in the Knesset with Avigdor Lieberman, someone who wants to strip Israeli Arabs of their citizenship and deport them.  A man who has said he would like to drown the thousands of Palestinian prisoners Israel holds in the Dead Sea.

Ha’aretz quoted Balad MKs Jamal Zahalka and Talab A-Sana and Abdelmalek Dahamsha (United Arab List) ‘"How can you suggest transferring thousands of Palestinian prisoners to the Dead Sea and drowning them there?"   Gabbay hasn’t ruled out governing with Habayit HaYehudi (Jewish Home) an explicitly racist settler party of Naftali Bennett and Ayelet Shaked.  Indeed there is no Jewish or Zionist bigot he will not form a government with.  But to form a government with Arabs is out of the question.  Indeed it was because the Yitzhak Rabin government in 1993 relied on the support of Arab parties to form a governing coalition, though they were never part of it, that Rabin was assassinated by the right.

David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first Labour Prime Minister - organised the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians and turned his back on the Jews who died in the Holocaust

The JLM say they favour 2 states.  In Britain of course this is easy.  What they don’t do however is oppose either the occupation itself, the 50 years of military rule or indeed the settlements.  You won’t find one word of opposition to Israel’s nakedly racist and repressive rule on its website.  You won’t find a word of condemnation for its policy of detention and torture of child prisoners as young as 12. Indeed in the House of Commons when a debate was had on Israel’s child prisoners, Louise Ellman, its Vice President defended Israeli practices.

Two states for JLM and Labour Friends of Israel is a smokescreen for supporting the occupation.  Its ‘sister party’ in Israel however is quite clear.  It is opposed to any withdrawal from the settlements.  Indeed its last Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, has been complaining that the ILP has not been given enough credit for their establishment in the first place!  What the ILP do support however is a separation of Jews from Arabs.  It is a firm supporter of segregation and apartheid.  It is as opposed to equality between Arab and Jew even within Israel.  That is why it is an outrage that the JLM is still an affiliate of the Labour Party.

It is true that Poale Zion/JLM have been affiliated since 1920.  In those days the Labour Party was a supporter of the British Empire though it would cloak its support in the warm and comforting words of ‘trusteeship’ ie. it was looking after the colonies until such time that the Africans and Indians were capable of governing themselves, being backward people.

Today there is no Empire and there is no reason why the affiliation of the JLM, which is a relic of colonialism should be tolerated anymore.

Gabbay with former leader of the ILP Shelly Yacimovich on the left and the darling of the ILP 'left' Stav Shaffir - accused by Balad MK Jamal Zahalka of being more racist than Likud

One should point out that naturally the JLM is on the far-Right of the Labour Party.  Its vile accusations of anti-Semitism against the Left have been taken up with relish by the dinosaurs of the Right such as Tom Watson and John Mann to say nothing of papers like the Daily Mail, which in previous times support the Hitler regime and British Union of Fascist leader Oswald Moseley.  Anti-Semitism has been weaponised against the Left and supporters of Palestine.  It has never had anything to do with genuine hatred of Jews.  That is why they have campaigned in favour of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance which conflates anti-Semitism and opposition to Zionism.

In the leadership elections between Jeremy Corbyn and Owen Smith last year, the JLM voted by 92-4% for  Smith with 4% abstentions.  What is most remarkable about this vote is that even 4% of the JLM supported Corbyn.  One can only assume that they didn’t read the ballot paper clearly enough.

It parliamentary supporters include Ruth Smeeth MP who falsely accused Marc Wadsworth at the Chakrabarti press conference of ‘anti-Semitism’ for pointing out that she was trading information with a Telegraph supporter.  Smeeth is listed in Wiki Leaks as a US intelligence asset.  It was the JLM who set up Jackie Walker at their infamous ‘training session’ in 2016 Labour Party conference.

The JLM often tries to portray itself as a critic of Netanyahu’s right-wing regime in Israel.  However you would look in vain for any criticism of Israel on it web site or in its publications.  It is an apologist for Israel’s military occupation and its apartheid laws.  The JLM even stays silent about the attack on civil liberties and human rights organisations, which affects Jews as well as Arabs, inside Israel.  It was only announced today that Netanyahu is seeking to outlaw the Breaking the Silence Group, a liberal Zionist group which collates testimony from former soldiers about the abuse of Palestinian civilians.  Criticism of the army which could result in appearing before an international court of law is not to be outlawed.  However the JLM is like the 3 wise monkeys – it neither hears, sees or speaks about Israel’s move to becoming a Jewish Police State. 

The idea that a racist organisation like the JLM should be leading a training event on racism is akin to asking the late Dr Harold Shipman to take a course on medical ethics.  Perhaps the Labour Party would care to ask Weinstein if he could help in drawing up policy on Equalities with special reference to rape and sexual harassment.  That is the absurdity of having the JLM ‘training’ people in anti-Semitism.

Below are two articles from Israel’s Ha’aretz paper and one from Ben White in The Independent.  Note that the Guardian no longer covers Israel critically anymore under the Freedland regime.

Tony Greenstein

Israeli Labor Party Leader: The New Likudnik

Labor party members, like their colleagues in the left-wing camp, deserve a leader who will show loyalty to their basic values, not Likud's

Haaretz Editorial

  Oct 18, 2017 2:38 AM

Avi Gabbay, who took the Labor party election by storm and was elected chairman in hopes of breathing new life into the peace camp, is proving that he is no different than his predecessors, who fell into the trap of sucking up to the right. Gabbay’s blitz began with him saying, “We will not sit in the same government as the Joint List I don’t see any [connection] between us.” Then followed a statement that there is no need to remove settlements as part of a peace agreement. This shows us that the new Labor chairman is in the midst of a hollow campaign for his image.

Gabbay’s PR trick – during his campaign he declared he was a man of the left, and his victory speech emphasized that Israel needs “leadership that takes care of Dimona and not just Amona” – is all too familiar.

In an attempt to signal to right-wing voters, Gabbay has come out with right-wing statements that aim to distance him from the Arabs and show support for the settlements. During her term as Labor chairwoman, Zionist Union lawmaker Shelly Yacimovich said things like, “I certainly don’t see the settlements project as a sin and crime” and “to call Labor left-wing is a historic wrong.” Isaac Herzog, who succeeded her, said that “We must stop giving the impression that we are Arab-lovers.”

The result of these moves is also well-known: Right-wing voters aren't tempted by a poor imitation of a right-wing party and remain in their political home, while Labor party heads are replaced one after another. It is surprising that Gabbay, who is a management expert, has not internalized these repeated failures. But the damage caused by his statements reaches far beyond the electoral domain. Gabbay, together with Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid – who's busy with his own pointless sycophancy of the imaginary right-religious-nationalist electorate while politically excluding Arabs and leftists (including the persecution of human rights organizations for political gain) – is laying the groundwork for delegitimizing the opposition to right-wing rule.

Opposition leaders' flight from "left-wing positions" as if they were on fire contributes to such views. It also aids in erasing the ideological opposition to the right's path. If even the chairman of the Labor party is embarrassed to express leftist political policies out loud, then how is it possible to complain about the contempt the right and center have for the left?

Labor party members, like their colleagues in the left-wing camp, deserve a leader who will show loyalty to their basic values. Not just the left but the entire country needs a true opposition. Labor took a risk and bet on a relatively anonymous candidate in hopes of renewing its ranks. But woe be it if they discover that they unintentionally replaced their worldview instead. If the party does not sober up quickly, the Zionist Union and the rest of the opposition are sentencing themselves to extinction and absorption into the Likud. 

The leader of Israel's main opposition party, Labour chair Avi Gabbay, is currently making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Yesterday, Gabbay told Israeli television that he opposed discussing the removal of even the most isolated illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The remarks came a day after Gabbay told a meeting of party activists that “the Arabs have to be afraid of us”. He added: “They fire one missile – you fire 20. That’s all they understand in the Middle East”.

On Saturday, meanwhile, Gabbay vowed to never enter into a coalition with the Joint List, a Knesset group dominated by parties representing Palestinian citizens.

The Israeli Labor Party is often presented as a “moderate” alternative to Benjamin Netanyahu – so what’s going on here?

In one sense, it is not a big surprise; Gabbay, after all, has already previously served in a Netanyahu cabinet, as I noted when the Labour leader won the leadership election in July. Some predicted Gabbay would seek to attract Likud supporters.

But beyond Gabbay’s immediate goals, his series of blunt interventions is a valuable opportunity to subject the Israeli Labour Party to the kind of critical scrutiny it often avoids, particularly in the West, where some – like the Jewish Labour Movement and Labour Friends of Israel – support the party as “progressive” allies in the search for peace.

The uncomfortable reality is that Gabbay’s racism, as well as his support for settlements and disproportionate military force, is entirely consistent with the Labour Party’s past and present.
Previous leader Isaac Herzog ran for prime minister with an advert boasting how he “understands the Arab mentality”. On another occasion, Herzog declared: “I want to keep a Jewish state with a Jewish majority...I don’t want a Palestinian prime minister in Israel”.

It was the Labour Party, as Israeli news site +972 Magazine put it, whose “glory days included the Nakba [the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1948]”, as well as “conquering and settling the West Bank and East Jerusalem”.

Just last month, former Israeli premier Ehud Barak bemoaned the fact that a state ceremony celebrating 50 years of the occupation of the West Bank did not give enough credit to the Labour leaders who “consolidated and led the settlement enterprise for a decade”.

Barak was the Labour prime minister, of course, when the Israeli army fired 1.3 million bullets at Palestinian protesters during the first few days of what became the Second Intifada.
Gabbay’s remarks provide three, vital takeaways. First, mere lip service to a “two-state solution” is meaningless because it can mean so many different things.

The Israeli Labour Party has endorsed a vision of “separation” – to an international audience, a “two-state solution” – where Palestinians are condemned to walled-in cantons. The parameters of this future Palestinian “state” are those of a Bantustan.

 “I believe that the Land of Israel belongs to the Jews," Gabbay said today. “God promised Abraham the entire Land of Israel, but I also believe that since there are 4.5 million Arabs here, we have to compromise in order to create a situation in which we live in our country with a Jewish majority."
Second, more broadly, the Israeli maximum on offer does not meet the Palestinians’ minimum – or the standards of international law.

Netanyahu likes the status quo. His coalition includes those, like Minister Naftali Bennett, who want formal annexation of the majority of the West Bank. But all the Labor Party is offering by way of an alternative is an Israeli-defined “separation” plan that smacks of a “smarter” version of apartheid.
In other words, none of the Israeli political parties who are either part of the current ruling coalition, or who could feasibly lead an alternative one, support a solution based on international law and the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination, sovereignty, and return.

Finally, understanding the nature of the Israeli opposition underlines the importance of tactics like Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). While some claim boycotts only empower the Right, the Israeli Labour Party offers a sobering reality check about what is on offer from the “moderates”.

 A Left for Jews Only

A Labor Party leader's declaration he wouldn't include Arab parties in a potential government was an attempt to find favor in eyes of right-wing groups and Arab-haters

Haaretz Editorial

  Oct 16, 2017 1:22 AM

Labor Party leader Avi Gabbay speaks before ultra-Orthodox residents of Dimona, October 15, 2017 Eliyahu Hershkovitz

Labor Party Chairman Avi Gabbay said Saturday that his party will not agree to include the Arab parties’ Joint List in any governing coalition he heads. Speaking at a public event in Be’er Sheva, Gabbay was unequivocal: “We won’t sit in the same government with the Joint List. Period. Let that be clear. You see their behavior. I don’t see anything that connects or unites us that would enable us to sit together in the same government.”

These are very serious statements. They’re especially grave since they were uttered by the most senior representative of Israel’s center-left camp, which pretends to be the alternative to the Likud-led government. Yet in his remarks, Gabbay effectively ruled out any possibility of his party forming a future government.

His remarks also emit a strong whiff of nationalism. Gabbay didn’t promise not to sit in the same government with representatives of the far right. So why was it important to him to rule out, in advance and under any circumstances, only the Joint List – the authentic representative of most of the country’s Arab citizens?

The Joint List is a coalition of several parties that together represent the mainstream of the Israeli-Arab community, a community that comprises about one fifth of Israel’s citizens. This coalition includes a variety of opinions, some more extreme and some less so.

But Gabbay didn’t limit himself to merely disqualifying them in advance; he also stressed that his party had absolutely nothing in common with them. He has nothing in common with the Hadash and Ta’al parties’ desire for a two-state solution. He has nothing in common with the entire Joint List’s battle against the outrageous discrimination suffered by Israeli Arabs and for equal rights for all.

We can only conclude that Gabbay’s comments were an attempt to find favor in the eyes of right-wing groups and to try to glean votes from society’s Arab-haters. This is both an unacceptable endeavor and a pointless one.

To espouse vile views like this, we already have Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid – the man who, in a reference to Arab MK Haneen Zoabi, once ruled out any possibility of sitting with “the Zoabis.” Now Gabbay looks like a poor man’s Lapid. And he’ll never gain power this way.

The message he’s conveying to the public is that Zionist Union – the joint Knesset slate of Labor and Hatnuah – is just another right-wing party in disguise, one that excludes Arabs from the political game just like almost all the other parties do. Labor has tried veering rightward countless times over the years, and it’s one of the main reasons for its continuous failure.

The only way to replace the right-wing government is by uniting all the forces on the left and center and presenting a real alternative. In his remarks, Gabbay chose a different path: Imitating the right, disqualifying the Arabs and presenting a false facade of leftism.

Israel has officially declared itself an apartheid state

Earlier this week Israel’s Knesset passed the first reading of the Jewish Nation-state bill.  In so doing it made it clear, beyond any doubt, that Israel is now officially an apartheid state.  Israel has, of course, always declared itself to be a Jewish state, despite having a 20% non-Jewish minority.  But now this has become a Basic Law, which is the equivalent of a constitutional law in a country with no constitution.

At the same time the status of the Arab language, which up till now has been a second official language of Israel, although in practice very few signs are in both Hebrew and Arabic, has now been relegated to a language with a ‘special status’.

This is of course what happened in South Africa where Afrikaans was the official language.

Israel is a state without a nationality – something that is quite unique in any modern state.  Instead nationalities are based on religion, a pre-French revolution concept, and being a Jewish state the Jewish ‘nationality’ was the first and most important.

A good example of how the Jewish state treats non-jews

This whole concept of a Jewish state is based on the racial myth that Israel is the 'historic homeland' of the Jewish people.  It is nothing of the sort.  It may be the religious centre of the Jewish religion but Zionism is about creating a Jewish nation/race.  It is not a religious movement although it uses religion to define that nation/race.  It is like suggesting that Palestine is the historic homeland of Christians because Jesus was born, crucified and resurrected there.

The home of Jews throughout the world is where they live.  Pure and simple.  Anything else is a racial myth and should be consigned to the same historical dustbin as ideas of a 1,000 year Reich.

But it is worse than that because Israel is a state not of its own citizens – Jewish and non-Jewish – but a state of the ‘Jewish people’ a mythical concept which is based on race not religion.

Read the following article by Jonathan Cook which is extremely good.

Tony Greenstein

Apartheid flags flies outside Knesset

Israel’s Jewish Nation-State bill ‘declaration of war’

11 May 2017

Israel’s Knesset has passed its first vote on a new bill defining Israel as ‘a national home of the Jewish people’

Al Jazeera – 11 May 2017

New legislation to cement the definition of Israel as a state belonging exclusively to Jews around the world is a “declaration of war” on Palestinian citizens of Israel, the minority’s leaders warned this week.

The bill, which defines Israel as the “national home of the Jewish people”, passed its first vote in the Israeli parliament on Wednesday, after it received unanimous backing from a government committee on Sunday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to get the measure on to the statute books within 60 days.

Fraudster Netanyahu speaks on 4th May 2017 in favour of Israel Apartheid Bill

Among its provisions, the legislation – popularly known as the Jewish Nation-State Bill – revokes the status of Arabic as an official language, even though it is the mother tongue of one in five citizens. Israel’s population includes a large minority of 1.7 million Palestinians.

The legislation affirms that world Jewry has a “unique” right to national self-determination in Israel, and calls for the government to further strengthen ties to Jewish communities outside Israel.

It also increases the powers of so-called “admissions committees” that block Palestinian citizens from living in hundreds of communities that control most of Israel’s land.

Threat to peace talks

In addition, critics are concerned that the legislation is intended to stymie prospects of reviving peace talks with the Palestinian leadership in the occupied territories. US President Donald Trump is due in the region later this month in what is widely assumed to be an attempt to kick-start a long-stalled peace process.

Netanyahu, however, has already indicated that he will insist on a precondition that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, recognise Israel as a Jewish state. The new bill effectively sets out the terms of the state Abbas is expected to recognise.

Netanyahu said this week that all Zionist parties in parliament would be expected to support the legislation. “The bill establishes the fact that the State of Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people in our historic homeland,” he told supporters of his Likud party.

He added: “There is no contradiction at all between this bill and equal rights for all citizens of Israel.”  However, leaders of Israel’s large Palestinian minority strenuously disagreed.

‘We won’t disappear’  

Ayman Odeh, head of the Palestinian-dominated Joint List party in the Israeli parliament, warned that the legislation would ensure “the tyranny of the majority over the minority”.

Under the bill, Hebrew alone will be an official language, with Arabic accorded only “special status”. Palestinian citizens already complain that most public services and official documents are not provided in Arabic.

“The aim is to portray institutional racism in Israel as entirely normal, and make sure the apartheid reality here is irreversible,” Haneen Zoabi, a Palestinian member of the Israeli parliament, told Al Jazeera.

“It is part of the right’s magical thinking – they are in denial that there is an indigenous people here still living in their homeland. We are not about to disappear because of this law.”

Superior rights

In strictly legal terms, the Jewish Nation-State Bill offers limited changes. Since its founding in 1948, Israel has defined itself as a state of the Jewish people rather than of all the country’s citizens, including its Palestinian minority.

The Law of Return of 1950 allows only Jews to immigrate to Israel and receive citizenship. Adalah, a legal rights group, has documented dozens of laws that explicitly discriminate against Palestinian citizens.

But the new legislation is significant for reasons beyond its immediate legal implications.

Not least, it gives Israel’s self-definition as the nation-state of the Jewish people something akin to constitutional standing, observed Ali Haider, a human rights lawyer and former co-director of Sikkuy, an organisation lobbying for equal citizenship rights.

The bill, if passed, will join a handful of Basic Laws intended to provide the foundation for any future constitution. Such laws take precedence over ordinary laws and are much harder to repeal.

“This is a very dangerous step because it makes explicit in a Basic Law that all Jews, even those who are not citizens, have superior rights in Israel to those citizens who are Palestinian,” he told Al Jazeera.

Intimidation of judges

An alternative draft of the new law that promised equal rights to all citizens was effectively blocked by the government in January when it came up for consideration.

Haider said the new version would provide the constitutional foundation to justify a tide of other laws intended to marginalise Palestinian citizens and erode their rights as citizens.

An Expulsion Law passed last year gives Israeli parliament the power to expel Palestinian MPs if they make political statements the Jewish majority disapprove of. Another bill before the parliament, the Muezzin Law, silences the Muslim call to prayer.

Such laws are almost certain to be challenged in Israel’s supreme court. “The judges will be much more reluctant to intervene if the Jewish Nation-State Bill is in force,” Haider said. “They will feel under pressure to ignore basic democratic principles and give priority to Israel’s Jewish character.”

He added that there would be little opposition from the Jewish public. A survey by the Israel Democracy Institute last December found that more than half of Israeli Jews wanted any citizen who rejected Israel’s definition as a Jewish state stripped of basic rights.

Preparations for annexation

Another key goal of the bill for the Netanyahu government is its likely impact on any moves to revive peace talks with the Palestinians. Abbas and Donald Trump met last week.

Netanyahu’s government no longer pays even lip service to the idea that it might agree to a Palestinian state. Most debates in the Israeli cabinet focus instead on intensifying settlement building and preparations for annexing areas of the West Bank.

Zoabi noted that since Netanyahu came to power in 2009, he has worked tirelessly to persuade Washington to accept a new precondition for talks: that the Palestinian leadership must first recognise Israel as a Jewish state.

Sacrificing refugees’ rights

The new bill would place Abbas in a tricky position, allowing him to enter talks with Israel only if he first agrees to sacrifice the rights both of Israel’s Palestinian citizens to equal citizenship and of millions of Palestinian refugees to return to their former homes.

“This law is aimed not only at Abbas but at Trump,” said Zoabi. “It gives him a map instructing him exactly what can be negotiated over and what the terms of a solution must look like.”

Avi Dichter, a member of Netanyahu’s party who drafted the bill, indicated the diplomatic use it would be put to.

He told the Israeli website Ynet: “The Palestinian aspiration to eliminate the Jewish people’s nation-state is no longer secret”. He added that Israel must make “demands of its enemies to recognize it as the nation-state of the Jewish people”.

Netanyahu echoed Dichter, saying this week that the bill was “the clearest answer to all those who are trying to deny the deep connection between the people of Israel and its land”.

Apartheid regime 

It is probably not coincidental that the Nation-State Bill is being fast-tracked as far-right ministers in Netanyahu’s government have drafted separate legislation to apply Israeli laws in the West Bank. 

This is a key component of efforts by settlers and their supporters in government to annex the West Bank by stealth.

Marzuq al-Halabi, a Palestinian journalist writing for the Israeli website 972, warned this week that on the back of the Nation-State Bill the government would seek to redraw Israel’s borders to include parts or all of the West Bank.

The resulting “apartheid regime” would then “create… ‘justified crimes’ against the Palestinian people, such as population transfer or removal,” he wrote.

A Haaretz editorial agreed that Netanyahu was laying the groundwork for annexing the West Bank without conferring rights on its Palestinian population.

The new law, it said, was intended as “the constitutional cornerstone for apartheid” in Israel and the occupied territories, allowing Israel to “maintain control over… a Palestinian majority living under its rule”.