By Supporting the IHRA Labour’s NEC has chosen to support Racist Zionists over Anti-racist Jews and Palestinians

If there is one lesson Corbyn must learn it is that you cannot appease Zionists or Racists 

Why the IHRA removes Palestinian from history - again

UPDATE

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this report in today's Times but if it is true then the behaviour of the majority of the NEC yesterday was shameful.  This is particularly true of Lansman because in his article Labour’s antisemitism code is the gold standard for political parties Lansman wrote defending the notion that people should be able to criticise Israel as a racist state without being accused of antisemitism. Lansman wrote:

The only part of the IHRA working examples that is not explicitly referenced relates to claims about the state of Israel being a racist endeavour (this is a subset of an example, not a standalone one). Of all the elements in the IHRA examples, this is the one that runs the greatest risk of prohibiting legitimate criticism of Israel. It cannot possibly be antisemitic to point out that some of the key policies of the Israeli state, observed since its founding days, have an effect that discriminates on the basis of race and ethnicity....

If legitimate criticism of Israel were to be curbed, that would infringe on the rights of other oppressed groups, who have suffered at the hands of discriminatory Israeli state policies. The Palestinians have experienced decades of occupation, gross human rights violations, and war crimes. The Bedouins have had their homes destroyed, the latest example being the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar. And ethnic minorities within Israel have been treated appallingly, such as the Sudanese and Eritrean refugees who have been detained and deported, and questions over the treatment of Ethiopian women, including allegations they were given birth control without their consent.

I’ve just been in Israel, where I met people from all different backgrounds, organisations and political persuasions. Those I met, Jewish as well as Palestinian citizens of Israel, spoke about racist state policies, not just in relation to the occupation and settlements, but also within Israel itself – the segregation of housing, education, employment, and systematic economic disadvantage. The Palestinian minority within Israel is as entitled as Jews in Britain to define the discrimination they have experienced as racism. Such criticisms cannot, and must not, be silenced.

It cannot be right that one vaguely worded subset of one IHRA example can deny other oppressed groups their right to speak about their own oppression. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t contexts in which claims about Israel being a racist endeavour are antisemitic or made with antisemitic intent. But the IHRA’s wording is not sufficiently clear. Labour’s code of conduct provides the necessary explanation to ensure that legitimate criticism of Israeli policies is not silenced, while not tolerating comments which deny Jewish people the right to self-determination or hold Israel to unfair standards not expected of other states.

To now refuse to have supported Corbyn's mild statement when he agreed with it in order to appease the Zionist lobby is truly shameful.  And the same goes for all other members of the NEC.

It is clear that given the failure of Lansman to back up his own words and the failure of the Left on the NEC to stick by their principles that we have to campaign around the principle that 'Israel is a racist state.'

Tony Greenstein

 

The decision of Labour’s National Executive Committee to back the full IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, a document whose only purpose is to conflate anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, is a gift to the Zionists and the Right in party.  It is another example of the political confusion at the heart of the Corbyn project and the treacherous role of Momentum's Chair Jon Lansman who lobbied for the adoption of the IHRA.

Noone has yet explained why there is a need for a 500+ word definition of 'antisemitism' when the Oxford English dictionary definition - 'hostility to or prejudice against Jews' consists of just 6 words.  Why should a definition described as 'bewilderingly perplexing' by Professor David Feldman an expert in Antisemitism be adopted? Why does support for Israel have anything to do with anti-semitism?

The IHRA has been slammed by Hugh Tomlinson QC, Geoffrey Robertson QC, Professor David Feldman and SirStephen Sedley amongst others, yet despite these criticisms, the NEC took its decision today to adopt the whole of the IHRA.  A definition of 'antisemitism' that the antisemitic Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, and the antisemitic government of Poland have no difficulty accepting.

In do doing the NEC flew in the face of all evidence. For wholly unprincipled reasons – they thought they could buy off their Zionist detractors. In the years ahead they will learn just how wrong they were. The more you pay a blackmailer the higher the ransom.

There is no doubt that this whole anti-Semitism farrago of nonsense has been state directed and driven by the needs of British foreign policy.  Jews are the alibi not the cause.  The fears, which have been deliberately stoked, of British Jews, are being used as a political prop in the war against Corbyn.

Paul Besser with Paul Golding, Britain First Fuhrer holding a cross.  Despite being a member of a holocaust denial group Besser is happy to join a group of Zionists protesting about 'antisemitism'

Paul Besser with his friend Jayda Fransen, Deputy Fuhrer of Britain First - a loyal Zionist

Jonathan Hoffman, ex-Vice Chair Zionist Federation, removed from office for offensive behaviour to  his social superiors - his sign talks of Jews as one monolithic entity - a racist concept in itself - his main chant throughout was that he represented 95% of Jews (down from 99% a few months ago!)

Harry Markham in hat leaning on the barriers accuses us of racism whilst demonstrating with members of different fascist groups - Besser in the blue cap

The Zionist counter-demonstration - The person in the blue baseball cap is Paul Besser, former Intelligence Officer for Britain First, a neo-Nazi group

Anti-Semitism was the weapon that the Right chose to wield.  It is ostensibly an appeal to people who are progressive.  Of course they could have chosen to attack Corbyn for his opposition to the bedroom tax or cuts in the NHS but I suspect they would not have achieved the same resonance as fake 'anti-semitism. ‘Anti-Semitism’ makes the Right appear radical.

The decision by the NEC to add a rider saying that their adoption of the IHRA will not impair freedom of speech in the Party is a nonsense when the whole purpose of the IHRA, as even its author Kenneth Stern admits, is to chill free speech.

This summed up the demonstration - no to the IHRA yes to a Boycott of Israel

A group of Orthodox Jews also joined us for the protest

The IHRA has no reason to exist other than to inhibit free speech and to make people think twice before they open their mouths. That is why the reaction to today’s decision by Labour Friends of Israel’s Director Jennifer Gerber is completely predictable.  Gerber claimed that the NEC’s decision was “appalling” ‘ and that the “freedom of expression" clause “totally undermines the other examples the party has supposedly just adopted”.

The Times of Israel quoted LFI as saying that Corbyn ‘totally undermines’ the decision to accept the full definition by including ‘unnecessary’ clarification.

Gerber has a point of course. What is the point of adopting a definition of anti-Semitism which seeks to outlaw free speech on Palestine and Israel if you then say that nothing in that definition will be allowed to infringe on free speech? It is the politics of the madhouse.

Naomi Wimborne-Iddrissi speaking from Jewish Voice for Labour

Unfortunately instead of standing up to the supporters of Apartheid Israel and the Zionist movement, Corbyn and Jon Lansman in particular have equivocated throughout and lent credence to the idea that anti-Semitism is a problem in the Labour Party.

Jeremy Corbyn had a very simple choice when these allegations first arose and that was to say two things:

i.                   That he condemned anti-Semitism and all forms of racism, not least that which is enshrined in the Zionist nature of the Israeli state in the form of Jewish supremacism

ii.                That he opposes the weaponisation of anti-Semitism by supporters of Israel.  He could have even said that accusations of 'antisemitism' are the standard retort by Israeli apologists to criticism of their state .

The Zionists really don't understand why free speech on Palestine is necessary - after all support for the Palestinians is automatically 'antisemitic' 

It was only a day ago that we won a great victory. All 9 left candidates were elected to the NEC (if you count Lansman as on the left).  Despite the best efforts of Lansman and his aide, Laura Parker, who messaged Momentum members on their famous victory, ‘forgetting’ to mention that Pete Willsman had also been victorious.  This victory proves that the Left in the Labour Party remains strong. Yet instead of seeking to shore up the Left Corbyn and his advisers continue to believe that they can appease the Right when experience demonstrates that whatever concession is made they will take it as a sign of weakness.

John McDonnell’s stupid and cowardly statement that Labour should adopt the IHRA in its entirety in order to put the false anti-Semitism campaign to bed beggars belief. It is cowardly because instead of defending Palestinian rights McDonnell chooses to appease the Zionists, the oppressor, and to prioritise the views of racist settlers over their victims.  

It is stupid because the Zionists are not going to call off the attacks until Corbyn is gone and if McDonnell thinks they are going to let him slide into power he is very much mistaken.  They are already gearing up to demonise him too in terms of what he has said in the past. See for example the Jewish Chronicle article at the end of July. Revealed: John McDonnell signed Early Day Motion welcoming launch of extreme anti-Zionist group

What both McDonnell and Corbyn don’t get is that the aim of the false anti-Semitism campaign is to effect the removal of Jeremy Corbyn as Labour leader.  It has no other purpose. The demand from former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown that the IHRA be adopted in full is part of this campaign.  Does anyone seriously think that Brown, who campaigned on the slogan ‘British Jobs 4 British Workers’, the exact same slogan of the BNP and National Front, is seriously concerned with combating any form of racism?

Margaret Hodge   genuinely doesn't understand why there is any need for free speech on Palestine - quite understandable in the circumstances

This is confirmed by Margaret Hodge.  She made it crystal clear that the anti-Semitism campaign would continue as long as Corbyn is leader. What is it that McDonnell or Lansman for that matter don’t get.  As the Guardian noted:

‘Margaret Hodge has signalled that Labour MPs critical of Jeremy Corbyn are digging in for a long struggle against his leadership as she suggested that the antisemitism row would only end if he stood aside.

It is time to take a principled stance.  Labour’s Anti-Semitism Code of Conduct is not only dead in the water but it is also completely inadequate resting as it does on nearly all the IHRA examples as Brian Klug demontratedf

On a brighter note the joint demonstration today by Jewish Voice for Labour, Labour Against the Witchhunt and the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network was magnificent.  Over 400 people turned up to show their opposition to the IHRA and to demonstrate their anger at the false accusations of anti-Semitism.  A number of Momentum groups were present as Lansman slunk in without saying a word.

There was a small Zionist counter demonstration of about 10 people.  Quite amazingly it consisted entirely of the Zionist fascists that I have documented here, here and here thus proving that Zionism is today moving further and further to the far Right.  Prime amongst those in attendance was the former Intelligence Officer for Britain First Paul Besser.  Others in attendance like Jonathan Hoffman and Mel Gharia are Tommy Robinson supporters.  Despite this these fascists had the cheek to call Labour a fascist party.  Hoffman, who isn’t even a Labour Party member is also active in the so-called Labour Against Anti-Semitism.

Britain First's Paul Bessser giving the V sign at the back and Mad Mel Gharia at the front - her main claim to fame, apart from being an ex-page 3 Sun model is her  tongue

Gary Benjamin (back left), Paul Besser with camera in blue cap

A new group - Fascists Against Antisemitism

This is the Zionist counter-demonstration - consisting of members of different fascist groups such as Britain First, Jewish Defence League and Pegida including the notorious Jonathan Hoffman (with megaphone)

It was good to see so many Momentum banners – Brent, Newham and of course Brighton and Hove.  In Brighton we had quite a tussle between Lansman’s supporters and his opponents before we finally secured the right to take the banner.

One difference of opinion that I feared beforehand, between those opposed to Labour’s Anti-Semitism Code of Conduct and those supporting it did not manifest itself on the demonstration.  We were all opposed to the IHRA which of course was what the NEC was discussing.

One thing is for certain. The IHRA will not stop the fake anti-Semitism campaign.  On the contrary the NEC’s decision will give it renewed strength.  That is why we must redouble our efforts to go back to an anti-racist position.  Anti-Semitism is not a problem in either the Labour Party or indeed British society.  It is Islamapobia, anti-Roma racism and anti-Black racism which should be our key priority.  It isn’t Jews who are being deported, it is Black people.  It isn’t synagogues which are being firebombed it is mosques. It isn’t Jews who experience police stop and search or deaths in custody.  It is about time that the Labour Party, if it means what it says about racism, stops pandering to a small but vocal group of people whose only concern is the State of Israel.

When Labour Friends of Israel say that the free speech addition to the adoption of the IHRA is an ‘unnecesary’ clarification we should respond that far from being unnecessary, free speech is integral to what we believe in and stand for.  Free speech may not exist for Palestinians in Israel but we are not going to introduce Israeli ‘democracy’ inside the Labour Party.

Tony Greenstein

The Incremental Coup – How the Labour Right Successfully used ‘anti-Semitism’ to attack Corbyn

Lansman’s Momentum Hoists the White Flag and Surrenders to Chuka Ummuna’s narrative

When the General Election was called last year I was one of the few people to predict that Corbyn might achieve a hung parliament.  This at a time when the Tories were ahead by up to 24% in the polls. On 20^th April I posted a blog Labour Can Win if Corbyn is Bold.  On 3^rd June I followed this up with Is Labour on the threshold of victory? the subtitle of which read ‘No one has been more disappointed with the success of Labour’s campaign than the Labour Right and Zionist Jewish Labour Movement.’

In view of my successful prediction of Corbyn's victory at the election, I wrote to Kath Viner, Editor of the Guardian, saying that I would replace both Nick Cohen and Owen Jones for half the salary - amazing as it seems she rejected this offer. 

This was at a time when the Observer’s sage Nick Cohen wrote ‘Will there be 150, 125, 100 Labour MPs by the end of the flaying? My advice is to think of a number then halve it.’  Don’t tell me you weren’t warned about Corbyn

Corbyn doesn't realise that however a 'militant' opponent of antisemitism he is he will not be acceptable to the Zionists because their real concern is defence of Israel not antisemitism

I will therefore make another prediction.  The revitalised ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign we have seen in the past 6 weeks, is just the beginning. It is a weapon of mass expulsions. As long as Corbyn accepts that there are ‘pockets of anti-Semitism’ in the Labour Party, then he will be at the perpetual mercy of those whose real goal is his removal. Until Corbyn is gone the ‘anti-Semitism’ crisis will not abate.

It is important to understand that there is nothing that Corbyn can do to satisfy his accusers.  Every tweet, every blogpost will be ‘proof’ of anti-Semitism.  As long as Israel commits its war crimes in the name of the Jewish people so long will there be people who are fooled by this and use anti-Semitic terminology.  They are wrong to do so but the blame lies with the apologists for Israel’s war crimes. The only answer to this campaign is to stand up to it, to rebut its assumptions and to declare openly that Labour is opposed to an Apartheid State of Israel.

Chuka Ummuna and the Labour Right set out to damage Labour's prospects in the local elections.  There is no doubt that they had some success, not least in London. It is understandable that people want to spin the local election results but we should admit that they weren't as good as they could have been.

Jewish Labour Movement Campaigns Officer and ex-Councillor Adam Langlaben, this racist Zionist was defeated when he convinced his electorate that he and his fellow Zionists were antisemitic!!  He went down to defeat in West Hendon

Langleben toured the TV studios with his message that 'antisemitism' had defeated - strangely enough no other defeated councillor was offered the same facilities - media bias?  perish the thought

Ironically the Labour Right's greatest success was in Barnet, where Labour failed to take control of the Council on a small swing. Labour's Zionist councillors, in particular the Jewish Labour Movement’s [JLM] Campaigns Officer Adam Langleben and friends in West Hendon succeeded in convincing the electorate that Labour was ‘anti-Semitic’.  The result was they lost! In a classic display of Chutzpah Langleben complained that voters had been put off by Labour’s ‘anti-Semitism’!  Langleben it was who secretly filmed Jackie Walker at the ‘training’ session at Labour Party Conference 2016 which resulted in her suspension.

Unless Corbyn begins fighting back against the Israel’s supporters and the Zionist lobby he will never become Prime Minister.  It is worse than useless, when Labour is accused of being ‘riddled’ with anti-Semitism to say that he is a militant opponent of it. He and Israel’s apologists are talking about two different things. Corbyn means hatred of Jews when he talks about anti-Semitism.  Jonathan Arkush and the Zionists mean hatred of Israeli Apartheid and Zionism. That is why, after their recent talks, Arkush expressed his dissatisfaction because Corbyn couldn’t agree to his simple requests.

The Zionists wanted ‘a swift resolution of party disciplinary cases such as that of Ken Livingstone and Labour adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.’  None of these things have anything to do with anti-Semitism.

Jess Phillips - one of the lynch mob that accompanied liar Ruth Smeeth MP to Marc Wadsworth's hearing

Livingstone stated that Hitler supported Zionism.  Whether he was right or wrong is immaterial. The fact is that he spoke about Zionism not Jews or Judaism.  Unless you believe that Jews and Zionism are synonymous then the attack on Ken makes no sense and if you do believe that Jews and Zionism are the same thing then what you are saying is that anti-Semitism equals anti-Zionism, which is in itself an anti-Semitic statement!

This simple piece of logic entirely has entirely escaped Corbyn and his advisers.  The demand that Jackie Walker, a Black-Jew be expelled is obviously on account of her anti-Zionism. Even stranger is their demand for the full IHRA definition of anti-Semitism when there is a very simple 21 word definition of anti-Semitism from an academic expert on anti-Semitism, Dr Brian Klug:

antisemitism is a form of hostility to Jews as Jews, where Jews are perceived as something other than what they are.

The full IHRA definition, including 11 examples, comes to 450 words.  Why?  Because it takes that many words to conflate anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism!  Thus anyone who says the ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign isn’t about Israel and Zionism is either a liar, a fool or both. 

Sir Stephen Sedley, a Jewish former Court of Appeal Judge wrote that

‘the IHRA definition offers encouragement to pro-Israel militants whose targets for abuse and disruption in London have recently included the leading American scholar and critic of Israel Richard Falk’

Sedley described how the definition

‘gives respectability and encouragement to forms of intolerance which are themselves contrary to law, and higher education institutions in particular need to be aware of this.’

If we don’t learn the lessons of what happened in the past 6 weeks then we should not be surprised at the consequences which are Corbyn’s removal.

Ever since Corbyn was elected as Labour leader in September 2015, the Right has made it clear that he is unacceptable at any price and in any form.  This should not be a surprise. The Labour Rights is devoted to the ‘special relationship with the US. The US spends hundreds of millions of dollars on the CIA and its Intelligence agencies.   Their purpose is to keep the world safe for US interests.  You can imagine their shock when one of Britain’s leading left-wing politicians, anti-NATO, anti-Trident, anti-US invasion of Iraq and bombing in the Middle East was elected as leader of Britain’s second largest party. 

The idea that the CIA and and related agencies, in co‑ordination with their Israeli allies, would do nothing is absurd. The CIA are not paid hundreds of millions of dollars for nothing. Our own MI6 have a Domestic Subversion section.  Have people forgotten how the Police sent officers into environmental groups and even had children with female activists?  This is the deep state.

Ruth Smeeth - an agent of influence

There is no doubt that the campaign about ‘anti-Semitism’ in the Labour Party originates is a state sponsored campaign dirty tricks programme placed in friendly newspapers like the Daily Mail and the Guardian.  Jonathan Freedland has been particularly assiduous in spreading this state sponsored propaganda. We know for a fact that Ruth Smeeth is a US asset because Wikileaks got hold of US cables.

The demonstration in the summer of 2016 called by Momentum to defend Corbyn against an attempted coup this time Momentum or rather Lansman chose to be absent as Corbyn came under attack from Israel's supporters

At first the Labour Right were inclined to challenge Corbyn head on. There was Hilary Benn’s treachery with the staged resignations from the Shadow Cabinet in Summer 2016 and then the challenge from Angela Eagle and then Owen Smith.  Momentum rose to the occasion, with a demonstration on College Green outside the House of Commons as 172 Labour MPs, treated to the soaring rhetoric of the Welsh Windbag Neil Kinnock tried, in Dianne Abbot’s words, to ‘break the man’.  I went up with my son Tom, a young Corbynite and the atmosphere was heady.

The Zionist Demonstration - Harry Markham, a Jewish fascist is in the bottom right with the hat

Friends of the fascists Jonathan Hoffman and Harry Markham (in hat and bottom  right) are also against 'antisemitism'

Jonathan Hoffman (left) with Paul Besser, former Intelligence Officer of Britain First and Gemma Sheridan of the Jewish Defence League is in between them

Contrast this with today and the reactionary ‘Enough is enough’ demonstration under the auspices of the Board of Deputies. This is an openly Zionist organisation led by right-wing Tory Jonathan Arkush who welcomed Donald Trump and the anti-Semitic alt-Right to power in America. This despite the fact that Trump’s campaign employed anti-Semitic stereotypes and themes, see Anti-Semitism is no longer an undertone of Trump’s campaign. It’s the melody

At the Battle of Cable Street as Jewish workers confronted the fascists the Zionists and the Board of Deputies told Jews to stay indoors and keep their heads down

This was billed as an ‘anti-racist’ demonstration but it is must be the first time that the sectarian homophobic bigots of the Democratic Unions Party attended such a demonstration! Not only the DUP but that well known anti-racist Norman Tebbit, Michael Foot’s ‘semi-house trained polecat’ was also in attendance.  It is fortunate that didn’t devise a Jewish version of his notorious ‘cricket test’  (Asians who supported the Indian/Pakistani cricket teams were held not to really be British). It was the first anti-racist demonstration that the Board has organised. In 1936 when the British Union of Fascists tried to march through the Jewish East End of London, the Board vociferously opposed any counter demonstration.  Stay inside they advised and ignore the anti-Semites. Thousands of Jewish demonstrators ignored them and successfully stopped the fascists together with non-Jewish workers in the Battle of Cable Street.

The main chant at the Zionist demonstration, which included openly fascist Zionists such as Harry Markham and Jonathan Hoffman, was ‘Jeremy is a racist’. The demonstration was attended by numerous Tory and right-wing Labour Right MPs. Yet where was Momentum ? Completely absent. Jon Lansman’s refusal to mobilise any opposition to this anti-Corbyn demonstration was an act of treachery.

This demonstration was a reaction to the synthetic furore over a 6 year old mural, long erased, which Corbyn had defended on free speech grounds. It was claimed that it was anti-Semitic but on any objective viewing it depicted bankers not Jews, dining on the back of Black sweated labour. It was anti-banker not anti-Jewish and if you think bankers are all Jewish well you are anti-Semitic!

This mural was the pretext for the insertion into the election campaign of the false ‘anti-Semitism’ narrative. This was a weapon that had already been tried out even before Corbyn was elected when it was alleged he associated with holocaust deniers. It surfaced in January 2016 in the Oxford University Labour Club affair, which Asa Winstanley debunked. The most dedicated anti-racist Labour MP who was arrested outside the South Africa  High Commission in Trafalgar Square in the days of Apartheid was now being called a racist.

In the 2½  years since we have had a non-stop diet of ‘anti-Semitism’. It is no coincidence that nearly all the victims of this campaign have been Jewish, Black anti-racists – Tony Greenstein, Jackie Walker, Marc Wadsworth, Cyril Chilson. It is obvious that the ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign is not about anti-Semitism.

Jackie Walker was subject to what I described on 17^th September 2016 to a political lynching even before the 2016 Labour Conference where she attended a secretly taped ‘training event’ run by the JLM. Shortly after Jackie was suspended for saying that groups other than Jews should be included in Holocaust Memorial Day and that she hadn’t come across a definition of anti-Semitism that she could work with. This was the cue for Lansman to remove Jackie as Momentum Vice-Chair. Shortly afterwards Jackie was suspended. Cyril, Marc and I have since been expelled. Having the JLM take a training session on antiracism was like Nick Griffin of the BNP lecturing on multi-culturalism!

The JLM is the ‘sister party’ of the Israeli Labour Party, an openly racist party that supports Netanyahu’s attempts to deport 40,000 Black African refugees from Israel because, in the words of Prime Minister Netanyahu they threaten Israel’s Jewish identity. [See The violent roots of Israel's Labor party]

The Zionists react angrily to any suggestion that their concerns about ‘anti-Semitism’ have anything to do with Israel. They complain that the ‘victim’ is being denied the right to define their own oppression (though Jewish anti-Zionists are never seen as victims). But when you read what they say it is clear that they are incapable of differentiating between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. In their Open Letter to Corbyn, Arkush and Goldstein stated that:

“Again and again, Jeremy Corbyn has sided with anti-Semites rather than Jews. At best, this derives from the far left’s obsessive hatred of Zionism, Zionists and Israel. At worst, it suggests a conspiratorial worldview in which mainstream Jewish communities are believed to be a hostile entity, a class enemy.”  (my emphasis)

They can’t help themselves. If there was any doubt about this then Arkush put it to bed when he described Jewdas, a group of Jewish anarchists, as a ‘source of virulent anti-Semitism’.

Lucianer Berger ex-headof Israeli dirty tricks PR group BICOM

That is why the decision of Corbyn to accept that Labour has an ‘anti-Semitism’ problem is so stupid and counter-productive.  What he is doing is accepting the bona fides of a campaign whose sole purpose is to get rid of him. When the whole of the right-wing press, the same press that attacks George Soros using the anti-Semitic stereotype of a ‘puppet master’, is adopting the ‘anti-Semitism’ narrative then it is absurd for Corbyn to throwaway his defences. 77% of Labour Party members refuse to accept that the Labour Party is full of anti-Semites.

What we saw in the election was a determined campaign by right-wing Labour MPs to use anti-Semitism as a weapon to attack Corbyn by damaging Labour’s chances in the local elections. When the Tories staged their debate on anti-Semitism in Parliament it gave the chance to Labour’s right-wing– Smeeth, Luciana Berger, John Mann – to attack their own leader. These creatures would prefer Labour to lose to the Tories than win under Corbyn. It is important to grasp this essential truth.

Most Black anti-racist activists see Chuka Ummuna as politically White

Chuka Ummuna has been waging a one man war against Corbyn over anti-Semitism. Here is an MP, who is nominally Black and yet has next to nothing to say about the Windrush scandal.  It is incredible.  Anti-Semitism is not a form of state racism, racism against Black people is.

Jewish people aren’t being hauled out of their beds and put on the next plane out of the country. Jews aren’t being denied hospital treatment or loss of benefits or being told to ‘go home’. Jews don’t face deaths in custody or synagogues being firebombed or worshippers run over outside the synagogue. These are the experience of Black and Muslim people. 

Anti-Semitism is largely confined to social media. No one has died from a tweet or a Facebook post. In the Independent less than two weeks before the elections, he wrote an article attacking Labour over ‘anti-Semitism’ whilst playing down the racism of the Windrush Affair which has seen Black citizens of this country for 70 years deported. 

Ummuna wrote that ‘We can’t attack the racism that may lie behind the Tories’ mistreatment of the Windrush generation when we don’t get our own house in order on hate’.  Note that  ‘racism may lie behind the Tories’ mistreatment’.  He isn’t even certain whether the ‘hostile environment’ policy of the Tories is racist and he describes denying cancer treatment to someone as ‘mistreatment’ rather than say racist abuse or attempted murder.

You couldn’t get much gentler but then Ummuna was among those Labour MPs who abstained, i.e. supported the Government’s 2014 Immigration Act.  Only 8 Labour MPs voted against this Act including Corbyn, McDonnell and Abbot.

John Mann- rent a mouth MP demonstrates that he is a  racist bigot whose concerns about antisemitism are entirely bogus

John Mann, the rent-a-mouth MP for Bassetlaw is a racist viper. In his speech in the ‘anti-Semitism’ debate he alleged that Momentum had something to do with his wife being sent a dead bird in 2012, three years before Momentum was even formed! This is an MP who produced a legal guide to Anti-Social Behaviour which has sections such as ‘‘loitering by youths’, ‘graffiti’, ‘neighbours from hell’, ‘alcohol’ – and ‘travellers’.

In the section on ‘Travellers’, there is a big, bold strapline “the Police have powers to remove any gypsies and travellers” (sic).  Mann’s concern with ‘anti-Semitism’ contrasts with virulent racism when it comes to the Roma, who were also victims of the Holocaust.

Lansman's Momentum is similar to the Mountain troll in Harry Potter's The Sorcerer's Stone - brawn without brain

Lansman’s Momentum resembles the Mountain Troll in Harry Potter’s The Sorcerer’s Stone.  It is 40,000 strong and yet politically it is ineffective and inarticulate.  In its statement on anti-Semitism, after having maintained radio silence for two weeks, it spoke of the ‘numerous cases of antisemitism in the Labour Party’ as being the product of an ‘unconscious bias’. It went on to state that ‘accusations of antisemitism should not and cannot be dismissed simply as right wing smears nor as the result of conspiracies.’ 

Momentum, because of Lansman openly Zionist politics, has run up the white flag over the Right’s ‘anti-Semitism’ attack. When the main, left-wing Corbyn group accepts their bogus narrative then this demonstrates that the pro-Corbyn movement is politically weak.  

Momentum rode the crest of a wave at the last general election but this time it was different. The Right controlled the narrative and Corbyn was unable to break free. So when Momentum pushed hundreds of people into Wandsworth they didn’t get the massive swings they expected. Indeed they may have been counter-productive. Momentum has been seduced by the myths of its own achievements last June just as New Labour believed that its spin machine won it the 1997 General Election. 

Roma child in the hands of a Nazi soldier

It doesn't matter whether Momentum is 40,000 or 100,000 strong. Politically it is at the mercy of Lansman's caprices. Its lack of any democracy is crippling it.  It is incapable of responding to the attacks of the Right because its membership are disenfranchised.

We face a situation where 60+ Labour MPs, led by Mann, Ummuna, Smeeth and Berger are making it crystal clear that they will not, under any circumstances support  Corbyn for Prime Minister if he were in a position to form a government.  If these Red Tories are not removed then we can say goodbye to a Corbyn government.  The easiest way would be through the removal of the whip or reselection but Lansman is also opposed to this.

Not only do we need to reject the false anti-Semitism narrative but to oppose the witchhunt which is back to the proportions it was under McNicol. Jennie Formy is now presiding over the same undemocratic Compliance Unit.  Christine Shawcroft was stabbed in the back by Lansman and Corbyn. We need to build Labour Against the Witchhunt.

The false antisemitism campaign in the Labour Party has made people afraid of raising the issue and succeeded in stopping support for the Palestinians

The ‘anti-Semitism’ narrative is responsible for people being afraid to raise the question of Palestine and Zionism. The false anti-Semitism campaign is importing Israeli ‘democracy’ into the Labour Party and having a chilling effect on free speech.

Above all we need to say that the days of the Labour Friends of Israel and JLM are over.  What other party allows a foreign party to affiliate to it. We didn’t have a Labour Friends of South Africa during the days of Apartheid and we don’t need a Labour Friends of Israeli Apartheid either. The JLM should have their privileges as a socialist society removed.

Tony Greenstein