Jewish Voice for Labour & the Politics of Self-Indulgence - Nothing to say on Palestine or Zionism

Jews in the Labour Party should oppose Israeli Apartheid not obsess about identity politics

What is the point of Jewish politics today?  At the end of the 19^th and beginning of the 20^th century, when most British Jews arrived as refugees from the pogroms of Czarist Russia, Jewish politics had a very specific dynamic.  They were directed against the masters of the sweat shops as represented by the formation of some 30 plus Jewish trade unions. 

Jewish politics meant involvement in the politics of the day.  In 1902 the proto-fascist British Brothers League, headed by William Evans Gordon, MP for Stepney, was formed in the East End.  Its purpose?  To put a stop to Jewish immigration.  Alone among Jewish groups, it was the Zionists who sympathised with the BBL.  Chaim Weizmann wrote that 

‘‘‘our people were rather hard on him.... Sir William Evans-Gordon had no particular anti-Jewish prejudices... He acted as he thought, according to his best lights and in the most kindly way, in the interests of his country…. he was sincerely ready to encourage any settlement of Jews almost anywhere in the British Empire, but he failed to see why the ghettos of London or Leeds or Whitechapel should be made into a branch of the ghettos of Warsaw and Pinsk. [Trial and Error, pp. 90-91)

Another ‘friend’ of the Jews was Arthur James Balfour, the Tory Prime Minister who introduced the Aliens Act of 1905 which restricted Jewish immigration.  In 1917 he sent a letter, the Balfour Declaration to Lord Rothschild sealing the alliance between the fledgling Zionist movement and British imperialism. 

Jewish politics until the second world war were about the fight against poverty and anti-Semitism.  Only the middle and upper classes were concerned with Zionism.

Today that has changed.  Virtually no Jews live in London’s East End.  Their place has been taken by Bengali immigrants.  Jews are no longer the main victims of fascism or racism.  Jews do not experience Police violence, deaths in custody or state racism.  They do not experience economic discrimination.

Jewish politics have changed out of all recognition.  Pick up a copy of the Jewish Chronicle and the main topic of interest revolves around Israel.  Jews today serve the purpose of providing an alibi for Israel and its policies.  The standard response to campaigns against Israel or Zionism is the charge of ‘anti-Semitism’. 

Hence why, for two years, even before Jeremy Corbyn was elected as leader of the Labour Party, the Zionist movement has waged an anti-Semitism smear campaign.  In August 2015, Corbyn was accused of links with a holocaust denier Paul Eisen.

At the forthcoming Labour Party Conference the Jewish Labour Movement will seek to move a Rule Change which will mean that any supporter of Israel can claim to be a ‘victim’ of anti-Semitism if the issue of Palestine is raised.  

False accusations of ‘anti-Semitism’ have been the principal weapon of the Right in the Labour Party.  Supporting Austerity or cutting benefits is unattractive politically.  Even supporting the bombing of Syrians and Yemenis isn’t as appealing as opposing ‘anti-Semitism’ and defending Israel’s ‘right to exist’. Cloaking yourself in the mantle of the Holocaust and ‘anti-Semitism’ even though you are supporting a 50 year old military occupation and the Apartheid State of Israel, is seen as offering better political dividends.  ‘Anti-Semitism’ is the go to weapon of choice for Labour’s Right.

Jeremy Newmark - Chair of the Jewish Labour Movement who was captured by Al Jazeera openly working with the Israeli Embassy in its infiltration of the Labour Party

Because the Jewish Labour Movement claims that they represent all Jews in the Labour Party no one doubts that an alternative Jewish organisation is necessary which stands for the principles of anti-racism and support for the Palestinians.  That is why any Jewish group worth its salt must be primarily concerned with rebutting the allegation that to support the Palestinians and to oppose Zionism makes one anti-Semitic.  Jewish socialists task is to sever the connection between being Jewish and supporting Israel.

Unfortunately Jewish Voices for Labour which has just been set up doesn’t want to so much challenge the politics of the JLM as avoid them.  Its founding statement of principles completely avoids saying anything about the Right’s ‘anti-Semitism’ smear campaign which has led to the suspension of Ken Livingstone, Jackie Walker, myself and others.  Indeed it wants to say as little as possible about Palestine and Zionism.  This is not accidental.

Jewish Voices for Labour Statement of Principles

Founding member Rachel Lever of Jews 4 Justice 4 Palestinians explained in an email to others her role in drafting the JVL’s founding statement.  She wanted a Jewish group that would explore its own ‘heritage’ and engage in navel gazing.  A Jewish consciousness raising group for which the whole Palestine/Israel/Zionist thing was an unnecessary encumbrance.  The purpose of the new group was:

To discard the shackles and gather with other Jews to explore, celebrate, critique etc our heritage at this juncture without the Israel thing, and in the context of the resurgence and ascendancy in the Labour Party of values that we share in some part because of our Jewishness.

Having a Jewish statement that omits Israel and Zionism (in either a positive or a negative formulation) is implicitly part of the argument that antisemitism and antizionism needs to be uncoupled from each other....

If anyone can’t live without the words Israel, Zionism, Palestine, Gaza, BDS (and why not add Occupation, the Wall, administrative detention, land theft, child prisoners, war crimes, apartheid, racism, settlements etc etc) then this is not the organisation for them.

So there we have it.  What Lever calls ‘the Israel thing’ is part of the ‘shackles’ of being Jewish.  Whilst many Jews are active in rejecting a Zionist movement that has linked up with Trump, Orban, Bannon and the alt-Right, Lever and co. prefer to sit around ‘exploring, celebrating, critiquing etc. their heritage’.  Quite what they think they will discover is mind boggling because, as Sivanandan explained, identity is what you do and who we are not what you think. 

Ian Saville, the Jewish Socialist Group enforcer (& socialist magician!) speaking a year ago at a meeting against the witch hunt with Jackie Walker - today the JSG had to be dragged into issuing any statement regarding Jackie

But to Lever, Amanda Sebastyen and others, Israel and Zionism is an optional extra. It is a lifestyle choice not a permanent political commitment. Going on a demonstration is a recreational activity.

The purpose of a Jewish group in the Labour Party is political or it is nothing.  Zionism deliberately conflates being Jewish and being Zionist.  Any Jewish group that claims to be socialist has no choice but to challenge the JLM and Labour Friends of Israel. It has a political and moral duty to oppose the actions of those who claim Israel’s war crimes in the name of all Jews. 

It is interesting that Rachel Lever explicitly rejects the second of her four choices that she articulates in her email viz. 'To spend our lives and energies exposing it [Israel] and campaigning for justice for Palestinians, thus making its negation also an intrinsic part of our identity.'  Most of the 'non-Zionist' peace wing of JfJP aren't so explicit in saying what they really believe so we should be grateful to Rachel.

When asked about Israel's 'right to exist' the response was that JVL was a British group and therefore has no position on any state!

It has been suggested that we should judge JVL more by what it does than by what its founding principles say.  I disagree. What confidence can one have in an organisation that dares not speak its mind, that doesn't openly state what it believes in and which hides its principles behind a bushel?  Who does it think it is deceiving?  Surely not the JLM.  That is dishonest politics.

 

I fully understand why Asa Winstanley of Electronic Intifada, should welcome the formation of JVL, as an alternative non-Zionist Jewish group in the Labour Party. Asa is not alone in wanting to see an alternative to the execrable JLM, the British wing of the racist Israeli Labour Party, and LFI, which is an extension of the Israeli Embassy inside the Labour Party.

It is therefore regrettable that JVL has not only been set up undemocratically but a Founding Statement of Principles has been issued which is politically disingenuous.

Despite being asked to sign a statement of support for JVL, I was not invited to its inaugural meeting when a founding statement was agreed.  Nor were other Jewish anti-Zionists including the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.

It is clear that those who were instrumental in the formation of this group, in particular Jews for Justice for Palestinians and the Jewish Socialists Group, were determined that JVL would neither be a democratic nor a campaigning group inside the Labour Party on the issue of Palestine and Zionism.  In particular they they did not want it to be seen to oppose the JLM’s Zionist agenda.  Instead of debating out differences openly, its founders have used administrative methods to exclude potential critics.

I issued a statement a week ago Some Comments on the Formation of Jewish Voices for Labour. which I sent to members of JVL's Facebook group. I then applied to join the FB group and was accepted.  However that didn’t last very long.  Almost immediately Ian Saville, warned me not to ‘attack’ members of the Steering Committee and in particular not to ‘disparage the process of its formation’.  Clearly democracy isn’t one of JVL’s strong points.  When I responded to this warning with JVL – What are they scared of? I was removed from the group.

What are the problems with Jewish Voices for Labour

1.      JVL’s formation was undemocratic, effectively a stitch-up between leading members of JfJP and JSG.

2.      Given that the JLM have been waging a false-anti-Semitism campaign for nearly two years it is unbelievable that JVL have nothing to say about this campaign.  On the JVL FB group, some members of the group were openly calling for support for the expulsion of Livingstone.

3.      JVL takes no position on giving concrete support for the Palestinians.  It isn’t necessary to take an explicitly anti-Zionist position but when the JLM is saying that even to use the word ‘Zionist’ is abusive it is political cowardice to avoid the word.  Zionism is the racist ideology and movement that led to Israel, a Jewish supremacist state.  A state which has reduced Gaza to a human rights disaster yet Gaza too is not mentioned.

4.      Perhaps the single most important issue in terms of solidarity is the question of BDS.  JVL supports the right of others to support BDS however it abstains from supporting BDS itself.  Nor does it make any mention of the Palestinian Right of Return. 

5.      JVL is Jewish only.  There is often a good reason for having specific Jewish solidarity groups (e.g. Jews for boycotting Israeli Goods, JfJP etc.) but in terms of the Labour Party it is important to have a common front against Zionist reaction and that must include non-Jews.  Ironically even the JLM accept non-Jews.  It is a concession to chauvinism to exclude non-Jews from the organisation.

6.      The statement makes no mention of the Zionist campaign to redefine anti-Semitism, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition. When the Zionists are waging campaigns against our very right to campaign on Palestine and smear Palestinian supporters as ‘anti-Semitic’, to pretend this is not happening is unreal.

When the Zionists and the Right explicitly link being Jewish and supporting Israel, to refuse to mention Israel or Zionism is not some brilliant political manoeuvre but an act of political cowardice.  The Labour Party is not a knitting circle.  The idea that the JLM is going to be defeated by this political sleight of hand is wishful thinking.  The way to ‘decouple’ anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism is not by pretending the debate doesn’t exist but by engaging in it and politically challenging the supporters of Zionism. 

Email of Rachel Lever and Amanda Sebestyen

Below is some of the correspondence preceding the setting up of Jewish Voices for Labour 

Email from Rachel Lever re founding of JVLOn 8 Jul 2017, at 20:26, Rachel Lever wrote:One of Zionism’s greatest triumphs has been to shackle Jews the world over to Israel, defined by it either positively or negatively. IHRA is the latest in a long line of such shackles. Jews have four choices  1. To “Love Israel” and make it part of our identity 2. To spend our lives and energies exposing it and campaigning for justice for Palestinians, thus making its negation also an intrinsic part of our identity  3. To abstain or compromise or have “doubts” which still leaves us marked by Israel 4. To discard the shackles and gather with other Jews to explore, celebrate, critique etc our heritage at this juncture without the Israel thing, and in the context of the resurgence and ascendancy in the Labour Party of values that we share in some part because of our Jewishness. There is in any case no need for yet another Jewish Anti-Z organisation, in or out of the Labour Party.  There is however an absolute imperative to deny to the JLM the status of “Labour’s Jewish voice” and the harm they can do using that monopoly. In practical terms, omitting Israel may make this alternative Jewish voice more effective and authentic and deny the JLM their franchise, than if we simply invert their pro-Israel identity and become anti-Z “usual suspects”..... I freely confess to having drafted some of the wording of the statement. It is intended both to help to create something slightly different for which I believe there is a genuine gap in the market (and which might yield some new faces and insights), and to stake a claim against the heinous new “definitions” of antisemitism that explicitly connect Jews to Israel.  Having a Jewish statement that omits Israel and Zionism (in either a positive or a negative formulation) is implicitly part of the argument that antisemitism and antizionism needs to be uncoupled from each other. Needless to say, membership is entirely voluntary. If anyone can’t live without the words Israel, Zionism, Palestine, Gaza, BDS (and why not add Occupation, the Wall, administrative detention, land theft, child prisoners, war crimes, apartheid, racism, settlements etc etc) then this is not the organisation for them. Rachel From: Haim Bresheeth Sent: 09 July 2017 09:27To: Rachel LeverCc: Michael Kalmanovitz; mailings@jfjfp.com; Jonathan Rosenhead; Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi; Mike Cushman; richard kuper; Amanda Sebestyen
Subject: Re: FREE SPEECH AND ISRAEL: A CALL TO LABOUR PARTY MEMBERS Interesting, Rachel. Than the new organisation is devoted to silencing the debate on Palestine? To keeping mum on the anti-Semitism lies and slurs? To avoid speaking on the long list of topic you number? Well, my my, I thought that was the role of JLM, and it was already doing that rather well… So JVL will try to replace JLM in making Palestine and the occupation invisible? Now it is all clear, at last.
Yes, maybe that is not an organisation I need not consider joining. I am very impressed by the pride you voice inhaling been at the cradle of its auspicious birth… HaimProf. Haim Bresheeth Professorial Research AssociateFaculty of Arts and Humanities School of Oriental and African Studies And Director of Camera Obscura Films

---

On 8 Jul 2017, at 23:09, Amanda Sebestyen wrote:I think this sums up the role and importance of JVL beautifully, Rachel.

---

From: Michael Kalmanovitz Sent: 08 July 2017 11:05To: 'Haim Bresheeth'; mailings@jfjfp.comCc: 'Jonathan Rosenhead'; 'Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi'; 'Rachel Lever'; 'Mike Cushman'; 'richard kuper'; 'Amanda Sebestyen'Subject: RE: FREE SPEECH AND ISRAEL: A CALL TO LABOUR PARTY MEMBERS Haim Bresheeth said “three important words have not made their way to this text: Israel, Palestine and Zionism”.  May we add two more to his: “Gaza” – which is the best known example of Israel’s slaughter of the innocents; and “BDS” – the massive & growing international non-violent antiracist boycott movement.
Are we to assume therefore that these will not be central issues of the group that this letter is proposing to form? 
The Jewish Labour Movement, Labour Friends of Israel, Progress, & the Israeli embassy have constantly sought to undermine the most radical & massive movement we have seen in the Labour Party for many years (as seen on Aljazeera!). This movement, called forth by the election of Jeremy Corbyn, is the greatest protection for every sector that is discriminated against. In your text there is no mention of or commitment to it. The Zionist/right-wing’s weapon of choice against this movement are manufactured allegations of antisemitism to manipulate themselves into power in the Labour Party, and undermine Corbyn & McDonnell. (They were able to deprive us of Ken 

"what is your proposed organisation for?"                       Michael Kalmanovitz

Livingstone’s considerable electioneering skills during the campaign.)  The election result has slowed down the Zionists/right-wing. 
Bearing all this in mind, what is your proposed organisation for? 
If JVL isn’t opposing what the Israeli occupation is doing to Palestinian people, promoting BDS, opposing the Zionist/right-wing’s undermining of the new movement, what else should people organised as Jews within the Labour Party who are not Zionists be forming an organisation to accomplish?
Surely JVL will not want to resurrect the antisemitism “discussion”, which is what the Zionist/right-wing wants, taking the focus off defeating the red Tories & the blue.

---

From: Haim Bresheeth
Sent: 29 June 2017 17:20To: mailings@jfjfp.comCc: Michael Kalmanovitz; Jonathan Rosenhead; Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi; Rachel Lever; Mike Cushman; richard kuper; Amanda Sebestyen
Subject: Re: FREE SPEECH AND ISRAEL: A CALL TO LABOUR PARTY MEMBERS Dear Jenny Manson, Thank you for sending me the proposed text for JVL attached below. I have read this carefully, only to discover that three important words have not made their way to this text: Israel, Palestine and Zionism… If we are to have an Jewish progressive alternative to JLM, which I, as ~ member of the party would love, why can it not outline some differences, and open some distance between us and them?  Otherwise, what is the point? From the wording below, most people would not work out why there needs to be another Jewish grouping in the Labour Party… I hope a group can be set up of which I would like to be a member! HaimProf. Haim Bresheeth

Proposal to set up a new Jewish Organisation within the Labour Party - Who We Are

Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) is a network for all Jews in the Labour party.

Our political priorities are universal human rights and dignity; justice for all; freedom of speech and free-thinking; and democracy in the Labour Party. 

Our mission is to contribute to making the Labour Party an open, democratic and tolerant party, encouraging all ethnic groups and cultures to join and participate freely. As such we aim to strengthen the party in its opposition to all forms of racism including antisemitism, broadening the party’s appeal to all sections of British society.

We take our inspiration from the long history of Jewish involvement in the socialist and trade-union movement and in antiracist and antifascist struggles including the civil-rights movement. We stand for rights and justice for Jews everywhere without wrongs and injustice to other people anywhere.

At a time of profound divisions in Jewish communities, JVL offers a space to explore and debate the many questions (personal, social, cultural, political) that are important to us as progressive Labour Jews. We aim to create an alternative voice on the left for the Jewish values and heritage we can all be proud of.  

We will work where appropriate with existing groups concerned with Jewish issues from an internationalist and anti-racist perspective.

We will try to arrange a meeting in a couple of weeks time to agree a minimal set of rules, membership fees and to elect such officers as decided then. We will aim to launch publicly at the Labour Party conference in September.

Please add your voice to ours by replying to jewishvoiceforlabour@gmail.com

Signed:

Jenny Manson, co-convenor
Ian Saville, co-convenor

Julia Bard
Graham Bash
Pam Blakelock
Mike Cushman
Richard Kuper
Pam Laurance
Rachel Lever
David Rosenberg
Jonathan Rosenhead
Amanda Sebestyen
Glyn Secker
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi

Of the 8 people who 'liked' the decision, at least 3 are Jewish Socialists Group and one, Miriam Yagud is a Green Party member who has called for Livingstone's expulsion

How my exclusion was announced to the JVL list - no mention of who is excluded still less the reason why.  But as Leah Levane explained there are more important things than democracy.  

A Warning Message from Ian Saville – Please Desist from Criticism

Hello Tony, I am writing to you as one of the administrators of the JVL Facebook Group. Whatever your intention, the effect of your interventions in the group in the short time in which you have belonged to it are likely to have a negative effect on the functioning and perception of the group. The group should be a place where people with a diverse range of opinions can engage in comradely discussion without being attacked or denigrated. Your posts attacking the steering group (of which I am not a member) and other people posting on the page seem provocative and divisive, and have caused concern to other members. If you persist with such posts you will be removed from the group. It seems also that even before joining the group you circulated some of its members with unsolicited material attacking the JVL and disparaging the process of its formation. This has also been a matter of concern to some who received your message. Please take this as a warning and desist from this sort of behaviour, as any further instances will result in you being immediately excluded from the group. 

Yours, Ian Saville

Better Late than Never - Jewish Socialists Group Finally Supports Jackie Walker

Unfortunately the statement is extremely weak and it fails to come to terms with Jewish racism

Well it was a long time coming and followed a particularly tetchy response by David Rosenberg to queries by Debbie Fink as to why the JSG was not supporting Jackie Walker.  Our questions were reasonable ones to ask of a group that calls itself socialist.  Why, when the Jewish Labour Movement, the British wing of the racist Israeli Labour Party, had engineered Jackie's suspension from the Labour Party, had the JSG said nothing about either that or Jon Lansman, who was a JSG member and who had been actively complicit in the campaign against Jackie? The latter question is still unanswered.

Gideon Falter - Racist Chair of the racist 'charity' Campaign Against Antisemitism and Trustee/Director of the Jewish National Fund UK, who has been spearheading the attack on Jackie Walker and other anti-Zionists

It would be easy for this blog to claim credit for the fact that we have embarrassed the JSG leadership into finally, reluctantly agreeing to write to the Labour Party supporting Jackie Walker.  However this is a pyrrhic victory in many ways.

i.           The JSG have not publicised their support for Jackie.

ii.          The JSG have not disowned Lansman

iii.         The JSG have still treated aspects of the ‘anti-Semitism witch-hunt’ as bona fide rather than as a disgusting racist witch-hunt of Black and Asian people.

The racist nature of the witch-hunt has been largely ignored.  We can see this in the disgusting attacks on Malaka Mohammed by the McCarthyite Campaign Against Antisemitism.  [see Character assassination as a tool to silence a Palestinian activist].  Malakha is a student from Gaza at Exeter University who has been subject to the same character assassination by the CAA as many other people.  She is someone who has experienced  particular traumas as a result of her experiences at the hands of a self-declared 'Jewish' state.   

Character assassination as a tool to silence a Palestinian activi - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2017/03/character-assassination-palestinian/#sthash.s74QmIp7.dpuf

Character assassination as a tool to silence a Palestinian activi - See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2017/03/character-assassination-palestinian/#sthash.s74QmIp7.dpuf

For a long time the JSG has basked in the golden warmth of a Jewish group seen to say the right things and make the right noises on Israel in progressive circles whilst rarely getting its hands dirty.  It has largely remained absent from the fight for BDS, against Zionism and for Palestine solidarity in this country, apart from carrying its banner at different demonstrations.  It has in particular failed to understand that much of what is called 'anti-Semitism' is a product of the fact that the role of the organised Jewish community institutions and its representatives in this country has been to undermine the Palestine solidarity movement.  

Ian Saville speaking in May 2016 at a Momentum/LRC meeting in Brighton in support of Jackie (pictured)

Despite having a nominally good position on the false anti-Semitism campaign in practice the JSG have not contributed to the campaign.  The first reaction of Dave Rosenberg to questions about what its position on Jackie was that such inquiries were:

‘‘based on ignorance and vituperation, they were not worth responding to. The JSG is solely accountable to its members, not to you, nor to FSOI, nor to any other groups we may or may not be connected with or work with.’ 

Realising that this was hardly adequate, David then issued a ‘Statement of Clarification re Debbie Fink’s questions re JSG, Jews for Jeremy, and John Lansman. This is for information. We won’t be making further comment on this matter as we have more important work to do.’

David Rosenberg - has issued the JSG's a succession of statements concerning the JSG's position on the witch hunt

Unfortunately the 'Statement of Clarification' was anything but clear.  Apart from informing us that 'Our group is anti-Zionist but does not go in for gratuitous and childish demonisation of those who identify as Zionists', which in practice has meant avoiding the subject altogether and defending its removal of critics from both the JSG's own Facebook page and that of Jews for Jeremy it said very little.

David wrote that 'we have, reluctantly, had to block people for misusing our page by posting anti-Corbyn material, abusive sectarian political material, or re-posting material by those who they know have been blocked from the page. [me!] It is for these reasons that J4J collectively decided to block Debbie Fink.'  It would be churlish to even try to unpick this but J4J has never decided anything 'collectively' unless that means David, Julia and Ian Saville having a conversation!

The inadequacy of this statement meant that despite saying it was the last word on the subject, it clearly wasn't, thus why the statement below was issued.  It seems however that the JSG have decided to keep its circulation to the minimum. It is titled ‘For information (and to dispel misinformation which continues to be put about)’ which makes it clear that its purpose is not one of solidarity but an attempt to protect the JSG's reputation.

The first paragraph is unexceptionable but it really doesn’t seem to grasp the magnitude of the problem, as the Al Jazeera programmes ‘The Lobby illustrated.  What we have seen is an exercise in state-sponsored destabilisation of the Labour Party and we are also witnessing a wholesale attack on the Palestine solidarity movement using the weapon of 'anti-Semitism'

Julia Bard - has been the policewoman of both the JSG and J4J Facebook groups removing anyone who dissented from or criticised the JSG's refusal to speak up over the racist witch-hunt of Jackie Walker

Julia Bard's instruction to JSG anti-racist activist Ruth Appleton not to associate the JSG with opposition to Lansman's witch-hunt of Jackie Walker - it has taken nearly 5 months for the JSG to make up their mind

The statement says that ‘there are a small number of cases of genuine antisemitism expressed by Labour party members that the Party must deal with firmly’.  I have seen no expressions of explicit anti-Semitism or Holocaust denial.  Where people have expressed themselves clumsily using anti-Semitic language or concepts this is entirely due to the fact that the Zionist propaganda campaign deliberately conflates the Jewish community and Israel.  It is not surprising that if you consistently associate Jews with Israeli war crimes and tell people that to oppose Zionism or support the Palestinians is anti-Semitic, that some people, very few, will make that false choice and take them at their word. 

For example I picked up a comrade in Brighton who attended a Momentum meeting for his belief that the Rothchilds were behind the dirty tricks campaigns and the anti-Semitism witch-hunt.  The person concerned was not in any way anti-Jewish or hostile and he would have been horrified to be accused of anti-Semitism.  Nonetheless he had imbibed this particular piece of nonsense, as have a number of other people, as a way of explaining the powerful attack by the Zionists on people like Jackie.

Jeremy Newmark of the Jewish Labour Movement has worked in close collaboration with the Israeli Embassy in furthering the 'anti-Semitism' witch-hunt

The present campaign, led by the Jewish Labour Movement and the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism to tar all Palestine solidarity work with the brush of anti-Semitism is nothing less than a defence of white privilege and racism.  That is the meaning of an alliance that includes  Theresa May, Eric Pickles, figures on the Labour Right such as Chuka Ummuna and Tom Watson, Jeremy Newmark of the JLM and Gideon Falter of the CAA.  I classify someone like C Ummuna as White politically. Included for example in the dossier against Jackie Walker is a statement of condemnation by five figures from the Zionist community including Gideon Falter of the CAA, an out and out racist who is a trustee of the Jewish National Fund.    

This alliance also includes the Police establishment who have happily adopted the Zionists' IHRA definition of anti-Semitism.  It is a campaign that carries the full support of the British state and unfortunately Jeremy Corbyn.  Corbyn’s support for the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism is disgraceful and should have been called out long before.  Corbyn’s acceptance of the IHRA definition and the legitimacy of the false anti-Semitism campaign is a weapon that will  and has been used against him.   

Free Speech of Israel picket of Momentum meeting where Jon Lansman, a JSG member, moved the removal of Jackie Walker as Momentum Vice Chair - JSG statement doesn't mention Lansman's role

To try to suppress criticism of Corbyn on this and other matters does not strengthen, it weakens the Corbyn leadership.  In the 'Statement of Clarification' David Rosenberg wrote that 

'The J4J page is NOT a place for those who wish to attack, disparage, abuse or insult Corbyn and the political stance he represents.... On a very few occasions since then we have, reluctantly, had to block people for misusing our page by posting anti-Corbyn material,'

What that means in practice is that as Corbyn has retreated over Zionism and Palestine, going along with the witch hunt whilst assuring people that he himself is not anti-Semitic, it has been impossible on the J4J FB page to criticise him because the whole political purpose of the page, as defined by a small coterie of JSG leaders, is to engage in nothing more than sycophantic adulation of Corbyn.  Regardless of whether his going along with the anti-Semitism witch hunt is actually harming his position, no one is allowed to criticise this.  It has meant that there has been no pushback in a group that could have been influential.  J4J could have put to Corbyn that the 'anti-Semitism' that Falter, Arkush and co. was talking about had nothing to do with discrimination against or hostility to Jews as Jews.

The campaign around the false ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign represent white privilege and white racism in this society and the fact that the JSG have finally, belatedly, come on board suggests that they still don’t get it.  Opposition to anti-semitism is an establishment form of anti-racism.  It is an anti-racism entirely divorced from how society operates and is organised. It is a depoliticised form of racism, which substitutes difference for oppression and exploitation.  It counterposes the identity of White minorities like Jews to the very real oppression of migrants, refugees and students from Palestine.

It is no coincidence that those most affected by it have been Black members of the Labour Party and Black Connexions - people like Marlene Ellis and Marc Wadsworth.  Wadworth was set up at the Chakrbarti press conference by that disgusting State agent Ruth Smeeth MP.  

As Asa Winstanley notes in an article for Electronic Intifada, a 2009 US embassy cable from London, revealed by Chelsea Manning and published by Wikileaks, states that Smeeth is a source they should “strictly protect.”  Speaking to the Telegraph in 2011, Smeeth admitted to being at a breakfast meeting in the embassy but said “I have no recollection of saying what has been attributed to me. I would not consider myself to be a source for the US government.”  Perhaps not but clearly the US consider her a source!

There have been numerous Asian activists and councillors such as Cllr. Obaid Khan, who have been targeted as part of this witch hunt.  Yet JSG fails to acknowledge that the witch-hunt was racist and seems to ascribe to it benevolent albeit mistaken intentions.  Part of the reason for this is that they put Jewish people in Britain on the same pedestal as Black people when it comes to racism.  As part of the idea of not having a 'hierarchy of oppression' this results in there being no differences between the oppressed and oppressors.  All difference is oppression.

British Jews however are not the victims of racism or imperialism.  They are White and possessors of privilege in this society.  They are not subject to or victims of state racism in this society.  They are very marginal victims of fascist or far-Right groups and there are many examples of where Zionist activists openly work with far-Right individuals and groups despite their anti-Semitism.  I have pointed before to the collaboration between Jonathan Hoffman, the former co-Vice Chair of the Zionist Federation and the English Defence League.  

To use fake racism against Jews in order to perpetuate a very real racism directed at e.g. Palestinian students in this country is unforgivable.  It is also unforgivable that David Rosenberg on behalf of the JSG has treated the Jewish Labour Movement as some kind of counter culture cuddly Jewish group.  

As Chair of the Cable Street commemorations he clearly had a hand in the fact that the JLM had a speaker at these anti-fascist celebrations despite the lamentable role of the Zionist movement in 1936 at the Battle of Cable Street.  Most Zionist organisations supported the Board of Deputies position of opposition to the anti-fascist mobilisation, not least because they were part of the Board although not yet nominally in control of it.  The Labour  Zionists of Poalei Zion and Dror did not oppose the policy of not confronting the British Union of Fascists although a few Zionists were participants in the Jewish Peoples Council against Fascism and Anti-Semitism.

Yet when supporters of IJAN heckled the JLM speaker, Sarah Sackman, David criticised them not her.  Likewise his position on the JLM sponsored letter criticising Jonathan Arkush of the Board of Deputies for welcoming for Trump was entirely misplaced.  The JLM has a need to strike a radical pose as a way of legitimising their role in the witch hunt of anti-racists.  This so-called letter was a PR exercise.  It was a one-off. The JLM, which never officially endorsed it, has never called out the welcome by Israel Herzog of the Israeli Labour Party, its self-declared 'sister party' for Trump's election.  The JLM is a hostile, reactionary organisation, not an organisation of progressives.

The very fact that the Tory establishment has pioneered the acceptance of a definition of anti-Semitism that conflates anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism whilst demonising opposition to Israel as anti-Semitic, suggests that anti-Semitism in practice is a marginal form of prejudice in this society.  That is why it has become the false anti-racism of the Right, used to beat the real victims of racism such as Malaka Shwaikh, a student from Gaza, who is at Exeter University.  Malaka is the latest victim of this ‘anti-Semitism’ witch-hunt perpetrated by groups like the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism.

Although the JSG statement supporting Jackie Walker is welcome, it is unfortunate that it had to be dragged out of the JSG.  In particular the last sentence suggests that they resent having to do the right thing: 

‘We hope too that us sharing this information will dispel misinformation/conspiracy theories about our group that have been spread for malicious and dubious purposes, and which can only serve those who have a political interest in attacking and discrediting Jewish leftists.’

It is to be hoped that the statement supporting Jackie is the first and not the last and that the JSG doesn’t fail to protest Jewish racism too. 

Tony Greenstein

Jewish Socialists Group Statement on Jackie Walker and anti-Semitism 

The Jewish Socialists’ Group in its public statements, articles by members, and submission to the Chakrabarti Inquiry, has consistently opposed the false and distorted charges of antisemitism targeted at Labour members. We have decribed most of these charges as being weaponised by forces hostile to the Labour Party to damage Labour (especially its democratically elected leader, Jeremy Corbyn), and to undermine free speech by Labour Party members on the Israel/Palestine conflict.

We have acknowledged that there are a small number of cases of genuine antisemitism expressed by Labour party members that the Party must deal with firmly, but stated that the majority of cases we were aware of fell into the categories of being forthright expressions of support for Palestinian rights, which condemn Israeli government policy and aspects of Zionist ideology, and are not antisemitic; or Incidents where genuine critics of Israeli policy unintentionally blur distinctions between Jews and Zionists or between the Israeli government and Israeli people; or unknowingly borrow and apply traditional antisemitic tropes to Israel and its supporters. In such instances argument and education were far more appropriate responses than severe disciplinary measures such as expulsions, suspensions or bans. 

We expressed our support for the Chakrabarti Report based on the Inquiry, which we and many others made submissions to, especially with regard to: 

• its insistence that members against whom complaints are made are absolutely entitled to a transparent, fair and just process; 

• that free speech within the party must be protected, 

• and that conflicts and disagreements are to be approached primarily through education.

Last week the JSG made a submission to the Labour Party with regard to Jackie Walker’s case in which we called for her suspension to be lifted.

In that submission we explained that our group has a long record of opposing antisemitism and other forms of racism from whichever corner; that we reject the equation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism (and indeed acknowledged that certain forms of pro-Zionism sit happily with antisemitism);and reiterated the positions and principles above. 

We stated that we did not believe that Jackie Walker has been treated to a transparent, fair and just process and condemned the manner in which “evidence” against her was collected by secretly filming comments she made in an exploratory workshop, and presenting them in a manner where they are removed from their context, and open to distortion.

We stated that although there was no consensus within our group on the merits of Jackie Walker’s statements with regard to slavery, Holocaust Day commemorations, or the security requirements of Jewish schools,  and that her interventions did not necessarily reflect the tone in which we would comment on such matters, we feel that it is legitimate to discuss such issues.

We added that through our involvement in anti-racist/antifascist activism, we are aware of Jacqueline Walker’s impressive record in this sphere, especially with regard to her work against UKIP in Kent.

We hope our submission will help to bring about the right result at the hearing. We hope too that us sharing this information will dispel misinformation/conspiracy theories about our group that have been spread for malicious and dubious purposes, and which can only serve those who have a political interest in attacking and discrediting Jewish leftists. 

Jewish Socialist Group Cowardice Over the Zionists' Racist Attacks on Jackie Walker

Bundists behaving like Stalinists – JSG Leaders Remove Critics of Lansman from Jews 4 Jeremy FB Group

Jackie Walker - subject to a racist witchhunt by the Zionist Jewish Labour Movement aided by Jon Lansman.  The JSG is like the 3 monkeys - it neither sees, hears nor says anything

The JSG's censor-in-chief Julia Bard

The Jewish Socialists Group, which was originally founded in the early 1970’s as a left-Zionist group before moving towards Bundism and non-Zionism, has never been an activist group.  It is largely composed of what might be called the leftist Jewish intelligentsia. However it has always been at the forefront of the anti-racist and anti-fascist struggle.  At least until today when it has been rendered dumbstruck by Zionist attacks on Jackie Walker.  Attacks which have been condoned and indeed supported by one of its own members, Jon Lansman.

Below are just some of the vile racist tweets attacking Jackie Walker which the JSG leadership have condoned by their silence and support for Lansman and the Momentum leadership.

This is what passes for Zio humour - calling a Black anti-racist 'Nazi scum' is a good example of how Zios trivialise anti-Semitism 

Naturally anyone who is an anti-Zionist is a 'Jew hater' unlike the Zionists who worked hand in hand with anti-Semites from Herzl onwards

Burning Black people was an integral part of KKK lynching in the United States

notice how this racist Zio emphasises the word 'black'

'hanging' Black people was also something that the KKK specialised in and Zionists salivate about 

A good combination of sexism and a neo-Nazi style denial of Jackie as Jewish

No need for an explanation to this piece of vile race hatred

I've had a number of tweets too from racist neo-Nazi style Zios who despite being concerned about 'anti-Semitism' express a desire to send you to the gas chambers - graffiti such as 'Arabs to the gas chambers' is quite common in Hebron and amongst the Judeo-Nazi setters there

Once again the Zionist desire to emulate their KKK brothers and burn someone who is Black

Given the predominance of right-wing Zionist and conservative politics in the once radical Jewish community the JSG once stood out for its dissent with establishment Jewish politics.  To a large extent it has been overtaken with the formation of groups like Jews 4 Justice for Palestinians, Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, Jewdas etc . 

JSG came to the fore with its support for the anti-fascist movement in the 1970’s.  When the Board of Deputies and the Union of Jewish Students opposed, in the late 1970’s, the Anti Nazi League, which at that time was a mass movement not an SWP front, the JSG was prominent in fighting a bourgeois Jewish leadership who saw the fight against anti-Zionism as more important than the fight against the National Front.  At that time the National Front, which was overtly anti-Semitic, was a credible political force, forcing the Liberals into 4^th place in by-elections in Birmingham Ladywood and Stechford in 1977 and gaining 119,000 votes in the 1977 GLC elections.

Debate with Julia Bard in 1993 on the Oslo Accords which she supported

The JSG’s position on Israel has always been one of 2 states whilst avoiding the question of Zionism and the nature of the Jewish state.  At the time of the 1993 Oslo Accords in a debate with Julia Bard in Labour Briefing, she supported the Accords. 

Ian Saville speaking on behalf of Jackie Walker in May 2016

Dave Rosenberg says in his statement below that the JSG encompasses a wide variety of left-wing opinion.  However this did not prevent the JSG, despite its recent inactivity (Jewish Socialist, which used to come out quarterly now appears less than once a year) being involved in the setting up of the Jews for Jeremy group in the Summer of 2015.  When the false anti-Semitism campaign was at its height, the JSG supported Jackie Walker, before her removal as Vice Chair of Momentum, when she was suspended in May 2016.  Ian Saville appeared as a JSG speaker on an LRC/Momentum platform in Brighton alongside Jackie at a meeting specifically called to oppose the anti-Semitism witchhunt.

Free Speech on Israel picket of Momentum Steering Committee which removed Jackie Walker

Jackie was re-suspended in September last year after the Labour Party Conference.  There had been a sustained and vitriolic campaign by the Jewish Labour Movement.  Two weeks before the LP Conference I had posted The Jewish Labour Movement and its Political Lynching of Jackie Walker in which I wrote that:

‘Jackie was reinstated after an investigation but the Zionists have refused to accept her acquittal and have waged a campaign of vilification against her ever since.... The Jewish Labour Movement ... has run a disgraceful, race baiting campaign against Jackie.  It has been part and parcel of a Zionist attack on her which has questioned her Jewish ancestry on the basis that she is Black.  A large section of the Zionist movement refuses to accept that Black people, for example the Black Hebrews, can also be Jewish.’

Jeremy Newmark - racist liar-in-chief of the JLM

The JLM’s Chair, Jeremy Newmark criticised John McDonnell for speaking on an LRC platform with Jackie at the TUC Conference in September. He was quoted as saying of McDonnell that:

"He must explain his defence of Walker which is inconsistent with his call for zero tolerance. This raises serious questions. Our members expect him to explain himself."

The discussion on the slave trade by Jackie Walker that prompted the racist attacks on her

The JLM campaign was based on the lie perpetrated by Marcus Dysch in the Jewish Chronicle that Jackie ‘claimed Jews caused ‘an African holocaust’.  In fact what she said, in a private and complex Facebook discussion with an Israeli Zionist friend, was that

‘“Many Jews (my ancestors too) were the chief financiers of the sugar and slave trade which is of course why there were so many early synagogues in the Caribbean. So who are victims and what does it mean? We are victims and perpetrators to some extent through choice.”

Clearly what she was saying was that many Jews were among the chief financiers of the slave trade, which is a statement of historical fact.  On the basis of the omission of one word, which was clearly implied by the context, Jackie has been vilified and demonised. 

Since September when Jackie was suspended for a second time from the Labour Party, the JSG has maintained an embarrassed silence.  It has not only failed to criticise Jackie’s suspension, but it has also failed to criticise or even comment on the complicity in this racist attack by one of their own members, Jon Lansman.  Indeed it has gone out of its way to support him.

I spoke on Thursday night at a public meeting in Brighton with Jackie Walker.  The meeting was called to discuss the attack on free speech and the suppression of the Palestinian voice by the Zionist movement and their Israeli Embassy paymasters.  The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism which was adopted by Theresa May and which Corbyn decided to follow, has become the Zionists’ principal weapon.   

The whole purpose of the IHRA definition is to conflate genuine anti-Semitism, i.e. hostility to Jews as Jews, with criticism of Israel, which is anti-Semitic in itself, since it implies an association between Jews and Israel.  This week it has been used to prevent the holding of Israel Apartheid week at the University of Central Lancashire and yesterday all students and academics at Sussex University were sent an email by the Vice Chancellor attacking Israel Apartheid Week on campus. 

More racist tweets by Zionists

At UCL banning Israel Apartheid Week was justified by the Prevent counter-terrorism duty.  Support for the Palestinians and opposition to Zionism is being conflated with ‘terrorism’ as we always said it would.  Of course the definition of ‘terrorism’ excludes Israeli state terrorism.  Once again Prevent is being used to clamp down on free speech.  

One of many racist tweets that Jackie Walker has received

Jackie, told of how she had been the recipient of dozens of vitriolic racist tweets, of which those above are but a sample, as a result of the Zionist campaign  against her.  She is rightly fearful for her own physical safety.  One of the reasons this has occurred is that she is Black and Jewish.  Many of the tweets are concerned with her Jewishness since for many in the Zionist movement being Jewish is a European affair.  Arab Jews are bad enough compared to White Russians but Black Jews are beyond the pale.  It is for this reason that Ethiopian Jews in Israel suffer from extreme racist hostility.

Normally if someone says they are Jewish I take them at their word.  But to Zionist racists, it is very important to investigate someone's lineage because in Israel being Jewish determines your entitlement to privileges.  When investigating whether someone is entitled to come to Israel under the Law of Return, recourse has even been had to Nazi records to determine whether or not someone is Jewish.  Similarly the Zionists have employed someone to investigate Jackie’s family lineage and draw up a family tree to prove she isn’t Jewish.  80 years ago in Germany the same people would have found employment proving that people were Jewish.

The Silence of the JSG

Critics of Lansman’s coup in Momentum or those questioning why the JSG are suppressing criticism of him have been removed from the Jews for Jeremy and JSG Facebook groups.  A similar fate has befallen those criticising why the JSG has remained silent over the removal of Jackie Walker as Vice-Chair of Momentum and her suspension from the Labour Party. 

David Rosenberg

Why has the JSG’s leadership, in particular David Rosenberg and Julia Bard, moved to what is effectively a Stalinist position of suppressing political discussion?  For a group that traces its political lineage from the Bund, it is ironic that it is behaving more like the Bund’s historic political enemy. 

David Rosenberg, in a statement to the Free Speech on Israel group (see below) throws what is the political equivalent of a tantrum but fails to answer any questions about Jackie beyond saying that the JSG moderators of the J4J FB page have blocked ‘anti-Corbyn material’.  Most people would assume that means criticism from the Right and Progress, i.e. from those hostile to Corbyn.  This is dishonest because the critics who have been debarred are not hostile to Corbyn but fearful as to how long he will last given his present political trajectory.

What David really meant is any critique as to whether for example Corbyn is right to appease the Right, disavow reselection of Labour MPs and say that support for free movement of workers should be sacrificed on the altar of Brexit.  In categorising any criticism of Corbyn and McDonnell as ‘anti-Corbyn’ what David is doing is indulging in a personality cult, which was also the hallmark of Stalinism.  Lack of debate weakens not strengthens Corbyn.  We should be under no illusions that Corbyn’s position at present is not a strong one.

In the JSG statement David Rosenberg’s position was that ‘Our group is anti-Zionist but does not go in for gratuitous and childish demonisation of those who identify as Zionists.’

I am not aware that the JSG has ever identified itself as anti-Zionist in any published material. Presumably what Rosenberg means is recognising and understanding the role of Zionist groups such as the JLM in the attack, not only on Corbyn and the Left but in the witch-hunt more widely. Zionist groups are our political enemies, not cuddly multi-culturalists.  The Bund historically considered Zionism as its main enemy in the Jewish community not something it could cosy up to.

As the Al Jazeera programmes ‘The Lobby’ revealed, there is a well organised Zionist lobby in Britain, serviced and funded by the Israeli embassy, whose role is to destabilise and undermine the Corbyn leadership of the Labour Party and those like Malia Bouathia in NUS, who oppose the Israeli state or who support the Boycott of Israel.

One of the principal signatories to the letter purportedly criticising Arkush is Ella Rose, who directly transferred from working at the Israeli  Embassy to becoming Director of the JLM.  She was also recorded as threatening to ‘take out’ Jackie Walker.

Julia Bard telling Ruth Appleton of the JSG not to mention she is in the JSG in a Guardian letter - 'The JSG is not commenting at the moment' owing to the 'complexity and volatility' of the situation.  She was asked to wait for 30 minutes - we are still waiting!

Posting The Strange Silence of the Jewish Socialists Group over Jackie’s suspension got me removed from the JSG’s Facebook page some months ago.  There was no warning or message.  Prior to that Julia Bard had removed a link I had posted to a blog post critical of Lansman.  When we organised a letter to the Guardian supporting Jackie Walker, JSG member Ruth Appleton was told in an email by Julia Bard to remove all reference to the JSG even though she wasn’t writing on behalf of the group.   Clearly the JSG is embarrassed by any association with the campaign to support Jackie.

Debbie Fink made the cardinal error of posting an article of mine to the J4J FB page - worse still it attacked Jon Lansman's putsch

Asking why Lansman, a member of the JSG, had not been called to account for his removal of Jackie Walker as Momentum Vice-Chair, an act which even Cecile Wright, Lansman’s supporter on the Momentum Steering Committee has described as a ‘political lynching’, merited the following message on the Free Speech on Israel list in reply to Debbie Fink.  According to Rosenberg, her question was:

‘‘based on ignorance and vituperation, they were not worth responding to. The JSG is solely accountable to its members, not to you, nor to FSOI, nor to any other groups we may or may not be connected with or work with.’ 

Julia Bard in full censorship mode

Which was more of a political tantrum than an answer.  When Debbie committed the cardinal sin of posting an article on Lansman's Kitchen Coup on the J4J FaceBook group asking why the silence over Jackie Walker, she was summarily removed, as others have been since then.  All removals have been conducted by Julia Bard, the JSG’s Political Commissar.

I was removed from the J4J group last year when I sent a letter to the Guardian on behalf of J4J supporting the new Black President of the National Union of Students against the racist attacks of the Zionist Union of Jewish Students.  Attacks which we now know from Al Jazeera’s ‘The Lobby’ were co-ordinated with the Israeli state and its Embassy in London.

I made a conscious decision, given the lack of any democratic mechanisms within J4J, to send a letter defending Malia to the Guardian.  In my naivety I didn’t realise that the JSG’s commitment to anti-racism stops short of defending Black anti-racists when they are accused of ‘anti-Semitism’ by Zionists.

Original letter to the Guardian from Jewish supporters of Jeremy Corbyn - not a member of JSG in sight

The 3 moderators of the J4J group are all members of the JSG and include the David Rosenberg and Julia Bard partnership, as well as Ian Saville.  The reason Dave gives in his statement below for this situation is that the JSG set up J4J.  But this not true.  The genesis of J4J began over the summer 2015 when a group of us sent a letter to the Guardian, which was printed on August 20^th 2015 during the leadership elections, supporting Jeremy Corbyn.  Debbie Fink and myself from J-Big were responsible for organising the letter and I personally sent it off from Normandy where I was on holiday!

Letter in Jewish Chronicle from Jews for Jeremy - it was organised by J-Big members not the JSG

This letter was the genesis of the idea that Corbyn needed Jewish members of the Labour Party to rebut the fake allegations of anti-Semitism.  Allegations that originated in the Daily Mail and Jewish Chronicle that Corbyn had worked with a holocaust denier Paul Eisen.  On the 2^nd October 2015 I organised another Jewish letter, signed by about 80 people, which was printed by the Jewish Chronicle, rebutting theirs and Jonathan Freedland’s accusations that Corbyn was anti-Semitic.  This letter was printed in the name of Jews 4 Jeremy.  The suggestion in David Rosenberg’s bad-tempered response that J4J was a JSG initiative is a falsehood.  It was a coming together of a whole number of Jews from J-Big, JfJP, the JSG and independents.  The seizing of control of the Facebook group by the JSG was an act of sectarianism at which the SWP usually excel.  We are now seeing its effects in Bard’s purge of dissenters.

The J4J group has done nothing in the past year.  Despite the defamatory anti-Semitism campaign by the Zionists it has remained silent.  J4J’s inactivity is the result of the JSG’s organisational stranglehold.  It is Momentum writ small.  What should happen is that the group, which could have played a much larger part in the fight against the witch-hunt and against Zionist attacks on Jeremy, should be relaunched with some form of democratic control.

On 12^th January Debbie Fink posted my article on Lansman's coup in Momentum to the J4J blog and she posted the statement below, on Monday 16^th January to the Free Speech on Israel list.  

Lansman's clones spreading the word about Jackie Walker

'As the subject of Lansman has come up again, here's an article that might be of interest. This is the one the Jews for Jeremy moderators removed without explanation, throwing me off the list when I challenged it, again without explanation. To date, I have received no explanation for this nor answers to questions that I'm sure, we all want: why the JSG are covering for Lansman and not speaking out against the treatment of Jackie; why they are guilty of the same censorship as the Israel lobby and why they are loyal to Lansman, a Zionist who's colluding with the JLM rather than Jackie, a Socialist. 

The JSG won't talk to me but maybe they will at least have the decency to speak to someone else here.'

David Rosenberg was sufficiently stung to post a reply to FSOI. 

Statement of Clarification re Debbie Fink’s questions re JSG, Jews for Jeremy, and John Lansman. This is for information. We won’t be making further comment on this matter as we have more important work to do.

Jews for Jeremy (J4J) was set up mainly by JSG members in the summer of 2015 to defend Jeremy Corbyn from attack by those seeking to undermine him (Conservatives, Blairites, Zionists), and especially those using false accusations of antisemitism to attack Corbyn and his supporters.

The J4J page is NOT a place for those who wish to attack, disparage, abuse or insult Corbyn and the political stance he represents. It is NOT a place to fight proxy sectarian wars or settle political scores on other matters.

Very soon after the page was set up it had to block a number of people who joined up for nefarious purposes. They fell mainly into two categories:

 • Holocaust-denying antisemites

 • Trouble-making Zionists

On a very few occasions since then we have, reluctantly, had to block people for misusing our page by posting anti-Corbyn material, abusive sectarian political material, or re-posting material by those who they know have been blocked from the page. It is for these reasons that J4J collectively decided to block Debbie Fink. Having stated that she was not going to attack the JSG publicly, her continued abuse about the group and Corbyn in her emails and Facebook posts since she was blocked, her conspiracy theories and fantasies involving the JSG, Jon Lansman and Jeremy Corbyn, and her continued re-posting of material by a person who was blocked, leads us to believe that if we unblocked her now, we would be opening the page to more of the same.

Any organisation that sets up a Facebook Page has the right to ensure that its page and participants are not abused. That is what we have done. She can post her views freely elsewhere but not on this page.

The JSG membership spans people from the middle of the Labour Party to the far left within and beyond the Party, to Greens and anarchists. We organise together on the basis of shared values, principles and democratically agreed policies.

Our group is anti-Zionist but does not go in for gratuitous and childish demonisation of those who identify as Zionists. We know from long experience that many of the most effective Jewish anti-Zionist campaigners today once identified as Zionists. We are simultaneously in the business of opposing Zionism and trying to persuade those beginning to have doubts. You don’t do that by insulting them as “zios”. On an earlier occasion we had to ask Debbie to take down ranting posts that about why we should call people “zios”. On this specific issue the JSG completely agrees with the view expressed by Shami Chakrabarti in her report.

Re Jon Lansman: JSG members are also active individually in a range of groups, organisations, and campaigns. We do not police what they say and do in such groups. They are only accountable to the JSG for what they say or do in the name of the JSG.

Jon Lansman has been a member of the JSG for many years but has never been an active member. We know him as a longstanding and consistent supporter of Palestinian rights.

The JSG is not affiliated to Momentum and does not hold or express a JSG view about Momentum’s internal affairs. We are aware that those currently opposing, and in some cases demonising him, include both pro-Zionist AWL supporters as well as anti-Zionists. We personally know Jewish Momentum members on all sides of this debate, but that is an issue for Momentum members. It is not an issue for the JSG as the JSG.

Some JSG members are members of the Labour Party (LP) too, but the JSG is not affiliated to the LP. We have expressed a strong view on accusations of antisemitism directed against Labour Party members which we have issued as public statements and in talks and articles by JSG members, eg:

 http://www.jewishsocialist.org.uk/news/item/statement-on-labours-problem-with-antisemitism-from-the-jewish-socialists-g

 http://www.jewishsocialist.org.uk/news/item/what-jewish-socialists-are-saying-to-the-labour-partys-chakrabarti-inquiry

 http://www.jewishsocialist.org.uk/news/item/statement-on-parliamentary-report-on-antisemitism

The key elements of this are:

 • We recognise that “ordinary Jewish people are rightly concerned and fearful about instances of antisemitism. We share their concerns… But we will not support those making false accusations for cynical political motives”

 • We believe that: “Accusations of antisemitism are currently being weaponised to attack the Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party with claims that Labour has a “problem” of antisemitism.”

 • We reject “any attempt, from whichever quarter, to place legitimate criticism of Israeli policy out of bounds…We stand for free speech and open debate on Israel, Palestine and Zionism.”

 • We urge the LP “to develop clear and transparent compliance procedures for dealing with allegations of antisemitism and racism. If a member is being investigated for a charge of antisemitism/racism they must be told what they are being accused of and given an opportunity to retract or explain what they meant. If disciplinary procedures are being applied, bans must be a last resort… The aim should be as far as possible to deal with such problems through education.”

The JSG continues to uphold these principles. We do not give blanket support to all individuals caught up in what we recognise generally as a deliberately manufactured campaign to undermine Corbyn and his supporters because we know that, amongst them, a few genuine cases of antisemitism have been unearthed. These include LP members who have been sharing antisemitic Jewish conspiracy material from far right sites, thinly veiled as pro-Palestinian material; cases of members professing their innocence who have been sharing material about “Rothschild bankers”; and those who think there is something called “Jewish capitalism”. While we support those who have been unfairly accused, this does not imply unconditional support for every utterance of every individual who has been excluded. All who have been targeted by the Compliance Unit but who express sincere views that are not antisemitic have our continued support.

As stated at the beginning, this statement is for information only. We do not intend to engage in debate and will not be making further comment on it. Our priority is practical, assertive campaigning that supports the Palestinians in their fight for justice and not to be diverted by sectarian infighting.

David Rosenberg

www.eastendwalks.com

David Rosenberg’s statement is disingenuous on a number of levels:

·         It ignores the key issue which is that Lansman, a JSG member, was instrumental in the removal of Jackie Walker as Vice Chair of Momentum at the behest of the JLM.  This move precipitated her suspension from the Labour Party.  Does JSG really have nothing to say about racism involving one of its own members?  The JSG has also kept remarkably quiet about the Zionist attacks on Marc Wadsworth and Malia Bouattia.

·         Lansman has admitted that he works closely with the JLM’s Chairperson, Jeremy Newmark.  Newmark is an Israeli state operative and the JLM works with its 'sister' party, the racist Israeli Labour Party.

·    On the one hand David says that ‘On a very few occasions since then we have, reluctantly, had to block people for misusing our page by posting anti-Corbyn material’ and on the other ‘The JSG is not affiliated to Momentum and does not hold or express a JSG view about Momentum’s internal affairs.’  Presumably if JSG has no particular view on the Labour Party or Momentum why are they blocking criticism of Corbyn on the J4J list, which they describe as ‘our page’? 

·         David’s defence of Lansman’s complicity in the attack on Jackie Walker is interesting.  He doesn’t mention it!  Instead David talks about the ‘demonisation’ of Lansman, whereas the only demonisation that has occurred to date is that of Jackie Walker, as the tweets above demonstrate.  It is Jackie Walker, not Lansman, who has been the recipient of the vilest race hatred. It is a curious way to deal with racism to say that it is the perpetrators who have been demonised.

·       David says that ‘J4J collectively decided to block Debbie Fink’.  When was the vote? Was Debbie informed?  What David means is he consulted his partner Julia Bard and perhaps Ian Saville.  And why is it an offence to post the material of someone who is blocked?  That seems like guilt-by association.  It’s one thing to take exception to a particular article but to censor anything by a particular person smacks of McCarthyism.

·         David says of Jon Lansman that ‘We know him as a longstanding and consistent supporter of Palestinian rights.’  This again is disingenuous.  Lansman has never been involved in the Palestine solidarity movement.  Instead during the present anti-Semitism witch-hunt, Lansman penned an article excusing the Nakba, the expulsion of ¾ million Palestinians in 1948, by relativising it.  Labour and the Jews: from ethnic cleansing to truth and reconciliation.  And he also posted another article, reflecting the JLM’s concern that we shouldn’t mention Zionism, the ideology and movement that established apartheid in Israel.  Why the Left must stop talking about ‘Zionism’ 

·         David Rosenberg refers us to 3 statements by the JSG on recent anti-Semitism controversies and in particular the statement on fake anti-Semitism.  Statement on “Labour’s problem with antisemitism”.  They are mostly unobjectionable but you judge someone not by what they say but what they do and the JSG’s refusal to defend Jackie Walker and its defence of Lansman, demonstrates that these words are pious utterances. 

·         David says that ‘a few genuine cases of antisemitism have been unearthed’ and these include LP members who have been sharing antisemitic Jewish conspiracy material from far right sites and material about “Rothschild bankers”.  If there are a few such cases then the present witch-hunt is the worst way to deal with them.  It is noticeable that there has been no trawl for Islamophobic material. 

If some people’s reactions to Zionism and Israel’s behaviour has taken an anti-Semitic form, then the answer is political education not administrative and bureaucratic methods, including expulsion.  It is an unfortunate fact that Zionist claims about Jewish responsibility for what happens in Israel/Palestine will inevitably produce an anti-Semitic reaction in some people.

·         What should be of concern is that the JLM, which describes itself as the Israeli Labour Party’s ‘sister party’ is put in charge of ‘anti-racist’ training in the Labour Party.  Defence of an apartheid state and its regime is far more serious than a few nuts who believe that the Rothschilds sponsored the Russian Revolution.

The leader of the JLM’s ‘sister party’ Isaac Herzog is an out and out racist who recently declared that his nightmare was waking up to find that Israel had a Palestinian Prime Minister and 61 Palestinian Members of Israel’s Knesset .  Herzog also declared that he wanted to dispel the false impression that the ILP were ‘Arab Lovers’.  Just imagine if someone had said 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.  Such terms used to be part of the language of the National Front and BNP. 

·         Although only a minor matter, David’s attitude to the use of the term ‘zios’ is also significant.  He said that ‘You don’t do that by insulting them as “zios”.... On this specific issue the JSG completely agrees with the view expressed by Shami Chakrabarti in her report.’

It is interesting that an ‘anti-Zionist’ group should agree so wholeheartedly with Chakrabarti.  Chakrabarti referred in her report to peoples’ ‘rich range of self-descriptions of both Jewishness or Zionism’   Chakrabarti also advised people ‘to use the term "Zionist" advisedly, carefully and never euphemistically or as part of personal abuse.’  Chakrabarti clearly understands nothing about Zionism, a rapacious and racist settler colonial movement.  To her it is part of our multi-cultural tapestry.  ‘Zio’ is of course short for ‘Zionist’ – and both Jews and non-Jews are Zionists.  It cannot therefore be a racist term.  The whole question of ‘Zios’ is a deliberate Zionist talking point, part of the invention of a synthetic ‘anti-Semitism’. 

It is a great pity that the JSG, by its attitude to the anti-Semitism witch-hunt in the Labour Party and its association with Jon Lansman wishes to sully its past record.

Tony Greenstein