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

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

Demonstration Outside Westminster Magistrates Court

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

Crispin Flintoff & Tony Greenstein Outside Westminster Magistrates Court

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tony Greenstein's speech outside Westminster Magistrates Court

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

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

How antisemitism has complemented Zionism – Tony Greenstein

(for the full video go to here)

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

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

Zionism & the Holocaust – Tony Greenstein

The Complete Seminar – Rewriting the Holocaust

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

For One Democratic State

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

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

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

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

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

Stop the Genocide in Gaza 10.11.23

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

Tony Greenstein speaking at Palestine Demonstration in Glasgow January 6 2024

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LLA meeting 23 November 2023

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

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

Tony Greenstein on Question Time

Instead of confronting false accusations of anti-Semitism against its President, the National Union of Students have suspended her, appeasing supporters of Israeli apartheid

For over 40 years the Union of Jewish Students, has labelled critics of Israel ‘anti-Semites’ Last year it was Ken Loach today it is Shaima Dallali

The suspension of Shaima Dallali, by the National Union of Students, is a shameful and cowardly response to the attacks on a Black Muslim student leader by the apartheid supporting, Israeli funded Union of Jewish Students.

Faced with an attack on Shaima by the Conservative Government and the political establishment, for example the letter signed by 21 former NUS presidents, NUS simply caved in as Islamaphobic bigots like former Home Secretaries Jack Straw and Charles Clarke sought to oust Shaima.

After the ex-presidents’ letter, a letter in support of Dallali was circulated which called for there to be a simultaneous NUS investigations into Islamophobia and racism, as well as antisemitism. This was ignored.

Instead of setting up an ‘investigation’ into the bogus allegations, NUS should have gone on the offensive and called out the hypocrisy of a government that has demonised asylum seekers and is currently trying to send Black refugees (not white Ukrainians) to Rwanda whilst being concerned about 'antisemitism'.

Former Conservative Education Minister, the corrupt Nadhim Zahawi, warned about allegations of “systemic antisemitism” within NUS, threatening that the government may sever links with them. According to the Guardian Zahawi’s intervention followed ‘concerns raised by the Union of Jewish Students’.

Even more absurdly, James Wharton, Chair of the Office for Students, England’s higher education regulator, also cut off contact with NUS for ‘anti-Semitism’ in the same week as he addressed a political conference in Hungary that attracted far-right and antisemitic speakers. Wharton publicly endorsed the re-election of the openly anti-Semitic Viktor Orbán, the Hungarian prime minister! But then there is ‘anti-Semitism’ and ‘anti-Semitism’. Hatred of Jews is fine.  Hatred of Israel and Zionism isn’t fine.

The pretext for the attack on Shaima was a tweet she made 10 years ago when 17. The comment read “Khaybar Khaybar O Jews … Muhammad’s army will return Gaza”, referencing an assault on Jews 1400 years ago. It is doubtful whether she even understood what this meant. Nonetheless Shaima has apologised for the tweet, saying she is not the same person she was then. That should be the end of it.

But of course for UJS an apology is merely grist to the Zionist mill because their concern is not anti-Semitism but her opposition to the fake IHRA definition of anti-Semitism and Zionism.

As Shaima observed, the Zionist backlash against her election was part of a pattern, first seen with Malia Bouattia, who in 2016 became the first black Muslim woman to become NUS President. Just as with Shaima UJS began a systematic campaign of denigration against someone who was an anti-Zionist. NUS, with all its ‘liberation strands’, has succumbed to an identity politics that equates the identity of privileged white racist Jewish students with that of a refugee like Malia and a Black Muslim Shaima. Shaima wrote:

“Unfortunately, as a black Muslim woman, it is something that I expected because I’ve seen it happen to other black Muslim women when they take up positions in the student union or the NUS, where they are attacked based on their political beliefs or their pro-Palestinian stance.”

She said she had received a lot of Islamaphobic, racist online abuse.

“I’ve had private messages of people calling me a raghead, people telling me to go and kill myself, calling me a Jew hater and an antisemite. That has been difficult to read.

“And so many threats as well – if I continue to do this then things will happen to me. I just try to delete, to block, I try not to let it get to my head. It’s something I receive every day and I’m continuing to receive. It’s affected me mentally and physically. Sometimes I don’t feel safe.”

As a result of the attacks by UJS and others Malia Bouattia also began getting the normal Zionist abuse, including death threats. This is the effect of UJS’s lying allegations. UJS is a threat to the safety of Black and Muslim students not them to Jewish students.

UJS are well aware of the effect that their scurrilous racist campaigns have and yet they never condemn it. Indeed it almost normal for Zionist campaigns like this to engender vile racist attacks. Only tonight in the second episode of Al Jazeera’s The Labour Files, we heard the voice of a Zionist in a phone message for Jenny Manson, Jewish Voice for Labour’s Chair, telling her he wishes that she die in a gas oven. I’ve had the same.  Prick a Zionist and you will find an anti-Semite lurking below.

Malia Bouattia's Response to UJS accusations of 'antisemitism'

During the Zionist campaign against Malia, more than 50 heads of Jewish societies across the country wrote an open letter to her because of her anti-Zionism asking her to clarify her position on antisemitism, including comments in an article where she described the University of Birmingham – with its large Jewish society – as being “something of a Zionist outpost in British higher education”. This is only anti-Semitic if you conflate Zionism and being Jewish. Malia made it clear that:

I celebrate the ability of people and students of all backgrounds to get together and express their backgrounds and faith openly and positively, and will continue to do so

Despite its verbal opposition to ‘anti-Semitism’ UJS has never taken part in anti-fascist campaigns directed against genuine anti-Semites on the far-Right. When I was on the Executive of Anti-Fascist Action, UJS attacked AFA because it was seen as anti-Zionist. In the 70s with the Anti-Nazi League they did exactly the same.

The Board of Deputies was even worse. When the ANL was formed in 1977 the Board launched vehement attacks on it, not the National Front, because of the presence of anti-Zionists in it. Even Searchlight anti-fascist magazine, which under the late Maurice Ludmer was scrupulous in avoiding the question of Zionism, wrote in an editorial

In the face of mounting attacks against the Jewish community both ideologically and physically, we have the amazing sight of the Jewish Board of Deputies launching an attack on the Anti Nazi League with all the fervour of Kamikaze pilots... It was as though they were watching a time capsule rerun of the 1930's, in the form of a flickering old movie, with a grim determination to repeat every mistake of that era. [Searchlight 41, November 1978].

Zionism begins where the fight against anti-Semitism ends. Zionism accepts the anti-Semitic argument that Jews don’t belong living among non-Jews.  In 1895, during the Dreyfus Affair, the founder of Political Zionism, Theodor Herzl wrote in his Diaries that

In Paris... I achieved a freer attitude towards anti-Semitism, which I now began to understand historically and to pardon. Above all, I recognise the emptiness and futility of trying to 'combat' anti-Semitism.

The Zionist belief that Jews should ‘return’ to Palestine chimed in with what the anti-Semites demanded. In a speech by Israeli Ambassador Yehuda Avner to Conservative Friends of Israel at the 1983 Tory Party Conference, Zionism was described as a movement of ‘self-repatriation’. [JC 21.10.83] 

Herzl understood this well when he wrote in his Diaries on June 12 1895:

The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies. 

Today it is anti-Semites, from Christian Zionists to Viktor Orban, Tommy Robinson and Steve Bannon who are the most ardent Zionists. As Israeli historian, Yigal Elam wrote:

Zionism did not consider anti-Semitism an abnormal, absurd, perverse or marginal phenomenon. Zionism considered anti-Semitism a fact of nature, a standard constant, the norm in the relationship of the non-Jews to the presence of Jews in their midst… a normal, almost rational reaction of the gentiles to the abnormal, absurd and perverse situation of the Jewish people in the Diaspora. [Zionism and its Scarecrows, Khamsin 6]

UJS has a long history of attacking anti-Zionists as ‘anti-Semitic’. UJS is not a Jewish but a Zionist organisation. It is not open to anti-Zionist Jews nor would they want to be members. Section 2.1.1. of UJS’s constitution commits the organisation to:

Creating meaningful Jewish campus experiences and inspiring Jewish students to make an enduring commitment to their Jewish identity, Israel, and the community. 

When Shaima was elected as NUS President UJS got to work attacking her. In what was a repeat of the playbook tested out during the Corbyn era, UJS spoke of attacks on the Jewish community. And what were these attacks?  Not supporting Israel.

Shaima is just one more victim of UJS’s witchhunting. Victims have included George Johannes of the ANC, Ken Loach, Professor David Miller, Shahd Abusalama of Sheffield Hallam University and Jewish opponents of Zionism, myself included, though most of their recent victims are Black and Palestinian students.

In my blog I described how in 1986 UJS attempted to stop me speaking at the London School of Economics by making false accusations of, yes you’ve guessed it, anti-Semitism! When LSE’s Labour Club investigated the allegations they were found wanting. The Labour Club were then accused of ‘anti-Semitism’ and ‘fascism’!

UJS is affiliated to the World Zionist Organisation. The WZO is a funder and co-ordinator of the settlements in the West Bank. It even has a ‘land theft division’. Of this UJS says nothing. Indeed at no time has UJS ever criticised or condemned Israel for its flagrant breach of Palestinian human rights. Nothing perturbs it, be it torture of children, demolition of Palestine homes, imprisonment without trial. Its only concern is ‘anti-Semitism’, which it defines as opposition to Zionism.

If Jewish students in Britain were subject to a fraction of what Palestinian students face under occupation, including invasions of campuses, beatings, checkpoints and torture, then they would have just cause to complain of anti-Semitism.  As it is we should treat members of UJS for what they are - spoilt White Jewish racists.

Al Jazeera’s documentary ‘The Lobby’ showed Adam Schapira, a candidate for UJS President, openly admitting that UJS was funded by the Israeli Embassy.

From Vetting in Practice

The Experiences of Emma Clyne

Emma become Chair of the Jewish society at SOAS in 2006-7 despite not being a Zionist. Emma described the ‘intense pressure’ from UJS:

Before she became the chair of the SOAS Jewish Society, she had found it was like an Israel Society…. She took over the chair on condition that there was to be a clear distinction between the Jewish Society and the Israel Society. This led to a furious reaction from UJS which told her: “That’s not what the Jewish Society does. You can’t separate Israeli politics from Jewish identity. It is all the same.”

The antagonism reached a peak after she went to the launch of Independent Jewish Voices in 2007 and found the speakers “honest articulate and inspirational.” When she invited some of the speakers [like Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC] to a meeting at SOAS to discuss “the impact of nationalism on Jewish identity” the pressure on her increased, and she was told that UJS and the Israeli Embassy were very concerned about the meeting.

In an article for the Guardian’s Comment is Free [before anti-Zionists were banned] I described what happened next:

According to... Emma Clyne, posters for a meeting the society put on were repeatedly torn down. Ms Clyne told a meeting of Independent Jewish Voices on May 15 that she had to put new ones up every day.

A clue as to the reason for its silence might lie in an article in the Jewish Chronicle of April 27 ("Students in censorship row over IJV debate").

From Vetting in Practice

The then Chair of UJS, Mitch Simmons, stated

‘"It is the view of the UJS that certain views are not acceptable under free speech."

Netanyahu's comments are clearly racist and they describe Israel as it is.   Yet to call it racist is 'antisemitic' according to the IHRA even though it is true!

Imagine if a White South African student group had described certain views opposing Apartheid as ‘not acceptable’. Yet NUS Executive has granted UJS their wishes.  All of course under the guise of  defending poor Jewish students who are too fragile to withstand criticism of their favourite racist state.

In Vetting in Practice I described UJS as

“an organisation whose primary purpose is defence of Israel, right or wrong. It has consistently sought to portray opponents, especially Jewish anti-Zionists, as anti-semites. That is why it receives, according to the Jewish Chronicle (May 11) hundreds of thousands of pounds.

Silencing opponents of Zionism and supporters of the Palestinians is its stock-in-trade. I have personally spoken on most major university campuses in Britain and I cannot remember an occasion when the UJS didn't try to prevent the meeting going ahead.

Ken Loach

Another target of UJS was the veteran left-wing film-maker, Ken Loach. He was invited by his alma mater, St. Peter’s College, Oxford to speak. All hell broke out and UJS was at the centre of this McCarthyist witchhunt.  Loach was accused of ‘anti-Semitism’ although no one seemed able to produce a single statement of his that was anti-Semitic.

UJS does its best to have Ken Loach banned - they failed

Oxford J-Soc tweeted:

“Oxford University Jewish Society is deeply disappointed by the decision of Professor Judith Buchanan, Master of St Peter’s College, to host an event with filmmaker Ken Loach. On numerous occasions, Loach has made remarks that are antisemitic under the IHRA definition,

Calling Israel a racist state, or saying you don’t believe in a Jewish state or comparing Zionism to Nazism is ‘anti-Semitic’ under the IHRA. That’s why the Zionists fought so hard to have it adopted.  The IHRA conflates anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism. Its sole concern is with anti-Zionism not the genuine anti-Semitism of the far-Right.

UJS issued a statement along similar lines:

St Peter’s College, University of Oxford, should not be platforming a person who has repeatedly been accused of and has been an apologist for antisemitism.

Strangely enough neither group quoted what Loach had actually said. For UJS it’s enough to be accused of anti-Semitism to be guilty.  And what does an ‘apologist for anti-Semitism’ mean? Again no quotes.

The President of the Board of Deputies Marie van der Zyl issued a statement telling Professor Judith Buchanan, Master of St Peter’s College that

‘the decision to invite him [Loach] to speak at the college [was] ‘entirely unacceptable’ and calling for the event to be cancelled. That an Oxford college would not conduct its due diligence and allow Ken Loach to address students is entirely unacceptable. Higher education institutions have a duty of care to their students

Let us dissect that.  By inviting Ken Loach, an 85 year old man, to address a group of students these poor Jewish snowflakes might suffer irreparable harm!  It’s as if words don’t mean anything to these died-in-the-wool racists.

What was Ken Loach’s real offence? That he produced the play Perdition 35 years ago. The play was a fictional account of the Kasztner trial in Israel which the Zionists never refer to today.

Kasztner was the leader of Hungarian Zionism. The Jerusalem District Court upheld the allegations of collaboration against him. In the words of Judge Benjamin Halevi, Kasztner ‘sold his soul to Satan.’ Although the conviction was overturned  4-1 by the Supreme Court this was patently political and used dubious legal technicalities.

In fact on one charge of collaboration, giving testimony at Nuremberg in support of a Nazi war criminal, Kurt Becher, the allegation of collaboration was upheld by the Supreme Court. The Court didn’t know that Kasztner had also given testimony in support of Eichmann’s deputy, Hermann Krumey and another mass murderer Dieter Wisliceny. Krumey lived out his life in Germany, until Rudolf Vrba gave evidence against him.  Wisliceny was executed by the Czechs. See “Anti-Semitism” accusations used in attempt to prevent Ken Loach speaking at Oxford University

The Kasztner trial is covered in my forthcoming book  Zionism During the Holocaust.  Kasztner made an agreement with Eichmann for 600, increased to 1,684, of the Zionist and Jewish elite escaping deportation in a train out of Hungary. In return  Kasztner suppressed the Auschwitz Protocols, which 2 escapees from Auschwitz, Vrba and Wetzler had written exposing Auschwitz as an extermination camp.

The result was that Hungarian Jewry were kept in the dark as to where they were being ‘resettled’ and were told by Kasztner’s Zionist friends, that they were merely being taken to a safer place in Hungary.

It is to be hoped that after the investigation concludes that NUS will defend its President Shaima Dallali against any further attacks by racists, UJS included.