The Idiocy and Dishonesty of the British Press is Highlighted by Simon Kelner, former Independent Editor

Kelner of the 'i' is either a fool or a knave (or both) when he attacks Derek Hatton for ‘Anti-Semitism’

I confess the times have long since gone when I purchased a daily paper.  Even when I was on the dole I regularly bought a copy of The Guardian.  Before it went tabloid, physically and politically, it was a good newspaper with some excellent columnists such as Jonathan Steele, John Palmer, David Hirst, and the late, great Michael Adams, their Middle East correspondent and the first western journalist to tell the truth about the brutality of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. A journalist whom their present Zionist correspondent-in-chief Jonathan Freedland isn’t fit to wipe the boots of. 

Today I take the ‘i’.  Not because it is a particularly good paper. It isn’t.  The local hotel always has free copies so I take one! Apart from Robert Fisk and Patrick Cockburn it has nothing to recommend it.  Simon Kelner, former Editor of The Independent has a column. Kelner’s articles are always a boring slog, excelling only in the mundane. However the 'i' is no better or worse than the Guardian or Times and it is free! 

However my eye caught the headline of a recent article of Kelner's about Corbyn and Anti-Semitism and so I read further.  Kelner excels in taking his time to say nothing, however I noticed his attack on Derek Hatton, the former Deputy Leader of Liverpool City Council. Hatton had apparently tweeted in 2012 that ‘Jewish people with any sense of humanity need to start speaking out publicly against the ruthless murdering being carried out in Israel.’

It is true that if you blame Jewish people for all the ills of Israel that is anti-Semitic. But Hatton wasn’t doing that.  He was associating the Israeli state with Jews, which is quite understandable.  Israel calls itself a state of the Jews, not just Israeli Jews but all Jews.  Zionists defend Israel as a Jewish state. Indeed they proclaim in Israel's defence that it is the only Jewish state in the world, as if this gave it some unique merit.

Israel also quite uniquely for a state does not have a nationality.  There is a good reason. Israel is a state not of its own citizens but Jews all over the world, in theory anyway.  That means that I can ‘return’ to a place I’ve only visited once whereas Palestinians who were born there have no such right.  In anyone’s book that is racism.  As Netanyahu recently proclaimed Israel is not a state of all its citizens but of Jews only.

Michael Adams was a pioneering journalist on the Guardian - the first Middle East correspondent who accurately reported the truth from Palestine and who was called an antisemite repeatedly - if only Corbyn could remember that antisemite is a term of abuse not a term of racism any longer

In 1972 in a case George Tamarin v State of Israel Tamarin was an Israeli Jew who wanted to change his nationality from “Jewish” to “Israeli.” Justice Agranat ruled that he couldn’t. He said:

‘the desire to create an Israeli nation separate from the Jewish nation is not a legitimate aspiration. A division of the population into Israeli and Jewish nations would … negate the foundation on which the State of Israel was established.’ 

The court ruled that

‘There is no Israeli nation separate from the Jewish People. The Jewish People is composed not only of those residing in Israel but also of Diaspora Jewry.’ 

So now we have it.  According to Simon Kelner the State of Israel is an anti-Semitic state!  And this is true.  The idea that Jews belong in Israel is an anti-Semitic idea.  But being a fool and a knave, Kelner is unlikely to accept or even understand this.

Below is the letter I have sent to the ‘i’.  I somehow doubt they will print it! (they didn't)

Tony Greenstein 

Brighton

Thursday, 28 February 2019

Letters Editor,

The ‘I’

i@inews.co.uk

Dear Sir or Madam,

I know that Simon Kelner was the Editor of the Independent and is now a columnist on the ‘i’ but either he is a knave or a fool or possibly both.

In yet another column on the fake anti-Semitism campaign in the Labour Party ‘How has Corbyn survived the anti-Semitic storm?’ Kelner manages to take up a whole column saying nothing.

However even I was taken aback by Kelner’s dissimulation.  Kelner quotes Derek Hatton as saying:

Jewish people with any sense of humanity need to start speaking out publicly against the ruthless murdering being carried out in Israel.’

This seems to me to be a very reasonable comment given that Israel calls itself a Jewish state. The Jewish Nation State Law passed last summer makes it explicit that Israel is a State of the Jewish People, all the Jewish people, wherever they may reside.

That is why when Netanyahu went to France in 2015 in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo murders and those of 4 Jews in the Hypercacher Supermarket he was quoted as saying that ‘"I went to Paris not just as the prime minister of Israel but as a representative of the entire Jewish people.’

Was Netanyahu being anti-Semitic? Did Kelner accuse him of this?

Quite amazingly Kelner says of Hatton’s statement that: ‘The connection between all Jewish people and the actions of the State of Israel is clearly anti-Semitic’.  But the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, which Kelner has also previously supported, states that an example of anti-Semitism is:

‘Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.’
  If Israel is the outcome of Jewish self-determination then clearly Jewish people, all Jewish people, are responsible for the actions of the Israeli state.

Kelner knows full well that the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which styles itself the representative organisation of British Jewry, regularly speaks on behalf of British Jewry. When the BOD supports Israeli actions it speaks or claims to speak on behalf of all British Jews.  Has Kelner accused them of anti-Semitism, if not why not?

Only last May the Board of Deputies issued a statement supporting Israel’s use of snipers to murder unarmed demonstrators in Gaza. The statement read: ‘“The responsibility for the violence lies with Hamas’ .  According to Kelner, anyone believing what the Board said was anti-Semitic.

Did Kelner attack the Board as anti-Semitic? I doubt it because Kelner is just one more media muppet willing to say whatever pleases the powers that be.

Yours faithfully,

Tony Greenstein

The Guardian’s Pathetic Editor @kathviner censors Steve Bell Cartoon on the murder of Razan al-Najjar

In the eyes of the Guardian’s racist editor Katherine Viner, a fireplace becomes an oven becomes the Holocaust 

It’s not often that words fail me, but the decision of the Guardian’s  editor, @kathviner literally leaves me speechless.

A 21 year old girl, Razan al-Najjar, was murdered in cold blood by an Israeli sniper in Gaza.  She had her hands up whilst running to help the wounded.  What is the reaction of the Guardian’s gutless corporate editor, Kath Viner?  To censor the cartoon of the Guardian’s brilliant socialist cartoonist, Steve Bell, which features Netanyahu and Theresa May at Downing Street with Razan in the fireplace.

In the twisted, racist mind of @KathViner, the fireplace has become an oven.  And as we all know ovens are only used for burning Jews.  No one in Britain has an oven unless it is for cremating dead Jews who have been gassed.  

Such is the absurdity of the fake and false anti-semitism campaign that has hit the Labour Party.  And in what passes for Viner's malevolent mind a fireplace = Holocaust.  Steve Bell’s cartoon becomes an anti-Semitic trope.

Viner once helped produce a play on the murdered International Solidarity Movement activist Rachel Corrie, bulldozed to death by the Israeli military.  Viner has since become the Guardian’s editor and whatever principles this apology for a human being had have long been discarded.

Yet another reason why any socialist or supporter of human rights should boycott the alt-Right Guardian, whose ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign against Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party has shown it up in its true colours.

BOYCOTT THE RACIST GUARDIAN

As I never tire of saying, I was brought upon a Guardian which had fearless Middle East correspondents like Michael Adams and David Hirst.  Now it has as its chief censor Jonathan Freedland and the paper is simply another part of the corporate media, using ‘anti-Semitism’ to counteract any criticism of Zionism and Israel.

Meanwhile the Israeli army ‘investigation’ into the murder of Razan has taken its normal course.  It is an attempt to justify their cold blooded murder of Razan.  Its agenda from the start has been to blacken the name of Razan and justify what happened.  After all, given that the army employed 100 snipers to mow down unarmed protestors what else can we expect?

I know the Zionists won't like it but asking the Israeli army to investigate itself is like asking the Nazis to conduct an investigation into the murder of Jews.  It didn't happen and it ain't gonna happen.

That is why Netanyahu has opposed any idea of an independent inquiry.  The last time the UN held an independent inquiry under Judge Goldstone it found Israel had committed human rights crimes and Goldstein, despite being Jewish was accused of, well you know, ‘anti-Semitism’.

Apparently Razan wanted to shield the wounded and, horror of horror, she apparently threw a smoke bomb.  Well that justifies her murder if anything does.  Of course she was murdered with her hands held up but who cares, Hamas put her up to it and they bear the responsibility. The poor innocent sniper couldn’t possibly have murdered her.  It must have been a ricochet or possibly he or she missed and killed her instead of someone else.

Israeli ‘investigations’ start from the premise that Israel is innocent. They are an exercise in allocating guilt to the Palestinians. And if they can’t find an excuse, as they couldn’t during Operation Protective Edge when 4 Palestinian children were murdered by an Israeli plane machine gunning them, then it is all a ‘tragic accident’.  Of course when Palestinians kill Israelis, then it is never an accident although it is always tragic.

Such is the narrative of the racist and colonist.  But what is worse is when racist journalists like the Guardian’s @kathviner act to protect Israel’s murderers with the bogus excuse of ‘anti-Semitism’.

Please tweet  @kathviner to let her know what you feel about the Guardian’s racism and email the Guardian letters page 

guardian.letters@theguardian.com to let these racists know what you feel.  Because western papers covering for Israel’s foul murder of innocent civilians and even medics with the bogus ‘anti-Semitism’ smokescreen are every bit as despicable as those who commit these foul murders.

Israeli murderers couldn’t get away with their foul deeds unless journalists in this country covered for them.  In many ways it is the Kath Viners of the British press who bear as much culpability as the person who pulled the trigger on Razan.

Tony Greenstein

A top IDF general and spokesperson on Thursday said the Palestinian medic shot dead during clashes along the Gaza border last week was “no angel of mercy,” as the army released a video purportedly showing the woman lobbing a smoke grenade toward Israeli forces.

“Razan al-Najjar is not the angel of mercy Hamas propaganda is making her out to be,” IDF Arabic spokesman Avichay Adraee tweeted.

The video was released two days after the army said an internal review had determined Najjar was not intentionally targeted by snipers, following international outcry over her death.

Adraee accompanied his tweet with a short video compilation allegedly showing Najjar on several occasions during the recent Gaza border clashes.

The video, and Adraee’s comment that she was “no angel of mercy,” seemed designed to raise doubts about the volunteer medic’s innocence during the clashes, though the army did not indicate that it considered Najjar to be a legitimate target, raising questions among some commentators about its overall intentions with the campaign.

In one part of the clip, Najjar is seen giving an interview to an Arabic news outlet, saying that she wanted to serve as “a human shield” for protesters.

“I’m here on the line being a protective human shield saving the injured,” Najjar, 21, said in the interview.

The IDF clip cut her statement after “human shield.”

Another part of the clip shows a Palestinian woman, whom the military claimed was Najjar, hurling a smoking canister. The army said the smoke grenade was thrown toward Israeli forces.

“By her own admission, she was a human shield for the rioters and saboteurs, demonstrating how Hamas exploits all of Gazan society for its own purposes as well as Iran’s,” said the IDF general.

“Do medics in other countries throw bombs and participate in riots and refer to themselves as human shields?”

Palestinians and human rights groups have accused the Israeli military of using excessive force against protesters during the weeks of Hamas-led protests along the Israeli border. Najjar’s death sharpened the criticism, with UN officials saying that witness reports indicated she wore clothing that clearly identified her as a health worker.

In two months of mass protests at the Gaza border, some 110 Palestinians were killed and thousands wounded by Israeli military fire. Dozens of the fatalities were members of terror groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad acknowledged.

Earlier this week, the IDF said an initial investigation into Najjar’s death revealed that while troops did fire at protesters near the fence east of Khan Younis where she was working, the volunteer medic was not intentionally targeted.

This appeared to indicate that Najjar was hit either by a mis-aimed shot or a ricochet as she tended to an injured man, while wearing a white coat clearly marking her as a medical professional.

The Palestinian Medical Relief Society and eyewitnesses at the scene said Najjar was less than 100 meters from the border fence, treating a man who been struck by a tear gas canister, when she was shot.

IDF Spokesman in Arabic, Avichay Adraee at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem on September 6, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

After the incident, the UN’s envoy for the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, said in a tweet that “Medical workers are #NotATarget!” and that “Israel needs to calibrate its use of force and Hamas need to prevent incidents at the fence.”

On Tuesday, the army said the official investigation into Najjar’s death, which is led by the Southern Command, was ongoing. The IDF said that the General Staff also launched its own probe into the incident, the findings of which will be presented to the Military Advocate General to determine if criminal proceedings are necessary.

Israel faces weekly attacks by violent protesters at the border. Israel says its forces have opened fire to stop attempts to harm soldiers, damage the fence, infiltrate Israel, and attempt to carry out attacks. Israel accuses the Hamas terrorist group, with which it has fought three wars since 2008, of seeking to use the protests as cover to carry out violence.

Guardian refuses to print letter from 650+ members challenging the lie that the Labour Party is anti-Semitic

Why no self-respecting socialist or Labour supporter should buy the Guardian

I have long campaigned for people to shed their illusions in the Guardian and not buy it.  The Guardian for a long time was something like Israel’s Ha’aretz.  It contained a variety of different views and the only coverage of Israel/Palestine that differed in any way from the mainstream press.  It boasted correspondents like Michael Adams and David Hirst, both knowledgeable about the Palestinians and Zionism.

Today it’s Middle East coverage is pitiful.  It’s Comment is Free blog, which was supposed to be a space for free speech on issues, including Israel, has felt the heavy hand of Guardian censorship as its moderators take the scissors to any anti-Zionist critiques.  Comparison of Israel with Nazi Germany is a particular no go area, even though Israelis make the comparison every day.

The following story from Jewish Voice for Labour site is about how the Guardian has refused to print a letter from over 650 members of the Labour Party counteracting it constant barrage of lies that the Labour Party is overrun by anti-Semitism.

Jonathan Freedland - a member of the foreign policy elite and an ardent Zionist and columnist for the right-wing Jewish Chronicle has pioneered the censorship of anti-Zionist voices at The Guardian

Unfortunately the Guardian has been getting worse for some time ago. I have published a series of articles over the years detailing how the Guardian has moved further to the Right and how it has become more friendly to Israel and Zionism under its senior editor Jonathan Freedland

How The Guardian has sold its Soul

Guardian Cowardice as it abandons Antony Loewenstein to Israel’s Ministry of Information

Palestine Is Not an Environment Story - How Nafeez Ahmed's Article on Gaza's Gas was Censored

The Guardian and Jonathan Freedland's tedious Campaign against Corbyn

The disgusting ad that the Guardian carried in 2014 as the Israelis were committing massacres in Gaza

People may recall that in 2014 the Guardian printed an advert from Elie Wiesel during Operation Protective Edge, which killed 2,200 Palestinians in Gaza, including 551 children.  It's title was  'Jews rejected child sacrifice 3,500 years ago now it's Hamas' turn.' Electronic Intifada's Asa Winstanley best summed up this decision: “Liberal” Guardian to print pro-genocide ad

The Guardian's disingenuous attempt to defend its appalling decision

Even Rupert Murdoch's Times rejected the advert, but not the Guardian.  At a time when Palestinian children were being slaughtered by Israeli armaments, the Guardian printed this vicious racist propaganda.  All the letters it printed were hostile.  Today it would seem such letters would not even be printed.

Tony Greenstein

Guardian denies space to 650+ Labour Party members challenging hostile media coverage

The Guardian has refused to publish a letter submitted over a week ago challenging hostile media coverage of the Labour Party, even though it attracted more than 650 signatures from party members in barely 24 hours.

Those who signed, and hundreds more who sent in their names after the noon deadline on Friday April 6, are entitled to ask why the Guardian cannot feature the views of huge numbers of ordinary Party members while devoting so much space to attacking Jeremy Corbyn.

This is especially pertinent today, Monday April 16, as the Parliamentary Labour Party is due to meet this evening for the first time since March 26 and a parliamentary debate about antisemitism is scheduled to take place tomorrow, Tuesday April 17.

We hope that the latter debate will pay ample attention to the virulent antisemitism expressed by friends of the Tory party in this country and across Europe.

To give voice to the silenced Corbyn-supporting members of the Labour Party, we publish below the original letter as submitted to the Guardian.

For clarification, JVL recognises that there is evidence of racist attitudes, including antisemitism, among some party members. This is why we propose, in line with recommendations in the Chakrabarti Report, open debate and discussion combined with non-factional training to help members recognise and deal with prejudices which have no place in an anti-racist party.

We also recognise that we live in a racist society in which many prejudices persist, including towards Jews. This is true within the Labour Party as elsewhere, but we do NOT accept, as widely alleged, that party members are especially susceptible to holding antisemitic views, unconscious or otherwise.

Please share this post widely on social media and invite more Labour Party members to join in demonstrating support for Corbyn’s leadership.

ORIGINAL TEXT OF SOLIDARITY LETTER

We are Labour Party members who have watched with growing astonishment and anger as our Party has been traduced with claims of widespread antisemitism. We stand absolutely against any form of discrimination and if there are any in our Party who are guilty of racist attitudes or behaviour then they should be expelled. But such action should only be after due process including evidence and the right to appeal and not through the trial by media which we are currently seeing.

Most importantly we do not accept that the disputed actions of a tiny minority of people in any way represent our Party as a whole and its 570,000 members. Neither do we accept the absurd claim that racist attitudes are widespread but we are somehow unable to recognise them because they are unconscious.  We recognise racism because we have been fighting it for much of our lives and that fight was a key reason for joining our Party in the first place.

The current febrile atmosphere has been encouraged by a hostile right-wing media and by those who seek to damage the Party or its leadership for their own ends. We absolutely reject the gross calumny which is thus being perpetrated against the Party as a whole and the integrity of its members.

There is a great task ahead of us, to re-build and regenerate our society so that all may live with security and dignity.  The cruel legacy of successive governments has left people desperate for change. The Labour Party led by Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell can achieve that transformation. Let us make certain that nothing can distract us from this historic opportunity.

Signed by 650+ Labour party members

A few of the monotonous Guardian articles on the fake antisemitism campaign against the Labour Party

The right-wing and anti-migrant Daily Express sings from the same song sheet as the Guardian

How the Guardian became the flagship for the false ‘anti-Semitism’ Smear Campaign of Labour’s Zionist Right

Jonathan Freedland’s contemptible attack on Ken Loach and his refusal of a right of reply 

Corbyn criticises the 'subliminally nasty' Jonathan Freedland

Dear Jonathan,

For over 2 years, the Guardian has run a campaign whose aim has been to paint the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn as anti-Semitic. You have personally insinuated that Corbyn worked with a holocaust denier, as have other contributors.

Some of us would say that Labour has a Zionist problem

The Guardian’s hostility to Corbyn has surpassed even that of the tabloids. It is little wonder that in the past 8 years the Guardian’s sales have declined from over 400,000 to just over 150,000 today. It is no longer seen as a paper of the Left.

The Guardian used to be the only British paper to have an informed coverage of the Middle East. Correspondents such as Michael Adams and David Hirst were renowned the world over. Today their role has been filled by Robert Fisk and Patrick Cockburn at The Independent.

Ken Loach and Jeremy Corbyn - Even when Corbyn tries to appease the Zionists he has the problem of all those people on the Left that he worked with for forty years.

When Comment is Free was established 10 years ago under the late Georgina Henry, I was one of a number of contributors.  My first article for CIF was The seamy side of solidarity, a coruscating attack on the anti-Semitic Jazzman Gilad Atzmon.  It was a call for the Palestine solidarity movement to dissociate themselves from Atzmon and his supporters. 

My article began with the observation: ‘Like the boy who cried wolf, the charge of "anti-semitism" has been made so often against critics of Zionism and the Israeli state that people now have difficulty recognising the genuine article.’  That observation is particularly relevant since you have repeatedly made false allegations of anti-Semitism against people like Ken Loach. 

The Zionist lobby was not happy with Jewish anti-Zionists writing under the banner of The Guardian.  They therefore formed ‘CIF Watch’ In January 2002 in ‘A new anti-Semitism?’ the Guardian quoted Lord Greville Janner, a leading Zionist and a notorious child abuser, as saying that the Guardian was ‘viciously and notoriously anti-Israel’.

The Guardian succumbed to the pressure and I and others were banned from contributing. CIF Watch even changed its name to UK Media Watch because, as they boasted, their work was complete.

As a senior editor at the Guardian you led the anti-Corbyn campaign with your article Labour and the left have an antisemitism problem.  The strap line was:  ‘Under Jeremy Corbyn the party has attracted many activists with views hostile to Jews.’  You provided not an iota of evidence to substantiate this. 

Alex Chalmers, Chair of Oxford University Labour Club, resigned because of the Club's support of Israel Apartheid Week.  It had nothing to do with 'anti-Semitism'

You cited Vicki Kirby’s quote that Jews have ‘big noses’ but failed to correct this when David Baddiel, the Jewish author of Infidels, pointed out that this was a direct quote from his play.  

You also cited the bogus allegations of anti-Semitism at Oxford University Labour Club by its Chair Alex Chalmers who resigned when the Labour Club decided to give its backing to Oxford’s Israel Apartheid Week.  It was later revealed that Chalmers had been a paid intern at Bicom, an Israeli propaganda organisation.

There have been numerous articles in The Guardian’s Comment or Opinion sections, on the false anti-Semitism theme.  Nothing contradicting this narrative has appeared.  Submissions from Professor Avi Shlaim, myself and others were rejected. Far from Comment being Free, when it comes to Zionism it has been tied down and silenced as surely as Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver.

The furore around Vicky Kirby's reference to Jews' 'big noses' was in fact based on a quote from a play by a Jewish author, David Baddiel

As you are well aware it is Zionism and anti-Semitism which go hand in hand. Have you forgotten the time when David Miliband attacked the Tories for their alliance with anti-Semites such as Michal Kaminski and Robert Zile in the European Parliament?  You even wrote an article Once no self-respecting politician would have gone near people such as Kaminski.  This of course was before the election of Jeremy Corbyn.

Kaminski fronted the Committee to Defend the Good Name of Jedwabne, a village in Poland that burnt alive up to 1,600 of its Jewish inhabitants in 1941.  Robert Zile distinguished himself by marching every March with veterans of Latvia’s Waffen SS in Riga.  

Prominent Zionists were ‘incandescent’ when the Board's Vivian Wineman raised the issue with David Cameron.  Stephen Pollard, editor of the Jewish Chronicle wrote about how Poland's Kaminski is not an antisemite: he's a friend to Jews.

Trump's former anti-Semitic adviser, Steve Bannon, is invited as the guest of honour to Zionist Organisation of America's gala dinner  - he might be an anti-Semite but 'He's so pro-Israel!'

The alliance of Zionists with the anti-Semitic Right is a world wide phenomenon, with the Israeli government supporting the anti-Semitic attacks of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban on George Soros. Soros’s offence being to help fund Israeli human rights groups. And there is the little matter of the invitation by the Zionist Organisation of America to Steve Bannon of Breitbart and the Alt-Right to speak to its annual gala dinner.

Despite this your most recent article Labour’s Denial of Antisemitism in its Ranks Leaves The Party in a Dark Place repeats the lie that there were ‘loud calls for the expulsion of Jewish groups’ at Labour Party Conference.  What there were was calls for the disaffiliation of the Jewish Labour Movement, a Zionist not Jewish group.  The JLM is the ‘sister party’ of the Israeli Labour Party, a party of segregation and ethnic cleansing.

Freedland's attack on Ken Loach - a right of reply was refused.

Your suggestion that Ken Loach was ‘echoing ... the language of Holocaust denial’ is contemptible.  Unlike you, Loach has spent a lifetime confronting and opposing racism and supporting the poor and dispossessed.  You have spent your career defending Apartheid when it comes in Jewish clothes.

You argued that Ken Loach, Len McCluskey and Ken Livingstone, not being Jewish, are unqualified to comment on anti-Semitism.  Racism is not subjective.  Non-Jews are perfectly capable of expressing an opinion. Many Jews in the Labour Party also deny your claims so it depends on which Jews you speak to or for.  You also compared Jews to Black, Women's and other oppressed groups.  Jews in Britain are not oppressed as Jews. 

Ironically it is anti-Zionist Jews who are the primary victims of the fake anti-Semitism witch hunt. Moshe Machover, Jackie Walker and myself have been suspended or expelled.  It is as if the Labour Party during the era of South African Apartheid had ostracised White South Africans opposed to Apartheid at the behest of Labour Friends of South Africa!

Jews have been the loudest critics of the attempt to equate anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism. To pretend that all Jews have one opinion, that they are homogenous, is not only fundamentally dishonest but also anti-Semitic.  I expect better of you Jonathan.  

People like Archbishop Desmond Tutu have described Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians as similar to what happened in South Africa.  Ha’aretz quotes him as saying that:

‘"I have witnessed the systemic humiliation of Palestinian men, women and children by members of the Israeli security forces... Their humiliation is familiar to all black South Africans who were corralled and harassed and insulted and assaulted by the security forces of the apartheid government."

You seem to find it difficult to accept that a Jewish settler colonial state is inherently racist.  You have made turning a blind eye to Israel’s crimes into an art form. How can a state which demolished in January a Bedouin village, Umm al-Hiran, in Israel’s Negev, in order to make way for an exclusively Jewish town be considered a normal democratic state?  Or why is it that a plurality, 48% of Israeli Jews want to see the expulsion of Israeli Arabs?

Your suggestion that anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism is based on your argument that 93% of British Jews identify with Israel.  In fact just 59% identify as Zionists.  But even were you correct so what?  If a majority of Hindus supported Suttee would it be racist to oppose it?  Jews who support Israel are identifying with the world’s only apartheid state.  That is wrong whoever they are.

Ken Loach is forced to reply to Freedland on the site of Jewish Voice for Labour as Freedland and the Guardian refuse a right of reply

What I really find remarkable is that having launched an abusive and dishonest attack on Ken Loach you didn’t even have the courage to print his reply, Comment is Free - Guardian’s One-Eyed View of Labour Politics Ignores the Palestinians.  That really is cowardly. 

Ken Loach is a living legend.  His films have borne eloquent testimony to the evils of racism and imperialism, as well as being a devastating indictment of the way the poor and dispossessed are treated – from Cathy Come Home to I Daniel Blake.  What will you leave to the world other than a few instantly forgettable tirades against anti-Zionists plus a few thrillers?

You are living proof Jonathan that even the most ‘liberal’ of Zionists ends up in Netanyahu’s choir singing the same songs of ‘anti-Semitism’.  As Israeli society moves further and further to the racist Right you find it impossible to change the tune.

Of one thing I am certain. If Jews in Britain experienced even a tenth of what Palestinians in Israel had to put up with then your references to anti-Semitism would carry some weight.

There is only one thing I don't understand.  When Jeremy Corbyn accused you of “utterly disgusting subliminal nastiness” why he thought it was subliminal?  It seems all too clear.

Yours sincerely,

Tony Greenstein

Ken Loach’s Reply to Jonathan Freedland that the Guardian refused to print

Comment is free – Guardian’s One-Eyed View of Labour Politics Ignores the Palestinians

Ken Loach, 5 October 2017

On 27th September 2017 the Guardian published an article by Jonathan Freedland called Labour’s denial of antisemitism in its ranks leaves the party in a dark place. Ken Loach wrote a response for Comment is Free beginning “The taint of antisemitism is toxic. Yet, with hints and innuendos, your columnist, Jonathan Freedland, tries to link me, Len McCluskey and Ken Livingstone to Labour’s ‘dark place’, for which it seems we are in part responsible. This is cynical journalism.”

The Guardian has refused to carry Loach’s article. We are pleased to do so here.

---

The taint of antisemitism is toxic. Yet, with hints and innuendos, your columnist, Jonathan Freedland, tries to link me, Len McCluskey and Ken Livingstone to Labour’s ‘dark place’, for which it seems we are in part responsible. This is cynical journalism.

What is his evidence? Len and I were welcomed at the packed first meeting of ‘Jewish Voice for Labour’. Strangely, Freedland ignored this progressive new group, which has published its own response to his attacks on us. The founding document says: ‘we stand for rights and justice for Jewish people everywhere and against wrongs and injustices to Palestinians and other oppressed people anywhere’. We support that.

But Freedland disputes our right to contribute. We are ‘not Jewish – a fact that might limit their authority to speak on the matter’. The matter in question is antisemitism in the Labour Party.

Many Jewish comrades say that they know the Labour Party to be a welcoming environment and have not experienced hostility as Jews. This chimes with my fifty years of involvement with the labour movement. But, for Freedland, this is a discussion to which only one group – Jews who share his political perspective – can contribute. It is exclusive – no place for solidarity or collective support. This goes against all traditions of the left where we stand alongside each other to oppose injustice.

People join left organisations to fight racism and fascism, intolerance and colonial oppression. Throughout history, it is the left that has led this fight. Racism including antisemitism is real enough and will emerge in all political parties. The Jewish Socialists’ Group (JSG) acknowledges this in relation to allegations about the Labour Party: ‘a very small number of cases seem to be real instances of antisemitism’. I trust their judgement.

This present campaign about antisemitism surfaced when Jeremy Corbyn became leader and drew on a number of cases that pre-dated his leadership. It has been led by his political opponents inside and outside the Labour Party, seeming in part to be aimed at undermining Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters and therefore his leadership. JSG wrote ‘accusations of antisemitism are being weaponised to attack the Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour Party’.

Corbyn has always opposed racism and defended human rights wherever they have been attacked, which includes the plight of the Palestinians. This will alarm apologists for Israeli occupation and expansion. Further, he stands on a socialist programme which has disturbed the right of the party.

There is a further, more serious allegation, that I gave ‘spurious legitimacy’ to Holocaust denial. In a BBC interview I was asked about a speech I had not heard and of which I knew nothing. My reply has been twisted to suggest that I think it is acceptable to question the reality of the Holocaust. I do not. The Holocaust is as real a historical event as the World War itself and not to be challenged. In Primo Levi’s words: ‘Those who deny Auschwitz would be ready to remake it.’ The first terrible pictures I saw as a nine-year old are ingrained on my memory as they are for all my generation.

Like readers of this paper, I know the history of Holocaust denial, its place in far right politics and the role of people like David Irving. To imply that I would have anything in common with them is contemptible. The consequences of such a smear are obvious to all: let the poison escape and it will be picked up on social media and reputations may be tarnished for ever. A brief phone call would have clarified my position.

One thing Freedland has got right – the ages of Len McCluskey, Ken Livingstone and me (he wittily makes a rhyme of our names). Freedland is happy to embrace one prejudice – ageism.

Exaggerated or false claims of antisemitism can create a climate of fear in which legitimate discussion about the state of Israel and its actions are stifled. Antisemitism and debate about Israel should be separate issues. Once again it is the Palestinians who are marginalised or ignored. Freedland writes frequently about Israel, yet his concern for the Palestinians takes second place. So while we are clarifying our position, could he make clear whether, for example, he accepts:

• that land stolen from the Palestinians should be returned to them and all illegal settlements removed, as UN Resolutions demand.
• that Israel is breaking the Fourth Geneva Convention by transporting Palestinian children to Israeli prisons without access to lawyers or their families.
• and that the deliberate destruction of civilian life, hospitals and medical facilities in Gaza during Operation Protective Edge were war crimes.

And will he endorse the distinguished Israeli historian Ilan Pappe when he writes about the founding of Israel: ‘The ethnic cleansing of Palestine (is) a crime against humanity that Israel has wanted to deny and cause the world to forget’?

So many questions, so many injustices. Labour has much to do in developing an ethical foreign policy and social and economic justice at home. It now has principled leaders and a growing, enthusiastic membership. Let the party not throw away this great opportunity. We have a world to win.