The Height of Unreality - Sacked by Starmer for
offending Zionists LRM Pledged ‘to support Keir in defending and furthering the manifesto
we stood on’
I must confess I’ve never
had much respect for Lloyd Russell-Moyle, my local MP.
In March 2016 I was
suspended from the Labour Party and expelled two years later. I had been
targeted by the Jewish Labour Movement, which throughout the Corbyn period operated
as an arm of the Zionist movement and the Israeli state.
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| Quoting from a Ha'aretz article was seen as 'antisemitic' - since we mustn't tell the truth about how Israel uses the Holocaust to cover its war crimes and much else |
The allegations against me
were motivated by my anti-Zionist politics as became clear when I had my investigation
interview with Labour’s hapless Regional Secretary, Harry Gregson. I blogged
about it here
and the transcript is here.
Gregson asked me about my comment that ‘Israel is waiting for its holocaust survivors
to die’, so I handed him a copy
of Ha'aretz, an Israeli paper with the exact same headline and asked
Gregson if he was suggesting Ha'aretz too was anti-Semitic!
Even at this early stage
of the witch-hunt it was criticism of Israel, not hate of Jews, which were
behind the allegations of ‘anti-Semitism’.
A motion was put to the District
Labour Party opposing my suspension and it was carried. LRM was the Chair of
the District Party. Did he then write to
Iain McNicol, Labour’s crooked General Secretary to inform him of the local
party’s policy? Well yes he did but only to ask that my expulsion be sped up, in
the course of which he made a number of false allegations.!
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| Lloyd Russell-Moyle's letter to the witchhunters |
All this was revealed when
I did a Subject Access Request. Although Moyle’s letter was blacked out, it
wasn’t difficult to work out who had penned it.
Naturally I wrote to oily Moyle
asking what he thought he was doing. Lloyd
Russell-Moyle – the Double Barrelled Hypocrite who was imposed as Chair of
Brighton & Hove Labour Party. Moyle offered me a ‘limited apology’: ‘I believe Point 3 is, in hindsight poorly
worded from myself.’ Being a generous soul I accepted the apology. LRM, who
makes Uriah Heep seem straightforward and honest wrote:
‘I am of a firm belief that one should say things
publicly which are kind, and if you are unable to say that then one must be quite
(sic) and say nothing on blogs and social media, esp about members.’
And who, I thought, could
argued with a sentiment which could have formed part of the Golden Rule and the Sermon
on the Mount. Clearly Moyle was a kind Christian fellow and I had misjudged
him!
Imagine my surprise when someone
sent me a copy of a Facebook discussion with comments about me from this
latter-day John the Baptist:
‘‘I am the chair of his clp [District Labour
Party in fact] and can tell you he is an abusive, unpleasant little man.
I have told him that to his face.’
Leaving
aside the small fact that he told me nothing to my face, other than engaging in
small talk (and on one occasion apologising for his rudeness), these comments
seemed slightly at odd with Moyle’s preaching about speaking kindly of people!
Clearly Oily was already in training to be an MP even though he hadn’t yet been
chosen as a candidate.
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| Lloyd Russell-Moyle (back right) and David Roger (front right) |
I
mention all of this because a friend in Brighton Palestine Solidarity Campaign,
David Roger, wrote to Moyle on 14th June after being suspended from
the Labour Party, asking for support. In response his secretary wrote 3 days
later, telling David that
‘Lloyd believes that
anti-semitism has no place in the Labour Party and is pleased to see Keir
acting so proactively to demonstrate this.’
The implication being that
David is anti-Semitic.
David responded
on 21st June telling Moyle that he found his response
‘chilling and sadly
confirmatory of my fears that ambition and career advancement have overtaken
principle and ethics.’
Which is as
good a description of Moyle as anything I could muster. The fact that false
charges of anti-Semitism are being made against activists like David for the
sole reason that they support the Palestinians was not something that troubled Moyle
in the slightest.
I also wrote a
letter to Moyle pointing out that he was happy to attend
a Palestine solidarity social with the brave volunteers on the Gaza Freedom
Flotilla with David. Moyle was also happy to have his photo taken with David
but he is too gutless to take up his case.
Come July and
Moyle was himself subject to much the same false allegations of anti-Semitism for
comments
he had made in 2009. At that time, unencumbered by office, LRM stated that Jewish
claims to Israel were "not
progressive in [their] very nature" and that Zionism was a "dangerous nationalist idea".
It’s difficult to disagree
with either propositions. Zionism’s bastard offspring, the Israeli state, has
been in a state of perpetual war with the Palestinians and its neighbours since
1948 whilst at the same time portraying itself as the victim.
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| A tweet from a JLM supporter |
However instead of
standing by his comments Moyle crawled:
“I have now deleted these posts and recognise why
they were offensive,” insisting that “I
am completely and unreservedly committed to supporting Keir Starmer and Angela
Rayner’s pledge to rid the Party of antisemitism.”
Where, I wonder, do they
get these people? Is it a condition of
being a member of the Campaign Group that you have to agree to having your
backbone removed?
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| Divina Levrini (left) |
I reminded Lloyd that
amongst those who had sailed on the boat to Gaza was Divina
Levrini, a young Swedish woman who, like the others, was badly beaten up and
tortured by the Israeli commanders who seized the ship. Divina, who was already ill, died soon after
and who knows whether her treatment at the hands of the Israelis, which
included denying her medication, played any part in this.
The idea of apologising for
describing Zionism, a racist Jewish Supremacist ideology, as nasty’ is abject political cowardice.
One might hope that people
like Divina, who went on a boat despite being ill, because of her concern for
the people of Gaza might give Oily the courage to stand up to the racist
defenders of the Israeli state.
Unfortunately not.
The JLM, British branch of
the Israeli Labour Party, which pretends to be concerned with anti-Semitism when
its sole concern is Israel and Zionism, decided to go for Moyle. The Jewish News headline was Labour’s
Jewish affiliate tears into shadow minister after Zionism posts apology
In an attempt to save his fast disappearing ministerial career Moyle did
what come naturally to him, he grovelled.
“I am completely and unreservedly committed to
supporting [Labour leader] Keir Starmer and [deputy leader] Angela Rayner’s
pledge to rid the party of antisemitism. I have met previously with the Jewish
Labour Movement and will be reaching out to them again now,”
This however was insufficient and Starmer gave Moyle
a choice – resign or be sacked. Moyle then claimed that
owing to a campaign by right-wing media my position
has become untenable. I shall return to backbenches for the time being to
support Keir in defending and furthering the manifesto we stood on and to
achieve a Labour government
However Joshua Garfield, a
JLM operative, was in no mood to be charitable, tweeting:’
Journalists were repeatedly
told that Lloyd would be reaching out to JLM. We never heard from him. It
appears he opted to step down instead of reaching out to us. This was no
'right-wing media campaign,' it was his own error of judgement.
And in a statement to the Jewish News the Zionists put the boot
in:
‘The Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) said it had had no
formal contact with the MP since the 2017 election when he “spontaneously”
joined a planned meeting between its officers and a parliamentarian.
“Lloyd Russell-Moyle has, in his short time in
Parliament, managed to attract constant controversy in relation to
antisemitism, which has caused deep upset and distress within the Jewish
community in Brighton and Hove,”
“In isolation, each event would have at best pointed
to a blind spot on anti-Jewish racism. Taken together they appear to be a
pattern of behaviour that is simply not acceptable for a front bench member of
the Parliamentary Labour Party,”
As we can see quite
clearly, comments about Zionism are called by the liars of the JLM ‘a blind spot on anti-Jewish racism.’ That is the
answer to fools like Jeremy Corbyn who speak of ‘denialism’.
It is ironic that someone
who has gone along with the fake ‘anti-Semitism’ witchhunt has become a victim
of it based on an 11 year old description of Zionism (not Jews).
Of course the obvious
thing for Oily to do would have been to fight back and defend his ground saying
the evidence that Zionism is a nasty form of nationalism is clear and
unequivocal. It is a rather mild description of a state which shoots down children
protesting in Gaza
However Moyle wanted to
keep his place in the Shadow Cabinet so ambition ruled that one out. Naturally
the Campaign Against Antisemitism also joined
in
Mr
Russell-Moyle has a terrible record on antisemitism,… A spokesperson for
Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “It
was deeply disappointing that Sir Keir Starmer appointed Mr Russell-Moyle to his
Shadow Cabinet, given his record. Mr Russell-Moyle should still face
disciplinary proceedings over his past conduct.”
Their conclusions
were that ‘Mr Russell-Moyle’s statements
and actions qualify as antisemitic discourse.’ But then anything critical
of Zionism is ‘anti-Semitism’ according to the CAA.
Below is the email I
received from Divina detailing her treatment at the hands of Israel. This is
the state whose ideology is Zionism. What kind of cowardice is it that makes it
impossible for Moyle to stand his ground?
We were taken to Givon prison
where we were tortured in different kind of ways. The women were sleep deprived
more than the men. We were six women in one dirty cell with a hole in the
ground. The guards would come in and yell every one or two hours (it's hard to
know how often because we had no watches. Only the clothes we had on us.) They
beat at the walls and lockers and made us stand up in the middle of the night,
sometimes they just came in and counted the beds with a loud voice or came in
with a huge stick and beat the walls. Sometimes they had gloves and handcuffs
they showed but never used...
They hit my friend, a 75 year old
woman who four months before got a hip replacement surgery. They did not really
beat us anytime before or after that in jail so we thought that they are so
used to beat Palestinians so they forgot that our embassies were ready to act
if something like that would happen
I was deprived of my important
medicines for 36 hours. After that my embassy complained, but I got just the
half dose of the most important one, none of the other medicines. The embassy
yelled at a guard to give me my medicines and he said that I would get an
appointment with the doctor. But he told me in perfect English that he doesn't
understand English and I have to speak Arabic.
Later the
embassy and our Swedish state department sent a doctor to the airport to
immediately meet me after my flight home. ...We were stolen of our driving
licenses, medicines, phones, money and creditcards. Most of our luggage is
gone. I came home with only a small bag with random clothes I found. I was 2,5
months at sea, so I had much more with me.
What is really amazing is
that someone like RLM is held to be on the left of the Parliamentary Labour
Party. The sad reality is that the Campaign Group of today is just a shadow of
what it was 30 years ago when people like Tony Benn and Joan Maynard were
members.
The total lack of backbone
and principle in the Campaign Group is what makes socialists despair of the Labour
Party. Their collective failure to call Starmer what he is, a Blairite
automaton, shows how pathetic the group is.
Dear Lloyd,
I received a
copy of the following email which you sent to David Roger. I am appalled.
'Lloyd
believes that anti-semitism has no place in the Labour Party and is pleased to
see Keir acting so proactively to demonstrate this.'
You call
yourself a supporter of the Palestinians. You have made a number of fine
speeches on Palestine and I remember your attendance at the reception for the
Gaza Freedom Flotilla, all of whom were very badly beaten up, tortured, when
they were captured in international waters by Israel's state pirates. Your
presence was appreciated by all those present.
You may
recall meeting Divina Levrini, the red-headed Swedish singer,
who was already seriously ill. She died soon after returning to Sweden,
even though she was no older than her early 30s. Below I have quoted an
extract of her experiences when kidnapped by Israel. I published this as an
obituary, Divina Levrini – A Star that will forever burn brightly in our memories,
Divina
despite her fatal illness devoted herself to the Palestinian cause and gave her
life for it. No one expects you Lloyd to
do the same. However we also don't expect you to use the Palestinians for the
purpose of advancing your own career.
“I do
support Zionism I absolutely support the right of Israel to exist as a
homeland. My only concern is that Zionism can mean slightly different things to
different people, and… to some extent it has been weaponized. I wouldn’t read
too much into that. I said it loud and clear — and meant it — that I support
Zionism without qualification.”
Zionism is
the founding ideology of the Israeli state. It is the ideology of 'Jewish
settlement' as per the Jewish Nation State Law which Ha’aretz describes as enshrining discrimination in Israel’s constitution . It is the
ideology that dictates that 93% of Israeli land is off limits to the
Palestinians. It is the ideology of the demographic fear of having too
large an Arab minority in the ‘Jewish State’ and therefore dictates that there
can be no marriage between Arab and Jew. Mixed sexual relations are a social
taboo in Israel. Zionism is the ideology which dictates that half the villages
of Israeli Arabs are 'unrecognised' which means they lack the most basic
facilities such as running water and are in danger of immediate
demolition. No Jewish villages or communities are 'unrecognised'.
When you say
that you support Starmer's 'pro-active' anti-Semitism campaign what you mean is
that you support the current suspension of 25 Jewish members of the Labour Party
for ‘anti-Semitism’ and the ‘investigation’ of hundreds if not thousands more.
Contrast
this concern about ‘anti-Semitism’ with the fact that Luke Akehurst supported Israeli snipers firing on unarmed demonstrators in Gaza killing medics
and over 70 children. Akehurst has not been expelled. If someone had justified
the murder of Jewish children then their feet wouldn’t touch the floor. I can only conclude that Jewish lives are
more precious than Palestinian lives to the racists who are conducting the
present bout of expulsions.
I already
know that you supported my expulsion because I obtained under SAR the email you
sent to Iain McNicol urging that it be sped up. But you also support the
classification as 'antisemitic' of people like Divina because I don't know a
single Palestine solidarity activist who hasn't been called an anti-Semite. It
is trite knowledge that ‘anti-Zionism is
anti-Semitism’ is the operative slogan of the Zionist movement.
As Mick
Davis, Chair of the Jewish Leadership Council, stated in his evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee on Antisemitism:
Zionism is so totally identified with how the Jew
thinks of himself, and is so associated with the right of the Jewish people to
have their own country and to have self-determination within that country, that
if you attack Zionism, you attack the very fundamentals of how the Jews believe
in themselves.
The above
statement is not only nonsense but quintessentially anti-Semitic. The home of
British Jews, myself included, is Britain.
It is only anti-Semites who tell me to ‘go back to Israel’. Indeed that is why anti-Semites, from Trump to
Orban to neo-Nazis like Richard Spencer and Tommy
Robinson support Zionism and Israel. Is that so hard to
understand?
Starmer’s
‘proactive’ campaign on anti-Semitism has become a campaign against
anti-Zionist and anti-racist Jews as well as Black activists such as Marc
Wadsworth and Jackie Walker. If Labour’s leaked report is correct then the only
people that the anti-Semitism witch-hunt didn’t affect were the handful of
genuine anti-Semites in the Labour Party.
That is why
when the fake ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign was at its height, the Zionists demanded
that anti-Semitism be redefined. Instead
of the OED definition of ‘hostility to or prejudice to
Jews’ there was substituted a 500+ word IHRA
Working Definition which included 11 illustrations
of ‘anti-Semitism’, 7 of which referred to Israel. Calling Israel a racist state is an expulsion
offence.
The only MP
who stood up for his principles and opposed the IHRA was Chris Williamson and
he was betrayed. When I challenged you
about this at a public meeting you told me that Corbyn had provided a route
back to him. This was a lie.
You and the
Campaign Group have also been remarkably silent about the Board of Deputies 10
Commandments (Pledges) which, in best McCarthyist fashion, make it a disciplinary
offence to be seen with someone who is suspended or expelled. It prohibits meeting with ‘fringe’ i.e.
anti-Zionist and anti-racist Jews.
Perhaps you could let us know what your position on this is?
You entered
Parliament as a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn yet you endorsed a campaign whose sole purpose was to remove him. The
‘anti-Semitism’ campaign was never about anti-Semitism or hatred of Jews. It was always about removing someone who was
seen as hostile to the British-United States special relationship and NATO.
It has been
suggested to me that compared to Peter Kyle MP, the MP for Hove, whose support
for Israel right or wrong is notorious, we should be grateful for your support
for the Palestinians. I disagree. I
would prefer the honesty of the enemy I know than the fickle friendship of someone
whose support is opportunistic and liable to change.
Black Lives
Matter in 2016 came out in
support of BDS, calling Israel an Apartheid state and
genocidal. It was rewarded by
accusations of ‘anti-Semitism’ by the usual suspects. Mort Klein, President of
the Zionist Organisation of America, urged that BLM be put on a list of hate
groups, calling them
‘a Jew hating, White
hating, Israel hating, conservative Black hating, violence promoting, dangerous
Soros funded extremist group of haters.
According to
the Telegraph, which was prominent in the fake ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign, Black Lives Matter protests are a catalyst for
anti-Semitism. This is the ‘anti-Semitism’ that Keir Starmer is busy prosecuting and
which you are endorsing.
If you
sincerely support the Palestinians and oppose Israeli Apartheid, as recognised
by all the veterans of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa such as Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, you will reconsider your facile
support for Starmer’s ‘anti-Semitism’ witchhunt.
If you
decline this opportunity to put clear red water between you and Sir Keir then
the only conclusion that I and other activists can draw is that you are first
and foremost an opportunist committed to your own career above all. I am sure that you wouldn’t want to be
remembered in that light.
Fraternally,
Tony
Greenstein
