22 February 2013

Ed Corrigan Wins Defamation Action Against Zionist Accusation of anti-Semitism

 Libel - It May Be A Blunt Instrument But It's Useful Against Zionist Liars

I have to confess that although my socialist principles oppose use of the libel laws, there are times when it is the only way that those who have been traduced and libelled, without any recourse to media of their own, can gain recompense.

About 5 years ago, David Aaronovitch - the Stalinist/New Labour warmonger - who writes a column for The Times  allowed a comment on his blog from a certified Zionist nutcase ('Mad' Mikey Ezra) which accused me of having spent my time harassing Jewish students.  What he meant is that I had spoken at meetings at which they were unable to muster an opposing argument, were therefore upset poor darlings and naturally felt they were being harassed, by having to listen to something they disagreed with!

I therefore issued  a writ for libel against The Times, who promptly sought an Opinion from the leading libel lawyer, Richard Rampton QC.  Unfortunately the advice was not favourable.  Mikey said how he had suffered psychological damage as a result of having to listen to the truth, but the lawyers didn't think that would pass muster.  So for the first time in his life, Rupert Murdoch contributed £1,000 towards a Palestinian charity, Friends of Bir Zeit University!




Ed Corrigan is a human rights lawyer in Canada.  He is Jewish and anti-Zionist.  Like all of us, he has been accused of ‘anti-Semitism’ by Zionist toe rags and accused of being a ‘traitor’ ‘treason’ etc.  As I never stop reminding people, anti-German anti-fascists were also called traitors by the Nazis, so it should be considered high praise indeed to be considered a traitor to the racist political philosophy of Zionism.

When Ed was recently libelled by a Zionist lawyer, William Hechter, he sought legal redress and sure enough Hechter backed down.  Although I don’t like the libel laws, as they inhibit free speech, these defamers only understand one language.

I was pleased to submit a message of support to Ed before the outcome was known and I also agreed to testify if necessary.  Congratulations Ed!

Another example of why Zionism is a form of Racism

Israeli Jewish Women Living in Gaza Denied Right to See their Families in Israel

Zionism is racist?  Perish the thought.  This is another example of ‘anti-Semitism’ say the propagandists.  You’ve  probably heard the racist outpourings of Israel’s defenders who compare Palestinians to sub-humans.  But in the eyes of the Zionists, the oppressed, the Palestinians become the new Nazis.  Prime amongst these are the ‘anti-Semitic’ Hamas that the Israeli state and shin bet helped set up.

The following article by Ha'aretz journalist, Amira Hass, who has herself lived in Gaza, demonstrates both the racism of the Israeli state to those who forsake the chosen people/race and the lie that suggests that the objection of Palestinians to Jewish settlers is because of their religion rather than their acts of settlement

Three of the women, the sisters, are still halachically Jewish, i.e. they are the children of a Jewish mother and haven't become an apostate - converted to another religion.  The fourth woman has converted to Islam and wouldn't be considered Jewish, but the Israeli Law of Return would still recognise her nationality as Jewish.

So what is their crime?  It is to have lived with and in some cases married Palestinians, the mortal enemy, Amalek.  If they had been white, neo-Nazi Russians, with Jewish ancestry, then they could have come to Israel with no problem.

What was that about Zionism not being a form of racism?

Tony Greenstein 




Amira Hass







 One converted to Islam and married Palestinian, three sisters moved to Gaza with Palestinian father after Israeli mother died.
By Amira Hass    | Feb.07, 2013 | 3:21 AM

A boy stands outside a UN-run school in Gaza City, Nov. 21, 2012. Photo by Reuters
Four Israeli citizens are being denied the right to visit Israel, see their families and update their documents at the Interior Ministry - just because they happen to live in the Gaza Strip, according to their lawyer.
A boy stands outside a UN-run school in Gaza City, Nov. 21, 2012. Photo by Reuters
This would never happen if, for instance, the women lived in the United States, charged Nomi Heger of Gisha - Legal Center for Freedom of Movement, who is representing them. In that case, a way would be found to enable the visit even if they lacked the necessary Israeli documents, she said.
Gisha's efforts to solve the problem with the Interior Ministry, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories and the army's Coordination and Communication Office for Gaza all came to nothing, even though these agencies do not deny that the women are citizens. It therefore took their cases to court.

The first petitioner, who filed suit in the Be'er Sheva District Court, is a Mrs. Wahidi. She was born in Rehovot in 1965, converted to Islam with her mother in the 1980s, married a resident of Gaza and has lived with him there for years.

After her eldest son was born, the Israeli Civil Administration ordered her to turn in her Israeli identity card and replace it with Gaza residency papers, so that she could register the boy's birth and obtain health care services. At that time, Israel still controlled the Strip directly.

Her mother, 77, still lives in Israel, and Wahidi hasn't visited her since 1999. Only in 2011 did Wahidi learn that as an Israeli citizen, she is entitled to enter the country. Since then, she has been trying unsuccessfully to obtain the necessary permit from the Coordination and Communication Office.
The other three petitioners, who filed suit in the Jerusalem District Court, are three sisters born in Nahariya between 1979 and 1984 to an Israeli mother and a Palestinian father. Their mother died when they were young, after which they moved with their father to Gaza. But they have two sisters who live in Israel.

Catch-22

Until 2005, the Dabas sisters visited Israel regularly. After the 2005 disengagement from Gaza, however, entry restrictions were tightened, and they were unable to visit for the next six years. In 2011, they obtained a one-time entry permit (as Gaza residents ) to attend their sister's wedding, unaware that as citizens, they had a right to enter. Since August 2012, they have been unsuccessfully trying to get another entry permit.

In an emailed letter to Gisha, attorney Irit Weisblum of the Interior Ministry wrote that the sisters "are Israeli citizens, but don't have Israeli documentation that would enable their unambiguous identification when they arrive at the border to enter Israel." In other words, because they are citizens, they can't get entry permits as Gaza residents, but because they are Gaza residents, the authorities won't make it possible for them to enter as citizens.

When Wahidi applied for her permit, she was told that she had to first come to the Erez checkpoint between Israel and Gaza for an interrogation by the Shin Bet security service. She refused. Gisha claims this condition is illegal.

Later, she was told by the Coordination and Communication Office that she would be allowed to enter on her Israeli identity card - which she no longer has. In other words, the system knows she is Israeli, but is ignoring the fact that her ID card was deposited with the Civil Administration (the former name of the Coordination and Communication Office ) about 10 years ago.

The Be'er Sheva court will hear Wahidi's case in late February, while the Jerusalem court will hear the Dabas sisters' case in early March.

20 February 2013

Iraq – 10th Anniversary of the Occupation


Time to prosecute Bush and Blair as War Criminals

Abu Ghraib - the defining moment of the US occupation
It’s hard to believe that it is 10 years ago that Tony Blair, a war criminal who, if there were any justice, should have been hanged alongside George Bush, used the pretext of WMD in order to invade Iraq.

No one pretends that the previous ruler, Saddam Hussein was any angel.  Not supririsngly he had been installed with the help of the CIA in 1969.  But can anyone seriously argue that an estimated 1.5 million deaths later that anything worthwhile was achieved?  The country has been split in 3, sectarian warfare between Shiite and Sunni was deliberately stirred up by the US as part of the old imperial ‘divide and rule’ tactic (with help from the West’s good friends Al Quaeda).   Torture is institutionalised in Iraq today and as the article below demonstrates, the rate of executions exceeds even that of Saddam’s Iraq.

British troops carried out an orgy of beatings, murders and torture, as did their American counterparts.  Abu Ghraib was merely the tip of the iceberg.  Extraordinary rendition (Syria wasn't too beyond the pale for people to be rendered to) and waterboarding merely became features of the US civilising mission.


For those who have any illusions in the British Labour Party, one only has to note that Ed Milliband, its current vacuous leader, has used Blair as an ‘adviser’.  As long as the Labour Party is incapable of disowning its previous leader, by expelling him from membership, the LP should be treated as a pariah.

Tony Greenstein

Blair is portrayed as the grim reaper by demonstrators

Iraq Announces 21 Executions in a Day

January 31, 2013, 9:31pm
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AFP) — Iraq has executed 21 people convicted of terror-related charges, including three women, on the same day, a spokesman said on Tuesday, bringing to 91 the number of people executed so far this year.

The executions come despite a call from the UN's human rights chief for a moratorium on the use of the death penalty in Iraq, amid concerns over the lack of transparency in court proceedings.
"The justice ministry carried out 21 executions against those condemned of terrorist charges, including three women terrorists," Haidar al-Saadi said in a text message. He did not give any further details.
British prisoner being accorded the usual treatment under international law
A justice ministry official said the executions were carried out on Monday morning.

Iraq has carried out several mass executions in 2012, including one in which 14 people were put to death on February 7, and another in which 17 were executed on January 31.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay expressed shock earlier this year at the number of executions, criticising the lack of transparency in court proceedings and calling for an immediate suspension of the death penalty.

"Even if the most scrupulous fair trial standards were observed, this would be a terrifying number of executions to take place in a single day," she said in January.

Pillay voiced concern over a "lack of transparency in court proceedings, major concerns about due process and fairness of trials, and the very wide range of offences for which the death penalty can be imposed in Iraq."

In June, Amnesty International also condemned the "alarming" increase in executions in Iraq.
It also called on authorities to "refrain from using the death penalty, commute the sentences of all those on death row, believed to number several hundred, and declare a moratorium on executions."

Justice for Iraq
We call on those states responsible for the invasion and occupation of Iraq to terminate their illegal and immoral war, and express our solidarity with the Iraqi people in their struggle for peace, justice and self-determination.
In particular, we demand:
1. An immediate end to the US and UK-led occupation of Iraq;
2. Urgent action to fully address the current humanitarian crises facing Iraq’s people, including help for the more than three million refugees and displaced persons;
3. An end to all foreign interference in Iraq's affairs, including its oil industry, so that Iraqis can exercise their right to self-determination;
4. Compensation and reparations from those countries responsible for war and sanctions on Iraq;
5. Prosecution of all those responsible for war crimes, human rights abuses, and the theft of Iraq's resources.

We demand justice for Iraq.

This statement was adopted by the Justice for Iraq conference in London on 19th July 2008. We plan to publish this more widely in future. If you would like to add your name to the list of supporters please contact us.  
Abuse - British army's investigations into Iraq deaths to be reopened
The Guardian reports (January 30th): Fresh investigations have been ordered into the deaths of several prisoners who died under suspicious circumstances in British military custody in Iraq, lawyers from the Ministry of Defence told the high court.
British troops in Basra
The disclosure comes as the MoD faces a legal challenge to its refusal to hold a public inquiry into a series of alleged human rights violations following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, including hundreds of claims that include unlawful detention, torture, and murder.

High Court Hears of ‘Terrifying Acts of Brutality’ by British Troops in Iraq
Abu Mousa - the Iraqi captive that British army scum kicked to death
Antiwar.com reports (January 29th): British troops that fought the US-led war in Iraq were accused in a High Court inquiry of “terrifying acts of brutality” against Iraqi civilians in a potentially “systematic” way. Lawyers representing 192 Iraqis asking for a public inquiry into British detention practices in Iraq between 2003 and 2008 submitted an 82-age document detailing the numerous allegations of abuse, including extra-judicial killings and torture.

“The court heard of an eight-year-old girl shot dead as she played in a street with her friends in daylight,” reports the London Evening Standard. “A man was also shot dead as he queued for petrol, a teacher was hooded and abused in front of his son and his subsequent death was officially described as “natural causes” and there were a number of drownings.”

Iraq Announces 21 Executions in a Day

Why Iraq is Revolting

Brussells Tribunal reports (January 27th): Journalists obtained a list of 34 names of detainees who died in prison after being tortured, within three months in 2012. The list is a formal document from the Ministry of Justice, requested by the Human Rights Committee in the Iraqi Parliament. Most of these prisoners had no autopsy reports from the Forensic Medical Department.

Hussein Al-Shahristani, the Deputy Prime Minister of Energy and Chairman of the Ministerial Committee that was formed to study the demands of the demonstrators visited one of the women prisons in Baghdad. Al-Shahristani found out that there was a female inmate who was there for six years and her case was never submitted to court. She was arrested because her son was suspected to be involved in terroristic activities. A few days ago, Noori Al-Maliki assured that the government would never allow arresting the mother, the wife, the son, or the sister instead of the wanted husband or father, and that everyone is responsible for his / her own crime. That is a lie, one more to be added to Nouri’s credentials.

30,000 Iraqis languish in prison, more than half of them without trial

Azzaman reports (February 7th): Iraqi jails hold 30,000 inmates, 17,000 of them languish there without trial,’ according to Deputy Prime Minster Husain Shahristani.

Privileges of New Democratic Iraq: Rape & Torture of Innocent Women in Maliki’s Prisons

Dr. Souad Al-Azzawi writes for Brussells Tribunal (February 6th): Mothers, sisters, daughters and wives have been unjustly detained, tortured or raped, simply because they do not know the whereabouts of the men in their families. Thousands of women have been detained with no legal accusations. Some of them are imprisoned with their infants and children in unbearable prison conditions just because Maliki claims that their husbands, brothers, or fathers have committed an act of terror.

Protests

Sunni sheikh to al-Maliki: Hand over soldiers behind shootings or 'face losses'

CNN reports (January 26th): Thousands of mourners turned out in Falluja, hours after a powerful Sunni sheikh called on Iraq's Shiite prime minister to hand over soldiers responsible for killing anti-government protesters in Anbar province or face "losses among their ranks."

The warning came as reports emerged that four soldiers were killed and four were abducted after security forces fired on a Sunni anti-government protest in Falluja.

Protesters call for Iraqi PM’s ouster

Dawn reports (February 1st): Tens of thousands of Iraqis gathered in Sunni-majority parts of the country in rallies against Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki, a week after eight demonstrators were shot dead amid a dire political crisis.

Thousands demonstrated in Fallujah, just west of Baghdad, where the killings took place at the hands of the army, railing against their alleged marginalisation at the hands of Iraq’s Shia-led authorities.
“We want the fall of the regime — no negotiations,” proclaimed one banner in the town.

Fallujah Revisited

Haifa Zangana writes for Counterpunch (January 31st): It took the British government five weeks to take note of the mass demonstrations in Iraq. The events centre on Fallujah, west of Baghdad, one of the main cities where mass protest is mounting by the day.

The first shooting, resulted in 5 death and about 40 injured is clearly video-recorded. The second ended with 2 soldiers killed and 3 abducted. In the chaos of claims by an ever changing official narrative and statements by a committee of investigators these two incidents are often deliberately handled together with potential for escalations. Now the withdrawal of army and federal police units from Fallujah, and the assigning of security to local police announced by the Defence Ministry spokesman immediately after the shooting on Friday 25 January may well not be implemented as a result of the chaotic political and security breakdown in the country.

Iraqi demonstrations mark the tenth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq
ICSSI reports (January 18th): 10 years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, 2013 is witnessing Iraqis’ overwhelming desire for change. Massive demonstrations and sit-ins denouncing the current government and its policies are ongoing in many places in the west and north of Iraq including Ramadi and Fallujah in Al-Anbar governorate; Samara in Salah al-Din governorate, Kirkuk in Kirkuk governorate and Mosul in Nimewa governorate. At the same time, there is a growing political crisis as opponents of current Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki demand an end to political sectarianism and reform of the Iraqi system of justice.

Amid Iraqi protests, hackers hit Maliki's website
Reuters report (February 2nd): Iraq's Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is facing protests from Sunni Muslims, an oil dispute with the Kurdistan region and turmoil in his own government. Now hackers have attacked his website to brand him a tyrant.

Demonstrations in Fallujah
Al-Ahram reports (February 6th): Tens of thousands of Iraqis rallied in the city of Fallujah to mark “Loyalty to the Martyrs of Fallujah Friday”, a tribute to nine protesters shot dead in the city the Friday before.

Daily life

Journalist arrested in Iraq for taking photos

The Guardian reports (January 31st): A French-Australian journalist has been under detention in Iraq for a week for allegedly taking pictures in a restricted area in Baghdad's southern Dora district.
Police said that Nadir Dendoune - who was working for the French monthly magazine Le Monde Diplomatique - lacked the necessary government permits for taking photographs.

As murder rate drops, flood levels rise and inundate Baghdad with raw sewage
The Independent reports (February 3rd): Torrential rain caused floods all over Baghdad last week. It was not a pleasant sight: as the city's ageing sewage system failed to cope, streets filled with murky grey water that smelled and looked as if it was heavily polluted with raw sewage. Upriver, the Tigris rose 15 feet in five hours, the highest it had been for 50 years, and dozens of villages were inundated.
For all Iraq's immense oil income – $100bn last year – there are beggars on every street corner. "We produce over three million barrels of oil a day, so where is the money?" said a friend. This is the endlessly repeated refrain of Iraqis trying to understand why they have to live with only six hours of electricity a day and why half the population are unemployed or underemployed.

A Broken Justice System

HRW reports (January 31st): Iraq’s leadership used draconian measures against opposition politicians, detainees, demonstrators, and journalists, effectively squeezing the space for independent civil society and political freedoms in Iraq, Human Rights Watch said in its World Report 2013.

Sectarianism, Corruption and Torture... It Is Not Worth IT

Haifa Zangana writes for Huffington Post (February 7th): The regime is consumed by sectarian, ethnic division, but above all by corruption, squandering $600 billion of oil revenue, 10 times as much as what Iraq has gained from oil for the previous 70 years. Meanwhile, thousands of US "diplomats", Security contractors, CIA operatives and Special Operations units occupy the biggest embassy compound in the region, adjoining and effectively manipulating the government in central Baghdad.

Since 2003 over one million Iraqis died by airstrikes, checkpoint shootings, mercenaries, car bombs, and suicide bombers. Only 150,000 are acknowledged. Typical of the killers is the US soldier who said: "We'd open up on anything. They even didn't have to be armed. We were keeping scores." For him, Iraqis are "not even people, you know. Like, they're not humans."

Over 44% of the regime's budget is spent on security: 800,000 army, police, Special Forces and private security contractors to protect high officials and members of the parliament. A bureaucracy that has doubled in size since 2003 swallows most of the rest: mostly a parasitic social base. Meantime households endure 18 hours without electricity, no clean water (70%) and no functioning sanitation (80%). In Baghdad, nearly two-thirds of the city's sewage still flows untreated to rivers and other waterways.

Unreported Afghanistan

US: Act to Protect Children in Conflict
HRW reports (February 5th): The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child released a report and recommendations to the US government on February 5, 2013. The committee said it was “alarmed” at reports of the deaths of hundreds of children from US attacks and air strikes in Afghanistan since the committee last reviewed US practices in 2008. It also expressed “deep concern” at the arrest and detention of children in Afghanistan, laws that exclude former child soldiers from securing asylum in the US, and presidential waivers to US laws that have allowed governments using child soldiers to receive US military assistance.

US forces have detained hundreds of children in Afghanistan, holding many of them for over a year with inadequate access to legal assistance, education, or rehabilitation services. Children under 18 have been detained with adults, contrary to international standards. Although most of these children have been transferred to Afghan custody, Human Rights Watch expressed concern that such children may be subject to torture. UN reports have documented torture of numerous children by Afghan security forces.

Upcoming events

5th April 2013 A Day in Iraq
14:00-21:00, Bolivar Hall, Grafton Way, London W1T 5DL
Confirmed speakers:
Dr. Ghanem Wahida, an expert on Iraq’s ancient history
Dr Sawsen Al Assaf, Lecturer in political science and author
Dirk Adriaensense, Brussell’s Tribunal
Dr. Dora Carpenter- Latiri, University of Brighton
Ian Sinclair, author and journalist
Milan Rai, Justice not Vengeance
Dr. Lutz Oette, Redress
Rashad Salim, Iraqi Artist.

See Analyst Özpek: Maliki's actions might drive Iraq into more conflict 

The BBC’s Conspiracy of Silence Over Palestinian Hunger Strikes

The BBC’s Apologised for Allowing Jimmy Saville to Roam Broadcasting House

It Should Apologise for Acting as a PR company for Israel's military child abusers


For nearly 40 years the BBC allowed Jimmy Saville and his friends prey on children in its studios.  Saville, a media creation of the BBC without any discernible talent whatsoever, presented Top of the Pops, where had had and took advantage of many young people.  And as a result Saville gained access to institutions where children and young people lived in order to perpetrate his crimes.  Like the Palestinians, children are powerless and the BBC's mission is the protection of the powerful.

For 40 years the BBC covered up the Saville Scandal.  Mark  Thompson, the former Zionist BBC Director General, was twice informed and did nothing.  George Entwistle, his unlamented successor, together with Helen Boaden (who is now Head of Radio instead of Current Affairs) put the screws on to prevent a Newsnight documentary on Saville being broadcast.  However this time, its commercial rival ITV gained access to the story and the BBC’s belief that it was a law unto itself had to give way.   The first excuse for censoring the BBC documentary was that it was an ‘editorial judgment’ in other words, far too subjective to be the subject of analysis.

The BBC doesn’t do apologies unless they are forced to.  The Saville revelations forced the resignation of Entwistle and should have lead to Boaden and other creatures departure.  Unfortunately she has been shifted sideways.  The Palestinians have no such means of exerting pressure.  Much of the liberal left in Britain is still starry-eyed about the BBC even though it is a far more dangerous opponent than say Fox News, because it is believed to be independent.  Only when a mass campaign not to pay one’s licence fee takes off, will the BBC finally be under pressure to be accountable to those who watch it.


The consistent one-sided bias of the tax-funded BBC outrages most supporters of the Palestinians.  Why should Mark Regev have unrestricted access to the BBC in times of crisis, unlike his opponents, who do not have a slick command of English.  Why does the BBC always portray a struggle against occupation as Israeli ‘retaliation’.

The answer to this is simple.  The BBC is quintessentially an organisation representing the interests of the British establishment.  If the British government were to become less pro-Zionist or find itself in conflict with the Israeli government, then the BBC would also shift its position.  The memory of the Hutton Report into the BBC and Iraq, when reporter Andrew Gilligan made mention of the ‘sexing up’ of the secret dossier on the ‘weapons of mass destruction’  is still vivid.  Its Director-General Greg Dyke was forced to resign.  Gavin Davies, BBC Chairman, also fell on his sword. 

Hutton’s Report was, as one would expect of a Unionist Judge, based not on the evidence presented but  on the assumptions he made as to the role and loyalty of the BBC when the British establishment (or part of it) went to war.

Hostility to the working class and strikes and disputes has a long tradition in the BBC, going back to when its first DG, Lord Reith, refused to allow the Archbishop of Canterbury to broadcast to the nation during the General Strike of 1926 because he intended to plea for a compromise whereas the government of Stanley Baldwin was going hell for leather to crush the strike.

None of this is to excuse the criminal behaviour of the BBC in refusing to report the Palestinian hunger strikers.  If they had been Russian dissidents in the Soviet Union or Iranian hunger strikers today then the BBC wouldn’t have hesitated to report.


Below are reports on supporters of the hunger strikes who held a picket last Monday 18th February outside the BBC.


Tony Greenstein


On 11th January, we protested outside the BBC at its refusal to cover the plight of Palestinian hunger strikers. We delivered a letter to the BBC asking for an explanation and a change in policy, the letter (reproduced below) also included a passionate message from Um Ra'fat, the mother of Palestinian hunger striker Samer Al-Issawi.

    Tim Davie
    Director General BBC

    Dear Mr Tim Davie

Today is Palestinian political prisoner Samer Al-Issawi's 169th day on hunger strike, and fellow prisoner Ayman Sharawna having been on hunger strike nearly 6 months before suspending his strike for a week is once again fasting for his freedom. Both prisoners are being held by Israel without charge or trial. According to the internationally brokered deal to release captured Israeli corporal Gilad Shalit both Sharawna and Issawi should be free men today but Israel reneged on its agreement and rearrested both men after Shalit had been released.

The BBC describes its mission as one to "inform" and "educate" and the news in particular is described as "providing trusted World and UK news.." so why have you not covered their story and those of fellow Palestinian hunger strikers?

The search engine Google has indexed over 21 million articles from the BBC website yet it returns no results from the BBC for Samer Issawi or Ayman Sharawna. Neither prisoner has ever been mentioned by the BBC - those 21 million articles.. empty of any reference to Palestinian hunger strikers Issawi and Sharawna, both nearing death after nearly six months without food.

If we do a quick search on Google for "Gilad Shalit" it brings back around 1,120 articles from the BBC which includes around 50 articles from 2012! Shalit was released over a year ago in October 2011 and yet he is still news worthy for the BBC. The last article on him by the BBC is from October 18th 2012 - a special on the anniversary of his release!

The Shalit release anniversary article reports of his "ordeal", the "psychological effects", "trying to come to terms with his fame" the ordeal of the media following "his first bicycle ride after he returned home.. [his] trip to Paris to visit President Nicholas Sarkozy and a meeting with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.. at a concert of the popular singer, Shlomo Artzi, who dedicated a song to him; at various sports events and on the set of the US television drama series, Homeland.." Contrast this 'ordeal', which is newsworthy for the BBC to report, to the ordeal Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike are going through TODAY.

Just two weeks ago Samer Al-Issawi, a wheelchair bound skeleton of a man barely breathing after 140 days without food, was brutally attacked by Israeli guards in the courthouse in front of an Israeli judge, who didn't intervene, as guards punched the dying man in the head and chest resulting in broken ribs. They then attack his mother and sister, all this in front of the cameras - captured on video ready for any news channel to broadcast.. but not the BBC - your mission to 'inform' and 'educate' apparently doesn't extend to Palestinians? An emaciated dog that has lost half its weight due to being abandoned is afforded an article by the BBC which includes a large colour photo, but not Samer Al-Issawi who after 169 days without food has lost more than half his body weight, not even one mention of his name. Why?

The BBC is principally funded by television licence fees - 82% in 2011 ( £3.6 billion). Such blatant bias by omission in its reporting is unacceptable and we as TV licence holders demand the BBC follow its remit to inform and educate by covering the issue of Palestinian hunger strikers.

We have received a message from Palestine, from the mother of Samer Al-Issawi to the BBC which we have included below.

A Mothers Message To The BBC

My son Samer Al-Issawi, 33, a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail and been on a hunger strike for 169 days. His only demand is freedom after the Israeli occupation broke the deal that liberated him, and re-arrested him for no reason, without any charge.

Samer Issawi's is in a very critical condition and has sustained fractures in his rib cage as a result of an assault against him a few days ago in the courtroom by Israeli soldiers only because he wanted to touch his mothers hand.

    The reason for writing this letter is that we know that the role of the media especially the BBC & CNN is very important to highlight the plight of our son Samer.

    Um Ra'fat, Mother of Palestinian Hunger Striker Samer Al-Issawi


    We would like a reply, thank you.
    Yours sincerely
    ..
After nearly 5 weeks we still have not received any reply from the BBC. Not only have they not replied, they have not even had the courtesy to sent us an acknowledgement of receipt of the letter. As the BBC prevented us from entering the building to personally hand the letter to the Director General Tim Davie it was given to the Duty Facilities Manager of BBC Workplace who later confirmed to us via email that she had handed it to the Director Generals Office.

Mothers letter to BBC is ignored

The BBC is still enforcing a reporting blackout on any coverage of the Palestinian hunger strikers. Still no mention of hunger strikers Samer Issawi or Ayman Sharawna who is now 7 months without food.

Both Samer and Ayman are dying. They have shown unbelievable strength in resisting their oppression. The very least we can do is give voice to their heroic resistance, to their hunger strike. We need to ensure the media is shamed in to covering their story. Publicity for their plight is the first step towards their liberation.

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Palestinian Prisoners Campaign

The Palestinian Prisoners Campaign aims to raise awareness for the plight of Palestinian prisoners and build solidarity for their struggle and work towards their freedom. The campaign was launched by Innovative Minds (inminds.com) and the Islamic Human Rights Commission (ihrc.org) on the occasion of Al Quds Day 2012 (on 17th August 2012), since then we have held actions every fortnight in support of Palestinian prisoners, if you can spare two hours twice a month then please join the campaign by coming to the next action.

See also Israeli lies unchecked, Palestinian perspectives censored on BBC, Amena Saleem, The Electronic Intifada, London 24 August 2012

Also bearing in mind that the weapon of the hunger strike, the last weapon of the defenceless, was used by the Irish hunger strikers in 1980/1 led by Bobby Sands, who was elected to the British House of Commons.

Former Irish Hunger Striker to Samer Al Issawi "Stay Strong" "Stay Strong"


It is with great sadness I learned the emergency hearing held yesterday in Israeli court for Palestinian Hunger Striker Samer Al Issawi has once again seen his request for release denied.  This man has been illegally imprisoned under so called “Administrative Detention” without charge or trail and is now on day 211 without food. It has now been reported that he is to remain in prison until at least March 14 when his next hearing is scheduled. This is very distressing as his physical condition is currently very critical and growing more dangerous each day. I understand that his poor Mother Um Ra’fat collapsed upon hearing the court’s decision today, my heart and solidarity goes out to her and to his sister Shireen and his brother Shady who was also arrested 2 days ago without charge.

When I recently read Samer’s published letter from Prison it brought me right back to when I was also on hunger strike alongside our great hero Bobby Sands who was the first of ten men to die.  Samer said in his prison letter: “There is no going back, only in my victory” This reminds me of the words of Bobby Sands when he said “We must see our present fight right through to the very end.”

Our Martyr Bobby Sands wrote the following words when he was also in Prison and when he had begun the Hunger strike. These prophetic words could today describe Samer’s struggle and the current situation in Palestine with more than 4000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.  Bobby said; “I am a political prisoner because I am a casualty of a perennial war that is being fought between the oppressed Irish (Palestinian) people and an alien, oppressive, unwanted regime that refuses to withdraw from our land.”

To Samer and all his comrades “stay strong.” I think Israel should learn from the Irish struggle and take heed. They should remember what Margaret Thatcher the former British Prime Minister once said to us.  She claimed the Irish Hunger Strike was our “Last Card”   as she let ten of my comrades die.  She thought she had won. Yet today, as I travel the world as a former Prisoner, former Hunger striker and an elected MLA, I know who is remembered, and who is forgotten.

Free Samer Issawi,  Ayman Sharawneh, Jaafar Ezzedine, and Tarek Qa'adan

19 February 2013

The Fascist & Terrorist Links of Sussex Friends of Israel/Sodastream Chief

EXCLUSIVE

Cobbs is warned by the neo-Nazi JDL  ‘be careful’

Supporter of the fascist Jewish Defence League - Simon Cobbs of Sussex Friends of Israel

 

Cobbs is such a loose cannon that even the JDL warn him to be careful!

The JDL's fascist logo

'Throwing peanuts at the mad patients' heads isn't amusing Cobbs anymore.  A man of simple pleasures
For the past 2 weeks the Jewish Chronicle has been running a campaign to change reality, or at least the perception of reality.  Last week it had a leading article entitled ‘Mob-rule by the sea’  this week it has a follow-up entitled ‘Brighton rocked by hate slogans’.  Editor Stephen Pollard has indeed taken to heart the lessons of a tabloid journalist – ‘never tell the truth when a lie will suffice.’
Cobbs tweets his friends in the Jewish Defence League/EDL
However, let us imagine that the Jewish Chronicle was interested in the truth as opposed to waging a noxious campaign, then there would indeed be a good ‘hate’ story – but it would have nothing to do with the BDS campaigners.  They would focus instead on a thuggish character, Simon Cobbs, who is described as a 'founding member of Sussex Friends of Israel' and a leader of the pro-Israel demonstrations. 
The idiocy of Cobbs
If a study were to be conducted into the average Zionist zealot in Britain then it is likely that they would consist of a disproportionate number of the less cerebrally gifted, i.e. stupid members of the Jewish (& non-Jewish) community. Cobbs is an ideal example of this phenomenon.  Lacking anything positive to say or do, their only solace is petty Jewish nationalism, a hatred of all things Arab and a modern form of idolatory, state worship.  Another example of this phenomenon was former Vice President of the Zionist Federation – Jonathan Hoffman – who also courted the far-Right – as part of the campaign to exonerate Israel. (see below)
Cobbs in a relaxed mood
However even Hoffman didn’t go so far as to engage in friendly twitter exchanges about the common enemy with Roberta Moore and the JDL.   Or if he did he kept them very quiet.  In fact he denied any association, although that was a lie.   But what Hoffman did quietly, Simon Cobbs does openly. Cobbs makes Hoffman look like a paid-up member of Mensa. 
One sign of Cobbs' madness - talking to himself
As the images show, Simon Cobbs, who titles himself brightonagainstbds, has and is openly communicating with members of the Jewish Defence League.  (for background on JDL see below)
Cobbs invites the JDL to be part of Sussex Friends of Israel

Simon Cobbs and the Jewish Defence League

Senator Carl Levin is a 'kapo' i.e. a Jewish collaborator.  Ironcally it is Cobbs and his right-wing Zionist friends who collaborated with the Nazis during the war
The first thing I noticed about Cobbs’s Twitter home page @brightonagainstbds is that it has 3 photographs on it, including Irma Greese, the Beast of Belsen, whom the British army hanged with her lover Josef Kramer after they had captured Bergen/Belsen.  Usually it is Stormfront or Aryan Nation that posts photographs of the ‘martyr’ Irma.
For reasons unknown - Cobbs posts a picture of the Beast of Belsen - Irma Grese - on his twitter page
In one exchange on twitter, the JDL asks if Sussex Friends of Israel are on twitter.  On being told that they will be in a couple of weeks, the JDLer tweets back ‘excellent’ and then up pipes Cobbs ‘and when we are, watch out all Jews/Israel haters.’  The JDL tweet back ‘can’t wait’ and Foxtrot, a JDL supporter chimes in ‘damn right!’  There isn't the slightest indication that Cobbs was disturbed by this prospect.  In his role as spokesperson and organiser for Sussex Friends of Israel, Simon Cobbs is openly inviting the participation of the Jewish Defence League who are considered neo-Nazis even by other Zionists.
The JDL marry their logo with traditional Nazi imagery
Cobbs displaying his extensive vocabulary
In a tirade against me that demonstrates just how extensive is his command of the English language, he informs his JDL fan club that I am an ‘obnoxious, ridiculous, vile, little toad’.  The JDL post back with a variation on this introduction to Shakesperian English.  I am a ‘well known kapo, dhimmi, muslim ass licker.’  Indeed Cobbs is so pleased with his description that he continues to repeat it ad nauseum, with just a few subtle variations.
Simon Cobbs doesn't seem to like me - he won't even attend my shiva!
Cobb’s response to the JDL’s description of me is not a horrified put down, as one might expect of anyone professing adherence to democratic norms, but ‘check this baby out, gloves off now!!’. In other words an obvious encouragement to the JDL to obtain personal information on me in furtherance of their terrorist inclinations.  In fact just like the BNP and other friends of Israel.  At this point the JDL tell Cobbs to be more careful.  'don't want to put damper but b careful the shit-stain does not report and get you suspended.'

Kapo incidentally is a regular taunt that Jewish Nazis use against anti-racist Jews.  Ironic considering that the Revionist Zionists, founded by Vladimir Jabotinsky, were supporters of the fascist regimes in Europe in the 1930s, with Betar cadets even training at Mussolini’s invitation at Civitavechia naval station.  A kapo was a prisoner in the extermination camps who was kept alive for about 3 months, in order that they could help supervise the disposal of the bodies of those gassed.  Some of them were also known for their cruelty and violence to other Jews, although this was a minority.  Most students of the holocaust and those with an understanding of the basics of psychology will know that the kapos had no choice in what they did and at both Auschwitz and Treblinka they also rebelled against the Nazis, destroying in the former a crematoria/gas chamber and in the latter much of the extermination machinery. 

What is more relevant are the deals between the Zionist movement and the Nazi murder machine.   The Zionist movement did have a choice when it concluded the Ha'avara Trade Agreement between the Zionist Organisation and the Nazi Government in August 1933.  Likewise in Hungary in 1944 Rudolph Kasztner, leader of the Zionist ‘Rescue and Relief Committee’ and representative of the Jewish Agency also had a choice.  This was to warn the Jews of the imminent deportations, as an escapee from Auschwitz, Rudolph Vrba, had done in his and Alfred Wetzler's suppressed Auschwitz  Protocols, or conclude a deal with Eichman whereby the Zionist and Jewish elite would leave the country on a special train.  The Zionists chose the latter and on July 1 1944, in return for co-operation in helping round up and pacify the Jewish masses, prior to their deportation, 1,684 Hungarian Zionists and Jews left for Switzerland via Bergen-Belsen.  Throughout and before the war the Zionist movement opposed the rescue of Jews anywhere but Palestine.
Cobbs doesn't like to be called overweight - somehow 'matchstick man' doesn't seem appropriate
As Ben-Gurion stated, in respect of the rescue of 10,000 German children to Britain as part of the Kindertransport:
‘“If I knew that it would be possible to save all the children in Germany by bringing them over to England, and only half of them by transporting them to Eretz Yisrael, then I would opt for the second alternative. For we must weigh not only the life of these children, but also the history of the People of Israel.”  Yoav Gelber, Zionist Policy and the Fate of European Jewry (1939-42), Yad Vashem Studies, vol.XII, p.199. cited in Lenni Brenner’s Zionism in the Age of the Dictators, Ch. 13.
JDL supporter Steve Shangster responds thus:  ‘If you hit Greenslime (highly original!) or Willyams your fist would get stuck in the layer of dirt lol.’  This obsession with their opponents being ‘dirty’ is another attribute of fascists and Zionists.  It derives from the concept of 'racial hygiene' the eugenics that the Nazis pioneered and which led to the extermination of over 100,000 mentally and physically handicapped Germans between 1939 and 1945.  The Casuals United EDL site asks ‘When will those idiot soap dodgers ever learn! We are TRUE patriots of our country and will NEVER bow down to facsist left wing scum!!! NFSE.’  and ‘UAF members never wash or even change clothes and are always high on acid hence their nicknames "Soap-Dodgers"

Who do you think wrote the following:
‘Cleanliness, whether moral or of another kind, had its own peculiar meaning for these people. That they were water-shy was obvious on looking at them and, unfortunately, very often also when not looking at them at all. The odour of those people in caftans often used to make me feel ill. Beyond that there were the unkempt clothes and the ignoble exterior.’
And before Cobbs gets too excited, this wasn’t an attack on anti-Zionists, Arabs or other ‘anti-Semites’.  It is Hitler, in Mein Kampf, talking about the Jews.

In  another friendly conversation between Cobbs and his mentors in the JDL, we learn that the singer Lilly Allen is a ‘major anti-Semite’ – apparently she had a necklace with a gun pointing at the Star of David!  The Star of David has been appropriated as a nationalist/military symbol by Zionism, but it is ‘anti-Semitic’ to treat it as anything other than a religious symbol.  It’s a curious aspect of the fascist mentality that the merest hint of prejudice towards the oppressor is to be condemned whereas attacks on the oppressed are to be welcomed.  But it's fine for the JDL to have a fist entering the Star of David!

Carl Levin, a senior Democrat Senator, is described by the JDL as a kapo for not being slavishly obedient to the requirements of Israel.  Using that expansive vocabulary for which fascists are well known, he is ‘scum’.  And another fascist pipes up that ‘ANTI-ISRAEL IS THE NEW ANTI-SEMITISM’ (Simon Fischler likes to shout).  If you repeat a lie long enough, as Goebbels opined, then people are more likely to believe you.  Well, my own experience is that people are increasingly turned off by these attacks. And irony of irony, the JDL inform us that scapegoatism is blaming others for the mess one’s in!  Clearly they have difficulty seeing their own image.

But it’s not just over Israel and Zionism that Cobbs betrays his true self.   He is an all-round bigot.  The unemployed and claimants are an especial favourite (question does Cobbs claim disability benefits!).  Presumably in the ideal Jewish fascist  society, the unemployed just starve, especially if they are not Jewish.  We are aware that Simon Cobbs is ill, both mentally and physically. which necessitates regular visits to hospital.  However it doesn't excuse his delightful little tweet telling us how bored he is:  ‘Even throwing peanuts at the mad patients’ heads isn’t amusing me anymore!!’  What a wonderful advertisement for all things Zionist and Israeli is Simon Cobbs!  ‘Bored out of my skull!  I shall amuse myself today by annoying members of PSC and BDS in particular.’ with another PSC member and myself with hashes in front of our accounts.  It is rather unfortunate that I couldn’t rescue Cobbs from his boredom and life of hate, however none of his messages reached me!
The Jewish Chronicle under tabloid editor Pollard believes in making not reporting the news
But Cobbs is not only an all-round bigot, he is also a good example of Zionist hasbara (propaganda).  In one tweet he says that you won’t find a Jew voting in a Muslim country.  Strange, Iran’s 25,000 strong Jewish community has its own elected representative in the Majilis.  And Israel’s Palestinians might have the vote, but they are consciously excluded from any participation in government.  It is accepted  by all Zionist parties that no coalition should depend, even tacitly, on the votes of the Arab parties.  This was what contributed to the murder of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

It's not only the JDL who are graced with Cobbs presence,.  He seems to be doing the rounds of all the most racist anti-Islamic sites.  Take one site United Against Islam.  This group of fascists tweeted that ‘Israel is a beacon of light in a very dark place.  God bless Israel.’  Which is very touching of course as Zionist haters of Muslims hold hands with their BNP and EDL counterparts.  Cobbs immediately retweeted it, grateful to have their support.  A visit to this site shows to what depths it is possible to sink.  It is a site that Norwegian mass murderer, Andres Breivik would have felt at home with.  It calls Dianne Abbot a ‘nigger’ and Allah a paedophile. Cobbs must feel very much at home with these Israel lovers.  The accusation of Allah being a paedophile is common currency amongst fascists.   The Nazis too, and especially Streicher's Der Sturmer, used to specialise in associating German Jews with sexual deviation and perversion and an incident involving one member of the Jewish community would be visited on the other half-million.
Unite Against Islam - another fascist site which Cobbs is attracted to

What is the Jewish Defence League/Kach?

What then is the JDL?  The JDL was formed in the USA in 1968, purportedly to defend Jews against ‘anti-Semitism’. Its real targets were opponents of the Israeli state.  Wiki gives a good description of them:
‘The Jewish Defense League (JDL) is a Jewish militant organization whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary". … it was described as "a right-wing terrorist group" by the FBI in 2001.  According to the FBI, the JDL has been involved in plotting and executing numerous acts of terrorism within the United States.’
Even the Anti-Defamation League, a group that spends most its time defaming supporters of the Palestinians, describes the JDL as consisting only of "thugs and hooligans" whose founder, Meir Kahane, "preached a radical form of Jewish nationalism which reflected racism, violence and political extremism".  Wikipedia describes how, in 2002, ‘the Southern Poverty Law Center added the Jewish Defense League to its list of watched hate groups for the JDL's "long history of bombing, assaulting and threatening its perceived enemies" such as "the Soviet Union, neo-Nazi activists, Palestinian leaders, prominent black Americans and even Jewish moderates" as well as other Jewish radicals…’

For a Zionist group to be labelled as terrorists in the USA they must indeed have a shocking record.  In Israel, its sister organisations Kach and Kahane Chai were banned, as they have been across Europe.  Kach and the JDL were founded by Rabbi Meir Kahane, a street thug from Brooklyn who emigrated to Israel and founded a party based on the same principles as the Nazi party in Germany. 
More verbal diarrhoea from Cobbs
All that can be said in Kahane’s favour was that he wasn’t afraid to tell the truth about the real goals of Zionism.  It is an article of faith among Zionists that Israel is a Jewish and a Democratic state.  To Kahane (& anti-Zionists) this is a contradiction.  Israel can either be a Jewish state (in which case there is no democracy as far as Palestinians are concerned) or it can be a democracy (and therefore say goodbye to a Jewish state and supremacy).  What it can’t do is square the circle, other than by being prepared to lie and deceive.  In 1984 Kahane was elected as a member of Israel’s Knesset. 

At the subsequent election, when it was estimated that Kach would obtain between 4 and 12 seats, Kahane was barred under a newly adopted anti-racist law that has remained a dead letter every since (it exempts   religious racism!).

Kahane and Kach were widely attacked as Jewish Nazis, even by fellow Zionists.  Below is a comparison that has been made between the anti-Jewish laws in Nazi Germany and the proposals of Meir Kahane.
The differences between Kahane and normative Zionism were not ones of principle but over the means by which they could be achieved.  Kahane wanted to forbid Arabs from owning land in the  ‘Jewish’ state  - so too does mainstream Zionism.  But the latter doesn’t shout about it from the rooftop.

Kahane wanted to forbid marriages between Arabs and Jew but in fact in Israel it is not possible for a Palestinian and a Jew to marry because Israel has no civil marriage.  One party has to convert first.  Kahane wanted an explicit law 'Jew and Arab shall never marry' but the Zionist leadership preferred to achieve the same objective via less public means.

Kahane wanted to outlaw sexual relations between Jews and Arabs, making it a criminal offence and for an Arab male an imprisonable one (Arab women don’t count – Kahane himself conducted an affair with a non-Jewish woman in the US who committed suicide).  In Israel sexual relations between Jews and non-Jews are condemned by the vast majority of Israeli Jews and the courts have now found that a Palestinian who says he is a Jew when having consensual sexual relations with a woman is guilty of rape!  A Palestinian was sent to prison for 18 months, later cut to 9  months, for rape because he deceived the woman concerned by saying that he was Jewish! Jurists say Arab's rape conviction sets dangerous precedent 

Kach is strong among sections of the settlers, in particular in Hebron and the nearby Kiryat Arba settlement, whose Chief Rabbi Dov Lior is notorious for his hatred of Arabs.  His statement that ‘“There is no such thing as civilians in wartime… A thousand non-Jewish lives are not worth a Jew’s fingernail!' is a pure example of what the late Yeshayahu Leibowitz, a religious philosopher and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem called the Judeo-Nazis. [see An Israeli prophet sees signs of hope: Yeshayahu Leibowitz tells Sarah Helm in Jerusalem why he thinks change is coming]
Given all their bogus charges of 'anti-Semitism, imagine the furore if someone had said ‘A thousand Jewish lives are not worth an Aryan’s fingernail!.

One member of Kach/JDL was Baruch Goldstein, a mass murderer who, on February 25, 1994, opened fire on Muslims kneeling in prayer at the Cave of the Patriarchs mosque in Hebron, killing 29 worshippers and injuring 125 before he ran out of ammunition. On its website, the JDL described the massacre as a "preventative measure against yet another Arab attack on Jews" and noted that they "do not consider his assault to qualify under the label of terrorism… we therefore view Dr. Goldstein as a martyr in Judaism's protracted struggle against Arab terrorism. And we are not ashamed to say that Goldstein was a charter member of the Jewish Defense League.’

It is worth bearing in mind that this idea of murdering civilians as a 'preventative measure' was the justification by the Nazis as to why they murdered Jewish children and civilians.  What goes around comes around.

A visit to their British site gives a taste of what the JDL is about. It is a viciously anti-Muslim organisation and is a part of the English Defence League, its ‘Jewish’ wing.  Their views on Muslims are predictable:
‘We stand against Islamization of the UK.
We stand against Islamic violence against Jews, homosexuals, women and animals.
We stand against mosques being used to radicalize young Muslims.
We stand against enablement and appeasement of Islamic radicals.
We stand against the supremacist, authoritarian and violent Islamic doctrine and ideology.
We stand against foreign Islamic governments funding radical and separatist madrassas in the UK.
We stand against segregation of sexes.
We stand against Nazism, Fascism, Socialism, Communism and Anarchism.
We stand against general Muslim and Palestinian lies and propaganda against Israel.
We stand against the two tier system in Britain.
We stand against immigration of foreigners who simply come to the UK to abuse our system.
We stand against racial violence and abuse.
We stand against violence against apostates of Islam.
We stand against all religious persecution.
And the list goes on.....’

Jonathan Hoffman of the Zionist Federation and the EDL


Jonathan Hoffman is Cobbs's role model.  Hoffman was elected as Vice-Chair of the UK Zionist Federation around 2009, in a promise to shake it up its lethargy and tackle the anti-Zionists on the streets.  However he came into repeated contact with the 'machers' in the Jewish community who felt their nose was being put out of joint by Hoffman's antics.  It eventually took Mick Davis of the giant mining company Xtrata and the Jewish Leadership Council, the big bourgeoisie of the Jewish community, to oust him.  They had had enough of the Hoffman Pantomime. Davies had previously threatened to sue Hoffman for some libel or other.  See Jonathan Hoffman – Another Victim of anti-Semitism 

Indeed I take pride in the fact that I was one of the first to oppose these attacks on Jonathan! Anti-Semitic Attack on Jonathan Hoffman  So upset was I by the possibility of losing Hoffie, as friends of his call him, to the campaign for BDS, that I wrote a letter to the Jewish Chronicle defending him on 23.10.09.  It’s about the only letter of mine they’ve printed of late!  Stephen Pollard, the tabloid editor of the Jewish Chronicle, wrote to me two days before it appeared asking

‘Mr Greenstein, I assume that in your final par you mean ‘Board of Deputies’?
Stephen Pollard

Editor, Jewish Chronicle
www.thejc.com/stephenpollard


I didn’t want to tell him it was a joke.  But of course I could not envisage in 2009 that two years later, Hoffman would, almost single-handedly be responsible for the closing down of the Ahava shop in London.  At the very time when the campaign began to look as if it were running out of steam, Jonathan kindly lent his support by way of a counter-demonstration.  And trailing along were the fascist goons of the EDL with their Israel flags.  All were welcomed by JH. Jonathan Hoffman of the Zionist Federation and the EDL’s Roberta Moore Hold a Joint Demonstration  see also Zionist Federation and British Fascists Stand United
Lilly Allen is also an anti-Semite!  JDL warns Cobbs to be careful
Roberta Moore was the fuhreress of the JDL, which is constituted as the Jewish wing of the EDL, before they expelled her for being too extreme!  I assumed that Hoffman’s antics were just mid-summer madness not to be repeated.  How wrong I was.