In his support for the Israeli State and the false ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign Lansman & Momentum are aiding Corbyn’s opponents
Just over a week ago dozens of Israelis in the northern Israeli city of Afula demonstrated against the sale of a house to an Arab. Joining them were Mayor Avi Elkabetz, Deputy Mayor Shlomo Malihi and members of the city council.
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| Israel's northern city of Afula |
Mayor Elkabetz was elected promisingthat Afula would ‘maintain its Jewish character’. MK Ofer Cassif of the Communist Hadash asked
“How would we describe a mayor in Europe who would demonstrate against selling a house to a Jewish family?”
The very phrase ‘Jewish character’ is replete with racism and overtones of racial purity. In Germany too there were signs saying ‘Jews not wanted here.’
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| Hundreds of Jewish communities in Israel bar Arabs from membership |
Nor is Afula an isolated example. The 2011 Reception Committees Law allows hundreds of Jewish communities to bar Arabs from living in their towns through the use of Admission Committees.
In 2010 the Chief Rabbi of Safed, Shmuel Eliyahu, issued an edict forbidding Jews to rent homes or property to Arabs. He was backed up by dozens of other Israeli rabbis, all of them paid state officials. To this day Arabs are barred from renting rooms in Safed or similar cities.
This is the Israel and the ‘Jewish’ state that Lansman supports. It is also the Israel that the IHRAdefinition of ‘anti-Semitism’ which Lansman supported protects by deeming it ‘anti-Semitic’. It is no surprise that those well known anti-racist newspapers like the Daily Mail also join Lansman in protesting abou 'antisemitism'.
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| Lansman attacks the one group of Jews in the Labour Party that supports Corbyn - yet Momentum tolerates this man at its head |
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| Lansman has done his best to support the fake antisemitism allegations - the question is who he is working for - certainly for the election of Jeremy Corbyn |
When Lansman says that anti-Zionist Jews are not part of the non-existent ‘Jewish community’ and attacks the JVL he is supporting the most racist and chauvinist Jews in Britain.
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| Lansman's Jewish community newspaper has run an unremitting campaign against Corbyn |
And Lansman is full aware of this. That is why it is correct to call him a racist. He defines Palestinian opposition to Israel and Zionism as itself racist.
As Jews in the past 70 years have grown more prosperous they have moved out of the East End of London into suburbs such as Golders Green. They have been replaced by Muslim and Bengali immigrants. According to Dr Geoffrey Alderman, a right-wing Jewish academic and Zionist, in the Jewish Community and British Politics (p.137, Clarendon Press, 1983)
‘‘By 1961, over 40% of Anglo-Jewry was located in the upper 2 social classes, whereas these categories accounted for less than 20% of the general population.’
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| Phil Piratin addresses crowd |
In 1945 the only Communist MP ever to have been elected in England, Phil Piratin, was elected for Mile End in the East End. Half his votes were estimated to come from Jews. When Alderman surveyed Jewish voters in Hackney for the 1979 general election, some 1.8% of Jews said they were voting for the neo-Nazi National Front but zero percent were voting for the Communist Party candidate. In other words not only have Jews become more prosperous but they have moved to the Right politically.
That is what explains the level of around 15% of Jews voting for the Labour Party NOT its stance on Israel.
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| Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Britain have dissociated themselves from the Zionists |
There is no single Jewish community. A minority, the central Orthodox based around the United Synagogue are represented by the fiercely anti-Corbyn Board of Deputies, a group which has never fought anti-Semitism of the fascist variety.
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| Orthodox Jews are well aware of the opposition of the Zionists to Jewish refugees in the war coming to Britain - above is a letter in the Jewish Chronicle on 5.2.93. |
Another large section of Jews are the Ultra Orthodox based around Stamford Hill. They are not represented on the Board of Deputies. Last September 34 Orthodox Rabbis signeda letter criticising the Zionist BOD for attacking Corbyn. Of course the letter received no publicity in the mainstream media or BBC.
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| The level of racism in Israel is higher than in any other state in the world |
The Union of Orthodox Congregations left the BOD in 1971 and there have been major differences between them and the Zionists, not least a memory of when the Zionists opposed the rescue of Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany unless they went to Palestine. See Skwawkbox hereand hereand JVL
50% of Jews in Britain aren’t attached to any synagogue and they are secular Jews. It is these Jews that groups like JVL and Jewdas represent.
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| Lansman has bent over backwards to support the JLM |
What Lansman has done is ally himself with the most right-wing section of British Jews. Those who are allied with the Apartheid State of Israel. Lansman fools himself that his friends are amongst the ‘progressive’ Labour Zionists of the Jewish Labour Movement. In reality the JLM are no more socialist than their Likud counterparts. They have acted as a Trojan horse inside the Labour Party and are presently trying to use the Equality and Human Rights Commission investigation in order to try and destroy Jeremy Corbyn.
Union of Orthodox Congregations separated in 1971 from the Zionist Board of Deputies At their last conference the JLM passed a motion of no confidence in Corbyn. Their previous parliamentary Chair Luciana Berger joined the ‘funny tinge’ group and now sits in the House of Commons for the Liberal Democrats having falsely presented herself as a victim of Labour ‘anti-Semitism’. Lansman's obsession with 'anti-Semitism' lines him up with the Tory press who, for some strange reason, are also opposed to 'antisemitism' but no other form of racism.
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| The Israeli Labour Party has supported Netanyahu's racist hostility to African refugees |
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| The JLM is the 'sister party' of the racist Israeli Labor Party |
The JLM openly boast that they are the ‘sister party’of the Israeli Labor Party. This is the racist Zionist party which supported Netanyahu in his attempts to physically expel 40,000 Black African refugees from Israel because they are neither Jewish nor White.
These are the disgusting racists that Lansman calls his kith and kin. The question is when Momentum members are going to remove this racist from his present position of unelected Caudillo of Momentum.
Tony Greenstein
James Wright 19th June 2019
Momentum founder Jon Lansman is facing criticism after he claimed a group of left-wing Jews are ‘not part of’ the Jewish community.
Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) is made up of Jewish Labour members, and the organisation is active in around“half of all local constituency [Labour] parties”.
Still, in an email to JVL, Lansman claimed that the organisation is not “part of the Jewish community”, saying:
neither the vast majority of individual members of JVL nor the organisation itself can really be said to be part of the Jewish community
Left-wing Jews “responsible”
In the email, Lansman (who is Jewish) also blamed JVL for some of the impact the so-called ‘crisis’ of antisemitism allegations in Labour has had on the party. And he alleged that “JVL’s existence has been partly responsible” for some Jewish people leaving Labour in the context of these allegations. That’s despite academics at the Media Reform Coalition concludingthat corporate media coverage of Labour and antisemitism has been a “disinformation paradigm”.
In a comment The Canary has seen, JVL co-chair Jenny Manson responded by saying:
There is increasing concern among our members and supporters about the very negative remarks you make about Jewish Voice for Labour. Many Jewish Labour Party members, working hard for the election of a Labour government, have felt undermined by your comments.
Instead of criticising the corporate media and right-wing politicians for weaponisingantisemitism allegations against the Labour leadership, Lansman appears to be blaming left-wing Jews for calling out false allegations.
‘Grossly exaggerating’ antisemitism allegations
Lansman, who founded Momentum out of Jeremy Corbyn’s 2015 leadership campaign, also said:
The fact that JVL insists on defending those who deny the problem and many of those who have clearly brought the Labour Party into disrepute (whether or not they are themselves antisemitic) means, I am afraid, that I regard JVL as part of the problem and not part of the solution to antisemitism in the Labour Party.
Cartoon in Nazi comic about a Jewish family who were not wantedBut in response, JVL co-chairs Manson and Leah Levane wrote:
In those parts of the Jewish community which support Jeremy’s values, there is concern about the extraordinary and unfounded allegations made that grossly exaggerate the degree of antisemitism within Labour. It is irresponsible to promote unjustifiable fears, scaring Jewish people that they face an existential threat from a Labour government. These allegations, so often unquestioned, are damaging the party’s standing in our community and also in wider society.
They also wrote:
Antisemitism clearly still exists in Britain and within its political parties, including Labour, but it is demonstrably more prevalent on the right of the spectrum. Wherever antisemitism exists it needs to be combatted. False allegations of antisemitism however do not help Jewish people.
Indeed, it seems that the media storm over Labour and antisemitism is largely a smear campaign when you compare the coverage to the facts. Because while any antisemitism in Labour is most certainly a problem, cases of anti-Jewish prejudice in Labour reportedly relateto 0.1% of the party’s 540,000-strong membership. And since Corbyn became leader, the number of Labour voters agreeing with antisemitic statements has actually fallen significantly.
The Canary contacted both Lansman and Momentum for comment, but had received no response by the time of publication.
Who is really in denial?
Neither JVL nor its supporters are denying that some antisemitism exists in Labour. The people in denial seem to be those like Lansman who refuse to properly acknowledge the weaponisationof antisemitism allegations against Corbyn’s leadership. In fact, this apparent cowardice from some on the Labour left has allowed the political attacks to gain their current traction. So we should commend JVL for standing against dangerous smears that are obscuring the fight against real antisemitism and damaging the only real alternative to Conservative austerity. Suggesting JVL members are the ‘wrong sort of Jews’ for taking a stand, meanwhile, is frankly a disgrace.
Lansman launches attack on Jewish Voice for Labour
Jon Lansman has launched an angry attack on the Jewish Voice For Labour group writing that they are "part of the problem and not part of the solution to antisemitism in the Labour Party."
In leaked correspondence, the Momentum founder also stated it was his "observation... that neither the vast majority of individual members of JVL nor the organisation itself can really be said to be part of the Jewish community."
In a letter written to JVL co-chairs Jenny Manson and Leah Levane, Mr Lansman also said that JVL "ill-serves the cause of Palestinian rights."
Mr Lansman launched his attack on the pro-Jeremy Corbyn group after they wrote to him suggesting he no longer reflected the views of most Momentum members - despite having founded the group himself.
But in a devastating attack, Mr Lansman wrote: "I am afraid, that I regard JVL as part of the problem and not part of the solution to antisemitism in the Labour Party. And as a consequence of that, I’m afraid it ill-serves the cause of Palestinian rights too.
"You no doubt believe that you are expressing the views of progressive socialist Jews, and yes I am aware of many progressive socialist Jews who, after backing Jeremy Corbyn in two leadership elections and in the 2017 general election, are now considering leaving the party or have already done so, and JVL’s existence has been partly responsible.
"JVL behaves as if it speaks for Jewish socialists. It does not. And too many of its members self-define as 'Jews' only to attack other Jews."
Mr Lansman - who is still a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn - also wrote in his May 4th letter that: "Whilst there are of course plenty of dissident Jews in Britain, my observation is that neither the vast majority of individual members of JVL nor the organisation itself can really be said to be part of the Jewish community since the organisation was set up to oppose the conclusion that I’m afraid that every significant Jewish community organisation has arrived at about the Labour Party.
"I do think it is possible to eradicate antisemitism in the Labour Party and to defend the Labour Left’s project but not by denial of the problem within the Labour Party."
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| Arch right-winger Luke Akehurst, who works for We Believe in Israel, supported the murder by Israeli snipers, of unarmed Palestinians in Gaza last year. This reprobate is as hostile to JVL as Lansman |
At Limmud this year in a session on antisemitism and the Labour party, Jon Lansman is reported as being highly critical of JVL: while he “did not support closing down JVL, he was dismissive of it.” Thanks a bundle Jon (always assuming we can trust anything that appears in the JC). David Rosenberg responds.
Luke Akehurst of We Believe in Israel was more forthright saying ‘there was a case for proscribing the organisation Jewish Voice for Labour, which served “no useful purpose” and had been set up to delegitimise the Jewish Labour Movement’. When asked to comment by Skwawkbox, Akehurst doubled down, with undoubtedly libellous bile, as reported below. (For those who don’t know, Akehurst is one of a number of non-Jews like Euan Phillips and John Mann who have made it their task to deride Jews who do not follow their script.)