The Zionists complained we weren’t prominent and that some of us had been expelled for 'anti-Semitism'! That was the whole point! Antisemitism has been weaponised
Given its appalling record of late, refusingto print a letter from over 200 Jewish women and another from over 400 people, both of which the Morning Star later printed, I was surprised that the Guardian had decided to printa letter from over 100 Jewish supporters of Chris Williamson.
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| The Morning Star published the letter that the Guardian refused to carry from 200 Jewish women |
Of course we knew that the Zionists weren’t going to like the letter but we didn’t believe given the Guardian’s fabled commitment to free speech (comment is free but facts are sacred– CP Scott) that they would pull the letter after it had already gone out in the print edition.
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| Now you see it now you don't |
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| It is surprising that the gutless Guardian didn't recall all the print edition |
Until the advent of the Internet such a thing was physically impossible. I confess I once achieved this feat locally in the Brighton Argus when an article from a Palestinian sounding name appeared in the morning edition arguing that Palestinians’ home was in Jordan. Clearly the Zionists had sent it and the letter was removed from the evening edition. Today the Argus doesn’t have more than 1 edition.
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| Free Speech on Israel is not something that has ever concerned the Board of Deputies |
The normal thing to do if the Zionists didn’t like the letter would have been to write a letter in response. Indeed before the fake anti-Semitism campaign that is exactly what the Board of Deputies used to do and on more than one occasion I have crossed swords with them.
But those were the good old days when the Guardian had a backbone and it didn’t have a committed Zionist Jonathan Freedland at the helm. It also had a decent Letters Editor Nigel Wilmott rather than a handpicked clone Rory Foster who has a spine made of rubber.
Yesterday the Board of Deputies of British Jews, whose very name is a lie since it does not represent either secular Jews or Haredi Ultra Orthodox Jews complained. At best the BOD represents 30% of British Jewry and the most conservative elements of that 30%.
Most of their complaints were fatuous and the Board should have been sent away with a flea in their ears or told to send a letter in by way of reply. But Rory Foster has no guts or backbone. The Board’s complaints were trivial in the extreme:
i. The first complaint is that we are not ‘prominent’. Unfortunately that is not true. Thanks to the Board and the Zionist press Jackie Walker and myself are very prominent!! Is anyone suggesting that Noam Chomsky and Norman Finkelstein don’t deserve that accolade? A truly pathetic example of the obsession with status and rank of these petty-bourgeois businessmen.
ii. ‘The Guardian was misleading and inaccurate in its description of the signatories, some have been suspended or expelled from the Labour Party.’ Yes, that was the whole point of the letter, that Chris Williamson is in danger of being unfairly expelled from the Labour Party because of false allegations of anti-Semitism. Noone is hiding this fact. It is however a lie to imply that either Jackie Walker or myself was expelled for anti-Semitism. If Jews are expelled for ‘anti-Semitism’ then that casts doubt on the whole shoddy process.
I was suspended in March 2016 for ‘comments I was alleged to have made.’ No indication was given as to the nature of those comments and I only learnt of them 2 weeks later when Sam Matthews leaked them to The Telegraph and Times. At my expulsion hearing (which I delayed when I obtained a High Court Injunction) Counsel for the Labour Party emphasised that it was not being alleged that I was anti-Semitic.
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| How the Zionist press sees it |
I had called Louise Ellman MP a supporter of Israeli child abuse and ‘shamed’ her. I had called Owen Jones ‘a Janus faced whore who bears the impression of the last person who sat on him’ and called Chuka Ummuna an Uncle Tom (though I had apologised if the original Uncle Tom took offence!). When I gave testimony to Shami Chakrabarti she was shocked by what I told her.
iii. One of the signatories, Michael Morgan, who was not Jewish had apparently called for Zionist to be exterminated (I suspect this is an exaggeration). His inclusion was a mistake and could easily have been rectified by erasing his name.
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| When Israeli snipers began gunning down unarmed Palestinians the Board of Deputies leapt into action blamed Hamas's 'cynical use of its population'- not a word about the use of snipers against an unarmed population |
But the Board of Deputies is not in a position to complain. It has overtly supportedthe murder of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza by the Israeli army. Or are Palestinian lives worth less than those of Zionists? Isn’t that racist?
iv. Meredith Wood-Bevan put Hope not Hate after their name. He didn’t claim to represent HnH. This merely suggests that he was active in the group.
Similarly Peter Sheridan put Jewish Labour Movement after his name. All that means is that he is a member of this group. Embarrassing to be sure (for the JLM) but he didn’t claim to represent them. Indeed it shows that not everyone in the JLM is a racist.
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| The sheer hypocrisy of these supporters of open murder beggars belief and the Guardian is shameful in bowing down to these racists |
The Board finish their letter by stating that ‘We wish to make two specific complaints:
First, the Guardian has a duty to conduct due-diligence on the signatories of letters it publishes, especially on one relating to such a serious issue as racism. In this case, the inclusion of racist signatories ought to have stopped the publication of the letter.’
But the problem is that the Board of Deputies define anyone who is anti-Zionist as anti-Semitic. Therefore anyone who opposes a Jewish state or Zionism is, by definition, anti-Semitic. Indeed most of the Jews who died in the Holocaust were, by their definition, anti-Semites.
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| This is the racism that the Board doesn't talk about in the Jerusalem Post |
Of course the opposite is true. Anyone who defends an ethno-nationalist state in which Jews are privileged vs non Jews, is automatically a racist. For example Palestinian homes are demolished in order to make way for Jewish homes. Jewish homes are never demolished to make way for Arab homes. Jewish women when they go into labour can choose a maternity unit where there are no Arabs. The Board of Deputies defends Israel as a Jewish state. It is therefore racist. The BOD go on to say that:
‘Second, should it choose to publish such a letter, the Guardian has a duty to describe it accurately. To describe the signatories of this letter as “prominent members of the Jewish community” is inaccurate and misleading.’
This is just soo pathetic it is unbelievable. ‘Prominence’ like fame is entirely subjective. If the Board of Deputies signatories wish to argue they are more prominent than us fine but I suspect they will be laughed out of town.
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| The Guardian rejected a letter from over 400 signatories |
Nowhere, not once in their pathetic letter does the Board of Deputies challenge the substance of our letter and our support for Chris Williamson. Instead by their actions the Board of Deputies have proved exactly what we said in the letter. This is a contrived campaign of demonization of anti-racists and the Guardian has again demonstrated its utter spinelessness.
i. The signatories are racist (not true)
ii. Hope not hate were ‘misrepresented’ (not true)
iii. The signatories were described as ‘prominent members of the Jewish community’. (pathetic)
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| Huff Post take on the affair getting us much more publicity |
If you now go to the Guardian letter it says that the article has been removed. The full List of Signatories can be found here. The story has of course been picked up widely in the British media. For example by the Canaryand Huffington Post
Nor is this the first time that The Guardian has printed controversial letters. On 22 October 2015, in response to a letter supporting the Cultural Boycott of Israel some 149 signatories claiming to represent the ‘cultural world’ wroteopposing the Cultural Boycott. Besides JK Rowling (who I guess represents some type of culture) there those well known culture vultures Tory MPs Bob Blackman, Guto Bebb, Mike Freer and Michael Dugher (sorry he was apparently Labour!). They even told us they were setting up Culture for Coexistence‘an independent UK network representing a cross-section from the cultural world’. If you click on Culture for Coexistence now you get the message ‘Website expired’which suggests it was nothing more than a name of convenience for the purpose of getting a fraudulent letter into The Guardian. I can’t remember the BOD asking for ‘due diligence’ on that occasion.
If the Board of Deputies really do object to Jackie Walker, Leon Rosselson and myself being described as ‘prominent’ which was the Guardian’s sub-headline not ours, then let them write in and make this point about how really important the Board is! I seem to recall that in 1942/3 the then Board of Deputies President Selig Brodetsky sabotaged the efforts of Rabbi Dr Solomon Shonfeld, Chairman of the Chief Rabbi’s Rescue Committee because of the desire to protect the self-importance of the Board. Clearly these things matter to these people, even as in 1942, the lives of Jewish refugees from Nazism was at stake.
What is truly disgraceful is that The Guardian has just given in to this blatant exercise in censorship. Ironically the furore around the letter has gained it far more publicity than it would have garnered if they had bitten their lips. It has been, from the Zionist perspective, a wholly counter-productive exercise because it has shown, in all its kodachrome clarity, what a petty minded, self-important group of grey bureaucrats the Board of Deputies is.
For them to accuse others of racism when they justify gunning down hundreds of unarmed Palestinians does indeed merit the Yiddish description chutzpah.
The list of Jewish signatures can be found here.
Tony Greenstein