{"id":108645,"date":"2016-04-23T18:08:00","date_gmt":"2016-04-23T18:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.wordpress.com\/?p=108645"},"modified":"2017-10-31T13:07:11","modified_gmt":"2017-10-31T13:07:11","slug":"britains-most-respected-campaigner-against-anti-semitism-for-over-40-years-suspended-by-the-labour-party-for-wait-for-it-alleged-anti-semitism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ar\/2016\/04\/23\/britains-most-respected-campaigner-against-anti-semitism-for-over-40-years-suspended-by-the-labour-party-for-wait-for-it-alleged-anti-semitism\/","title":{"rendered":"Britain’s most respected campaigner against anti-Semitism for over 40 years, suspended by The Labour Party for – wait for it – Alleged anti-Semitism"},"content":{"rendered":"

We reproduce below an open letter by the accused Jewish Labour Party member Tony Greenstein to Jon Lansman of ‘Momentum’ on Zionism in the Labour Party<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"tony-greenstein-4\"Stop the Appeasement of the supporters of Israeli Apartheid<\/span><\/strong><\/h1>\n
https:\/\/azvsas.blogspot.co.uk\/2016\/04\/an-open-letter-to-jon-lansman-of.html<\/h6>\n

Dear Jon,<\/p>\n

Earlier this week I had a long conversation with you.\u00a0\u00a0You also posted a message (below) to a PSC activist, Terry Gallogly from York PSC.<\/p>\n

As you know I have been suspended by the Compliance Unit of the Labour Party since March 18th<\/sup>.\u00a0\u00a0I have received no information as to why I have been suspended yet this very same information was leaked to The Daily Telegraph which together with The Times printed articles that stated I was suspended as part of the clampdown on anti-Semitism in the Party.\u00a0\u00a0Both newspapers, under threat of legal action, have now withdrawn those accusations, yet I am still suspended.<\/p>\n

You are Chair of Momentum, which was set up to defend the newly elected leadership of Corbyn and McDonnell..\u00a0\u00a0I would like to ask why you and Momentum nationally haven\u2019t raised both my case and that of other people on the Left who have been suspended as a result of allegations made by the Right?<\/p>\n

\"Jeremy-CorbynI accept what you have said about Corbyn not having control of the Labour Party bureaucracy, but that is even more reason why you should be speaking out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When it became obvious last summer that Jeremy Corbyn was likely to become leader of the Labour Party, both the Tory and Liberal press, in particular Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian, began a campaign aimed at painting Jeremy as an anti-Semite and someone who kept company with holocaust deniers.\u00a0\u00a0This campaign was spearheaded by the Zionist movement and Stephen Pollard of the Jewish Chronicle in particular,<\/p>\n

When Jeremy was elected as leader, there was a change in tactics by our opponents.\u00a0\u00a0Starting with the veteran Jewish Labour MP Gerald Kaufman, there was a concerted attempt to paint the Labour Party as \u2018riddled\u2019 with anti-Semitism.\u00a0\u00a0The fact that there was no evidence to support such an argument was no barrier to it becoming a truism.\u00a0\u00a0As Goebbels\u00a0remarked<\/a>\u00a0\u2018If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.\u2019\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

There is little doubt that despite trawling through thousands of tweets, FB postings etc. the Zionist movement and the Tory Press came up with one person who tweeted that Jews have \u2018big noses\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0It must have seemed like manna from heaven when the leader of a tiny Trotskyist sect of less than 10 people, Gerry Downing, appeared on the scene with an updated version of the Jewish Question.\u00a0\u00a0That was basically it.<\/p>\n

It is clear that there are major differences between us in terms of how you see, or don\u2019t see, the role of the Zionist movement, in particular<\/p>\n

You see the Right\u2019s \u2018concern\u2019 over anti-Semitism as genuine rather than a pretext in its battle against the Left.\u00a0\u00a0I see Labour Friends of Israel, Progress and the Jewish Labour Movement\u2019s use of anti-Semitism as a cynical weapon deployed against the Corbyn leadership of Labour Party.\u00a0\u00a0If you are correct, then John Mann MP, the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on anti-Semitism, is genuinely concerned about anti-Semitism.\u00a0\u00a0Yet it is clear that his concern is with opposing support for the Palestinians and BDS.\u00a0\u00a0The employment tribunal which heard his evidence in the\u00a0Fraser v University College Union<\/em><\/a>\u00a0case\u00a0held that:<\/p>\n

\u2018Mr Mann led for them and the more conciliatory tone of Dr MacShane gave way to a somewhat hostile display in which Mr Mann made no bones about his view that the union was operating in an anti-Semitic way \u2026\u00a0\u00a0He did not explain what the anti-Semitic behaviour was supposed to have consisted of besides referring to the boycott debate and characterising any boycott of Israel or Israeli institutions as itself anti-Semitic.\u2019 Para. 84.<\/p>\n

\u2018We did not derive assistance from the two Members of Parliament who appeared before us. Both gave glib evidence, appearing supremely confident of the rightness of their positions. For Dr MacShane, it seemed that all answers lay in the\u00a0MacPherson Report\u00a0<\/em>(the effect of which he appeared to misunderstand).<\/p>\n

\"John_Mann<\/p>\n

Mr Mann could manage without even that assistance. He told us that the leaders of the Respondents were at fault for the way in which they conducted debates but did not enlighten us as to what they were doing wrong or what they should be doing differently. He did not claim ever to have witnessed any Congress or other UCU meeting. And when it came to anti-Semitism in the context of debate about the Middle East, he announced, \u201cIt\u2019s clear to me where the line is \u2026\u201d but unfortunately eschewed the opportunity to locate it for us. Both parliamentarians clearly enjoyed making speeches. Neither seemed at ease with the idea of being required to answer a question not to his liking.\u2019 Para. 148.<\/p>\n

What you are attempting to do is to reconcile the irreconcilable.\u00a0\u00a0Support for Zionism is incompatible with support for the Palestinian\u2019s right of return and the achievement of a State in Palestine\/Israel based on its citizens.\u00a0\u00a0Israel as presently constituted is a state of Jews throughout the world rather than all its citizens, Jewish and non-Jewish.\u00a0That is why there is no Israeli nationality.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Far from being the \u2018only democracy in the Middle East\u2019 Israel could not survive without the threat of war.\u00a0\u00a0Its history consists of manufacturing crises and wars in order to engender a permanent state of emergency.\u00a0\u00a0This enables Israel to continue to apply the 1947 British Emergency Defence Regulations which enable administrative detention for up to six months, which can be renewed indefinitely, torture, the censorship of the press and an attitude to civil liberties, in particular for the Palestinian minority, which belongs in a police state.\u00a0\u00a0Israel is no different from its erstwhile cousin, with whom it had the closest of military and economic relations, the Apartheid State of South Africa.<\/p>\n

Another feature of Israel which its defenders seem to omit is the growth of fascist gangs and movements in Israel who parade under the slogan of \u2018death to the Arabs\u2019<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0As I am sure you are aware, this was the slogan of the far-Right in Europe in the pre-war period, except<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2018Jews\u2019 were substituted for \u2018Arab\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0At the Tel-Aviv demonstration in support of a soldier\u00a0Elor Azraya who was filmed killing in cold blood an injured Palestinian lying on the ground, there was a banner \u2018Kill them All\u2019 with one demonstrator parading with the SS slogan \u2018My honor is my loyalty\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0This is the Israel that LFI and JLM uncritically defend.<\/p>\n

In your comments below you make a great play of what Zionism means and you believe it is wrong to use it as a term of abuse.<\/p>\n

\"Settlers<\/p>\n

Zionism at its most basic was the movement set up in 1897 with the goal of establishing a Jewish state in Palestine.\u00a0\u00a0It undertook this in alliance, in 1917, with British imperialism and it established a settler colonial movement in Palestine.\u00a0\u00a0Settler colonialism has always been, without exception, the most virulently racist of colonial movements.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The cardinal features of the pre-state period were the Labour Zionist policies of Jewish labour, Jewish produce and Jewish land.\u00a0\u00a0What this meant was best explained by the Managing Director of Solel Boneh, the Histadrut owned building company David HaCohen,:<\/p>\n

\"Zionist<\/p>\n

I had to fight my friends on the issue of Jewish socialism to defend the fact that I would not accept Arabs in my Trade Union, the Histadrut; to defend preaching to housewives that they should not buy at Arab stores; to defend the fact that we stood guard at orchards to prevent Arab workers from getting jobs there… to pour kerosene on Arab tomatoes; to attack Jewish housewives in the markets and smash Arab eggs they, had bought… to buy dozens of dunums from an Arab is permitted but to sell God forbid one Jewish dunum to an Arab is prohibited; to take Rothschild the incarnation of capitalism\u00a0\u00a0<\/sub>as a socialist and to name him the ‘benefactor’ – to do all that was not easy. And despite the fact that we did it- maybe we had no choice – I wasn’t happy about it.<\/strong>\u201d\u00a0[David Hirst, The Gun & the Olive Branch, p.63]<\/p>\n

Nor does this belong to the past.\u00a0\u00a0Even today Israel evicts Israeli Palestinians from the land to make way for Jewish towns, as it is currently doing in the Negev.\u00a0\u00a0The Bedouin village of Arakabh has been evicted 96 times.<\/p>\n

Of course there are British Jews who support Zionism without realising its consequences.\u00a0\u00a0There are some who believe that a Zionism which treats Palestinians and Jews equally is possible.\u00a0\u00a0There were also white South Africans who genuinely believed that Apartheid, separate development, did not imply inferior treatment.\u00a0\u00a0Did not the judges in\u00a0Plessy v Fergusson<\/em>\u00a0in 1896 argue that segregation on the basis of separate but equal treatment was possible?\u00a0\u00a0It was not until\u00a0Brown v Board of Education<\/em>\u00a0in 1954 that this pernicious racist myth was finally laid to rest.<\/p>\n

In Israel segregation is alive and well.\u00a0\u00a0Virtually all schools are segregated, maternity wards and even student accommodation is segregated, employment is segregated, most towns and villages are separate with Arabs barred from living in \u2018Jewish\u2019 towns.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Arab towns are denied planning permission as a norm, such that not one new Arab town has been constructed since 1948 despite the population having increased 10 fold.\u00a0\u00a0Half of all Arab villages are \u2018unrecognised\u2019 i.e. liable to instant demolition.\u00a0\u00a0ID cards differentiate between Jew and Arab, as do car number plates.<\/p>\n

\"Apartheid In the checkpoints in the Occupied Territories there are different gates for Jewish settlers and Palestinians but then there are also two systems of law in operation.\u00a0\u00a0Even the road system is divided between Jewish and non-Jewish.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

What is outrageous is that the British section of the Israeli Labour Party, a party which is racist to the core is allowed affiliation to the Labour Party.\u00a0\u00a0Only this week Yitzhak Herzog, leader of the ILP\u00a0said\u00a0<\/a>that\u00a0Israel’s Labor party shouldn’t give off the constant impression that they are\u00a0“Arab lovers.”<\/p>\n

The Jewish Labour Movement together with Labour Friends of Israel is the emanation of the Israeli state inside the Labour Party.\u00a0\u00a0Its attitude to the new leadership was best summed up by Rebecca Simon Vice-Chair of LFI who\u00a0said of Corbyn<\/a>:\u00a0 \u2018no one wants to vote for a leader they think is rubbish.\u00a0 And he is rubbish \u2013 never mind about the Israel stuff, he is just not a credible opposition.\u2019\u00a0<\/em>JC 30.12.15.<\/p>\n

The purpose of LFI and JLM is to justify the actions of the Israeli state,\u00a0whomsoever is in power.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>The ILP has\u00a0never<\/strong>\u00a0condemned the occupation.\u00a0\u00a0As former leader,\u00a0Shelly Yacimovich\u00a0\u00a0declared:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI reject the definition of the IDF as an occupation army,\u201d [Ha\u2019aretz 16.4.16.]\u00a0JusticeAccording to Israel\u2019s Nationalist-demagogue Spokeswoman<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Ha\u2019aretz described how \u2018She doesn\u2019t give a damn about the Palestinians\u2019 rights. They\u2019re nothing to her. \u2026. This is justice according to Yacimovich \u2013 for Jews only. Her justice is \u201cZionist,\u201d as she calls it. Her morality isn\u2019t universal. <\/em><\/p>\n

\"ShellyCalling her a social democrat is a disgrace to social democracy. Her disgraceful take on the Palestinians has nothing to do with socialist or democratic tradition. She\u2019s a nationalist-socialist leader.\u2019\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The idea that JLM or LFI are going to \u2018build bridges\u2019 with the Jewish community is absurd.\u00a0\u00a0The majority of Jews today vote for the Right because since the 1950\u2019s Jews have move up the ladder socio-economically.\u00a0\u00a0Physically they have moved from the East End of London to Hendon, Golders Green etc.\u00a0\u00a0This is well documented in Geoffrey Alderman\u2019s\u00a0The Jewish Community in British Politics,\u00a0<\/em>Clarendon Press, 1980.<\/p>\n

There is little evidence that Israel in fact plays any but a minor role in how Jewish people vote.\u00a0\u00a0Indeed according to a comprehensive poll by academics at City University, nearly a third of Jews, 31% don’t even define or see themselves as Zionist.\u00a0 That is a higher percentage than vote today for Labour for socio-economic reasons.\u00a0\u00a0See\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

You speak of the two-state solution.\u00a0\u00a0Neither Likud or the Zionist Union (Labour Party\/Hatnuah) support a two state solution.\u00a0\u00a0Neither do the majority of Palestinians.\u00a0\u00a0The extent and degree of settlement has now made that solution unattainable.\u00a0\u00a0There is one state now in the area of the former British Mandate.\u00a0\u00a0In that area the majority of Palestinians, over 4 million, live under military occupation and have no democratic rights whatsoever.\u00a0\u00a0This is an apartheid state in all but name.\u00a0\u00a0Talk of 2 States serves one purpose only \u2013 to legitimise the continued denial of democratic rights to Palestinians because that would mean the end of a Jewish supremacist state.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As you continue to try and appease JLM and LFI, so the accusations of \u2018anti-Semitism\u2019 continue.\u00a0\u00a0There is only one way to defeat our accusers and that is to make it clear that when Zionists talk of \u2018anti-Semitism\u2019 they are speaking a different language from us.\u00a0\u00a0Anti-Semitism means hatred, violence, discrimination against Jews etc..\u00a0\u00a0It is reprehensible and must be fought.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"BDS<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00a0When the Tories and the Zionist JLM and LFI, to say nothing of the Guardian\u2019s Freedland speak of anti-Semitism they mean BDS and opposition to Israel\u2019s Apartheid.\u00a0\u00a0They even have a word for it, the \u2018new anti-Semitism\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Until you recognise this the \u2018anti-Semitism\u2019 campaign will go on.\u00a0\u00a0Eric Pickles, Chris Grayling and co. will have a field day.\u00a0\u00a0No amount of statements by Jeremy Corbyn that he opposes anti-Semitism will have the slightest effect because he and they are talking a different language.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What is needed is a clear statement by the Labour leadership that they oppose anti-Semitism but they also oppose conflating anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism and support for the Palestinians.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

You believe that there is a problem with equating Zionism with racism.\u00a0\u00a0This is not shared by far-Right Islamaphobic groups such as the BNP\/EDL or racists like Gert Wilders, Marine Le Pen or indeed the neo-Nazi Freedom Party in Austria under Strache, all of whom admire the Israeli state.<\/p>\n

The JLM is moving an amendment to Labour Party\u2019s rules to include \u2018anti-Semitism\u2019 in the list of disciplinary offences.\u00a0\u00a0They are also using Islamaphobia as a cover for their amendment.\u00a0\u00a0They make it clear, in their supporting arguments, that their definition of anti-Semitism includes opposition to Zionism which they say is part of Jewish national identity.\u00a0\u00a0As a Jewish anti-Zionist I dispute this.\u00a0\u00a0I hope that both you and Momentum are going to take a clear line in opposition to this amendment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

For the defenders of apartheid in Israel to move an amendment concerning racism in the British Labour Party is a sick joke.\u00a0\u00a0If they are that concerned about racism, maybe they can have a word in the ear of Yitzhak Herzog and tell him that being a lover of Arabs might not be a bad thing.<\/p>\n

Yours fraternally,<\/p>\n

Tony Greenstein<\/p>\n

Jon Lansman to Terry Gallogly<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I don\u2019t agree with your suggestion that the entire right of the party are in cahoots with this though there certainly are some on the right who may be. In my discussions with the Jewish Labour Movement and Labour Friends of Israel about this, I find that they are actually (i) very keen to build bridges between Labour (including Jeremy) and the Jewish community and (ii) agree with my point (2) above……………………………<\/p>\n

I do think that there is a problem of antisemitism in the party that goes beyond the small number of appalling examples such as that of Gerry Downing who was rightly suspended from the Labour Party in my view and should be permanently expelled. This includes the failure to take charges of antisemitism sufficiently seriously and poor choice of language such as conflating words like \u201cJew\u201d, \u201cIsraeli\u201d, and \u201cZionist\u201d.I think there is a particular problem with the word \u201cZionist\u201d which is used by some as if it were a term of abuse. This is guaranteed, understandably in my view, to be regarded as antisemitic by many Jews and should never be used in that way. Many people treat Zionist as if it means “supportive of the policies of the Israeli government in relation to the occupation and to Palestinians”. It is that understanding of the word which leads to the equations Zionism = Imperialism and Zionism = Racism. Both of those equations are as offensive and wrong as is the equation Anti-Zionism = Antisemitism<\/strong>. The reason is that to most British Jews, Zionism simply means \u201csupport for the existence of Israel as a Jewish state\u201d alongside a Palestinian state which is of course the policy of the Labour Party, PSC and Fatah and the Palestine administration etc. Most British Jews (unlike Israeli Jews) believe in equality of rights for Palestinians within Israel and in a two-state solution. A number of self described Zionists in Britain and even \u00a0few in Israel are strong supporters of Palestinian rights and I have personally demonstrated alongside such people against house demolitions in East Jerusalem and against the Wall with Palestinian villagers whose villages and land are divided by it.<\/p>\n

Much of the antisemitism that exists on the Left is probably unconscious. Lack of intent, however, is not an excuse for antisemitism just as it is not in the case of institutional racism of any variety.<\/p>\n

Defending Jeremy in my view means the Left taking a hard line against antisemitism in the Labour party. I know it is a long time since 1190 but I am sure that the Left in York would feel a particular responsibility to make a stand against antisemitism given its bloody history in their\/your city.”<\/p>\n

Jon<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We reproduce below an open letter by the accused Jewish Labour Party member Tony Greenstein to Jon Lansman of ‘Momentum’ on Zionism in the Labour Party Stop the Appeasement of the supporters of Israeli Apartheid https:\/\/azvsas.blogspot.co.uk\/2016\/04\/an-open-letter-to-jon-lansman-of.html Dear Jon, Earlier this week I had a long conversation with you.\u00a0\u00a0You also posted a message (below) to a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[19],"class_list":["post-108645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-english"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"2.12.2","language":"ar","enabled_languages":["gb","es","fr","pt","ru","no","ar"],"languages":{"gb":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"fr":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"pt":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"ru":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"no":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false},"ar":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108645"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108645\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/footballagainstapartheid.org\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}