Does Labour know what antisemitism is?
JVL Introduction
Mike Cushman appeared on the Not the Andrew Marr Show on 5 December to explain why JVL has made a third submission to the EHRC, the latest in a succession of interventions before and after the Commission had issued its report on ‘Antisemitism in the Labour Party’. He asks, “Does Labour know what antisemitism is?” because they behave like they do not.
These submissions have not been made in a naive expectation that the EHRC would instantly recognise their errors. Rather, JVL wished to place its reservations about the report and Labour’s response to it in the public domain in order, hopefully, to influence the culture of the EHRC and to improve the climate of public debate about these important and sensitive issues.
Mike described how Keir Starmer has, in effect, arrogantly pronounced that the Jewish members of JVL were not Jews, excluding them from his category of ‘all Jews’. Starmer reinforced this when, at the request of the EHRC, he set up an advisory board which was meant to be representative of Jewish interests but excluded all Jews who did not agree with him about Israel and see its actions as oppressive.
Indeed, he appears to be in the process of driving all dissident Jews out of the Labour Party; claiming that the real but very rare Jewish antisemites are present in unbelievably great numbers inside the Labour Party.
Mike argues that the Party seems to have little understanding of antisemitism. Disciplinary letters take statements out of context, in contravention of the IHRA Definition which they claim to be following. Worse, they quote the words they deem to be offensive without ever explaining how they believe the words to be antisemitic. Their unwillingness or inability to make a case shows their lack of understanding and the structural unfairness of the process.
Mike concludes with a mea culpa about his failure to educate Margaret Hodge.
You can contribute to the costs of making these submissions and the follow-up actions.
Starmer cares about no one but himself. The only reason he is making overtures to Zionists and ostracising Socialists is because he believes that’s where his best chance is of impressing the establishment and obtaining power and recognition. He is devoid of honour and integrity.
It is scary that the leadership of a certain party maintain to all and sundry that they are fighting antisemitism, whilst at the same time acting in an antisemitic way. Furthermore this also means that they are enabling very rightwing groupings to come forth inside and outside of the certain party. Well, where did that happen before I ask…..
I’ve said this before and Tony Greenstein has said it far more forcefully – the witch-hunt isn’t about antisemitism so looking for answers about ‘Labour’s understanding of antisemitism’ is a fool’s errand. This should be crystal clear now that the current wave of expulsions of Jewish socialists is more than underway.
It seems to me, Starmer knows exactly what antisemitism is and is using it as a weapon, knowing that the main stream press will back him up by constantly omitting that the weaponising of such an horrific event of the holocaust is what he is actually doing.
We can now see the same weaponising now beginning to take place in Chile, so as to demonise a legitimate socialist government.
Not The Andrew Marr Show interview in which Mike is incorrect when he says that the leadership of the Labour Party do not understand antisemitism. They understand antisemitism but chose to misrepresent it by equating antisemitism with antizionism. This deliberately created ambiguity is, of course to promote their own dubious agenda.
Mike Cushman said, among other things: “It [Israel] is not the State of its Palestinian citizens.” “They [the Labour Party] have not consulted anyone who is critical of Israel.” Nothing new here.
My grandfather, Albert Hyamson, an observant Orthodox Jew and a distinguished Jewish historian, was accused of being an anti-Semitic Jew when he proposed, in 1937 the founding of an independent Palestinian state with all citizens having equal rights and each community having autonomy, including municipal authority for Jewish villages, towns and districts.
He knew what he was talking about: he was the Chief Immigration Officer for Palestine. He predicted that if Jews were granted control of a State in Arab lands, there would be continual oppression. He was right; he was branded an anti-Semite.
Isn’t it time that we all spoke unequivocally about Starmer’s New Blue Labour and explained the politics behind their deceit?
Nothing that Starmer stands for is Labour’s heritage or beliefs, like Blair he represents Neo-Liberal values of the Chicago school which is about transferring wealth and power to the already wealthy and powerful, which has transferred all the state’s assets into the private sector, disenfranchising ordinary people from their own self determination.
What is now absolutely obvious to any thinking person, that anti-Semitism has been weaponised to destroy the Labour Party, not only because it stands for justice and equality but also because it opposes the inhumanity such as that displayed by the Israeli regime.
Starmer and his cohort of MPs are not and never have been Labour, They Neo-Liberal to the core, and what people never hear about is how they like the Tories deregulated the financial sector and even boasted about it to the worlds bankers, with the consequence of the financial crash, and remained silent when the Tories blamed it on public expenditure.
This speech explains in detail how New Labour worked for the establishment against the interests of working people, and is riddled with Neo-Liberal language that tells you what they really stand for.
Gordon Brown’s speech to world bankers, Mansion House 2006, a year before the banks started to crash.
“I am grateful to many of you here tonight, including the Lord Mayor, who has agreed to serve on the new City advisory group.
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Ed Balls, our new City Minister, will work with you to develop publish and then promote a long term strategy for the development of London’s financial services and promoting our unique advantages and assets. We will set a clear ambition to make Britain the location of choice for headquarters and services, including R&D, for even more of the world’s leading companies.
And just as two years ago we promoted the action plan for liberalising financial services across Europe, I can tell you that the Treasury is now working with Charles McCreevy and with you to ensure that the forthcoming European financial services white paper signals a new wave of liberalisation.”
Full speech here: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2006/jun/22/politics.economicpolicy
Starmer is just another follow up act, pretending to be Labour, whilst serving the corporate sector.