New York Times to pro-Palestinian activists— Drop dead.
Up till now, the news reporting in the Times on the anti-semitism charges against the British Labour Party had been fair and the opinion pieces noxious, but now the news reporting is lining up with the noxious folk. Yesterday’s article datelined London, says that Jeremy Corbyn’s “anti-Semitism crisis” is “largely of his own making” and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism that Labour just reluctantly adopted is “internationally recognized.”
It remained unclear whether that would end months of bitter criticism of Labour from faith leaders and Jewish newspapers that has tarnished the party’s image.
There is no hint in this article about why Corbyn should care about Palestinian rights, or what Israel is doing to Palestinians that so animates the left. No, it’s apparently a blind fixation on Corbyn’s part: “he is in no mood to hide either his criticism of Israel or the support he has given to pro-Palestinian causes for decades.”
You would think all Corbyn’s accusers are perfect little innocents. And all Labour had to do to escape this crisis was kiss up to all the anti-Arab bigots.
For that is the central issue in the Western debate: The instant Palestinians start getting support from someone who might have real power, the anti-Semite accusation is wheeled out, everyone remembers Who The Real Victims Are, and Palestinians are shoved under the bus.
That is the whole point of these charges. The discourse of anti-semitism is currently the central issue in the Western world for anyone who favors Palestinian rights, and I just wish people would start constantly and consistently pointing to the elephant in the room, which is that these fake anti-Semitism charges are not innocent. They are racist against Palestinians.
We need to fight back and say: Stop with this bullshit of making everything center first on anti-Semitism, and stop using the fake anti-Semitism charge as a tool to crush Palestinian rights, because that is racism. That’s what this is about and in the mainstream the racists are getting away with it, with no challenge from the reporters.
It seems to me that if people want to define antisemitism this way, to mean that people who think Palestinians have rights are anti-Semites, then so be it. Let them have that word, and the word loses its impact. Genuine anti-Semitism will have to called something else, like Judeaophobia.
But we must not lose hold of the central point. All these IHRA-supporters, including well-meaning liberals, are anti-Palestinian racists and a good number of them are so stupid they don’t even realize it. We have to push back on their racism— their anti-Palestinian racism.
Labours NEC has capitulated to the Israel lobby, notably momentum founder Jon Lansman who said of the IHRA definition minus four examples [concerning Israel] that this was the gold standard and encouraged everyone to vote for it, that was in July 2018 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/12/labour-antisemitism-code-gold-standard-political-parties
“The only part of the IHRA working examples that is not explicitly referenced relates to claims about the state of Israel being a racist endeavor (this is a subset of an example, not a standalone one). Of all the elements in the IHRA examples, this is the one that runs the greatest risk of prohibiting legitimate criticism of Israel. It cannot possibly be antisemitic to point out that some of the key policies of the Israeli state, observed since its founding days, have an effect that discriminates on the basis of race and ethnicity”.
He soon changed his mind and before the latest vote encouraged his NEC colleagues to support the definition with all examples.
The question is, can a Labour party member including Corbyn say the state of Israel is a racist endeavor without being called an Anti Semite and excluded from the party?
Chakrabarti was asked the question but did not answer properly, that question needs to be put to all members of the NEC, lets find out if it really is possible to criticize Israel.
Apparently Jeremy Corbyn’s party already caved in after feeling the wrath of the zionists:
Labour adopts IHRA antisemitism definition in full
“All 11 examples accompanying the IHRA definition were agreed by the NEC meeting at the party’s headquarters in central London, as the 40-strong party body attempted to end the long-running row about how to tackle alleged antisemitism within the party.
A party spokesperson said: “The NEC has today adopted all of the IHRA examples of antisemitism, in addition to the IHRA definition which Labour adopted in 2016, alongside a statement which ensures this will not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.”
The spokesperson said Corbyn had made an additional statement to the meeting describing action being taken against antisemitism and expressing solidarity with the Jewish community and the importance of the protection of Palestinian rights.” The Guardian UK
I’m amazed by the ease with which Zionists ab/use Jews, Judaism, the Holocaust and accusations of anti-Semitism as both sword and shield in the service of their colonialist and supremacist nightmare.
Zionists are truly hateful and immoral people.
They play with fire… and whatever happens it will not be their fault…
At root it’s a simple matter of being pro-Justice or anti-Justice. The Zionists are anti-Justice, and their word games cannot hide that fact forever. The facts are getting out, and their anti-Justice beliefs and actions are making increasing numbers of people sick of them. Eventually their money will be so poisonous that even politicians will not be able to stomach it.