Antisemitism? What antisemitism?

August 23, 2017 at 9:44 am (anti-semitism, apologists and collaborators, conspiracy theories, fascism, labour party, scotland, Troothers)

Above: SPSC supremo Mick Napier rants about “Zionism” and “Israel” (sic) at the anti-Semitic Al Quds Day rally

By Dale Street
The Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) has issued two statements in response to the report Jew Hate and Holocaust Denial in Scotland, published earlier this month by Jewish Human Rights Watch.

The report contained 140 pages of screengrabs of antisemitic material – including Holocaust revisionism, Holocaust denial and multiple references to the Rothschilds – posted by Scottish Palestine solidarity activists on their personal Facebook pages.

A number of those activists have been involved in PSC events – the report included pictures of them staffing SPSC stalls, and copies of posts supporting SPSC events.

The first SPSC statement was empty verbiage. It ignored the report’s contents. Instead, it denounced the report’s author, Jewish Human Rights Watch and the Israeli government for alleged collusion in “undermining and criminalising the Palestine solidarity movement.”

The second statement was an even longer exercise in empty verbiage, peppered with accusations of “incremental genocide”, “sinister racist language”, “Israel’s settler colonial project” and “invective worthy of Goebbels ‘Die Sturmer’.”

(The paper was actually called “Der Sturmer” (not “Die Sturmer”), and its editor was Julius Streicher (not Goebbels). But why should the SPSC bother itself with what it doubtless considers to be a detail of history?)

But the second statement distinguished itself by including the following piece of hitherto unsurpassed idiocy:

“Even those who fall into the trap of seeing the criminal impunity of the Jewish supremacist State in the Middle East as part of a world-wide Jewish supremacy are rarely driven, as Collier alleges, by animus towards Jews, for which Palestine is only a cynical cover.

“Rather, almost all are moved by human compassion at the terrible suffering inflicted on the people of Gaza by Israel and its sponsors in Washington, London, the EU, supported by Israel’s Arab allies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia.”

That is to say: Antisemities (i.e. people who believe in world-wide Jewish supremacy) are rarely driven by antisemitism (i.e. animus towards Jews).

And when these antisemites boycott the world’s only state with a Jewish majority-population – but no other state on the face of the earth – they are driven by the milk of human kindness (“human compassion”), not by anything so base as antisemitism!

But as the SPSC continues to wrestle with its torturous arguments that antisemites are not driven by antisemitism, least of all when campaigning for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish-majority state, help may be at hand in the form of “Jewish Voice for Labour” (JVL).

Describing itself as a “network for Jewish members of the Labour Party”, JVL will have its official launch at this year’s Labour Party conference in Brighton in September.

JVL chair is Jenny Manson, described in a JVL press release as “a retired tax inspector”, the Garden Suburb branch chairperson in Finchley and Golders Green CLP, an active supporter of Jews for Palestine, and editor of two books (one of them on consciousness: What It Feels Like To Be Me).

Manson was one of the five Jewish Labour Party members who submitted statements in support of Ken Livingstone in March of this year. According to her statement:

“… These actions by Ken were not offensive, nor anti-Semitic in any way, in my view.

 … In my working life as a Tax Inspector I saw a (very) few instances of anti-Semitism, such as the characterisation of ‘Jewish Accountants’ as accountants who skated close to the edge. I have never witnessed any instances of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

 Anti-Semitism has to be treated as a serious issue, which is entirely separate from the different views people take on Israel and Zionism.”

 The JVL’s brief “Statement of Principles” includes the following:

“We uphold the right of supporters of justice for Palestinians to engage in solidarity activities, such as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions. We oppose attempts to widen the definition of antisemitism beyond its meaning of hostility towards or discrimination against Jews as Jews.”

A JVL press release likewise states that the new organisation:

“Rejects attempts to extend the scope of the term ‘antisemitism’ beyond its meaning of bigotry towards Jews, particularly when directed at activities in solidarity with Palestinians such as Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel.”

In other words, this “network for Jewish members of the Labour Party” will be campaigning in support of the ‘right’ to boycott Jews, and in favour of restricting the definition of antisemitism so as to exclude the most common forms in which contemporary antisemitism manifests itself.

JVL already has the backing of the “Free Speech on Israel” campaign and the “Electronic Intifada” website. It is sure to find a natural ally and kindred spirit in the SPSC as well – and vice versa.