7 November 2015

Zionism in an Anti-Racist Mask - Scottish National Party Echoes Zionist Propaganda

The EDL attacking Birmingham PSC stall - with Israeli flag giving the Hitler salute!
Alex Salmon former leader SNP and know to be pro-Zionist

SNP MPs  - Friends of Palestine and Friends of Israel?
SNP falls for the oldest Zionist trick in the book
Attack Palestinians, Shout ‘anti-Semitism’

For those who have illusions that the SNP is a left-wing, progressive party, the post below should be an eye opener.

Yesterday I received a copy of Early Day Motion 652 ANTI-SEMITISM AND PALESTINE SOLIDARITY which clearly originated with the SNP.  Of the 33 MPs who have so far signed this motion, 28 are from the SNP, 2 from the Labour Party, 1 from the Tory Party and 2 from Northern Ireland’s SDLP.

At first sight the motion seems innocuous whereas in fact it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.  Or maybe a Zionist in an anti-racists' guise.  There are a number of problems with the motion:
1.             It couples anti-Semitism and Palestine solidarity together and assumes that there is a linkage.  In fact there is no evidence whatsoever that the Palestine solidarity movement in Britain has, or ever has had, any connection with anti-Semitism or anti-Semites.  The connections with anti-Semitic and holocaust denial groups have been between the Zionist movement and the English Defence League and British National Movement.  In 2012 Palestine Solidarity Campaign at its annual conference voted to expel a holocaust denier, Frances Clarke-Lowes from National PSC (Brighton PSC had already done so locally) and to make it clear that Paul Eisen's Deir Yassin Remembered had no place in the Palestine Solidarity Movement.
Jonathan Hoffman - co-vice-Chair of the Zionist Federation alongside Roberta Moore of the Jewish Defence League with the EDL in khaki in the background
Soon after Ali Abunimah and a number of prominent Palestinians and Arabs, including Omar Barghouti of the Boycott National Committee and Joseph  Massad issued a clear cut statement dissociating the international Palestine movement from an ex-Israeli anti-Semite living in London, the jazz player Gilad Atzmon.  Palestinian writers, activists disavow racism, anti-Semitism of Gilad Atzmon  
Jonathan Hoffman of the Zionist Federation with a friend
As Ruth Smeed of the Board of Deputies of British Jews stated in the Guardian ‘‘The BNP website is now one of the most Zionist on the web – it goes further than any of the mainstream parties in its support of Israel’  BNP seeks to bury antisemitism and gain Jewish votes in Islamophobic campaign, The Guardian, April 10th 2008   Likewise the English Defence League combines holocaust denial and admiration of Hitler with a single-minded devotion to Israel and Zionism.  Whilst attacking the stall of Birmingham Palestine Solidarity, the EDL’s thugs carried an Israeli flag whilst giving Hitler salutes at the same time. The Fascist EDL Attacks Birmingham Palestine Solidarity Campaign Stall 
Brighton EDL cornered by anti-fascists after a failed attack on PSC stall - protected by a phalanx of police
1.            There have been repeated instances of Zionist activists, including those from the Zionist Federation, demonstrating alongside the EDL and the neo-Nazi Jewish Defence League.  One notorious example were the Zionist Federation and EDLcounter-demonstrations outside Ahava, an Israeli shop in Covent Garden  
The Community Security Trust is a far-right Zionist organisation with close links to Israel's Mossad
2.            The Community Security Trust that the SNP EDM quotes is an overtly far-right Zionist group, which sees its role as ensuring that the Jewish community remains free of anti-Zionist influence.  It has close links to Israel’s Mossad (MI6) and keeps copious files on Jewish activists.  Its predecessor the CSO was criticised by Liberty for having barred 5 members of the Jewish Socialists Group from a Jewish communal event solely on the grounds of their political viewpoint.   As my letter to the signatories of the EDM makes clear the CST play fast and loose with the definition of what constitutes an anti-Semitic incident.
3.             The EDM claims that the biggest ‘the single biggest contributing factor [to the doubling in anti-Semitic incidents in the UK] to have been anti-Semitic reaction to the armed violence between Israel and Gaza in July 2014.’   If that is true then it also means that some people in Britain associate Israel’s genocidal attack on Gaza with Jewish people in Britain.  Why might that be?  One reason could be Israel’s claim to be a Jewish state which acts on behalf of, not only its own Jewish citizens but Jews worldwide.  Another reason might be the fact that the Board of Deputies repeatedly comes out with statements and organises demonstrations and pickets, as it did recently outside t he Palestine Mission in London, supporting Israel’s attacks on the Palestinians.  Anti-Zionist Jews in Britain took to demonstrating outside the BOD offices in London during Operation Protective Edge claiming that they don’t speak on behalf of us.  Is it any wonder that some misguided people then hold individual British Jews responsible for what Israel does?  That is not the fault of anyone in the Palestine solidarity movement but the Zionist movement.  The SNP MPs should direct their attention in that direction.

4.            The suggestion  that our criticism of the Israeli state and its policies spills over into ‘group-blame or racist stereotyping’ is simply a lie and we challenge the SNP MPs to provide one example.

SNP Early Day Motion 652
That this House notes with concern that the Community Security Trust recorded a doubling of anti-Semitic incidents across the UK in 2014 to 1,168; further notes that the pattern of these attacks reveals the single biggest contributing factor to have been anti-Semitic reaction to the armed violence between Israel and Gaza in July 2014; condemns all forms of racism and affirms that anti-Semitism has no place in campaigns of solidarity with Palestinians; calls for the adoption of all necessary measures to eliminate racism and anti-Semitism, while emphasising the democratic right to criticise the governments and policies of any and all states whilst ensuring this avoids spilling over into group-blame or racist stereotyping; further calls on all sides of the House to combat racism, and for hon. Members to make clear the distinction between the Jewish community and to encourage responsible public debate and use of language around enhancing inter-communal co-operation and education; and calls on the Government to actively seek a just and stable resolution to the conflict that would bring the benefits of peace to both the Palestinian and Israeli people.

Open Letter to Signatories of the SNP Early Day Motion 652

Dear Member of Parliament,

I am writing to you because you have signed an Early Day Motion on anti-Semitism and Palestine solidarity. 

I am one of the original founders of Britain’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign.  I am also Jewish.  As well as having been an anti-fascist activist for over 30 years, I have also sought to successfully exclude anti-Semites such as Paul Eisen and Gilad Atzmon from the Palestine solidarity movement.  Mr Eisen was only discovered by the mass media during Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign this year but I exposed him 8 years ago. [The Seamy Side of Solidarity, Guardian Comment is Free, 19.2.2007] 

Although it may be well intentioned, the EDM is both misguided and wrong. 
1.     
The EDM notes the doubling of anti-Semitic incidents across the UK in 2014, as recorded by the CST.  The CST’s statistics are not reliable and neither is the information they distribute. 

On October 27th they boasted, regarding the attempt by the Home Office to deport the leader of Israel’s Northern Islamic League, Raed Salah, that ‘CST provided evidence of Salah's inflammatory and antisemitic statements to the Home Office and we are pleased that this evidence was accepted by the court.

What they didn’t publicise was that the Upper Immigration Tribunal overturned this decision on appeal.


‘The principal source for the decision to ban him, … was a report compiled by the CST.  Almost a year on, all four charges against Salah, supporting his deportation, have been thrown out by the vice-president of the Upper Immigration Tribunal. In his ruling, Mr Justice Ockelton said May was misled and "under a misapprehension as to the facts"….

The CST's confidential advice to the home secretary was accompanied by a well-orchestrated and poisonous campaign against Salah in the media, who so swiftly and conclusively condemned him as a "hate preacher".

2.      The CST is a far-Right Zionist organisation bankrolled by Gerald Ronson, a right-wing industrialist.  It has a political agenda and is vehemently anti-Palestinian.  When I received two posts at my blog, one denying the holocaust, the other expressing a desire that my family and myself had perished at Auschwitz, I filed a complaint. The CST determined that the former post was anti-Semitic but not the latter – because it was posted by a Jew (& Zionist). 

3.      The EDM ‘affirms that anti-Semitism has no place in campaigns of solidarity with Palestinians’.  This presumes that anti-Semitism has ever had a place in the Palestine solidarity movement.  This is wholly untrue.  Indeed the main bastion of support for Israel and Zionism lies on the anti-Semitic far-right of British and European politics.  Both the BNP and EDL are ardent supporters of Israel and its attacks on Muslims.  The EDL has attacked a number of Palestine events.  In Birmingham theyattacked a PSC stall displaying an Israeli flag in one hand and giving Hitler salutes with the other!
  
4.    The EDM states that ‘violence between Israel and Gaza’ in July 20014, in fact an unprovoked attack by a military superpower on a civilian population, when over 550 children died, produced a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Britain.  The reasons for this should be obvious.  Israel claims its actions are those of a ‘Jewish’ State and that they are carried out on behalf of all Jews, not merely its own Jewish citizens.  Even worse, the Board of Deputies of British Jews has repeatedly organised demonstrations and issued statements supporting the attacks on Gaza. 

In August 2014 a group of British Jews held a demonstration outside the Board’s offices ‘BritishJews Against Genocide Protest Outside the Offices of the Board of Deputies of British Jews’ protesting at the fact that the Board deliberately associates the Jewish community in Britain with Israel’s murderous attacks on the Palestinians.  The Board of Deputies deliberately makes British Jews targets for those angered by Israel’s actions.  It is not surprising that some people take the Board at its word and then attack individual Jews. 

However such attacks have nothing to do with the organised Palestine solidarity movement and your strictures would be better directed at those who are primarily responsible for associating British Jews with Israel’s actions.  We agree that people should not ‘group blame’ Jews for Israel’s actions, however your words would be better directed at those responsible.

As currently worded, the EDM is directed at the wrong target.  In so far as there has been an increase in anti-Semitic incidents as a result of Israel’s genocidal and racist behaviour, these are random attacks by individuals who have nothing to do with the Palestine solidarity movement.

Yours sincerely,


Tony Greenstein

These are the names and email addresses of the SNP and other dupes who have signed this motion.  Please contact them to let them know your feelings on the matter

richard.arkless.mp@parliament.uk<richard.arkless.mp@parliament.uk>; hannah.bardell.mp@pariament.uk<hannah.bardell.mp@parliament.uk>; kirsty.blackman.mp@parliament.uk<kirsty.blackman.mp@parliament.uk>; phil.boswell.mp@parliament.uk<phil.boswell.mp@parliament.uk>; bottomleyp@parliament.uk<bottomleyp@parliament.uk>; deidre.brock.mp@parliament.uk<deidre.brock.mp@parliament.uk>; alan.brown.mp@parliament.uk<alan.brown.mp@parliament.uk>; douglas.chapman.mp@parliament.uk<douglas.chapman.mp@parliament.uk>; ronnie.cowan.mp@parliament.uk<ronnie.cowan.mp@parliament.uk>; martin.docherty.mp@parliament.uk<martin.docherty.mp@parliament.uk>; mark.durkan.mp@parliament.uk<mark.durkan.mp@parliament.uk>; marion.fellows.mp@parliament.uk<marion.fellows.mp@parliament.uk>; patrick.grady.mp@parliament.uk<patrick.grady.mp@parliament.uk>; peter.grant.mp@parliament.uk<peter.grant.mp@parliament.uk>; neil.gray.mp@parliament.uk<neil.gray.mp@parliament.uk>; calum.kerr.mp@parliament.uk<calum.kerr.mp@parliament.uk>; stewart.mcdonald.mp@parliament.uk<stewart.mcdonald.mp@parliament.uk>; carol.monaghan.mp@parliament.uk<carol.monaghan.mp@parliament.uk>; paul.monaghan.mp@parliament.uk<paul.monaghan.mp@parliament.uk>; roger.mullin.mp@parliament.uk<roger.mullin.mp@parliament.uk>; gavin.newlands.mp@parliament.uk<gavin.newlands.mp@parliament.uk>; margaret.ritchie.mp@parliament.uk<margaret.ritchie.mp@parliament.uk>; robertsona@parliament.uk<robertsona@parliament.uk>; tommy.sheppard.mp@parliament.uk<tommy.sheppard.mp@parliament.uk>; mike.weir.mp@parliament.uk<mike.weir.mp@parliament.uk>; eilidh.whiteford.mp@parliament.uk<eilidh.whiteford.mp@parliament.uk>; corri.wilson.mp@parliament.uk<corri.wilson.mp@parliament.uk>; wishartp@parliament.uk<wishartp@parliament.uk>

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