Stand up For Racism

The Labour Party! What is it like? 

Did you hear that hilarious debate between a lesbian woman and a transgender wo/man about ‘all women’ shortlists. Well, I say hilarious, but one (wo)man’s hilarious is another (wo)man’s dystopian. If you missed it ….

The first thought that struck me was that, like Sunni and Shia Moslems, they could simply unite by collectively directing their ire against the Zionists.

Forget jokers who train their dogs to impersonate Hitler. Forget stupid remarks about big noses. What we need to worry about is the “new’ antisemitism.

David Friedman

“It is the irrational, deceitful, and insidious vilification of Israel and its supporters under the guise of political commentary. It is just a cleverly repackaged form of hatred against the Jewish people.”

Many people regard Zionism itself as a racist concept, a belief that stems from a mixture of wilful ignorance and disinformation, principally from the BBC. How has the BBC choreographed such a thing?  Simply by regurgitating unadulterated Palestinian grievance-mongering over at least the last half century.  By partial ‘half the story’ reporting, which is effectively counter-factual, one-sided and cynically but subtly anti-Israel, from top to bottom.

Unfortunately a great many people believe that opposing Zionism is righteous and they sincerely see themselves as anti-racist.  They care about this so much that they only look at the speck in their brother’s eye while failing to notice the log in their own that prevents them from acknowledging that whole countries are positively riven with Jew-hate and the beam that blinds them to the racism in their support of a future Palestinian state that proudly and loudly boasts that it will be Jew-free. 

This half-baked anti-Zionist principle seems to satisfy the anti-Zionists enough to convince a group called “Stand up to Racism” that they were acting “against” racism when they went on the march in Glasgow where “balaclava-clad members of the Red Front Republic (RFR) group – which claims to be a community-based organisation fighting far-right bigotry– were involved in a stand-off with pro-Zionist supporters.” 

The same principle lies behind Jeremy Corbyn’s apparently sincere belief that the Labour Party is against all forms of racism. How often do you hear your friends saying sorrowfully, “You’d think the Jews of all people would have learnt their lesson. They are doing to the Palestinians what Hitler did to them.”

Firstly the latter sentence is obvious nonsense, and secondly the pathetic “Jews of all people” meme is a non sequitur. If there is a lesson from the past, the most obvious one is - and should be - never again; that acquiescence is fatal / self-defence is vital. The next obvious lesson is that the world stood idly by while Hitler was prosecuting his deadly work. 

We used to ask ourselves, in sheer bafflement, how the hell did the ordinary German in the street allow Hitler to orchestrate the industrial extermination of millions of European Jews?  

That this happened, not in medieval times, not during the Reformation, not in days of old when knights were bold and ladies weren’t invented, but less than a century ago, when there was Swing, there was Jazz, the Lindy Hop and the Jitterbug. 

Unbelievably, the storm clouds are gathering again. Throughout Europe and here in the UK, where we queue up in an orderly fashion and apologise if we bump into things, Jeremy Corbyn and his acolytes have hoodwinked Generation Ignorant, and the oldest hatred is back. A tipping point has been reached and we are, evidently, paralysed. 

The BBC is uninterested in reversing this. Jeremy Corbyn’s antisemitic connections have been noted but it makes no difference. The topic has been tentatively broached by the BBC but Corbyn’s followers call it a smear, announce that “Labour is against all forms of racism” and we move on. Nothing to see here at the BBC.

Jeremy Corbyn’s association with the antisemitic group Palestine Live has been casually brushed aside. Stephen Pollard says: 

If that isn’t front page news, what is? 

And yet it’s barely been noticed other than in the Sunday Times, which reported it, and the JC, which picked it up yesterday. 

I don’t criticise anyone for that, because you could argue it’s not even the biggest ‘Labour and the Jews’ news of the past 24 hours. 

This morning it has emerged that Jeremy Corbyn was far more than a mere acquaintance of Elleanne Green, the founder of the Palestine Live Facebook group. The Daily Mail reveals today that they enjoyed a “warm friendship” and that Mr Corbyn organised events with her, that they discussed poetry online and that she referred to having had conversations in person with him.

Several incidents and events have occurred recently, which should be of interest  - if not actually worrying -  to the BBC,  but apparently they aren’t.

The Times reports (£) “Brighton Labour leader Warren Morgan forced out after ‘upsetting abuse’". Does the BBC know? Not a sausage.

Upsetting abuse

What about "Haringey councillors say it is now "impossible" to be a Jewish Labour councillor? Who cares?

It’s not only omitting relevant news. It’s actual bias. BBC Watch has raised countless examples. Here’s one about Mosque loudspeakers. See how the BBC treats the same issue when it arises in Israel and Rwanda with their outrage over Israel’s ‘unnecessarily divisive’ proposed draft “muezzin bill” to limit the use of “Call to Prayer” loudspeakers, compared with their relative acceptance of Rwanda’s ban on loudspeakers from mosques in Kigali.

What about the way the BBC reports the deportation of illegal immigrants? The BBC website has featured several emotive, negatively phrased reports on this topic, with the implication that for some reason Israel  (of all people) should have ‘open borders’  

Israel is far from being the only democracy that sends back illegal immigrants. The United States expels 400,000 illegal immigrants every year. Germany has been sending back illegal immigrants to Afghanistan, and Italy to Sudan. In 2017, Germany expelled 80,000 illegal immigrants. . . .

Israel is a safe haven to all Jews, as well as to non-Jewish asylum seekers who meet the criteria of the Refugee Convention—which most illegal immigrants don’t. Israel’s policy is consistent with international law and with the practice of other democracies, and it should not be judged by higher standards.

While I might have found the debate between Emily Brothers  and Lucy Masoud totally ludicrous, largely because of the former’s impenetrable newspeak, I can at least see the funny side of it. (sorry but I’m still, stuck in the days when Les Dawson in a dress was mildly comical) but I can’t quite raise a smile at a group calling itself ‘Stand Up To Racism’ whose slogan is “Say it loud, say it clear, refugees are welcome here” and whose members are pro-Palestinian Muslims and......

 Scottish Trades Union Congress, Unison Scotland, Unite the Union Scotland, Educational Institute of Scotland, University and College Union Scotland, Scottish Labour Party, Church of Scotland, Justice and Peace Scotland, Scottish Council of Jewish Communities, Scottish Refugee Council, Scottish Faiths Action For Refugees, Show Racism The Red Card, Positive Action in Housing, City of Edinburgh Unison, Glasgow City Unison, Unison South Lanarkshire, Edinburgh College EIS-Fela, Unite Scottish Housing Associations branch, Unite NHS Ayrshire & Arran, Unite GPM and IT Branch, Unite Glasgow retired members, MEND, Afghan Human Rights Foundation, Social Work Action Network, The People’s Assembly Scotland, Govanhill Baths Community Trust, Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees, Govanhill Against Racism, Maryhill Integration Network, Perth Against Racism, Women for Independence Glasgow, Scottish Jews For A Just Peace, PCS Scotland, RMT Scotland, FBU Scotland, Interfaith Glasgow, Glasgow Unite Community Branch, Scottish Women’s Convention.

when it objects to a few pro-Israel Zionists marching alongside them.