61

The BLACKGUARDING of JACQUELINE WALKER

by W Stephen Gilbert

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It’s crucial to remember that anti-Semitism is the McGuffin, a plot device that fifth columnists in the Labour Party deploy to further their aim of undermining Jeremy Corbyn. The Jewish community has for centuries been one of the most progressive, radical and creative contributors to Britain’s politics and culture, and there has been a natural and easy affinity between Socialism and Judaism. What Marx called “the Jewish question” has always attracted lively interest and sympathy on the left. This has not changed since Corbyn became Labour leader; not one iota.
Though anti-Semitism has frequently been expressed on the right of British politics, racial and/or tribal and/or cultural distinction has rarely before caused dissension on the left. It’s true that male chauvinism and homophobia have been more difficult for the left to grasp, but not for all on the left; James Connolly, the Irish patriot and Socialist thinker who was executed a century ago this year, wrote wisely and well about feminism though he, like all thoughtful men, would not claim to himself an organic, lived understanding of women’s politicisation:

“The worker is the slave of capitalist society, the female worker is the slave of that slave” The Reconquest of Ireland 1915

The latest Labour stalwart to find herself being torn down by the anti-Corbyn attack dogs is Jacqueline Walker. Walker is the daughter of a part-Jewish, part-black Jamaican mother and a Russian Jewish father. Both her parents were Civil Rights activists in the States before her mother brought her as a child to Britain where she has lived ever since. Her partner is Jewish. I suggest that she speaks with more authority and personal experience of abuse and discrimination than anyone who presumes to judge her. The presumption of judgment arises from the notion that she spoke in anti-Semitic terms at an event at the World Transformed fringe event, organised by Momentum and sponsored by Red Pepper, alongside the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool. As with the extended row about the supposedly offensive tweets of Naz Shah MP last spring, many of those who deliver themselves of a dogmatic opinion have neither heard nor read the words that are supposed to have given offence. They simple swallow what they are told by the media.
Well, here’s what Walker actually said, transcribed verbatim:

May I just say, I came in here and I was looking for information and I still haven’t heard a definition of anti-Semitism that I can work with…[at this point, others in the audience, of which she was part, spoke over her and she could not be heard]…and in terms of Holocaust Day, wouldn’t it be wonderful if Holocaust Day was open to all people who experienced Holocaust…[more speaking over]…in practice it’s not actually circulated and advertised as such…[more speaking over]…”

It’s disingenuous to judge the position of a person who is shouted down before she has the opportunity to develop and complete her point. But taking what she was able to say, in what sense and to what extent was it an outrage or untrue or offensive or indeed specifically anti-Semitic? Out of eleven million slaughtered in the camps by the Nazis, six million were Jewish people. The other five million comprised black people, Slavs, priests, those with mental or physical disabilities, criminals, lesbians and gays, Communists, trade unionists, sex workers, Romanis, pacifists, twins, members of the resistance in Poland and elsewhere, Freemasons, immigrants, vagrants, Jehovah’s Witnesses, anarchists, miscegenists, alcoholics, spies and others. In what way does it reduce the Jewish ownership of Shoah to remember also (but not instead) the murdered who were not Jewish?
In 1979 (it opened the day Thatcher came to power), Martin Sherman’s searing stage play Bent (made into a less effective movie) re-established the fact of the persecution and destruction of gay men by the Hitler regime that was determined to eliminate Berlin’s Weimar reputation as the decadent capital of Europe. Sherman, a London-based American, is Jewish as well as gay and he deliberately chose to raise the issue of the neglect of Nazi victimhood that was additional to that of Jews. It was a brave decision and one that did much good. Was he being anti-Semitic? Was the vogue in the 1970s for wearing a pink triangle – the mark imposed on gay inmates in the camps, as Jews were obliged to wear the yellow star – an anti-Semitic gesture?
The meeting at which Jackie Walker spoke from the floor was described as a training session and was not intended as an event for the general public and certainly not for the media. Such an event, you might think, would invite questions broached in a safe spirit of enquiry and of the search for enlightenment and engagement. Was it Walker’s question about the inclusivity of Holocaust Memorial Day that led to people accusing her of anti-Semitism?
It is true that, on the web page ‘Why mark 27 January Holocaust Memorial Day?’, the opening rubric is this:

It’s a time for everyone to pause to remember the millions of people who have been murdered or whose lives have been changed beyond recognition during the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur”

It is also true that, on the same site’s page entitled ‘The Holocaust’, there is no mention of any Nazi victims who were not Jewish:

Between 1941 and 1945, the Nazis attempted to annihilate all of Europe’s Jews…”

Depending on where you look, Walker may or may not have a point about the advertising of HMD. But was it anti-Semitic to raise the point?
Mike Cushman, a Jewish member of Free Speech on Israel, wrote this:

It seems to me that Jacqueline Walker as a woman of dual heritage has to deal with the inherited pain of two Holocausts, the Jewish tragedy and the African horror story. Dealing with one is difficult, managing to live with the impact of both doubly so. No one has developed a language for this. Jackie is trying to provide one, a difficult task in the best and most supportive environment; an almost impossible one when every utterance is malevolently misinterpreted.”

And six people issued a statement:

We are Jewish Labour activists who were with Jackie Walker at the training session on anti-Semitism…Like her, some of us were heckled when we raised questions unpalatable to others in the audience…We were shocked at the way the level of barracking rose as soon as Jackie began to speak. Jewish Labour Movement supporters demonstrated contempt for her as a Jewish woman of African heritage who is a lifelong anti-racist advocate for the rights of minorities … We unreservedly condemn allegations of anti-Semitism made against Jackie Walker. Calls for her to be disowned by the Momentum movement of which she is vice-chair…are reprehensible instances of the witch hunt to which she and other Corbyn supporters have been subjected”

This brings us back to the real issue. The myth of anti-Semitism is being used as a stick with which to beat Jeremy Corbyn, not just by the Tories (Theresa May accused the Labour Party of anti-Semitism in her keynote speech to her party conference), not just by the lackeys of the Tory press and the anti-Socialist mainstream media, but also by elements within the Labour Party who would rather lose the next election than win it led by Corbyn.
At the very outset of its report on the synthetic ‘row’ in the party, The Daily Telegraph described Walker as “one of Jeremy Corbyn’s most senior allies”. You may look in vain in the paper for Mark Clarke, the Conservative Party officer accused of bullying thirteen fellow youth workers (including one who took his own life and six cases of “sexually inappropriate behaviour”), as “one of Theresa May’s most senior allies”. The paper also described its video of the event as “a secret recording obtained by The Telegraph”. This implies that the meeting was somehow illicit and subversive; on the contrary, it was open to anyone with an interest in the matter and the fact that whoever recorded the footage on his phone was not prevented from so doing confirms that.
This is very different from the clandestine recording of confidential Momentum meetings broadcast last month by Channel 4, an exercise that proved to be a damp squib, save that it prompted a jump in Momentum membership (much more informative would have been some fly-on-the-wall video of Progress meetings). To attempt further to skew the response to its story, The Telegraph’s website page was illustrated by a shot of Walker singing The Red Flag, as if this were somehow transgressive and not something that all Labour Party members do, even the paper’s beloved Mr Blair.
Someone who has not emerged from this nasty business with much credit is Jon Lansman, founder and chair of Momentum. Many members of Momentum and beyond looked to him to see the wood for the trees and to call out the witch hunt against Walker for what it is. Instead he allowed himself to be swayed by those in the Labour Party who do not take an objective stance either on the interpretation of Jewish history or on the politics of Israel and Palestine. Walker has now been dismissed from her vice-chairship of Momentum, formalising the group’s acceptance of the anti-Corbyn faction’s rout. Lansman’s weak position allowed the scurrilous blogger Guido Fawkes to mock “the bizarre moment when Momentum are taking anti-Semitism more seriously than the Labour Party”.
There are many who contend that the most mild questioning of Jewish tenets or Likud policy and Netanyahu actions is anti-Jewish and hence anti-Semitic, rather as supporters of the Republican Party in the United States would accuse those who found fault with the presidential positions of George W Bush of being “anti-American”. This kind of careless elision of stances leads to damaging and meretricious accusations. The lie that Labour is anti-Semitic is taking root, just as other lies have done: that Labour crashed the economy, that Corbyn is unelectable. Once again, the Labour Party is only damaging itself by omitting to kill a lie for good.


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John
John
Oct 25, 2016 12:03 AM

For those wanting to extend further support to Jackie Walker, she has initiated legal proceedings against Ian McNicol. Anyone wanting to support her should go to https://www.crowdjustice.org/case/walker-vs-mcnicol/.

Phil
Phil
Oct 24, 2016 3:16 AM

Isn’t your comments section revealing responders run a whole gamut of left wing apologists for Jackie and Ken who both ignorantly opined on controversial subjects as if they didn’t desrve a seconds thought. . Ken tells us Hitler was a Zionist and expects no cindemnstion for outrageous juxtaposition and Jackie apparently now a historian peddles another blood libel that the Jews were behind the slave trade, Bth of these creatures are Jew gaiters -and should be expelled from Labour

physicsandmathsrevision
physicsandmathsrevision
Oct 24, 2016 11:59 AM
Reply to  Phil

What if it is a FACT that Jews were very prominent in the execution of the slave trade?
What if it is a FACT that Jews own wealth and exercise power over our society to an extent that is massively disproportionate to their numbers (0.5% of society)? And if Jews have manufactured this outcome for themselves (obviously at the expense of other groups) would that FACT make Jews a racist group?

John
John
Oct 25, 2016 12:00 AM
Reply to  Phil

Just what are ‘Jew gaiters’? Are they designed to keep your socks up? They must be failing!
Aside from your natural illiteracy, ungrammaticality and poor spelling, you additionally seem incapable of producing factually correct statements.
Ken Livingstone did not say – as you claim – ‘Hitler was a Zionist’.
What he actually said was “When Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews.”
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36177333.
What Livingstone was referring to was the Ha’Avara (Transfer) Agreement. See http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2016/04/28/livingstone-vindicated-there-was-a-nazi-zionist-agreement-and-hitler-did-support-it/.
Where I would take issue with Ken Livingstone is that he was incorrect to refer to Hitler and Israel because at that point in historical time (1933) “Israel” had not yet come into existence. German Nazis and Zionists were both behind the migration of Jews from the Third Reich to British Mandate Palestine, not to “Israel”.
Also, I doubt very much that Hitler was directly involved in the negotiations surrounding the Ha’Avara Agreement.
Jackie Walker did not – as you claim – say ‘that the Jews were behind the slave trade.’
What she said was that some of her Jewish ancestors were involved in financing the sugar and slave trade in the West Indies.
Ignoramuses like you have then “spun” what she said into something completely different.

physicsandmathsrevision
physicsandmathsrevision
Oct 25, 2016 12:05 PM
Reply to  John

Not “ignoramuses”, rather inverted racist bigots…. or must we believe, as our culture would have it, that Jews are incapable of racism??
One glance at The Talmud tells a very different tale.

Anthony
Anthony
Oct 27, 2016 12:46 AM
Reply to  Phil

Dear Contributor, Thank you for your contribution, That is incorrect about Ken Livingstone. http://articles.latimes.com/1989-03-07/news/mn-330_1_stern-gang
Israel’s Jerusalem Post broke a national taboo today by writing of a 1941 link between Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s Stern Gang terrorists and Nazi Germany.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/on-the-middle-east/2014/apr/23/israel-palestinian-territories
The Irgun and Stern Gang were terrorists – outlawed by the British. They did not wish to share Palestine they wanted Palestine exclusively. That is why even UN Security Council Resolutions 476 and 478 are ignored by Israel. Israel rejects UN Security Council Resolutions specifying that the 4th Geneva Convention is applicable to all Palestinian Territories including Jerusalem. The extreme Zionists rejected Partition and that is why there are over 150 UN Resolutions unimplemented. The extreme Zionists rejected that Jerusalem should be internationalised and rejected Palestinian control over Beersheba and a strip of the Negev desert along the Egyptian border, plus Acre and Nazareth under the Partition Plan. The Stern Gang murdered the UN mediator Count Bernadotte which put a torpedo into a peaceful resolution. The extreme Zionists murdered Lord Moyne also. God bless you.

Jackie walker
Jackie walker
Nov 12, 2016 9:52 AM
Reply to  Phil

Can I suggest before you give your own libel as to what I said you get your eyes out of the MSM to actual reports of what I said and recall, a full, detailed investigation found I had no case to answer. Seems like you are the one pedalling myths no doubt for your own political reasons

Margaret Phelan
Margaret Phelan
May 22, 2018 2:43 AM
Reply to  Phil

What a brilliant informative post John.. Thank you.

physicsandmathsrevision
physicsandmathsrevision
Oct 16, 2016 10:12 AM

Another Official ‘Cross-Party’ Government report out on the subject of Anti-Semitism today:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-ant-semitism-poor-leadership-labour-party-mps-home-affairs-select-committee-report-a7363531.html
The obsessional use of the “anti-Semite” McGuffin is not primarily about Israel. It is a weapon of mind-conrol the primary purpose of which is to protect our own establishment and the international finance brotherhood of which our own elite are just a part.
Jews are over-represented in all controlling groups, in every political Party, the media and Corporate ownership. Ensuring that THIS must never be mentioned DEFENDS THE ELITE AGAINST EVERY OTHER INTRUSION. The cleverness of this instrument is diabolical.
Once we lose our inhibitions and start “going there” the criminal classes that rule us and who USE the Jewish people but are IN NO WAY JEWISH in terms of numbers … will be finished.
Unfortunately, the real controlling elite will continue to use ‘The Jewish People’ in this manner and, if the time comes, will throw jewish innocents to the wolves as they make their own quick escapes…. as did Jewish bankers and other upper-classes from Germany in the 1930’s.
The public have a problem. We are mostly brainwashed ourselves and tend to believe the lies that have been fed to us. When the sh*t hits the fan there will be many happy to blame ordinary jews for the chaos about them. Decent people must continue to defend our Jewish brothers and sisters. However, we cannot continue to suffer establishment lies designed ONLY to serve THEIR criminal interests.
Prayer sounds like a good idea.

John
John
Oct 17, 2016 3:49 AM

Forget praying – take action.
Make sure your local party officers have the right outlook and become one yourself.
That way, you will in a position to select good candidates for the new constituencies.
You could even become a candidate yourself – but leave the praying to others.
Action – the right action – is always better than words.

John
John
Oct 15, 2016 11:54 PM

How credible is it for Stig to claim ‘Walker’s comments sounded like they were in the same revisionist spirit.’
Was he actually present when they were made or is he just another hasbara propaganda troll, manipulating a situation for his own narrow and twisted zionist ends?
I heard Walker talk twice in Liverpool and Stig’s assessment of what she said is clearly wrong – as he must know.
Individuals like him have malign intent towards the Labour Party, especially one led by Jeremy Corbyn.
Stig sounds like a hate-filled racist supremacist zionist.

Stigofthedump
Stigofthedump
Oct 15, 2016 11:30 PM

The sanitisation of Nazi war crimes has been pursued across central and eastern Europe for the last 10-15 years by making what were once ceremonies and memorials dedicated to resisters of the Nazis “open to all victims of war and revolutionary violence”. So collaborators executed after the war are elevated to the status of victims to be remembered as solemnly as Partisans sent to the gas chambers. Walker’s comments sounded like they were in the same revisionist spirit.
Secondly, the central problem with the left, whether Corbynist or not, is its mysterious love affair with political Islam. And you can be sure that hanging out with political Islamists causes anti-Semitism as much as smoking causes cancer.

Margaret Phelan
Margaret Phelan
May 22, 2018 3:13 AM
Reply to  Stigofthedump

Quit now before you really show yourself up.
Hasn’t it registered with you yet, that the world has moved on. And that most of us are now able to read and research.
You have been given the homeland and compensation that Hetrzl planned, for all that your ancestors suffered for the past 700 years..
Which was far more than the Russians, who lost 12 million in the holocaust, or the rest of the 6 million did.
It appears to me that there is only one revisionist here… and it wasn’t Walker.
I just cannot get my head around how 12 million people were murdered in three years?
That is 4,444 people per day…
Yet in the twenty years War in the Middle East we have a total of around 6 million.
http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/unworthy-victims-western-wars-have-killed-four-million-muslims-1990-39149394
None of this adds up?

mohandeer
mohandeer
Oct 15, 2016 11:39 AM

Reblogged this on Worldtruth.

Arrby
Arrby
Oct 14, 2016 11:04 PM

The irony, of course, is that Israel’s allies are it’s best friends most argent defenders after Israelis themselves. One could also say that Israel is it’s own worst enemy.
“Israel’s Silent Allies Are its Worst Enemy” by Murray Dobbin – http://bit.ly/2e8a5XN

Arrby
Arrby
Oct 14, 2016 11:06 PM
Reply to  Arrby

re above post: I mangled that. The irony is that Israel’s allies are it’s worst enemy…

Arrby
Arrby
Oct 14, 2016 10:46 PM

All I know of Jacqueline Walker is what’s conveyed in this article. And what I see of the woman, I quite like.

michaelk
michaelk
Oct 14, 2016 7:53 PM

I think we’ve already said goodbye, sadly, to bourgeois liberal democracy and have entered a form ‘neo-Medieval’ society, despite the new and shiny tech that’s all around us. In fact this tech, exspecially in the vast entertainment industry, could well be linked to the rise of ‘neo-Medieval’ forms of social and political life.
A good example is the frightening rivival of the ‘witch-hunt.’ The witchunt is what happens when an individual, for whatever reason, is identified as an outlaw and can, therefore, be persecuted at will, often with not the slightest piece of ratonal evidence that the accused has really transgressed at all. Of course the very nature of the witch-hunt is irrational, but that’s another story.
The media functions rather like the Catholic Church in the Medieval period and the journalists are similar to a priesthood spreading the word, not of God, but of Capital across the land, preaching not just on Sundays, but, alas, seven days a week. That part makes one regret that one wasn’t living in the Medieval period.

John
John
Oct 15, 2016 3:34 AM
Reply to  michaelk

The term you may be seeking is neo-feudalism?

12bytes
12bytes
Oct 14, 2016 3:45 PM

QUOTE: “Out of eleven million slaughtered in the camps by the Nazis, six million were Jewish people.”
you sure about that Stephen?
Rescuing Israel: The Holocaust (http://12bytes.org/articles/history/rescuing-israel-the-holocaust-index)

Derek
Derek
Oct 15, 2016 2:49 AM
Reply to  12bytes

12bytes, apparently “twins” were also considered undesirables if you believe W Stephen Gilbert.
Wonder why the national socialists put them into camps to be slaughtered?
Good website by the way.

Jen
Jen
Oct 15, 2016 12:37 PM
Reply to  Derek

Josef Mengele was keen on conducting medical experiments on heredity involving sets of twins in concentration camps. People with various inherited conditions (including a Romanian Jewish family of twelve that included seven dwarves) were also brought to him for experimentation. Most of these people who were experimented on died and their deaths are included in the Holocaust statistics.
Amazingly the Romanian family of twelve all lived to see the liberation of Auschwitz and eventually migrated in Israel in 1949.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ovitz_family

Michael Costello
Michael Costello
Oct 15, 2016 10:42 AM
Reply to  12bytes

There can be no exact figure, as many Jews were simply wiped out not in camps but in ghettos and in mass forest killing fields in occupied eastern Europe as the Einsatz murder squads that accompanied the criminal Nazi army. These killings were outside the mechanised mass murder in the extermination and camps where, in addition to murder on arrival, there was the extermination of 100s of thousands who had been worked to death in the German factories that were set up by camps such as Auschwitz to use slave labour. There were the millions of Red Army POWs intentionally starved to death, and the lists can go on and on and on. Does the exact number matter when we are talking of millions and millions of men, women and children, the young and old, sick and healthy?

Systematic
Systematic
Oct 15, 2016 2:06 PM
Reply to  12bytes
physicsandmathsrevision
physicsandmathsrevision
Oct 14, 2016 2:10 PM

Jewish influence (or control) over Labour massively faded with the election of Corbyn so the Lobby use this McGuffin, as the article suggests, to try to bring down Corbyn and restore their influence.
Something similar, in terms of loss of influence, is happening with Donald Trump in the USA but because with Trump there is nothing of an “anti-Semitic” nature from which to launch such an attack, another McGuffin is being employed … his supposed sexual infractions against women.
Make no mistake, Trump is perceived as a major threat to jewish interests and influence in the USA. Watch his ABSOLUTELY ASTONISHING “anti-establishment/anti-media” speech given yesterday in Florida. No wonder the press and TV are out to get him: (watch from about 1:30) Much of what he says is kind of unbelievable in terms of rhetoric. Something very big is going on in America:

Tony Greenstein
Tony Greenstein
Oct 14, 2016 11:04 PM

It seems some people are unable to distinguish between being Jewish and Zionist. Maybe the idiots can get this – in the USA there are millions of Christian Zionists and many anti-Zionist and non-Zionist Jews. I suggest they put that in their racist pipe and smoke it with trump

Tony Greenstein
Tony Greenstein
Oct 14, 2016 11:08 PM

Perhaps this idiot might get hold of the fact that there are millions of Christian Zionists in the USA and elsewhere and many Jewish anti-Zionists. It’s not a question of being Jewish but the use of things like the holocaust to legitimise imperialism’s conquests and attacks. Difficult for some resident racists I admit

physicsandmathsrevision
physicsandmathsrevision
Oct 15, 2016 9:33 AM

Gilad Atzmon has ‘outed’ you as a Zionist “anti-Zionist” as your post demonstrations.
Your purpose is to sit within (and dominate) the ‘Palestinian Rights’ cause (i.e. take it over) in order to prevent Palestinians taking up their most powerful weapon against the international Zionists that are the cause of their suffering.
i.e. to prevent the Israeli opposition from exposing their great lie and most potent instrument of oppression.. the “human gas chambers” lie.
You need people to believe people like me are idiots so that utter frauds like yourself can continue to PROTECT the Zionists that persecute the Palestinian people.
Just eff off you creepy disgusting liar. Agree to debate the truth about Auschwitz human gas chambers or shut your treacherous murdering mouth.

John
John
Oct 15, 2016 4:29 AM

Very interesting. This is the first time I have listened to a complete Trump speech and what he has to say about the corrupt political and mass media establishments is absolutely spot-on. He is very light on policy measures but I suppose he and his supporters view this election as possibly the last time any kind of real democracy may be restored in the USA. It says something that not only is he running against the Democratic power elite but also large elements of the Republican power elite. US November 8th election day should be very interesting and one to remember for many years to come.

joekano76
joekano76
Oct 14, 2016 1:46 PM

Reblogged this on TheFlippinTruth.

BigB
BigB
Oct 14, 2016 1:08 PM

I laud this article and have the greatest sympathy for Jackie Walker, but this is more than a manufactured anti-Socialist issue, this is symptomatic of an international crisis – the deliberate and cynical theft of the language of dissent.
Having read Chakrabarti (or even David Schneider) I concur with Ms Walker about a workable definition of anti-Semitism – but unless we demur to a Right-wing minority of passive aggressive and very vocal Jews – we will not be allowed to define the term acceptably. Ever.
I mean, what chance does language have when Netanyahu consciously and manipulatively subverts the Palestinian claim to their own land as “ethnic cleansing” inherantly implying that any future claim would be “anti-Semitic”. He is trying to form the new normal. Words are weaponised, their meaning stolen and Truth is colleterally murdered.
BDS is a crime, Lawfare is waged against it and to make criticism of Israel illegal. Targeted civil eliminations have been called for. Meanwhile the Nakba, the wars of conquest, the illegal occupation, the wall, the Intifadas, Operations Cast Lead and Protective Edge etc etc are parsed down the memory hole and cannot be spoken of. Other than glib utterances of “the right to defend” and “the right to self determination” the response of the international community to the ongoing violations of International and Humanitarian Law is a deafening conspiracy of silence. Did anyone see the Womens Peace Flotilla – hijacked at sea in another flagrant act of piracy – acknowledged or reported?
Anyone anywhere who dares to speak out risks being persecuted by this inverted racism. Unlike Jackie Walker I don’t have anything to lose. Rather than be silenced – it has to be heard – you don’t honour a Holocaust but perpetrating another Holocaust. If that’s the new anti-Semitism, so be it.

John
John
Oct 15, 2016 4:36 AM
Reply to  BigB

It’s not Jews who are behind this but zionists – which can include non-Jews.
Not all Jews are zionists and not all zionists are Jews.
Equally, not all Israelis are Jews and not all Jews are Israelis.
Regrettably, there are such things as Christian zionists, particularly those religious fundamentalist crackpots in places like the USA who welcome the illegal and artificial creation of a state allegedly just for people of one particular persuasion to occupy as a means of bringing Armageddon and the return of their so-called Messiah.
If this sounds crazy – it is – but the zionists are the ones who are crazy; not the rest of us.

physicsandmathsrevision
physicsandmathsrevision
Oct 17, 2016 4:41 AM
Reply to  John

This is all true or sort-of true but …. there is a manufactured problem in discussing this issue that we need to be very clear about.
I can say that the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour or the Americans nuked Hiroshima without it being assumed that I blame ALL Japanese or all Americans for these events. Nonetheless it is true that we can think of and refer to Japanese and Americans in this manner, and rightly so. Group identities exist and we should not fear using them during ordinary discourse.
The same rule does not apply to Jews even though they consider themselves a people, a nation and adopt a common identity evety bit as much (or moreso) than Americans or Japanese, say.
We can refer to “Jews” collectively as victims. That is OK. In fact, it is mandatory.
However, we cannot refer collectively to “Jews” (0.5% in our society) for the things that most obviously describe their collective identity … i.e. monstrously disproportionate wealth, power and influence over our affairs. Nor mention “Jews” in the same breath as the crimes of Zionists.
We must always moderate our behaviour to spare innocent Jews (who are the majority) blame from such accusations, even though innocent Jews have nothing to say on these matters. They tend to be “with” their tribe.
The point is that this manufactured reality is NOT about protecting ‘innocent Jews’, it is about protecting GUILTY ones and it is about time that we applied the same rules of reference to all groups …. a principle that is supposed to be at the very cenntre of the idea of ‘anti-racism’.
It is hard not to suspect that racism is the driver of our anti-racist culture.
It is also hard not to see something beyond normal human wickedness at the dark heart of this manipulation. Jews and the rest of us have been suckered into submitting to the age-old war-mongering, money-lending core supremacists (who so often hide behind Jewish people and sacrifice them when it serves their purposes)….there is something Satanic going on here for which more than mere political action is required for us to make our escape.
Prayer ain’t such a bad idea, John.
Act? Yes.
But if you don’t recognise anything spiritual behind this, I think you’re missing something big. If the gospels contain true stories Christ addressed this very issue in the clearest possible terms 2000 years ago when he said to THE JEWISH PEOPLE of his day “Do not follow your leaders! They are Liars! They are “of Satan””.
The material world is a world of effects. The Spiritual world is a world of causes. The causes need addressing and demand their own kind of “action”. We must channell the right kind of spirit to help us. God is Love (sorry if this is gibberish to you). There could be nothing worse than if we attempt to solve these issues while channelling rage/anger/denial. This would be a reversion to old errors. The truth will set us free … but where love is absent truth is subverted and becomes falsehood. Only the demonic spirit delights in punishment.
The spiritual stuff really matters.

John
John
Oct 17, 2016 5:56 PM

Where I agree with you is on the role of politics and political actions in any and all societies.
Politics can truly be a really filthy business – just look at the current US presidential contest as an example.
Political action – including claimed anti-racism activity – is really all about power.
People who hide behind and manipulate concepts like racism/anti-racism do so to gain advantage and power.
It is all really rather basic and has absolutely nothing to do with any non-existent “spirit” world.
It is only by taking action in the real world that real change comes about.
I have lost track of the number of times I have seen relatives thank a non-existent entity for saving the life of one of their family at the same time as they are standing outside a fully equipped hospital with highly-trained staff.
It is almost as though they are incapable of grasping the fact that real people and real machines saved their lives.
The same is true of politics: it is down to us and our friends to bring about positive change in our world.
Praying achieves nothing.

physicsandmathsrevision
physicsandmathsrevision
Oct 17, 2016 6:38 PM
Reply to  John

To make strident assertions regarding objective truth based on one’s own ABSENCE of experience appears presumtive at best and foolish at worst.
It is clear how you think but I think quite differently based on intense and rather extreme actual experiences. For you to declare them meaningless nonsense or even ‘merely subjective’ advertises you lack of understanding in a way that borders on being offensive.
We are obviously all equally spiritual, i.e. we function according to the same principles within the same physical and non-physical dimensions. it is just that what is going on in the realms of causes, being invisible (and therefore deniable as a reality), tends to be very poorly understood and this explains why the greatest experts in mental health have little idea how to treat their patients successfully.
If you want to know the truth about those things the existence of which you deny, real desire and a bit of humility is advised, though, from your attitude, I won’t be holding my breath.
I put it to you that the concepts and beliefs that underscored millenia of human history should not be binned with such blind assurance.
Furthermore, if you say that “prayer does nothing” then you simply cannot know what prayer is.

rtj1211
rtj1211
Oct 14, 2016 12:11 PM

I am afraid this is par for the course if you try to be genuine, as opposed to a vacuous non-entity spouting some pre-defined script.
Here are some things that are particularly common:
Raising the track record of any person with regard to human rights/warmongering leads to accusations of being ‘on the hard left’. The assumption clearly is that imperialism is only practiced by the right (the history of the Soviet Union suggests otherwise).
Suggesting that anything should be owned communally or publicly badges you as ‘socialist’, as if mutual societies were for spongers of the state rather than self-reliant communities of workers etc.
Suggesting that the basis for relationships with the US and Israel should depend on their behaviour and values as nations, rather than a fixed ideological eternal verity, badges you as ‘a traitor who supports Russia’ (when a thinking person will ask whether strengthening ties with Russia would be mutually beneficial and consistent with our core values).
Suggesting that decent people exist in the Arab world, specifically within Muslim communities, has you labelled as ‘appeasing al Qa’ida, the Talebsn etc’.
Suggesting that Londoners who hack computers whilst claiming superiority over those they hack are common criminals rather than capitalist icons prevents you obtaining employment in the Capital.
The whole aim of the UK media is to destroy constructive debate, to demonise cooperative behaviour and to criminalise a refusal to submit to hierarchical alpha chimpanzee power structures.
Unfortunately, such people respond only to hardball tactics and/or violence. They do not respond to decency, whether they are male or female.
The question for those who are different is whether to treat their adversaries according to their adversariesbrules or not, whether to suffer for s lifetime by refusing to do so, or to hope thst the alignment of the world means that attitudes will actually change in the next 10-20 years.

grumpyaccountant
grumpyaccountant
Oct 14, 2016 11:57 AM

Excellent article with which I wholeheartedley agree.

Archie
Archie
Oct 14, 2016 11:33 AM

Firstly my apologies for the following long discourse .
Excellent article , wholly agree with its sentiments especially regarding the neutering of any dissent or criticism of Israel and legitimate democratic discussion regarding our Jewish members.
I was at the Labour Conference this yr and watched with great unease and to some extent shock as the member representing the Jewish movement ( his name escapes me) within the Labour party, took to the stage and delivered what I personally felt was a 5 minute rant ( and it was a full on raving rant ) against his perceived perception of anti-Semitism within Labour .He then left the stage to the front left rejoining his group giving high hand clasps , punching the air with victorious fist bumps and general air of some magnificent victory speech just given.
However, during his speech , just to the right of where I was sitting there were screams of dissent from a female member of the audience and her small party, who vehemently disagreed with his statements , she appeared to me to be Jewish because of the terms and language she used, as she accused him “of not representing all the Jews views “ and who are “we” that he referenced to as the aggrieved group.
There were also just behind me several comments made by other people that they felt that this speaker was “ using us “ to squash democratic discussion through fear of malevolent misinterpretation of what might be said regarding Jews and Israel , and indeed it was being used to attack Corbyn. .
Further potential evidence of this malevolent stance is evidenced with the Ruth Smeeth altercation with Black Activist Marc Wadworth , whereby she accused him of making anti-Semitic comments . Now I have listened and listened to the video clip and cannot hear a single thing he says that could be construed as anti-Semitic.
I have written to Ruth Smeeth ( in a very polite and respectful letter ) asking just exactly what Mr Wadworth said that she found anti-Semitic , so I can better understand what I may be ignorant of missing regarding comments made regarding Jewish people . I wanted to learn and be informed. To date I have had no response. Here is the link to that clip
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-antisemitism-jeremy-corbyn-ruth-smeeth-jewish-mp-accused-of-colluding-with-media-a7111061.html
Then we have the intense attack on Ms Chakrabarti’s anti-semitism report , I find this very worrying as I certainly rate her integrity and can see a pattern emerging that leads to some form of systematic undermining /attack against Corbyn.
I can only conclude , so far, that those anti Corbyn elements are using the Jewish culture as an excuse to attack what he is trying to do to democratise the Labour party.
Now we have the latest issue with Jackie Walker’s comments, and if they are true , as stated here than sadly it appears that John Lansman has also been cowed by those vociferous reactionary voices who seek to squash legitimate democratic discussion relating to Israel .
I now , no doubt , will be vilified and accused of being anti-Semitic , this is not true , I seek honesty , truth and tolerance , to allow fair and open respectful debate on issues regarding Israel and for that matter all minority groups .However, if there are movements within , that seek through imposing fear, to stop and curtail that legitimate conversation/debate then Labour will become a more weak and susceptible party to the corrupting influence of those with an alternative agenda than that which they purport to pursue .

John
John
Oct 15, 2016 4:51 AM
Reply to  Archie

The name of the Chair of the so-called and self-styled Jewish Labour Movement is Jeremy Newmark, also Chair of Hertsmere CLP. I heard him speak at one of the Momentum Conference events in Liverpool and everything he said simply re-confirmed to me that he and all the other lap dog zionists of Mark Regev and Netanyahu are determined to undermine Corbyn and Labour’s bid for elected office because Newmark, Regev and Netanyahu are all petrified at the prospect of a Corbyn-led UK Labour Government, as it probably would introduce significant changes in UK foreign policy with regard to the entire question of Palestinian freedom.
Jackie Walker – unfortunately – is collateral damage in a propaganda war that the zionists are currently waging against Corbyn and the UK Labour Party. She remains a member of the Momentum steering group.
Newmark is just one of the zionists’ “useful idiots” in what they are doing, though there are also Jews within the UK Labour Movement who make it clear that people like Newmark have nothing to do with them and have no legitimate claim of any kind to speak publicly on behalf of Jews in Britain.

archie
archie
Oct 15, 2016 5:25 PM
Reply to  John

Thank you John and I am glad to hear the Jackie is still in Momentum and on the steering grp . I will continue being a member of Momentum as it is a driver for positive change within Labour .

JJA
JJA
Oct 14, 2016 10:50 AM

I read the hysteria about her alleged anti semitism, and then I saw the clip of what she actually said. It’s a ridiculous smearing stretch to claim her speech was anti semitic but I imagine anyone who is not a fully paid up member of the various ‘friends of Israel’ lobbies is viewed with the utmost suspicion.

Greg Bacon
Greg Bacon
Oct 14, 2016 9:59 AM

I watched an interview with this lady and it was apparent that she’s bright, intelligent and sophisticated. She also appeared to be hurt by the wanton cries of anti-Semitism; no wonder, considering her heritage.
People don’t like being clubbed into silence, whether the club is an actual one or a barrage of insults from those who think they have a trademark on history.

Kent Alf
Kent Alf
Oct 14, 2016 9:45 AM

The report I read showed her as speaking more forcefully. However, I am convinced that the Labour Friends of Israel put the interests of Netanyahu before the interests of Britain. A Corbyn-led Labour Party, let alone a government led by him, would be bad for Israel. The original Jewish question asked if someone whose loyalty was to their religion could also be loyal to their country of abode? This was used as an excuse shamefully to attack Jews but now I think the question needs updating, viz can a politician who expresses support for Israel also be supportive of his political party? That is a question that needs asking openly and frequently.

Yonatan
Yonatan
Oct 14, 2016 2:21 PM
Reply to  Kent Alf

You may be totally unsurprised to find that there is, for example, no group of Likud MKs called ‘Likud Friends of Britain’ funded by wealthy British citizens living in Israel putting British interest above those of Israel.

John
John
Oct 15, 2016 4:57 AM
Reply to  Yonatan

Well, what a surprise!
Equally – of course – one could question the real loyalty of the neo-con zionist clique in the US who have exercised such a baleful influence over the Republicans and who now threaten to exercise a similarly baleful influence if Clinton ends up in the White House.
We ought to call all of them what they really are: neo-traitor Israel-Firsters, regardless of where else they happen to be residing.

Janet B
Janet B
Oct 14, 2016 9:41 AM

A great and informative piece. I’m a member of Momentum and ashamed of Jon Lansman. I feel disillusioned now about Momentum and contemplating withdrawing my membership.

John
John
Oct 15, 2016 5:16 AM
Reply to  Janet B

I am also a member of Momentum.
I attended the Momentum Conference in Liverpool, where I heard Jackie Walker speak at two events.
The first was a Momentum event and I thought she defended herself extremely well – though she was having to read from an already written-out speech as her words were being so twisted by lying zionists.
The second event was at the Novotel Hotel and organised by Free Speech on Israel, which was largely attended in a packed room by mainly Jewish members of the Labour Party, all of who made it perfectly clear that they backed Jackie Walker and did not support the so-called Jewish Labour Movement, which most present considered to be a wholly repugnant and racist supremacist organisation – like zionism itself.
Please do not resign your membership of Momentum.
I submitted a statement to them telling them they would be guilty of moral cowardice and a failure of ethical leadership if they allowed the zionist clique in Britain to dictate to them who should hold what positions.
They – regrettably – ignored many similar submissions and voted (I think 7 to 3) to remove Jackie from the position of Vice-Chair of Momentum – though she still remains a member of Momentum’s steering group.
Those who turn and run away do not always get to fight another day.
Sometimes, you have to stay in the fight – even if at a low level – until circumstances become more propitious.
We have to stay and support Corbyn and the Labour Party if or no other reason than that the Nakba which took place 70 years ago still continues within Occupied Palestine. We – our country and our party – holds a particular responsibility for that event and the continuing outcomes of the Nakba.
This issue is bigger than all of us – including Jackie Walker.
If we are to set right in even the smallest way the gross abuses of human rights of the Palestinians, we have a duty to continue to stay in the fight for the heart and mind of the UK Labour Party.

archie
archie
Oct 16, 2016 7:27 PM
Reply to  John

I agree , continued membership of Momentum IS the best way to fight this concerted and planned undermining of the Labour Party especially under Corbyn . I see yet again today in The Observer further evidence of this well planned and increasingly wide ranging attack using the cover of the Jewish movement to carry it out . I quote from said article
“The committee acknowledged that there was “no reliable, empirical evidence to support the notion that there is a higher prevalence of antisemitic attitudes within the Labour party than any other political party”. Nevertheless, it is withering about the Labour leader’s response to antisemitic attacks on his own MPs, and his understanding of modern forms of racism.”
Here is link to the article
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/oct/16/jeremy-corbyn-antisemitism-chakrabarti-inquiry
The committee in question is the Home Affairs Committee and they have to be out of their minds to think that Corbyn , a man who all his political life has fought racism in ALL it’s forms , is in some way incompetent in dealing with racial abuse issues . They go on to criticise Shami Chakrabarti , again this leads one to surmise that there is another agenda at play here , as her credentials are second to none.
I wonder precisely what they would want Corbyn to do EXACTLY ?
Furthermore I would like to see provable documented evidence that indicates Corbyn has been some how incompetent in dealing with this issue. I suspect that there will be no reasonable evidence only unreasonable demands and expectations from those who have only the removal of Corbyn as leader .Allowing the return of the party back to it’s neoliberal masters so that the big business interests can continue to enjoy their rewards unencumbered by the membership of the party .
Unfortunately this “false flagging” for political point scoring now so undermines any real credibility of genuine anti-Semitism should it occur within our party , that I feel many will treat genuine incidents with some suspicion . They have done themselves a great disservice in obscuring real anti-Semitic behaviour and being able to effectively remove it from Labour.

John
John
Oct 17, 2016 3:58 AM
Reply to  archie

Corbyn and Labour are under attack by Israel – not by Jews in Britain.
Though there are some misguided Jews who support the hasbara trolls like Akehurst, Glasman and Regev.
The zionists are doing the best they can to deny Britain ever seeing a Corbyn-led UK Labour Government.
They are afraid – rightly so – that a Corbyn Prime Minister might ensure the Palestinians get treated decently.
This is why they have chosen the false flag of so-called antisemitism for their purpose.
They all have massive form when it comes to smearing anyone they do not like or agree with.
They even have “useful idiots” available to hand in the form of the Labour Friends of Israel.
They may all be friends of Israel but they have revealed themselves to be enemies to the Labour Party.
Just where do these individuals’ real loyalties lie – to Britain First or Israel First?
I suspect it is the latter – always and for ever.

Stephen Bellamy
Stephen Bellamy
Oct 15, 2016 9:33 AM
Reply to  Janet B

This article doesn’t even scratch the surface of Lansman’s complicity in this and similar.

Dave Hansell
Dave Hansell
Oct 14, 2016 9:20 AM

Honest question because this whole business has me perplexed on this point.
How is it feasible and valid to accuse someone who is Jewish of, in essence, being racist towards Jews and therefore themselves? Its like accusing someone from the African Continent of being racist towards people of colour [please correct me if I’m being clumsy and using inappropriate terminology]. Or someone from within the LGBT of Homophobia.
How any sane and rational person can take such an absurd accusation seriously is deeply disturbing.

Yonatan
Yonatan
Oct 14, 2016 2:41 PM
Reply to  Dave Hansell

The inconsistency is usually overcome by the use of the term ‘self-hating’. This merely confirms that ‘anti-semitism’ is frequently used as a means of oppression and suppression of criticism. It also masks current the relationship between Israel and current Nazis. Boris Berezeva is a high level leader of the far right neo-Nazi Ukraine political party/militia ethically cleansing east Ukraine. In an interview with Tablet magazine, he stated that he is Jewish and proud of it.
http://tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/187217/borislav-bereza
Pravy Sektor also has a Jewish unit in its militia.
https://z5h64q92x9.net/proxy_u/ru-en.en/colonelcassad.livejournal.com/2964250.html
As ever, political events involving Israel are ‘complicated’.

BigB
BigB
Oct 14, 2016 3:14 PM
Reply to  Dave Hansell

Perfectly feasible to an inverse racist – a Jew that stands in opposition to the Right wing agenda of a non-representative minority of other Jews is a “self hating Jew.” Jackie Walker strikes me as someone – not who hates herself – but who is proud of her dual heritage and by rights should be allowed to celebrate that – her accusers on the other hand should be purged from the Labour Party for trying to subvert democracy.

Tony Greenstein
Tony Greenstein
Oct 14, 2016 11:06 PM
Reply to  BigB

‘self hater’ is a Nazi term used against anti-fascist Germans

physicsandmathsrevision
physicsandmathsrevision
Oct 14, 2016 9:09 AM

It appears to many of us that “anti-Semitism”, the McGuffin if you like, is an issue behind which the establishment, the money-power, the elite to whom we have gifted the power of creating money out of nothing across the west, has hidden behind.
It is an instrument of mental enslavement that has been used as such for the last 150 years at least. Jackie Walker wants a “definition” of anti-Semitism. That’s comical. It means WHATEVER THE RULING ELITE WANT IT TO MEAN.
We are governed, like Medieval society, by imposed taboos and heresies that, if uttered, consign the speaker to oblivion.
Ken Livingstone stated a provable historical fact. He lost his job on LBC radio, his position on the NEC and has hardly been spotted in the public domain since.
What message does this send to the other careerist obedience-monkeys that inhabit the managerial and executive echelons of our hierarchy?
Going by recent published articles on 9/11 OffGuardian is well aware of this reality. We are controlled by BIG LIES that must never be questioned.
A friend of mine, a London University Science Historian and as honest a man as I have ever met, said to me “You do know there were never any human gas chambers at Auschwitz, don’t you”? My reply was, “You must be mad to say a thing like that.” He lost his job and had his life destroyed for writing an article about the scientific evidence that proves this assertion. I now know that what he said was true.
This is history’s greatest lie. The most powerful protector of our masters, the screen from behind which irrational and wicked wars can be waged. We mustn’t mention the Jewish element to these things even though ordinary Jews are the greatest victims of these lies and the most mentally enslaved by our common masters who (it seems to me) are not necessarily Jewish at all. Being a “Holocaust Denier” has been established as being the very next thing to being Satan himself. How useful for these people that we believe their tender humanitarian falsehoods. Isn’t it just perfect that today our only commonly shared religion is ‘Holocaustianity’ and that Calvary has been transferred to Auschwitz?
We must demand FULL, FAIR and OPEN debate on this, of all issues. Not on the BBC, not in establishment Courts but in an impartially moderated arena.
It won’t happen, of course … not until after we have already won.

Vaska
Vaska
Oct 14, 2016 5:36 PM

Please cite the name of the “London University Science historian” who claims that there were no gas chambers in Auschwitz. The public has the right to know the names of the people who make such claims and use their professional standing to give a semblance of credibility to them.

physicsandmathsrevision
physicsandmathsrevision
Oct 14, 2016 7:12 PM
Reply to  Vaska

Dr Nick Kollerstrom, author of “Terror on the Tube” about 7/7 and “Breaking the Spell: The Holocaust: Myth & Reality” (2014)

Kevin Morris
Kevin Morris
Oct 14, 2016 8:38 AM

It’s happened before such as when Ken Livingstone defended his position as London Mayor against Boris Johnson and the allegation well and truly stuck then too. I do wonder why nobody has questioned the role of Mossad in all of this. Victor Ostrovsky makes it plain plain that the organisation has figures in many countries whom they can call upon to do its bidding, whilst the oranisation is cynical enough to pull stunts like these.
In Ken Livingstone’s case and in Jackie Walker’s it looks pretty plain to me that that the claims of antisemitism was orchestrated and Mossad seems the obvious candidate.

Sean O'Donoghue
Sean O'Donoghue
Oct 14, 2016 11:52 PM
Reply to  Kevin Morris

Kevin
Hasbara…the Israeli propaganda machine. On you like a ton of bricks if you are in the least bit unfriendly towards Israel.

tutisicecream
tutisicecream
Oct 14, 2016 5:46 AM

Insightful piece regarding the demonising of the left in British politics. Showing clearly that the old hatred of anything democratic has to be stopped – by any means necessary.
Homing in on on the Telegraph’s coverage of this compared to the Tory Clarke who was proved to have bullied 13 young Tory hopefuls one of who killed themselves is very telling indeed.
Lansman, founder and chair of Momentum has shown his true colours within this organised furore. The future for Momentum looks very limited as the groundswell appears to be being managed.

archie1954
archie1954
Oct 14, 2016 3:00 AM

Fine article. Perhaps next time write it is everyday English!