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Post by Admin on Jul 26, 2020 11:04:24 GMT
International media and politicians silent on anti-Semitism in Polish elections By Clara Weiss 24 July 2020 The re-election of Andrzej Duda of the far-right Law and Justice Party (PiS) as president of Poland marks a new stage in the shift to the right of bourgeois politics in Europe. Duda won a narrow victory on July 12 over his rival, Rafał Trzaskowski, from the liberal Civic Platform (PO), carrying the day over Trzaskowski above all in the rural areas. The central role of anti-Semitism in the official campaign of the PiS has no precedent in Poland since the end of the Nazi occupation in World War II. In numerous features on the PiS-controlled state broadcaster TVP, Duda’s rival, Trzaskowski, was essentially depicted as a puppet of world Jewry, prepared to “sell out” the interests of the Polish people. He was linked to a “powerful foreign lobby” and “rich groups who want to rule the world,” including the Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros, who is one of the main targets of the anti-Semitic right in Eastern Europe. www.wsws.org/en/articles/2020/07/24/pola-j24.html
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Post by Admin on Jul 29, 2020 10:19:52 GMT
UK Labour party teeters on brink of civil war over antisemitism New leader Keir Starmer spurns two chances to clear Jeremy Corbyn’s name, preferring instead to pay damages to former staff BY JONATHAN COOK JULY 27, 2020 mondoweiss.net/2020/07/uk-labour-party-teeters-on-brink-of-civil-war-over-antisemitism/Jeremy Corbyn, the former left-wing leader of Britain’s Labour party, is once again making headlines over an “antisemitism problem” he supposedly oversaw during his five years at the head of the party. This time, however, the assault on his reputation is being led not by the usual suspects – pro-Israel lobbyists and a billionaire-owned media – but by Keir Starmer, the man who succeeded him. Since becoming Labour leader in April, Starmer has helped to bolster the evidence-free narrative of a party plagued by antisemitism under Corbyn. That has included Starmer’s refusal to exploit two major opportunities to challenge that narrative. Had those chances been grasped, Labour might have been able to demonstrate that Corbyn was the victim of an underhand campaign to prevent him from reaching power. Starmer, had he chosen to, could have shown that Corbyn’s long history as an anti-racism campaigner was twisted to discredit him. His decades of vocal support for Palestinian rights were publicly recast as a supposed irrational hatred of Israel based on an antipathy to Jews. But instead Starmer chose to sacrifice his predecessor rather than risk being tarred with the same brush. As a result, Labour now appears to be on the brink of open war. Competing rumors suggest Corbyn may be preparing to battle former staff through the courts, while Starmer may exile his predecessor from the party.
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Post by Admin on Jul 29, 2020 10:37:50 GMT
Here’s why equalities watchdog can’t be trusted on its Labour anti-Semitism inquiry voxpoliticalonline.com/2020/07/28/heres-why-equalities-watchdog-cant-be-trusted-on-its-labour-anti-semitism-inquiry/Every day it seems clearer that the UK’s Equality and Human Rights Commission isn’t fit for purpose. The latest revelation comes from the watchdog’s current chair, who steps down from that role this week. David Isaac says the government is “dragging its feet” rather than tackle racism. The government is run by the Conservative Party, and he’s still the head of the organisation that refused to investigation Islamophobia in that organisation, saying the Tories could be trusted to investigate themselves. Now he’s saying the Tories can’t be trusted to implement policies designed to tackle racism when they have the full weight of the civil service helping them – so how can they be trusted to hold an internal inquiry? The Tory government reckons it has implemented 16 recommendations from a 2017 report on racism by the Labour MP David Lammy – but Lammy himself says this is untrue and only six have been put into practise. It seems clear that the EHRC should have looked into Tory Islamophobia – and indeed all Tory racism. And remember: even though Labour has been actively and publicly implementing policies to counter anti-Semitism, the EHRC still decided to investigate that organisation! So it seems our equality organisation is hopelessly unbalanced. And there are even suggestions that the EHRC itself is riddled with racism:
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Post by Admin on Jul 29, 2020 20:55:57 GMT
Fight the claim that the left is antisemitic by Nick Clark socialistworker.co.uk/art/50411/Fight+the+claim+that+the+left+is+antisemitic%C2%A0The renewed assault on the left is bigger than Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party. Disgraceful accusations of antisemitism are flung almost indiscriminately at the whole of the left. At the root of it is an attempt to claim that the left’s opposition to Israel, and its support for Palestinians, is motivated by antisemitism. One aspect of this is an attempt to conflate Jewish people with the state of Israel and its founding ideology Zionism. The 2019 BBC Panorama documentary Is Labour Antisemitic? is an example of that. Zionism is the idea that Jewish people should have a state of their own in Palestine, and that in this state they should be the majority. It justified the ethnic cleansing of some 850,000 Palestinians from their homes when Israel was created in 1948. And it justifies the racist exclusion of Palestinians from Israel today. Many Jews oppose Zionism because of this. Yet the documentary simply said that criticism of Zionism is “offensive to Jewish people because Zionism is the project that established Israel as a secure Jewish homeland”. It made Zionism appear as something integral to being Jewish, and therefore cast anti-Zionism as essentially antisemitic. The left’s opposition to Israel was presented as the root of the problem—and clamping down on it the solution. Linked to this is an attempt to proclaim anti-war and anti‑imperialist politics in general as antisemitic.
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Post by Admin on Aug 4, 2020 13:07:58 GMT
To run and hide or stand up and be cancelled? That is the question now that Labour’s witch trials are underway. I am not alone. My story is just one among many stories. But what happened to me is typical of what is happening to dozens, if not hundreds, of long-standing Party members up and down the country. It is a witch hunt. It is targeting good socialists, many of whom have made a huge contribution to the Labour Party and the Socialist movement over many years. It’s aim is to transform the Party from a broad church that welcomes people who hold different views, but who share a desire for a better world, to narrow sect whose main aim is to maintain the top-down organisation that evolved during the Blair years and within which many of them have vested political careers. Those who supported Corbyn’s leadership, including Corbyn himself, were a threat to that status quo. We must be silenced, and if we cannot be silenced then we must be purged. The purge of Labour members has been called a witch hunt. The Salem witch trials are often quoted as a cautionary tale about the dangers of isolationism, extremism, false accusations and disregard of due process. An accuser would would enter a complaint of witchcraft with the magistrate. Spectral evidence – a dream, visitation or mere belief that witchcraft had been practiced – would be presented to the magistrate. The accused – usually a poor misunderstood individual perceived as an outsider in some way – would then be arrested, interrogated and pressed to confess. A guilty plea, expressed with remorse, could save your life. To plead not guilty would be taken as proof positive of guilt and then when you were found guilty you would be certain to be hanged. One of those accused, Giles Corey, an 81 year old farmer from Salem Fields, refused to submit himself to the process. He declined to enter a plea. In order to persuade him to comply, stones were placed on top of him until he couldn’t breathe. He died without entering a plea. Good for him. I know from others’ experience, and the Leaked Report has confirmed, that Labour’s complaints systems are not fit for purpose. Like the justice systems in fifteenth century America, they are open to abuse. Individuals are placed ‘under investigation’ and invited to defend themselves against accusations based on the flimsiest of ‘evidence’ before officials who have already decided our guilt. Investigations that should never have been initiated – most of the ‘evidence’ cited would not stand up in any court of law and you would be treated more fairly in any half decent workplace – are left to hang indefinitely while ordinary decent Party members are left unsupported to deal with the stress. The letter that accompanies the Notice of Investigation acknowledges the stress that will be caused and includes the Samaritans’ phone number. The letter itself is not signed off by an individual officer. There is no named individual who can be contacted about the investigation. Being under investigation and/or suspended restricts members’ participation in Party activity, including prohibiting them from standing for public office. It is a method increasingly used by a certain section of the Party establishment to ensure that only individuals who meet their approval make it on to a ballot. It is the way they get rid of you when all else fails – it is what happens to councillors and MPs who have a good record and have been, or are likely to be selected by ward or CLP members, but whose face – or politics – doesn’t fit with those who believe that they, and they alone, are born to rule. Those under investigation are prohibited, under threat of suspension and/or expulsion, from talking about it, This not only silences – cancels – the individual concerned, it allows malign gossip and lies to spread unchecked. Thus are the Labour Party’s complaints systems being used to purge and silence people like me. Like the elderly Salem farmer, I chose not to submit myself to the judgement of a corrupt and broken system. I chose instead to resign. My resignation, along with that of my son – also a councillor – who has been ‘under investigation’ for over eighteen months, resulted in Labour losing control of a Crawley Borough Council. Two Brighton councillors were placed under investigation shortly after me. They too chose to resign with the result that Labour lost control of that council too. Our resignations have been branded as a ‘betrayal’ of the Party. It is those long-standing members, people who have dedicated many years and sacrificed much for the Labour movement, who have been betrayed. So long as the Labour Party – and by the Labour Party, I mean members, not paid officials – are prepared to stand by in silence while decent people are purged from its ranks, it will not be fit to govern at any level. It has been suggested that I was wrong to resign, that I should have stayed in the Party to ‘clear my name’. This very suggestion says it all. It is as though I have already been condemned. Like those poor men and women in fifteenth century Salem, it seems the very uttering of a complaint is enough for the Labour Party to hang you. Had due process – even back then – been applied to the Salem witches, they would never have been accused in the first place. Had the Labour Party’s complaints systems been fit for purpose and not open to abuse by those with malign intent, hundreds of members would have been spared an ordeal that is widely understood to have resulted in suicide by at least one. Members are entitled to know what is going on in their Party. Some may want to know. They can then make up their own minds about it. Below, for anyone interested, is a link to the Notice of Investigation that I received on 27 June. Also the response I might have offered had I trusted that it would be received in good faith by the Party. Karen Sudan, August 2020 theonlywayisleft.com/2020/08/03/to-run-and-hide-or-stand-up-and-be-cancelled-that-is-the-question-now-that-labours-witch-trials-are-underway/
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Post by Admin on Aug 11, 2020 11:22:39 GMT
Why has Joan Ryan not been investigated by the UK authorities over this? Along with all those in LFI who benefited from the "more than 1 million pounds" promised by a disgraced foreign official in this clip. This Israeli Embassy official, Shai Masot, was expelled from the UK for threatening to "bring down" a member of our Parliament. Labour Friends Of Israel must be investigated for their allegiance to a foreign power, from which they clearly benefit personally, financially and otherwise. This could be tantamount to treason, surely? Why the lack of action? And why does the Labour Party allow this clearly corrupt, grubby little sub-organisation to bear its name? Especially as Ryan left the party to join some other gaggle of Mickey Mouse centre-right bullshitters several months ago. LFI is completely at odds with everything Labour is supposed to stand for. PS: You may recognise the grinning sycophant at the back - Ryan's lacky - he "starred" in that disgraceful BBC Panorama hatchet job, falsely accusing the Labour Party of antisemitism. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjNtNXnd5H0
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Post by Admin on Aug 22, 2020 5:16:57 GMT
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Post by Admin on Aug 24, 2020 17:46:35 GMT
This is the bogus anti-Semitism report that sank Jeremy Corbyn Asa Winstanley The Electronic Intifada 24 August 2020 electronicintifada.net/content/bogus-anti-semitism-report-sank-jeremy-corbyn/31026The road to Jeremy Corbyn’s political downfall began at Oxford University Labour Club in February 2016. A rogue inquiry by a Labour staffer with close ties to the Israeli embassy included fabricated allegations of anti-Semitism. It destroyed the lives of several pro-Corbyn students sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. It also triggered Labour’s “anti-Semitism crisis” in earnest. The manufactured crisis continues today, even with Corbyn now marginalized. After an internal Labour disciplinary investigation, some of the accused were cleared of anti-Semitism the following year. But by that time the damage had been done. After a four-year investigation, The Electronic Intifada has obtained the full Rubin report, which has never been published. Michael Rubin, who wrote it, was chair of the right-wing group Labour Students. But the “inquiry” was his own initiative and had not been mandated by either Labour’s leader or its ruling National Executive Committee. Rubin was also collaborating with Shai Masot, an Israeli “diplomat” who would be kicked out of the UK the following year. Soon after writing the report, Rubin was hired by Labour Friends of Israel, a group which secretly coordinates with the Israeli embassy in London. Masot was caught in undercover footage recruiting to the Israeli front group. Influence After years working for them, Rubin was promoted in July this year to director of Labour Friends of Israel. He also met with Corbyn’s right-wing successor, Keir Starmer, to discuss their opposition to the party’s policy of sanctions against Israel. The inquiry conducted by Rubin directly influenced the far better known Royall and Chakrabarti inquiries into alleged Labour anti-Semitism. The Electronic Intifada has protected some names in the report so as not to further Rubin’s disinformation campaign. You can read redacted extracts below. The document shows how vague or fabricated allegations of anti-Semitism against left-wing supporters of Corbyn were laundered into serious accusations. It states that Rubin reported to Labour staff six Oxford University Labour Club students he claimed were guilty of “repeated and potentially criminal anti-Semitism over a sustained period of time.” But the document fails to support this allegation. Rubin’s “evidence” is at best tenuous. But it also includes outright falsehoods.
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Post by Admin on Aug 25, 2020 9:27:09 GMT
How Israel lobby manufactured UK Labour Party’s anti-Semitism crisis Asa Winstanley The Electronic Intifada 28 April 2016 electronicintifada.net/content/how-israel-lobby-manufactured-uk-labour-partys-anti-semitism-crisis/16481Last year, socialist stalwart Jeremy Corbyn won the leadership of the UK’s Labour Party by a landslide. Since then, there has been a steady flow of claims by Israel’s supporters that Corbyn has not done enough to combat anti-Semitism. This has only accelerated in the lead-up to a major test for Corbyn, the UK local elections on 5 May. Even as this story was in preparation, two more victims were claimed in the war against his leadership. Lawmaker Naz Shah and the former mayor of London, long-time Palestine campaigner Ken Livingstone, were also suspended from the party – within hours of being accused of anti-Semitism. But an investigation by The Electronic Intifada has found that some of the most prominent stories about anti-Semitism in the party are falsified. The Electronic Intifada can reveal that a key player in Labour’s “anti-Semitism crisis” covered up his involvement in the Israel lobby. Most Labour members so accused are in reality being attacked for expressing opinions in favor of Palestinian human rights and particularly for supporting the boycott of Israel. Labour activists, many of them Jews, have told The Electronic Intifada that false accusations of anti-Semitism are being used as a weapon against Corbyn by the party’s right-wing. Corbyn has been active in the Palestine solidarity movement for more than three decades. In an interview with The Electronic Intifada last year, he endorsed key elements of the Palestinian call for a boycott of Israel. For example, he urged an end to weapons trading with Israel. His election represented a radical shift in Labour, a popular revolt at the grassroots membership level. Although Labour’s membership has grown since Corbyn’s victory, he has been under constant attack from right-leaning politicians within the party. In an attempt to weaken his position, some of his critics have manufactured a “crisis” about alleged anti-Semitism. Attacks on Corbyn have escalated in the lead-up to next week’s local elections. Poor results would be seized upon by his enemies within the party.
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Post by Admin on Aug 27, 2020 12:46:01 GMT
AUGUST 26, 2020 Distorting Facts to Blame the Left for Antisemitism ARI PAUL fair.org/home/distorting-facts-to-blame-the-left-for-antisemitism/The Republican National Convention had to pull a scheduled speaker from its Tuesday night lineup when it was discovered that anti-immigrant advocate Mary Ann Mendoza had peddled antisemitic conspiracy theories on Twitter that very same day, including a link to the hoary Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This is par for the right-wing course; antisemitic incidents in the United States hit their highest peak in the last four decades in 2019, according to the Associated Press (5/12/20), and a great deal of it has been tied to the racial extremism coming from the Trump administration and its defenders. But a few media outlets want to pin this as much or more on “the left,” based on a lot of distortion and dishonest engagement. A recent iteration comes from one of Jewish media’s main voices, the Forward (7/30/20), where Yale law student Emily Shire complains that progressives pull their punches when antisemitism comes from the left. Her op-ed spends most of its time worrying about antisemitism from athletes and celebrities, like rapper Ice Cube, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. But while Ice Cube’s contributions to hip-hop are legendary, his influence on the US political left is almost nonexistent. That’s noteworthy because Public Enemy, whose lyrics are much more associated with the left, actually did have a member who said antisemitic things, and was promptly removed from the group (New York Times, 8/11/89). The association of Farrakhan with the left is a giveaway: Just because he is Black and talks about poverty doesn’t make him a leftist. As the late contrarian journalist Christopher Hitchens, then a columnist at the Nation, said on C-SPAN (3/1/93) upon the release of Spike Lee’s Malcolm X biopic, the NoI’s obsession with small businesses, sobriety and sexual traditionalism makes it, if anything, a poster child for the Reaganite right. As political scientist Adolph Reed Jr. wrote in Class Notes, the NoI’s racial militancy often rests atop basically conventional, if not conservative, aspirations: for example, the desire to penetrate—or create Black-controlled alternatives to—the “glass ceiling” barring access to the upper reaches of corporate wealth and power. Radical rhetoric is attractive when it speaks to their frustrations as members of a minority, as long as it does not conflict with their hopes for corporate success. Take any essay about the current Black-led uprisings around the country from left publications; a lot of groups and names come up, but the Nation of Islam and Farrakhan are pretty much absent. This kind of bad-faith rhetoric (jumping from a rapper and a well-known demagogue to the entire political left) is part of a trend in US media that tries to divorce the rise of antisemitism from the rise of far-right leaders like Donald Trump (or Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, or France’s Marine Le Pen). The narrative these pieces insinuate goes: Yes, much of the violent antisemitism we see in the world today comes from the far-right, but anti-Israel sentiment on the left is another head of the same beast—and one that seems more interesting to talk about, for whatever reasons.
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Post by Admin on Sept 2, 2020 20:04:35 GMT
Research finds ‘inaccuracies and distortions’ in media coverage of antisemitism and the Labour Party Written by Kitty S Jones politicsandinsights.org/2018/10/01/research-finds-inaccuracies-and-distortions-in-media-coverage-of-antisemitism-and-the-labour-party/Noam Chomsky, Yanis Varoufakis, Ken Loach, Brian Eno, Des Freedman, Justin Schlosberg and 21 others write about a recent report by the Media Reform Coalition. Source: Guardian Letters Sunday 30 Sep 2018 We have long had serious concerns about the lack of due impartiality and accuracy in the reporting of allegations of antisemitism against Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party. The recent report by the Media Reform Coalition examining coverage of Labour’s revised code of conduct on antisemitism shows that we are right to be concerned. The research examined over 250 articles and broadcast news segments and found over 90 examples of misleading or inaccurate reporting. In relation to the IHRA definition of antisemitism that was at the heart of the dispute, the research found evidence of “overwhelming source imbalance” in which critics of Labour’s code of conduct dominated coverage, with nearly 50% of Guardian reports, for example, failing to include any quotes from those defending the code or critiquing the IHRA definition. Moreover, key contextual facts about the IHRA definition – for example that it has only been formally adopted by eight countries (and only six of the IHRA member states) – were consistently excluded. The researchers conclude these were not occasional lapses in judgment but “systematic reporting failures” that served to weaken the Labour leadership and to bolster its opponents within and outside of the party. It is of course entirely appropriate and necessary for our major news outlets to report on the horrors of antisemitism, but wrong to present it as an issue specific to the Labour party. In covering the allegations that Labour is now “institutionally antisemitic”, there have been inaccuracies, clear distortions and revealing omissions across our most popular media platforms. We believe that significant parts of the UK media have failed their audiences by producing flawed reports that have contributed to an undeserved witch-hunt against the Labour leader and misdirected public attention away from antisemitism elsewhere, including on the far right, which is ascendant in much of Europe. Prof Noam Chomsky Brian Eno Francesca Martinez Yanis Varoufakis Ken Loach Raoul Martinez Justin Schlosberg Birkbeck, University of London Prof Des Freedman Goldsmiths, University of London Prof Imogen Tyler Lancaster University Prof Aeron Davis Goldsmiths, University of London Prof Annabelle Sreberny Soas, University of London Prof Greg Philo University of Glasgow Prof Natalie Fenton Goldsmiths, University of London Prof David Miller Bristol University Prof David Hesmondhalgh University of Leeds Prof James Curran Goldsmiths, University of London Prof Julian Petley Brunel University Stephen Cushion Cardiff University Jason Hickel Goldsmiths, University of London Einar Thorsen Bournemouth University Mike Berry Cardiff University Tom Mills Aston University Jenny Manson Jewish Voice for Labour Leah Levane Jewish Voice for Labour Lindsey German Stop the War Coalition Mike Cushman Free Speech on Israel Glyn Secker Jewish Voice for Labour
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Post by Admin on Sept 2, 2020 20:07:52 GMT
Is there anything left to say about the IHRA definition of antisemitism? Dave Bradney argues that there is. “Since 2015,” he writes, “much time and energy have been taken up, and many votes lost, with disputes about antisemitism in the UK Labour Party. At the heart of the debate has been the definition of antisemitism promulgated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. But is the IHRA ‘definition’ actually a definition at all?” He shows, indisputably, that it is not. www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/article/thats-not-a-definition-once-more-on-the-ihra/
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Post by Admin on Sept 6, 2020 0:36:27 GMT
"If you still support the right of centre within the Labour party, this is a must read. The so-called centrists by and large were and remain the real extremists, they have destroyed the party, preferring to lose the election rather than have a left of centre leader. It's an atrocious read, but necessary. Also, I want to point out that Andy Burnham is himself a genuine centrist. His one 'sin' was deciding to stand by the elected leader, and so he was also attacked by the establishment stooges from within the party. The level of sabotage from the neoliberal faction is absolutely horrific." The work of the Labour Party’s Governance and Legal Unit in relation to antisemitism, 2014 - 2019 by Labour Party archive.org/details/200329labourreportfinal_202004
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Post by Admin on Sept 6, 2020 0:38:49 GMT
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Post by Admin on Sept 17, 2020 16:32:01 GMT
Life Under Seige: The Blockade on Gaza Turns Fourteen and Is Still as Illegal as Ever With no foreseeable end in sight, Israel’s blockade on Gaza not only runs afoul of international law, but it has also already been on the radar of the United Nations and human rights groups for well over a decade. by Kathryn Shihadah www.mintpressnews.com/life-seige-blockade-gaza-turns-fourteen-still-illegal-ever/271228/As the coronavirus pandemic has dominated the headlines for the past few months, it could be easy to miss the news that the Gaza Strip has quietly entered its fourteenth year under an Israeli blockade. The humanitarian ramifications of that blockade cannot be understated, with Israel controlling Gazans from the high seas, the air, and the ground. Even underground and underwater. With no foreseeable end in sight, the blockade has been on the radar of the United Nations and human rights groups for over a decade. Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) for Palestine, Pierre Krahenbuhl, stated that the blockade of Gaza is the “longest in history.” He made those comments seven years ago, and the length of the siege has since doubled with no end in sight. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) declared the blockade a clear violation of international humanitarian law ten years ago, and the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) called on Israel to lift the embargo in 2008. Other globally respected groups have described it as a “violation of the rules of war (2009)”; “collective punishment (2008),” “unacceptable suffering (2010),” and “possible crime against humanity (2009).”
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