Anti-Capitalist Anti-Capitalist Meetup: Anti-Semitism, Anti-Zionism and the Row in the Labour Party

Back in MrJayTee’s blog a couple of Sunday’s ago, I had addressed the victory of Sadiq Khan for London’s mayor and Labour’s results discussing the context in which they had taken place. This included an incredibly racist and Islamophobic campaign by Zac Goldsmith and a clear victory for Sadiq Khan. I had raised a row initiated in the Labour Party that was carried out in all of the mainstream media arguing that the Labour Party itself was inundated by anti-semites.

“This result was done in spite of a wholly manufactured “row” in the media about “anti-semitism” in the Labour Party that was really a row about criticism of Israel, the conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism, and a backhand attack on Corbyn, the BDS movement and left-wing anti-zionist activists (http://www.dailykos.com/comments/1514083/61453394#comment_61453394).).”

It seems that the row was reported in the US and afterwards several people contacted me, both on kosmail and in the ACM group to ask me to write about what the hell is going on and whether I could explain what is happening over here in Britain. This blog is my attempt to address this request. There have been many excellent discussions posted in Britain and Israeli web-sites about this and in many senses this is for me almost redundant (even though this issue is a continuing one), but I will post links where I think they will be helpful for clarification and at the end of the blog.

As an anti-zionist Jew for the majority of my adult life and someone that has opposed and fought against racism, xenophobia, and fascism for much of my life, I have been watching what can only be described as a witch-hunt against fellow travellers using a false equation between anti-semitism and anti-zionism in order to bring down a democratically elected leader of the Labour party who has worked in support of Palestinian human and civil rights.

Moreover, the attack itself has been aimed not only at Corbyn, but primarily against the left in the Labour party and outside. So it appears as though it is the Left that has a problem with anti-semitism and by extension, so does Jeremy Corbyn. Jeremy Corbin was himself attacked time and time again; the group Jews for Jeremy formed during his election responded to these attacks. It has been extremely horrific to watch people that I knew had spent their lives fighting against anti-semitism, racism and fascism being accused of being anti-semites. The fact that this was a deliberate attack and that it came in the run-up to local elections and that these people’s reputations were dragged through the mud for the purposes of undermining a democratically elected leader of the Labour party makes it even more disgusting.

Anti-semitism is real and we must always fight against it. Calling someone an anti-semite and accusing them of making anti-semitic comments is extremely serious. It is not an accusation to be thrown around casually and never for political gain. Due to the fact that anti-semitism does exist; if we use the term inaccurately, real anti-semitism will not be recognised and cannot be defended against. There is real anti-semitism and it exists everywhere, but it is not being advocated by the likes of Tony Greenstein, Jackie Walker, Naz Shah, Ken Livingstone, and David Watson.

What we are witnessing is an internal witch-hunt based on false premises. People’s blog posts and their posts on social media have come under examination. Criticism of the state of Israel, criticism of Zionism, criticism of the Israeli government and military is not anti-semitism. It is criticism of the acts of a government and military, it is criticism of a political ideology and those that espouse it. But it is not anti-semitism.

As is the case of all those that identify as members of a religious group or those that belong to a persecuted minority (i.e., Roma, Sinti and Romani, people of colour in western societies) Jews are not a single group of people, we come from many countries with their own cultures and traditions, we hold different variants of religious beliefs, we hold different political beliefs and we belong to different economic classes in the countries we live.

The row in the Labour Party

For those reading the news about what is happening in the Labour party, they would clearly be concerned about what appears to be a sudden increase of anti-semitism there.

It would be absurd to say that there are not anti-semites in the Labour Party; unfortunately anti-semitism has a long history and is still a danger. There are clearly cases in which statements by members of the Labour party who have expressed anti-semitic views, but the majority of those suspended were not stating anti-semitic views and are not anti-semites. Whether it is a wide-spread problem in the Labour party -- a party which has worked to combat racism historically -- will now be examined by an independent inquiry.

Where people blame a group of people (in this case Jews) for the actions of a few or a government which claims to act for them, when people talk about “the Jews” as a unified group of people, where people talk about Jewish control over the banks and the actions of governments, where all Jews are accused of dual loyalties, where the accusation is that we are part of a group working together to undermine everyone’s security, then you are talking anti-semitism. But that is not the case here; if it were there would be no question about the suspensions and the charges.

In order to understand what is going on, we need to put the “row” into context as it is not coming out of thin air. The context we are looking at is the accession of Jeremy Corbyn to leadership in the Labour party and the fact that is he a left-wing social democrat and someone who has struggled for the human and civil rights of Palestinians.

Then, there is the willingness of the Labour Right to do simply anything to bring him down (and replace him with someone from either the centre or right-wing of the Labour party), the Tory party’s own crisis and their desire to win (at all costs witness the racism in the campaign of Zac Goldsmith).

The external (to Britain) factor is the rising intolerance for the Israeli government and military’s actions which have led to the strengthening of the worldwide Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS) which is having success and the attempt by the Israeli government to link criticism of Israel’s policies to anti-semitism. The attempt to redefine anti-semitism to include criticism of Israel and to brand those that are critics of Israel and anti-zionists as anti-semites is part of the fightback against rising criticism. This is being spearheaded in Britain by the Britain-Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) and the Jewish Labour Movement. The first group is essentially a propaganda group in support of the Israeli government; while the second group is a group of Jewish members of the British Labour party which is affiliated to the World Zionist Movement and is a sister-party to the Israeli Labour Party.

When did the row start?

Actually the row started in the Oxford University Labour Club in February 2016 with an accusation levied against the club by its co-chair Alex Chambers accusing the left in the Labour club and left students of being anti-semitic due to their support for a Palestine solidarity education week. What is not discussed in most of the articles on this is that Alex Chambers is an intern at an Israeli lobbyist group.

The next link in the chain comes when Malia Bouattia is elected the president of the National Union of students unseating the incumbent Meagan Dunn (unseating an incumbent is extremely difficult to do) making Bouattia the first black muslim president of the NUS. An ardent supporter of the Palestinian struggle, the accusations of anti-semitism begin almost immediately.

The row then shifts to the Labour party itself and the left in the Labour party, first Gerry Downing, and then Tony Greenstein; the weirdest thing about Greenstein’s suspension was that he was not told the charges against him, but they were leaked to both the Daily Telegraph and the Times who were then forced to make apologies for implying that (nay, let’s call it accusing) Greenstein of being an anti-semite. Greenstein being summoned to a tribunal with no explanation of the charges reeks far too much of Kafka’s The Trial for comfort as Greenstein himself says.

The attack finally hit a more prominent target, Bradford West MP, Naz Shah, then Ken Livingstone (the former mayor of London and Corbyn ally) jumps into support Naz Shah and winds up being suspended himself. While I honestly question whether Livingstone was helpful, his raising the Haavara Agreement (even if he got the date wrong) has, as a close friend pointed out, increased interest in something that is not often discussed in mainstream discussions, Lenni Brenner's book Zionism in the Age of the Dictators. So an error, but correct on the agreement; Hitler was not a Zionist by any means, but that was not stated by Livingstone.

The next prominent head to fall in the witch hunt is Jackie Walker (the black Jewish vice-chair of Momentum; who has played a leading role in anti-racism struggles for many years. The most recent scalp to be claimed was that of David Watson, the fundraising chair of Walthamstow Labour Party and yet another long term activist fighting against anti-racism and a supporter of Palestinian civil and human rights.

The Jewish Socialist Group has responded to the accusation that Labour has a problem with antisemitism by saying the following (please read the whole piece it is excellent):

“Antisemitism exists and must be exposed and fought against in the same way as other forms of racism by all who are concerned with combating racism and fascism.

Antisemitism and anti-Zionism are not the same. Zionism is a political ideology which has always been contested within Jewish life since it emerged in 1897, and it is entirely legitimate for non-Jews as well as Jews to express opinions about it, whether positive or negative. Not all Jews are Zionists. Not all Zionists are Jews.

Criticism of Israeli government policy and Israeli state actions against the Palestinians is not antisemitism. Those who conflate criticism of Israeli policy with antisemitism, whether they are supporters or opponents of Israeli policy, are actually helping the antisemites. We reject any attempt, from whichever quarter, to place legitimate criticism of Israeli policy out of bounds (http://www.jewishsocialist.org.uk/news/item/statement-on-labou%E2%80%9Drs-problem-with-antisemitism-from-the-jewish-socialists-g).”

In order to examine whether the Labour party is inundated with anti-semitism, Jeremy Corbyn has set up an independent inquiry to be led by Shami Chakrabarti (the former head of the human rights group Liberty) with Prof David Feldman (the Director of the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism) as her deputy. Already the Jewish Chronicle has started protesting the inclusion of Professor David Feldman as he is a member of Independent Jewish voices (IJV) as though it must be a stitch-up and only a Zionist could possibly be on the committee. It is as if there are preparing to reject the results of the inquiry before it has carried out its investigations and written the report.

Some definitions

To understand what is happening, we need to separate three things which are separable but are often not separated. The first is the religion of Judaism, the second is anti-semitism, and the third is political Zionism.

Judaism is a religion adhered to by Jews; it is as simple as that. Many people that consider themselves Jews do not practice the religion itself, but have been raised both in the religion and/or Jewish culture that derives from the religion. Many Jews are secular and view themselves as Jews irrespective of being atheists or agnostics. People that consider themselves Jews live all around the world and share very little in common except for their perception of themselves as Jews and/or their belief in the Jewish religion. As a minority religion, Jews have faced significant persecution, the holocaust is only the most recent and horrific example. Persecuted for having different religious beliefs in a world historically defined by religious beliefs and being perceived as different, Jews have been expelled from various countries (e.g., Britain, Spain among others), confined to Ghettos (starting with Venice), forced into certain employments that those from other religions could not do (given the religion’s precepts against certain occupation), forced to convert to the dominant religions (e.g., Christianity).

Now let’s talk about anti-semitism. I am using what is the most common definition for anti-semitism; that is hatred against Jews or dislike of Jews simply because they are Jews. It could be a broader definition including Arabs and other semites as well, but for ease of understanding, I am using it in the way it is commonly used in nomenclature. It is a form of racism irrespective of the Jews not being a nation or a “people” or a world-wide community.

Anti-semitism is grotesque, it is dangerous, and it is not confined to those who are not Jews. One of the comments against the accusation against Tony Greenstein was that he was a Jew and hence could not be an anti-semite; in Tony’s case that is certainly true. He has fought anti-semitism and racism throughout his life; however, there are Jews (like Gilad Atzmon who has come under widespread criticism that he is an anti-semite) that detest the fact that they are Jews and are holocaust deniers – they are anti-semites.

If you do not know what anti-semitism is or have not experienced it, go visit this link and look at the comments on the twitter page of The New York Times Deputy Washington Editor, Jonathon Weisman, who was commenting on a piece by Robert Kagan on Trump which unleashed a torrent of anti-semitic and racist hate by Trump’s supporters that is simply shocking and which tells you more about the damage done by Donald Trump’s campaign in the US than anything I have seen; this campaign has allowed every racist, xenophobe, and anti-semite to come out of the closet (let’s put misogyny to the side for a moment as that is not confined to The Donald’s supporters and seems to be a significant problem throughout the US). But that is an easy one; anyone who has the slightest sensibility of understanding what racism and anti-semitism are can see that clearly. A quick hint: If you think for that Jews are united in some bizarre conspiracy to ensure their world domination, guess what, you are an anti-semite.

How about this story? The police says that this (the 2nd) attack at a Jewish cemetery is anti-Semitism, while the Community Security Trust is not certain (yes, there are kids that get drunk and destroy things, but why the hell are they in a Jewish cemetery in the first place to get drunk?). To me, this looks like anti-semitism, I do not have all the facts, but, this is something I would keep a close eye on as why would people destroy headstones in a Jewish cemetery? This makes me extremely nervous …

The chief Rabbi of Britain, Ephraim Mirvis, then got involved in this discussion about anti-semitism in the left and in the Labour party. In this article, he maintained that:

“It is unclear why these people feel qualified to provide such an analysis of one of the axioms of Jewish belief. But let me be very clear. Their claims are a fiction. They are a wilful distortion of a noble and integral part of Judaism. Zionism is a belief in the right to Jewish self-determination in a land that has been at the centre of the Jewish world for more than 3,000 years. One can no more separate it from Judaism than separate the City of London from Great Britain.

Open a Jewish daily prayer book used in any part of the world and Zionism will leap out at you. The innumerable references to the land of Israel are inescapable and demonstrative. Throughout our collective history we have yearned for a chance to determine our own future, to revive an ancient language and return to rejoice in our love for this tiny sliver of land. Zionism is a movement celebrated by people right across the political spectrum, all over the world, and requires no endorsement or otherwise of the particular policies of any Israeli Government at any time (www.telegraph.co.uk/...).”

So, is a rejection of Zionism a slap in the face to every Jew and inherently anti-semitic? I would argue no. The first thing that we need to understand is Rabbi Mirvis’s conflation of political Zionism and religious Zionism. Religious Zionism essentially is the idea that after the Messiah comes, the Jews who have been scattered all over the world will be allowed to return to the holy land. That is a different kettle of fish from the political ideology of Zionism. By the way, not all Jews believe either in religious Zionism and opposition to political Zionism has always existed in the Jewish community. The issue to me is that Rabbi Mirvis is actually defining a Jew by their endorsement and support of Zionism. Does lack of support for Zionism make one an anti-semite as Mirvis argues? This prompted a response which I was proud to sign:

“He joins in the sensationalist allegations of antisemitism in the Labour party, where the headlines’ decibel level is in inverse proportion to the evidence supporting them. Ignoring the more serious anti-Muslim racism in electoral politics, Rabbi Mirvis attacks the Labour party by launching a defence of Zionism which turns it from a political ideology (that can be supported or opposed) into a religion that is beyond question. We British Jews reject this categorically.

Mirvis attacks as “antisemitic” those who separate Judaism from Zionism. Yet most Jews who perished in the Holocaust were indifferent to Zionism and many opposed it. In the last municipal elections in Europe’s largest Jewish community, in Poland, just before the second world war, Poland’s Jews voted overwhelmingly for the secular, anti-Zionist, socialists of the Bund, while Zionist parties got derisory votes. Is Rabbi Mirvis recasting those victims of the Holocaust posthumously as enemies of Judaism and therefore as antisemites? (www.theguardian.com/...).”

Several excellent points are made in this article by Elise Hendrick which deserves repeating here and which relate to the issue of the legitimacy of those speaking for “the Jews.” Since those that consider themselves Jews differ on so many things, how does someone get to claim they speak for “the Jews.”

“Zionist organisations present themselves as the sole legitimate representatives of all people of Jewish descent, everywhere (and have done so ever since they were a tiny, marginal, right-wing sect in the Jewish community). When the representatives of Zionist groups present themselves as Jewish community leaders, no one asks when and where they were elected, or to whom they are actually accountable. when Israel is presented as ‘the state of the Jewish people’ rather than (accurately) as that of the Zionist movement, the assertion is taken as read. It is on these assumptions that Zionists claim the right to set the agenda in all matters related to Jews, including antisemitism. Put simply, Zionists use Jews as rhetorical human shields for the Zionist regime.

Refuting each of the above assumptions is trivial. None of the Zionists who appear in the media as representatives of the Jewish community as a whole has ever stood for election by that community. It does not matter how the community feels about these ‘representatives’, for they have no institutionalised means of sacking them. In much the same way, the State of Israel, which claims to represent all Jews everywhere does not give most Jews – who don’t even live there – any say in the Zionist regime’s policies. In both cases, the tacit assertion is that Jews are a politically monolithic and intrinsically connected to a state other than their state of birth and residence. In a word, the Zionist claim of standing to represent all Jews is antisemitic (screamingvioletsmag.co.uk/...).”

This brings us to the final part of the discussion, what is Zionism? Is opposition to Zionism anti-semitic?

Zionism is a political ideology whose roots lay in the rise of late 19th century nationalist movements. Accepting that anti-semitism cannot be fought in the countries where they were living, Zionists advocated the formation of a nation state for Jews scattered around the world. The aims of the first Zionist congress in Basel where the following (1897):

“Zionism seeks to establish a home for the Jewish people in Eretz­Israel secured under public law. The Congress contemplates the following means to the attainment of this end:

1. The promotion by appropriate means of the settlement in Eretz-Israel of Jewish farmers, artisans, and manufacturers. 2. The organization and uniting of the whole of Jewry by means of appropriate institutions, both local and international, in accordance with the laws of each country.
3. The strengthening and fostering of Jewish national sentiment and national consciousness.
4. Preparatory steps toward obtaining the consent of governments, where necessary, in order to reach the goals of Zionism (www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/...).”

From its beginnings, there have been differences among those supporting Zionism as the answer to anti-semitism. The location of the future Zionist state was one such issue which divided early Zionists, that is, whether to insist on the holy land or to accept any territory which made the creation of a nation state possible. Like all political movements, there were also political differences among Zionists which reflect those beliefs; these differences that are still relevant are reflected in the different political parties in Israel today.

One significant problem was the creation of such a state, the old line of “a land without people for people without a land” certainly did not apply to the holy land in which people had been living for millennia. An additional problem was that the majority of Jews of the time did not support the Zionist project; this was, and is, due to political differences among Jews and their view of how to eliminate anti-semitism. The creation of a settler state was not consistent with beliefs of the Jewish Bund and among other Jews of the hard left which had far more followers. The Bundists believed in fighting anti-semitism and fighting for socialism in the countries in which they lived. Even amongst the members of the Bund, there were differences between those that later joined the communist parties and those that were socialists. It was only the holocaust which launched Zionism into being the dominant political ideology among those that considered themselves as Jews.

“There is a long and honourable history of Jewish opposition to Zionism. The first Zionist Congress, in 1897, had to be moved to Basel, which had a minimal Jewish population, after the rabbis in Munich – where it was originally scheduled to meet – threatened to excommunicate any local Jew who assisted or supported it. The 1917 Balfour Declaration (introduced by the same man who twelve years earlier had introduced Britain’s first immigration act in order to exclude Jews fleeing Tsarist pogroms) was opposed as antisemitic by the only Jewish cabinet member. In the last free elections in Poland before Nazi occupation, the anti-Zionist Bund won a clear majority of the Jewish votes in both national and municipal elections (socialistresistance.org/...).”

As a political ideology and movement which settled on the holy land aka as Palestine to colonise, it was inevitable that the people living there had to be removed from the land in order to establish that state. It should come as no surprise that the native population of Palestine was not thrilled to lose their homes and land in which they lived for millennia in favour of colonial settlers coming from Europe. The creation of Israel has meant the dispersal of Palestinians around the world, their being forced to live in refugee camps in nearby countries with which there is nothing shared but the fact that they are Arabs. Israel’s creation and expansion has required the continual oppression of Palestinians that have not left and that oppression continues in order to maintain the existence of Israel.

Zionism is a political ideology and movement. Like all political ideologies and movements (think of socialism, communism, fascism, liberalism, conservatism) criticism of ideology and actions is normal and opposition will exist.

What is the problem then?
The problem arises in the conflation between anti-semitism and those opposed to, or critical of, Zionism and the Zionist state. And this derives from the identification of the Zionist project with the Jewish people or religion which is historically inaccurate and which in itself has fostered anti-semitism due to the oppression of the Israeli government, military and population against the Palestinians.

This brings us to the current struggles which we are facing. Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians has led to even unquestioning Zionists to condemn the situation. This week, now former defence minister General Ya’alon resigned from his post and quit Likud (and was replaced by Avigdor Lieberman) and Ehud Barak (the former leader of the Israeli Labor Party) raised their concerns about rising extremism and violence and mentioned the “f” word (that is, fascism); we are not talking about anti-zionists here, neither Ya’alon nor Barak are certainly not abandoning their beliefs in Zionism. There seem to be a couple of things that have perturbed people; specifically the murder of an incapacitated Palestinian by an Israel soldier who was then applauded by some Israelis. Barak has raised concerns about a proposed new law which strips immunity from Members of Parliament (unsurprisingly a similar law has been passed in Turkey by Erdoğan and his party to prosecute Kurdish members of Parliament as “terrorists”). Discussing rising fascism in Israel seems to be ok there, so why is this a problem outside of Israel? Is this an internal Jewish discussion of some sort that I am missing?

The fact is that the oppression of Palestinians cannot be silenced anymore. The continued seizure of land in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Gaza being an open-air prison, political oppression, and the murders of innocents cannot be ignored. The actions of the Israel government, military and population against have led to significant criticism even among those that call themselves Zionists. The success of the Boycott, Sanction and Divestment movement is clearly a basis of concern. Advocacy of BDS in France is now illegal (although there has been no imprisonment of BDS supporters). In Britain, David Cameron has come out against boycotts and the Leicester City Council has been taken to court due to its boycott of Israeli goods.

This is part of the reason that the campaign to link anti-zionism with anti-semitism has increased; this is also part of the reason why those criticising Israel are facing accusations of anti-semitism. While this is clearly evident in Rabbi Mirvis’s article quoted above, a decent knowledge of history demonstrates that political Zionism is not an integral part of Jewish identity.

The existence of differences in opinion even among Zionists (think AIPAC vs J Street’s Liberal Zionism) and shifting perspectives on Israel among American Jews demonstrate that Zionism and Israel no longer have unconditional support. In point of fact, in the US, unconditional support for Israel can only be found among Christian Zionists in white evangelical religious groups. In many senses, Hillary Clinton’s perspective on Netanyahu and Israel resonates far more strongly with Christians than it does among Jews. The existence of groups such as Jewish Voices for Peace,Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods, the Jewish Socialist Group, Independent Jewish Voices, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, among many other Jewish political groups in the world, Europe, the US and in Israel itself, should certainly make you stop and think that there is not a group called “the Jews” and that perhaps it is not that simple as those that claim to speak and act in our name.

Some additional readings:

screamingvioletsmag.co.uk/...
freespeechonisrael.org.uk/...
socialistresistance.org/...
jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.co.uk/...
azvsas.blogspot.co.uk/…
www.redflagonline.org/...

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The details of the struggles in the Labour party are new to me, as I had not been keeping up on these developments in British politics. The reflexive condemnation of any criticism of the crypto-fascist Netanyahu regime as anti-semitic is not new, alas. It is an old rhetorical bludgeon used by more aggressive Zionists against anyone not fully agreeing with them. It is similar in kind to characterizing any criticism of Hillary Clinton as misogynistic: a meaningless rhetorical bullying tactic. It should be greeted as such, and those wielding it pilloried for their dishonesty. Your careful delineation of the terms involved is very helpful in this effort.

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ny brit expat's picture

Thank you very much for your kind words on a blog that was extremely difficult to write as it is complicated and as you pointed out what is happening in Britain (and for a long time to anti-zionist Jews and to critics of Israel) is a meaningless rhetorical bullying tactic. But it has been going on for a while and it is a useful and very destructive tactic.

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"Hegel noticed somewhere that all great world history facts and people so to speak twice occur. He forgot to add: the one time as tragedy, the other time as farce" Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."

Thank you for joining us!

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“If there is no justice for the people, may there be no peace for the government.”

It was indeed a complicated story, especially given the patience required to take every logical step so carefully. You did a wonderful job with it, though, I must say.

The meaning of the rhetorical tactic lies entirely in its bullying nature, of course. It is not meant to persuade, but to forcibly silence.

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ny brit expat's picture

It is even harder to deal with the inevitable attacks about you being an anti-semite. I have been accused of downplaying the anti-semitism by someone on dkos who literally screamed (caps) in his post. I am so glad for this tiny island of sanity. Thank you again

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"Hegel noticed somewhere that all great world history facts and people so to speak twice occur. He forgot to add: the one time as tragedy, the other time as farce" Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."

Alex Ocana's picture

I am a bit worn out for a decent reply, sorry. When I post about Palestine I try adn be extremely careful of my descriptors. I am not always successful.

For one thing, I do not accept a Jewish state of Israel, in part because I accept no state which is based on a religion, and the other part because I think Palestine should be a perhaps federated state with equality and justice for all the people who live there.

I have some friends (Nabi Saleh) whose ancestral land was stolen by the state of "Israel" and turned into "Jewish settlements". These same extremist Jewish settlements commit crimes, or get the IDF (which I call the IOF) attack their village and other nearby villages constantly. I am sure you remember the burning up of a family leaving one little boy as a survivor. Even though it was Jewish settlers committing the crime, I certainly wouldn't say, "All Jews burn up babies." That would be ignorant, even if a majority Israeli Jews at present and a large minority of American Jewish People support the settlers in question through their government. So do a lot of USA evangelicals, and people like the Clintons and Elizabeth Warren. I also use the word Zionist wherever and whenever I can to desribe the origin of atrocities committed in Palestine, or name the institution responsible (the IOF or whoever). All told, its a wicked minefield.

I quite frankly, beyond saying that I am a Bolivian citizen, living in the Caribbean with a mixed race, mixed ethnic and mixed religious family... don't feel its anybody's business of the 25% this, and 12.5% that etc. that make up my family. One or another of my family could fit in (look like) just about anywhere in the world.

I find it highly annoying and dangerous that being for a Free Palestine and criticizing the atrocities of the Zionist manufactured state of Israel is labeled "anti-semitic" or "self-hating Jew". I support Jewish Voices for Peace, B'Tselem, Hand in Hand Schools, Jewish dissidents like David Sheen, love Noem Chomski, Bernie Sanders, Scarlett Johansson & Natalie Portman without knowing or caring what their politics are... A great many Jewish people in Palestine (Palestinian Jews) and Israel support Palestine.

I also got flagged at KOS for being racist for posting that anti-semitism might be one factor in the way the southern vote came down like it did (supported by data from the Anti-Defamation League, and I still think was a factor) and then got flagged for being anti-semitic when I wrote an angry post against Clinton's AIPAC speech. It is difficult from our cultural point of view to understand the weird and IMO destructive hyper-sensitivity, the actually virtual taboo, to discussing race and religion (or gender) in the USA.

What I do know is that Palestinians have been treated by those who follow Zionist ideology with great injustice. Wherever there is injustice it is our responsibility to fight it and that includes not only Israel's policies, but genocide in Rwanda, massacres by some people of the Dominican Republic against Haitians, and massacres and embargo deaths of Iraqis by perpetuated by many mostly white-privileged powerful Americans.

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From the Light House.

ny brit expat's picture

and I hear what you are saying and agree with it. Read the post, I distinguish quite clearly between Judaism, anti-semitism, zionism and anti-Zionism. I have been fighting this battle for most of my adult life, you are not alone and I know that I am not alone.

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"Hegel noticed somewhere that all great world history facts and people so to speak twice occur. He forgot to add: the one time as tragedy, the other time as farce" Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."

Galtisalie's picture

Thank you for an excellent piece. The idea that support for BDS is anti-Semitic is really wrong. Without use of non-violent means to effect change, African Americans would have never obtained realization of civil rights previously put in the constitution and further mandated by the Supreme Court.

I've never been prouder to support Sanders than his speaking out for Palestinian rights in the final debate (nor more disappointed in Clinton, and that's saying a lot). I liked how Sanders articulated that all people on both sides of the line need peace and justice.

There is such a dialectical opportunity to promote peace through achievement of a viable Palestinian state.

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Diomedes77's picture

He's a Jew, and has caught all kinds of hell for his role in BDS.

Israel has become a racial apartheid state in all too many ways, and this can't be defended. BDS seeks to fight against this. America, of course, was a racial apartheid state for centuries, and still is in pockets. Its also an economic apartheid, as is any nation with capitalism as its economic engine.

We need to fight all forms of apartheid, and, IMO, ridding the world of economic apartheid makes getting rid of all the rest far, far easier. In fact, it's their life-blood and life support. A subject for another day, perhaps.

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There is in me an anarchy and frightful disorder. Creating makes me die a thousand deaths, because it means making order, and my entire being rebels against order. But without it I would die, scattered to the winds.

-- Albert Camus

featheredsprite's picture

were too opinionated to cooperate in a world-wide scheme to do anything.

There is an old joke that says if you locked 4 Frenchmen in a room, when you let them out they would have formed 5 political parties. I think this probably applies to Jews as well.

Zionist? Which Jew? Where? When? You'd have to talk to them to find out.

Except for Bibi, of course, who wears his Zionism on his sleeve. Some TV preachers do, too.

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Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.

Galtisalie's picture

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Diomedes77's picture

And thanks for telling me about this place!

I like the way you drill down to separate things that are all too often grouped together, especially political and religious zionism. That makes me think that the only real reason to focus on and refuse any other locale, originally, was religious -- though complex in its permutations. It strikes me as a place where there is clear overlap. As in, if the goal were to find land with no inhabitants, for people without land -- an understandable dream, especially after millennia of persecution following the diaspora -- why not actually do that? Why not agitate for a place where no one would need to be removed in order to secure it? And, a place where one knew there would not be an endless need to defend . . . .

To me, the only reason to insist on ancient Palestine in the first place had to have been at least somewhat "religious" in rationale, though I am by no means an historian of the creation of the Jewish State. And by "religious," I don't mean that one would necessarily have to believe in the Jewish messiah, but that a belief in the Old Testament stories about the tribes of Israel would be a key. If a person saw them as myth and legend only -- which is how I read all ancient religious texts -- then it really wouldn't matter where the Jewish state was established.

Regardless, back to the main point of your essay: It seems yet another attempt to weaken, divide, even destroy the left's chances to battle with entrenched centrist and right-wing politics/power, and all too often it seems that the left is complicit in this, eats its own, becomes a circular firing squad. At the risk of being flippant, the left needs to keep its eye on the prize, and stop this. Now. We need to stop letting the Establishment set us up and set us against each other.

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There is in me an anarchy and frightful disorder. Creating makes me die a thousand deaths, because it means making order, and my entire being rebels against order. But without it I would die, scattered to the winds.

-- Albert Camus

ny brit expat's picture

told you about this place. There are many great people here whom I highly respect and I knew you would feel at home. I am sorry I did not tell you about this immediately, but you asked for leftist pages and I see this not as a leftist blog but as an open blog of good people. So sorry about that.

Thanks for your comments, I agree completely with what you said and I have always thought the same as to why Palestine was demanded and the only thing that I can ever think of as to why is exactly what you stated that it would provide a religious justification for a colonial settler state.

I also agree with your analysis, it is divide and rule and an attempt to eliminate the left in the Labour party by the right. Nothing less. Sad

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"Hegel noticed somewhere that all great world history facts and people so to speak twice occur. He forgot to add: the one time as tragedy, the other time as farce" Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."

Diomedes77's picture

And no worries about the delay of information. It was my fault for not being specific enough.

Coming over here also helped in another way: It made me feel quite a bit less alone in what I had gone through at the other site. It appears many had similar experiences, and that a huge number jumped ship. It's even possible to google the emigration movement.

;>)

Anyway . . . I look forward to more great essays from you and the ACM group, along with this new community as a whole.

Thanks again.

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There is in me an anarchy and frightful disorder. Creating makes me die a thousand deaths, because it means making order, and my entire being rebels against order. But without it I would die, scattered to the winds.

-- Albert Camus

ny brit expat's picture

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"Hegel noticed somewhere that all great world history facts and people so to speak twice occur. He forgot to add: the one time as tragedy, the other time as farce" Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."

The gross results can be seen in jotter or search.

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ny brit expat's picture

So many great people here! Jotter?! showing her ignorance on tech yet again ... Biggrin

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"Hegel noticed somewhere that all great world history facts and people so to speak twice occur. He forgot to add: the one time as tragedy, the other time as farce" Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."

http://caucus99percent.com/comment/91136#comment-91136

Yeah, original thinking not required but discouraged. Set up my own sites (as you know).

I miss my friends but not the grind. I wrote a franchise diary every day, sometimes two. Now I write 4 a day, but they're for me and I don't give a rat's ass what people think.

Sorry for those who expected more. I'm just a guy who will choose a Hot Dog over a Bible.

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ny brit expat's picture

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"Hegel noticed somewhere that all great world history facts and people so to speak twice occur. He forgot to add: the one time as tragedy, the other time as farce" Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."

Alex Ocana's picture

http://www.occupationmovie.com Trailer

What has struck me a near infinite number of times over the years is the constant repetition of Orwellian "talking points" in USA discourse. Rockets ROCKETS ROCKETS!!!! Terrorists TERRORISTS!!! Hamas HAMAS!!! Tunnels TUNNELS TUNNELS! And never a word about the truth of what atrocities have been committed by the extremist Zionist regimes towards an occupied indigenous people.

Finally, a movie that documents the pervasiveness of this sort of brainwashing of the American public. See http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&I...

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From the Light House.

I reject your assertion that Jews returning to their ancestral land (as confirmed by the writings of Greeks, Romans, Persians, Phoenicians, and Arabs) is 'settler colonialism'. That the Arabs (who themselves engaged in a great deal of colonialism; you want to know why the MENA speaks Arabic? The same reason Latin America speaks Spanish and Portuguese, just a few centuries earlier.) wish to piggyback off us is...a distasteful appropriation.

That is why Vine Deloria Jr (though I don't always agree with him) turned to the Cohens, the only Jewish family on Pine Ridge at the time, when he wrote God is Red. Now, I should mention about the Cohens. Mishael Cohen's mother was a Mizrahi Jew who came to America after the 1929 pogrom in Hebron. (I must note that was prior to 1948.)

So, you're a lousy anticolonialist. You're also a lousy anticapitalist, judging by the palaces of Palestinian leadership.

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Only a centrist would be proud of being the "more convenient season" white moderate spoken of in the letter from a Birmingham jail.

ny brit expat's picture

I normally do not refer to hasbara as it is a sincere waste of time. In your case, I will make an exception.

When I searched your comments on C99, I found someone with a perfect command of English, even more so a perfect command of colloquial english. I went to your pieces on the daily kos, for example, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/04/20/1518009/-In-the-midst-of-voter-irregularities-Hillary-supporters-dust-off-their-Sore-Loserman-signs. I again find someone with a perfect command of colloquial English. Your comment here is in broken English. Why would someone do that?

If you are, as you claim, a Mizrahi Jew, surely you would have heard of the following people: Ella Habiba Shohat, Smardar Lavie, Yehuda Shenhav, and Sami Shalom Chetrit. They are anti-zionist Mizrahi Jews. When you say that you are a native, what does that mean? Are you a Palestinian Jew? Or are you someone born in Israel from a family of Mizrahi Jews?

If you claim to be a "native" or an indigenous person and you are not, that makes you a liar, an anti-semite and a racist. If you are a Mizrahi Jew and you were born in the US, why are you using broken English here and nowhere else in any posts or comments? If you are lying, you have done something that marks you as an anti-semite. The fact that that you have used broken English to do your hasbara in, makes you a racist as you are in effect implying that people of foreign descent cannot speak English properly. Just your pretending that you cannot speak English makes you a liar and that is easily proven by checking blog posts and comments you have done.

Even if you are an indigenous Jew (that is a Palestinian Jew), that does not mean that Israel is not a colonial settler state as clearly the state was established by Jews from central and eastern Europe. The Mizrahi Jews (Jews who come from Middle Eastern countries that were forced to leave their native countries) have been especially hard done by in Israel.

The fact that Palestinians fought back against European settlers is demonstration that the Palestinians had a national consciousness against those trying to colonise their land. That backs up my statement rather than yours. The Jews have no ancestral home; that is nonsense. The people who have been living there since the diaspora have the most coherent claim to the land and the country. Jews from Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Morocco, etc have different historical and cultural traditions; your comment is essentially saying that because they lived in land dominated by Muslims that they are the same is nonsense. Just as Palestinians have a different cultural and historic tradition to Saudis, Lebanese, Syrians, Egyptians, they cannot be reduced to Arabs.

I cannot be bothered to address your nonsense at the end of your post. Frankly, you do not have any credibility to tell me who and what I am.

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"Hegel noticed somewhere that all great world history facts and people so to speak twice occur. He forgot to add: the one time as tragedy, the other time as farce" Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."

"If you are, as you claim, a Mizrahi Jew, surely you would have heard of the following people: Ella Habiba Shohat, Smardar Lavie, Yehuda Shenhav, and Sami Shalom Chetrit. They are anti-zionist Mizrahi Jews. When you say that you are a native, what does that mean? Are you a Palestinian Jew? Or are you someone born in Israel from a family of Mizrahi Jews?"

I'm confused. Did I claim to be a Mizrahi Jew? I said Mishael Cohen was a Mizrahi Jew. He married an Oglala woman, a distant relative of mine. But thanks for playing.

BTW, they do the same shit to us that you do to the Jews. Remember Kennewick man? So many claims that he wasn't an Indian, and then, oh! DNA says he was. But at that point, the media stop caring.

"The fact that Palestinians fought back against European settlers is demonstration that the Palestinians had a national consciousness against those trying to colonise their land."

And there you go using 'settler' and 'colonize' as if they mean anything in this particular case. Again, the Arabs are the colonizers, albeit a few centuries before Columbus. But there's no statute of limitations on being a colonizer or being indigenous.

Again, her family had lived in Hebron for centuries before the pogrom. Funny how you forgot that little detail.

Here's why you're wrong about Labour.

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Only a centrist would be proud of being the "more convenient season" white moderate spoken of in the letter from a Birmingham jail.

ny brit expat's picture

I clearly got confused as you open as you are a native, a native of what? Hence I thought that you were a Palestinian Jew they did exist you know. Yes of course Palestinian Jews exist as I said above, but you are ignoring that conveniently. However, they did not form the state of Israel; they were natives of Palestine who were Jewish as there are Christian Palestinians (which you should know). If you think the state of Israel is a local invention you are simply delusional and it is not worth addressing you anymore.

So you are just talking straight out hasbara ... even easier. now I can go back to ignoring you. If you think that your initial post was in perfect English I can assure you that if it was, I wouldn't have been confused by what you said. Again, you go on and on about what I am doing to whom? You? Arab Jews? "The Jews" who are they and do you speak for them.

Since I do not dispute that there were Palestinian Jews, I do not know what you are babbling about. The Arabs are colonisers? They have been there for far too long to be considered colonisers ... far longer than white people have been in the new world ...

Alas there are zionist apologists everywhere; what else is new?! It is always so disappointing to have them on so-called leftish sites ... I am certain you are thrilled with the latest scheme cooked up by Netanyahu and Lieberman to charge palestinians in military courts and to execute them.

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"Hegel noticed somewhere that all great world history facts and people so to speak twice occur. He forgot to add: the one time as tragedy, the other time as farce" Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."

Pluto's Republic's picture

…professional propaganda, the commentariat relies on one-liners rather than rebuttal, as in:

@________ ...back to Tel Aviv with you, sunshine. No more Hasbara here today.

or

[insert gremmar error] ...sorry we don't do the baggerish here.

It is strangely effective.

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ny brit expat's picture

I responded so that others could also understand, but you are probably right. Not worth the time, I cannot tell you how boring (and aggravating) it is to hear this crap over and over again. I should be grateful when the bombing of Gaza was going on I was called an anti-semite ... so a positive ... heh ...

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"Hegel noticed somewhere that all great world history facts and people so to speak twice occur. He forgot to add: the one time as tragedy, the other time as farce" Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte."