Complaints of antisemitism against Neil Coyle MP ignored as purge of left-wingers continues
JVL Introduction
This article in Skwawkbox elaborates on a story we first mentioned on 28th January here.
Three prominent Jewish members of the Party complained about a Neil Coyle MP tweet which they argue echoes classical antisemitic tropes about Judeo-Bolsheviks.
Extracts from letters sent by Harold Immanuel, Prof Avi Shlaim and Sir Geoffrey Bindman are included in the post below.
Apart from a formal acknowledgement of receipt of their complaints, nothing. Not even a response to a personal letter from Geoffrey Bindman to Keir Starmer, someone who in the past was a friend and colleague.
Avi Shlaim puts it forcefully: “It’s not as if the party has slowed down in its investigations. It is going full-tilt in accusing Jewish members of the party of antisemitism while completely ignoring a case of outrageous antisemitism by a sitting MP. The silence is deafening.”
This article was originally published by Skwawkbox on Wed 9 Feb 2022. Read the original here.
Starmer ignored antisemitism complaints vs Coyle by prominent Jews incl knighted barrister and professor
Two lawyers and a professor submitted complaints to party and then to Starmer about Neil Coyle’s comments about left-wing Jews – and have been ignored
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The objections to Coyle’s comments, as with other arguments made by JVL about the unfair treatment of the group, assume a level playing-field. The actual playing-field is tilted to the point where it is effectively vertical. It is not that Starmer doesn’t recognise that the Jewish members of JVL are being discriminated against in ways that are essentially antisemitic; the fact is that he doesn’t care either way. His use of accusations of antisemitism has nothing to do with antisemitism and everything to do with political expediency. He wishes to expel any trace of Corbynism from the party so that he can claim finally to have cleansed the stables of the taint of socialism and support for Palestinian rights. That way he believes – with some justification – that the media and the BOD will take him to their hearts, allowing him to become PM in 2024 – an object he has been set on pursuing for a decade.
He may not be wrong. The drip-feed of Partygate revelations has seriously weakened the standing of Johnson in the country, and Starmer’s position in the polls is at last improving. Much of that improvement has to do with growing disapproval of Johnson, but Starmer isn’t fussy about the soirce and nature of his support. More importantly, I suspect that the establishment – including Tory high command – is now grooming Starmer for the top job. How else can we explain the chorus of outraged voices coming from all quarters of Parliament defending Starmer from Johnson’s smear that he failed to prosecute Savile? This, rather than Johnson’s record as a serial liar and flouter of regulations, is what seems set finally to bring him down. The same voices were notably silent when it came to defending Corbyn from equally outrageous smears, but then Corbyn is a real socialist, not a bogus one.
I’ve found many times, on Twitter and other platform, that being of Jewish heritage – having a Jewish mother whose parents were murdered in the Holocaust – cuts no ice whatsoever with the supporters of Israel. If you criticise Israel you are not so much ‘the wrong sort of Jew’ as no sort of Jew whatsoever. For this reason I think it best to abandon the argument that a Jew can’t be an antisemite. I criticise Israel because Israel is in the wrong; I do so from my standpoint as a human being; my own ethnicity has nothing to do with it. To say otherwise is to concede too much to those who believe in Jewish supremacy.
In the end Coyle has been suspended not for his poisonous remarks about JVL but for remarks made to a journalist in which he referred to China as ‘Fu Manchu’. No doubt the growing anti-China sentiments fuelled in large part by the US allowed Coyle to feel safe in expressing these sentiments, and it is to Starmer’s credit that he has been called out for them. So far as Coyle’s comments about JVL are concerned, however, hell will freeze over before Starmer is prepared to label an attack on ‘the wrong sort of Jew’ antisemitic.
This is very sad. If Coyle had been suspended when he should have been for antisemitic comments he wouldn’t have been in a position to make these latest hurtful comments. His racism seems to run deep.
Indeed, and the Guardian article made no mention whatsoever of Coyle’s comments about JVL or the resulting complaints described above. This would seem to be a most basic failure of journalism. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/feb/11/labour-suspends-whip-from-neil-coyle-after-allegations-of-racist-comments
The idea you can rid the Labour party of Corbynism is insane
Red Tories worked night and day for the worst cheap and nasty party since 1979 and against what would have been and still could be the best Labour government since 1945
They are the few we are the many lets never stop talking about getting rid of them
So we are all Bolshevicks ! I joined JVL because I am a Jew and proud of our heritage. JVL promotes values that I agree with, and in line with my deep felt view of over 40 years supports the rights of Palestinians. For the record I am not a Communist, nor a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, having voted for both Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper. What I find most insulting is the way that we are ‘grouped’ and deemed incapable of independant thought – how many times have we heard ‘ All Jews/Blacks/Asians/Muslims … [enter any ethnic or religious group of your choice] be the start of an outrageous racist comment. Angry is an understatement.
The true purpose of the supposed campaign against antisemitism in the Labour Party could hardly have been better demonstrated. A powerful complaint by distinguished Jewish party members is ignored by the Starmer-Evans regime and its media hangers-on. Socialists in the Labour Party are the true target of this shameful campaign.