How Israel’s propaganda war has silenced Europe
JVL Introduction
Gideon Levy, doyen of Israeli journalists, finds the sacking or Rebecca Long-Bailey a matter of grave concern.
He pulls no punches, in his account of how antisemitism has been weaponised in Israel’s propaganda war and how effective this has been.
Critical of the original article Rebecca Long-Bailey tweeted, he is nonetheless adamant that: “When it comes to criticism of Israel, the rules of the game in Europe are different. There is Israel, and then there is the rest of the world.”
In the wider context, what is at stake is freedom of expression: “This a bewildering systemic confusion: the occupier has the right to defend itself, and whoever struggles against occupation becomes the accused.”
This article was originally published by Middle East Eye on Fri 3 Jul 2020. Read the original here.
How Israel's propaganda war has silenced Europe
An onslaught of exaggerated, sometimes wholly baseless, accusations of antisemitism has proved brutally effective
Loading article text…
So much in this article to commend. Let’s get this out to a wide audience. The forces of darkness want to shut us down. We must not allow them to do this. Not in the UK or anywhere else.
I agree with the article above. Here is a section of a letter (sadly unpublished) I sent to the guardian last week.
“It is well known that the definition of antisemitism is not fit for purpose. Freedom of speech allows us Jews (as I am) and others to criticise Israel in its actions against the Palestinians as we do likewise with Myanmar in its actions against the Rohingya people. It is hard to find any antisemitism in the actions of Rebecca Long-Bailey.”
This is a very powerful article and exposes the real reason for the endless accusation of antisemitism against pro-Palestinian activists, namely to silence them. But I think it is unfair to Rebecca Long-Bailey and even more so to Maxine Peake (who has been more than silenced, rather vilified, slandered and abused and possibly had her career ruined).
Gideon Levy doesn’t answer why the US and Israel police have all these joint training sessions, if it is not to exchange experience and techniques in matters such as “crowd control” and of individuals deemed to be a “threat”.
He doesn’t say who he thinks might have more to offer in that exchange.
He also makes it sound as if this was a whole article about Israel’s crimes, when it was one sentence in an interview mainly concerning Maxine Peake’s work and less prominently about her political views in general.
Gideon Levy is amazing. An eloquent and angry voice steeped in integrity. With people like him there is hope in the world. This article needs to be shared widely.
I am fed up to my back teeth with the Israeli machine and it’s illegal activities against the innocent Palestinians and we it’s supporter’s, I have been under investigation in the labour party for more than a year now on spurious anti-Semitism charges and NO recourse.
Now we have Starmer it certainly doesn’t bode well for we the MANY who support the Palestinians and the right of international and domestic law.
SOLIDARITY with the Palestinians ALWAYS
what really saddens me more than anything with this RLB demotion from the shadow cabinet is the fact that she accepts it without any fight, this was Corbyns main fault and in my opinion caused his defeat.
In response to John Lipetz I would say, ‘As one of the few less establishment British newspapers, I have found the Guardian to have been alarmingly complicit in the shutting down of the anti-Semitism debate in the Labour ranks.
It was almost as if they, there were just a few breaches, were collectively afraid of certain Jewish lobbyists. Whereas those like Nick Cohen, Jonathan Freedland and Andrew Rawnsley continue to scribble together unsupported opinion pieces, still critical of Corbyn long after he has departed.
The former Labour leader rose from certainly amongst the ranks of the most proactively anti-racist MPs, to be mislabelled as the most racist leader, and will now no doubt return to his honourable role as perhaps the least racist member of the House. But the media is alarmingly more reactionary!
My understanding of the RLB affair is that she re-tweeted Maxine Peakes original message, saying she (RLB) ‘liked’ and that ‘MP was a gem’ (sic). MP’s tweet had said – and thus raised the question – that collaboration between the Israeli and US authorities included exchanging tech knowledge of physical restraint; is this wrong? (sic). If the knee on the neck ‘technique’ wasn’t ‘exchanged’ and if collaboration in general, between the Israeli – US security people, has never happened, then it should be quite easy to show (prove) that. So why has that not been done and the matter is then closed and, dare I say, KS’s reaction deemed justified.
The reason that that has not happened is that there has been collaboration between Israel and the US (IMO). And I feel that that opinion is qualified by the substantial level of written accounts of such exchanges. The Homeland Security activities of Israel have gone beyond the Cottage Industry stage; Israel has turned this sort of ‘policing’ into an international business approaching $65B, according to some reports.
In much the same way that our Party doesn’t investigate foreign policy issues, methinks that they’ll be no effort to look at the facts in RLB case, it would offend too many people.
3 Questions: if a drug dealer supplies narcotics to a user and the user dies, the dealer is in the wrong? If a Marshall Arts trainer exchanges techniques with another and the other person uses those techniques and kills some one else; is the trainer wrong? The 3rd question is left to the reader to imagine.
So maybe thuggish Israeli security forces didn’t teach US cops how to kneel on a suspect’s neck. US cops are quite capable of copying tactics that they observe. Maybe the fact that a black man was killed would have justified US cops being taught how to do it properly!
Israel is supported by the West because of its geo-political usefulness. The atrocities of the Occupation, and now the Annexation, take second place to the cosy military-industrial-strategic relationship which the US, UK and others have with Israel. We see it with Saudi Arabia too. This predominance of political expediency over morality seems to be gaining ground. Trump is one obvious advocate of it. Johnson is another one, given his unprincipled proposals to divert overseas aid from the most needy to the most politically pliable regimes.
Well done, John Lipetz (posting 4 July at 20.:13. Sorry the Guardian didn’t print your article. This trend is very worrying. have you heard about the latest kerfuffle in the UK: two men displaying a banner urging that Israel be kicked out of UEFA and FIFA? True, the banner used the Everton logo, but that doesn’t make the banner “anti-Semitic”. Appartently the Labour Party is on the case. Here we go again.
Give an inch they take a mile. The right wing media are relentless. That’s why sites like this are needed. All power to your elbow.
What surprised me about Starmer’s reaction to RLB was the sense of urgency and the peculiar phrase “antisemitic conspiracy theory”. Not just a knee jerk reaction but an over reaction as though primed and ready; on the look out for the opportunity to use this mode of attack.
He is supposed to be the new broom yet he has reverted without hesitation to using the scourge of false allegations of antisemitism which so dogged Corbyn’s period in office and helped to lose two elections.
Churchill’s legacy is problematic, to say the least. On the other hand, he did say some very shrewd things. Like his definition of an appeaser being like a man who feeds the crocodile in the hope that it will eat him last.
I am not anti-sematic , I am anti Netanyahu & his corrupt doings, The cruelty inflicted upon The Palestinians , who lived there for hundreds of years, The Allies gave their lands away after WW2 , it caused a War & Churchill walked away & left the :Palestinians helpless, naturally they fought back !
The People who arrived there taking their lands had no right morally , they never lived there before. This is my symplistic view, much is missing I know. This is the basic. Dare to critisise & you are called Anti- Semitic ! JKust a Propaganda Excuse. I do call these people out for their crimes against humanity & everyone walking around Israel on tippy toes !