JVL letter published in the Jewish Telegraph
JVL letter in the Jewish Telegraph
On 1st August the Manchester-based Jewish Telegraph published an offensive post on Facebook headed ๐๐ฒ๐๐ถ๐๐ต ๐ฉ๐ผ๐ถ๐ฐ๐ฒ ๐ณ๐ผ๐ฟ ๐๐ฎ๐ฏ๐ผ๐๐ฟ ๐ฎ๐น๐น๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐๐ผ ๐๐ฒ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต ๐๐ฒ๐ ๐ต๐ฎ๐๐ฒ (๐ฎ๐ต.๐ฌ๐ณ.๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฎ)
We won’t paraphrase it (do follow the link above for the full text) but Ellman’s outrage against JVL is palpable:
โThe Forde Report suggested that the organisation should have been allowed to teach about antisemitism, and that is frankly diabolical. “
And she is truly grateful to Keir Starmer for all the political opponents he has expelled:
โOn the day Keir Starmer was elected leader of the Labour Party, he phoned me up and said โIโm very sorry for what happened to you โ I am going to sort this out and I hope you will rejoin the party.โ
โI could see there was a process to expel those who were at the forefront of the Corbyn-led government.
โHe canโt get rid of everyone, though, because it is a political party and he has to go through the National Executive Committee, so a lot of these awful people are still there, but there are much fewer.”
Her hostility towards us, needless to say, is without foundation.
One of our co-chairs wrote to the Jewish Telegraph in response, refering to a post on the JVL website entitled Louise Ellman and the war on Riverside Labour Party saying “I am sorry to hear of Dame Louise’s painful memories but I would ask you please to read and refer to the suffering of others including Jews caught up in this controversy.”
Not only did we get an immediate response from the editor, Paul Harris (eat your heart out, Jewish Chronicle), but it said “If you want to submit a letter it will be considered for publication.”
The rest is history. We did. It was published today, unfortunately losing the hyperlinks in the original.
Here is the text
Dear Sir,
Your report about Louise Ellman makes sobering reading. No one should suffer the kind of mental distress she describes as a result of disagreements within a political party.
However, we have to take issue in the strongest possible terms with the characterisation of us as a group who โteach Jew hateโ or associate with anyone who would accuse a Jewish person of not having human blood. it is deeply offensive and utterly without foundation.
The Forde Report, to which we have responded, is a serious document resulting from a detailed inquiry which concluded that antisemitism was used for factional purposes against the Corbyn leadership and against a large number of members, often chosen, it would appear for their socialist politics.
Many Jews suffered terribly as a result of that factional campaign โ Jews like Mike Howard, a dedicated anti-racist, a party member for 40 years and a former labour councillor, who died last year with the unjustified stain of antisemitism allegations hanging over him.
Dozens more members of Jewish Voice for Labour have been affected, including in Louise Ellmanโs former constituency, Liverpool Riverside.
There is incontrovertible evidence that, contrary to her account, her reasons for leaving the party in October 2019 were based on political differences with local members that have nothing to do with antisemitism.
We published a substantial dossier providing this evidence Neither Louise Ellman nor anyone associated with her have ever challenged a word of it. We donโt doubt that those opposed to Corbyn suffered distress during the acrimonious period we have just passed through, but we ask your readers to take note of the much greater harm suffered by those, Jews and others, wrongly accused of the vile offence of antisemitism. We have documented its extentย in a number of submissions to the EHRC (Equalities and Human Right Commission).
Co-chairs JVL
Bravo! Measured, compassionate and not allowing an inch of wiggle room to untruths (which may or may not be deliberate). Thank you.
The letter from Joe Freedman is spreading inaccuracies, or lies to put it accurately.
Well done. They shouldn’t get away with soiling JVLs good intent to teach people what is and what isn’t AS.
I am a retired lecturer & during my teacher training I was ‘educated’ in awareness training with specic reference to racism. I am a catholic who has Jewish friends & we talk about many things but recently ‘anti-Semitism Training’. what is it & what specifically makes it a different kind of racism? Local schools teach a history of a Holocaust but not a history of the nakba. All stereotypes are negative & there are cultural & perceptual dangers in their usage, but my father’s family are Irish Travellers & ‘Pikey’ was my nickname & I know many Roma & Sinti closely associate with the history of Auschwitz, but there is a danger in Holocaust appropriation, Jews were not the only ones who suffered.
I realise that violence against Jews has always been a physical reality, as with all ‘outsiders’& minorities, but the people of Britain (Manchester) are now being targetted because of the British government’s forign policies. To what extent is there a direct link between violence in the middle east & ‘acts of terrorism’ in Britain? There appears to be little historical context ever taught, only a history of the Jewish Holocaust.
And the fact that John Wareโs Panorama program on which Ms Ellman stated some very damning pieces and reported by Jewish Chronicle led to court case which JC lost? Moreover, perhaps fact that John Wareโs case of libel against Mr Corbyn after Mr Corbyn called out lies in Panorama program was dropped when Mr Ware did not turn up on due date to submit his papers! Will anyone ask him why? Will anyone ask Ms Ellman about Panorama case being dropped by Mr Ware or failure of JChronicle to win case against CLP member at Riverside?
The fact that the plaintiff did not turn up in court implies, then, that the case has been dropped. Can anyone tell us what, then, is the status of the case regarding the not inconsiderable expenses Jeremy Corbyn will inevitably have incurred in preparing the defence? I am a teacher not a lawyer, but I have to ask whether the [eventual in]action against Jeremy Corbyn was calculated to prejudice his political actions, or indeed to cause emotional stress? At what point does this acquire the status of “vexatious”? Just askin’, as they say.
I have always said that Jeremy was not racist but was against the Zionist government of Israel.
Addressing Mrs Ellman as “Mrs Ellman” sems to be regarded as a crime against humanity. There seems to be no depth to which the Zionist fanatics will not sink.