Proud to be “the wrong sort of Jew”
JVL Introduction
While Palestinians in Gaza face ethnic cleansing and possible genocide, the Labour Party leadership has condoned Israel’s multiple breaches of international law and told members they must avoid expressing support for Palestine as this might “undermine the Labour Party’s ability to provide a safe and welcoming space for all its members.”
The party has long ceased to be a welcoming space for two Jewish pensioners from Merseyside, Rica Bird and Helen Marks, whose stories are told in the article below, first published by Middle East Eye during Labour Party conference. Their experiences illustrate the situation outlined in a formal letter of complaint sent by Jewish Voice for Labour to the party’s general secretary in August, giving data about discriminatory treatment of left wing Jews.
Marks and Bird told MEE reporter Oscar Rickett they were targeted with accusations of antisemitism “levelled at them for political reasons.” They are proud to be the “wrong sort of Jew.”
This article was originally published by Middle East Eye on Tue 10 Oct 2023. Read the original here.
The Jewish women no longer welcome in the Labour Party
Labour’s conference in Liverpool is taking place against the backdrop of turmoil in Israel and Palestine. But for some local former members, accusations of antisemitism still rankle.
Loading article text…
“In a comment piece in the Jewish News newspaper published the following day, Ware acknowledged that the testimony had been, “mixed up in the editing”.
That’s one way of putting it.
This is a calm and honestly presented demolition of the narrative that the LP, Corbyn and his team were antisemites and accepting of antisemitism in the party which supposedly suddenly erupted as a result of JC becoming leader: the ‘existential threat to Jewish life in the UK’ as crazily asserted by successive Chief Rabbis and the BoD. It speaks volumes that the current LP leadership has largely ignored the findings of Forde, and has been criticised by Forde for not wanting to discuss the findings with the author. Even worse is the total refusal to discuss/refute/acknowledge the Al-Jazeera’s “The Labour Files” which exposes so much that was/is disgracefully factional about the LP. In writing this I realize that to Starmerphiles I will be accused of being an anti-semitic Tory……after about 40 years in the party. I want better than what’s currently on offer.
My husband, Mike Howard, was also proud to be The Wrong Sort of Jew. Like Mike, these two women were also likely to have suffered anti-Semitism first hand so to be accused of it was an insult to them and to all other caring Jews who know what it really is.
I thought the report about the proportion of LP members accused of antisemitism said the figure was 0.03%, not 1% as mentioned in the article. The figure is one thousandth of the figure perceived by the public in the poll and of course we know that most of these 0.03% were false accusations as well.
So much respect for Helen and Rica. I’m ashamed of this land. How we ‘let’ the BBC use our own poll-tax money, the licence fee, to bare-faced lie to us, on pain of prison if we don’t cough up, without descending on them en masse every day, is beyond me. Not to divert too much, but ‘intelligent’ members of my family have slavishly swallowed the Panorama junk like a school of basking sharks, with the observation that, ‘If it’s on the BBC, it must be true.’ The BBC knows that in general, folk are too tired to argue and little bothered enough to complain, so cynically broadcast the line they know will resonate with the reactionary, well-heeled constituency they ultimately answer to. E.S. Herman and Noam Chomsky’s ‘Manufacturing Consent’ applies in all its grotesque clarity. Ergo: The BBC cares NOT ONE JOT for the plight of Jews with respect to anti-Semitism, but wholly for the financial safety of those whose privilege and position would be ‘compromised’ by their sworn enemy – us.
Brave people – I salute you.