‘The wrong sort of Jew’: How Labour pursued complaints against elderly Jewish opponents of Israel
Published
by
Richard Kuper
JVL Introduction
Richard Sanders writes about the ” little-reported aspect of the Labour antisemitism story – the frequency with which Jewish party members find themselves the centre of investigations, often on what they regard as the flimsiest and most tendentious of grounds.”
He presents the stories of a number of these Jews, including Diana Neslen, Stephen Solley retired QC, and George Wilmers and speaks to others, including Palestinians, for an assessment of what is going on.
This article was originally published by Middle East Eye on Thu 24 Sep 2020. Read the original here.
‘The wrong sort of Jew’: How Labour pursued complaints against elderly Jewish opponents of Israel
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A compelling article. The victimisation of comrades on trumped up charges of antisemitism is an outrage. The fact that Jewish Labour Party members have been targeted in this way is appalling. It reflects very badly on the perpetrators of this witch hunt. My heart goes out to all of those affected by this shocking treatment by the party apparatus.
This sentence (above, repeated below) intrigues and concerns me, based as it seems to be on the assumption that either (a) several JVL committee members are defendants in current cases where sub judice rules apply or (b) the LGU persecution force of the LP has some legal authority or (c) the LGU has enjoined such members to remain silent.
“For legal reasons JVL is reluctant to discuss details but says a significant proportion of its committee is now under investigation by the party.”
I do not suggest that any JVL member or committee member be gratuitously offered as a martyr/sacrifice to the hyenas of the billionaire press by unnecessary disclosure. But always giving in to the blackmail of the ‘Star Chamber” proceedings simply encourages more and ever more arbitrary persecution. Stephen Solley as quoted shows the fine spirit of ‘J’accuse’ (Emile Zola in defense of Dreyfus). JVL committee and officers must urgently discuss where to draw the line on this ongoing and increasing scandal. How can democracy operate in secret? For David Evans, of course, democracy in the LP is not ‘competent business’ – let us not let him and his henchmen drag us down to his level.
The threats reported here are nothing short of monstrous.
The intention of these sick people is to smash, pulverise and atomise the left – and not just in the Labour Party – to give aid and comfort to capitalism.
Now they have got rid of Jeremy Corbyn, they think the Labour Party belongs to them and will go ahead with their vicious purges.
Personally, I have not seen anything on this level of sheer vindictiveness (and vacuousness) since the LP bureaucracy’s expulsion of the Young Socialists/Keep Left/Socialist Labour League in 1964 and, later, the weakling and scab betrayer of the miners’ strike, Neil Kinnock’s, nauseating onslaught against Militant.
Very interesting article. I would question the claim that David Collier is “an antisemitism campaigner” though. He seems to be much more interested in getting the LP to purge itself of opponents of Israel than in defending us from the far right.
Just to note that our CLP (Sheffield Central) tonight voted about 71-15 with 23 abstentions (on Zoom) to oppose David Evans’ letter calling on us to not discuss EHRC, IHRA or the “Panorama 7” settlement. Interestingly, the only person who actually talked about the content of these issues was opposing the motion – bit of a contradiction there, and hypocrisy too! The proposers and their supporters merely said this was an attack on internal democracy and free speech and subverts the authority of the NEC.
My first reaction to this is that Richard Sanders, since he is an award winning TV producer should produce a programme on this topic. I’m sure there would be more than enough material and see how readily the BBC or any other channel picks up on it. After all they produced the Panorama programme showing one side of the argument and there has been no programme in the past 5 years which has enabled the argument against the antisemitism campaign to be put.
The clear and obvious conclusion to be drawn is that what has happened in the past 5 years was a very clever campaign, undoubtedly drawn up by senior intelligence operatives, designed to find the fault lines of the left. And identity politics and the question of Jews and anti-semitism was that fault line.
That is why Jenny Manson’s comment that:
‘JVL does not dispute antisemitism exists in the Labour Party. “We work hard to challenge and reduce it by education and constructive criticism,” says co-chair Jenny Manson. But it advocates forcefully for those it feels have been wrongly accused and often receives vicious abuse as a result.’
is disappointing. If the campaign was not about anti-semitism what does it matter if a handful of isolated individuals in the LP are anti-Semitic? It is clear that more than a handful are Islamophobic and otherwise racist against non-White people yet there has been no fuss about them.
Clearly a campaign in which non-Jews target Jews has nothing to do with anti-Semitism. That should be blindingly obvious and yet it wasn’t. People kept saying that it was only x% or y% and therefore it was insignificant, which missed the point. If it wasn’t about antisemitism then what does it matter?
Very good article, an eye opener and somehow hard to stomach (for me anyway).
How can JLM et al get away with, in effect, in my view, antisemitic behaviour against members of the Jewish community merely because they have different views to their accusers or do not agree with breaches of Human rights or International laws nor the oppression the Palestinan population endure on a daily basis?
So sad to see the Jewish community so divided.The benefactors as ever are the establishment / media with interests to protect.How insane that members of a group who have suffered endless historical persecution can totally ignore the suffering that Israel are inflicting on Palestine.
I joined the Labour Party as a Young Socialist in 1956. I have been a member of 3 CLPs. Through all those years I have been able to observe the Stalinist attitudes and actions , of our Right Wing. One occasion I was convinced right wing officials had altered the result of a candidate selection vote. When members asked for the ballot papers to be checked we were told those papers had been lost.
Anyone who would like to examine the malign right wing influence over the years should read Michael Foot’s biography of Nye Bevan . Bevan was subject to horrendous treatment by both Labour MPs and Trades Union leaders such as Ernie Bevin who ruled the Party with rod of iron. Bevan was actually expelled just before WW2 started.
Many right wing Labour MPs opposed Nyes’ plans for the NHS. There is nothing new about the antics of Labour members who are opposed to progressive policies. New Labour was perfect example.
For those who haven’t seen it this brief video of David Collier is highly amusing.
https://youtu.be/oY1VpV-wXuM
I’m hoping the individuals who feel they’ve been treated unfairly – being punished for antisemitic behaviour without cause – will have passed on the details of their own cases to the Forde Inquiry.
Even if they’ve not already done so, it would be worthwhile to send in the information. The Forde Inquiry doesn’t report until the end of the year and their information might assist in how the report is written.
I agree with the article ..
To me as an RC with Irish ancestry this is so redolent of the split between Christians of various denominations. For many years the idea of who or who was not a “real Christian” depended on who was in power at the time. We have seen what this has done to Northern Island where the divisions are still painfully being healed. Obviously politics is very much involved .. and the previous history and violence cannot be easily got over.
Are we not sick of all this? Certainly gentiles (like myself) have no right to say this or that group represents the Jewish Community but should listen to both in a respectful and considerate way. In my view the accusation “You are the wrong sort of Jew” is itself antisemitic.
The idea of a TV program is a good one – the BBC owes other views than are normally presented some air time .. The Jewish Chronicle was forced to apologise by the Press Commission – see “IPSO upholds Labour activist’s accuracy complaint against JC” in November 2019 and yet this was so far as I could tell never reported by the BBC (or any member of the MSM).
My reaction is to ask JVL and other left wing sites to put up on their front pages the slate of candidates we should all be voting for in NEC Elections
Including disabled and young peoples candidates
Its a start and lays the ground for rule changes that will allow next leader to clear out those who prefer a Tory government and are behind the AS Scam
We have publicised the Grassroots voice 6:
Gemma Bolton
Yasmine Dar
Ann Henderson
Nadia Jama
Laura Pidcock
Mish Rahman
We urge all our supporters to vote for them as #1 to #6 We also urge all our supporters to vote for other left-wing candidates at #7 onwards.
It is important to vote all the way down so any fragments of excess and transferred votes go to other candidates who will defeat the right-wing candidates.
The real anti semites in the Labour Party are the blinkered and ignorant supporters of the state of Israel and its murderous policies towards Palestine. They should be attacked and driven out. We need and want our party back. In solidarity with their victims.
Is there a share facility for this article, I want to share it on WhatsApp, but can’t find an icon. (I’m not super tech savvy)
It is important to recognise why the MSM choose not to investigate why so many Jewish members were accused of antisemitism.To highlight this fact would have caused many to question the very idea that the Labour Party was awash with anti semites.That is why we need to get the contents of this article out to as wide an audience as possible. We understand the motives of the witch hunters. The general public were regularly told that Labour had an antisemitism problem. If they were aware that many Jewish members were being accused of antisemitism I think they would have been more likely to question the claim of the witch hunters.