"He was a member of the BNP but he never said anything racist"

Today marks something of an epiphany. I had, sort of, assumed that the Labour Party would eventually get round to sorting itself out on the matter of antisemitism. After all, being a Jew is recognised as an ethnic designation - in the words of our equalities laws, a 'protected charcteristic'. This means that language attacking Jewish people on the basis of their Jewish identity is a 'hate crime'.

The revelation that the leader of the Labour Party was a member of a "secret" forum on Facebook that seems to have specialised in antisemitism was pretty shocking. But it is only half as shocking as the reaction of Labour members and supporters to this revelation. With a few notable exceptions, Labour MPs, councillors and activists responded to the existence of this forum and Mr Corbyn's involvement with what amounts to a shrug. If these folk said anything it amounted to "nobody cares" - probably because there are only 300,000 or so Jews in Britain making racism towards them pretty marginal in political terms.

When poked or pushed the typical reaction from Labour members has been to make excuses for Mr Corbyn - like this:

...being a member of a group where obnoxious views are expressed does not mean that you share them. Unless there is clear evidence, such as a racist post or a like of a racist post by an individual it is merely circumstantial, and at worst cause for concern.

So Mr Corbyn is invited to join a group full of racists, chooses to join the group (we'll give him the benefit of the doubt on whether he checked out the group before joining) and remains a member for at least two years. During that period we're expected to believe that Mr Corbyn didn't witness a single antisemitic trope, meme or statement even though he appears to have helped (or so the people involved said) organise a meeting of some sort - here's a letter to Mr Corbyn from Joan Ryan, Labour MP for Enfield North:



It may be - I haven't seen - that Mr Corbyn denies helping organise this meeting or deflects it by passing off the organisational blame onto his office but, for me at least, this shows that he was actively engaged with the people running the group who were (judging from their posts) deeply antisemitic. It's not just a case of being a member and occasionally posting.

Overwhelmingly the membership of the Labour Party is not antisemitic but, when the leader and people around the leader are closely associated with antisemites, you have to ask whether the sort of "Jeremy's not antisemitic he was just on a forum full of antisemites" argument gets thinner and thinner. We've not quite got there yet but it's getting close to the position where the defence is effectively: "he was a member of the BNP but he never said anything racist". And people who remain in the Labour Party without, at the very least, questioning whether the Party has a problem are pretty complicit in perpetuating the too widely held view that being racist to Jews isn't as bad as other forms of racism.

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David Ward MP keeps on digging...

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Now it's the great Jewish conspiracy - the "machine":

"There is a huge operation out there, a machine almost, which is designed to protect the state of Israel from criticism. And that comes into play very, very quickly and focuses intensely on anyone who's seen to criticise the state of Israel. And so I end up looking at what happened to me, whether I should use this word, whether I should use that word – and that is winning, for them. Because what I want to talk about is the fundamental question of how can they do this, and how can they be allowed to do this."

Saying that atrocities in Gaza were down to "the Jews" was anti-semitic. Saying that the only reason he got into trouble was because of some vast machine compounds David Ward's 'mistake'. The truth is he got into trouble for saying that "the Jews" hadn't learned from The Holocaust.

I'm pretty sure David doesn't mean to be anti-semitic but the effect is the same - maybe he needs some awareness training?

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Quote of the day: "they of all people"

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From the always readable and sometimes brilliant Heresy Corner:

...however much you disagree with Israeli policy in the West Bank and elsewhere (and I'm not a big fan) there is no valid comparison between an over-the-top security operation intended to preserve the territorial integrity, indeed the very existence, of the state of Israel, and the systematic attempt by the Nazis to wipe an entire people from the face of the earth. None.

Do read the rest of the piece.

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In which David Ward MP gets a little anti-semitic.

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I've no time at all for David Ward MP - I recall when he accused the then Director of Regeneration in Bradford of racism in a letter he bunged through doors in Barkerend. And when he accused me of lying in a speech to Council - when I wasn't present to respond.

However, today - when we remember the evil of Hitler's genocide - David Ward launches what seems to be a crass, anti-semitic attack:

"Having visited Auschwitz twice - once with my family and once with local schools - I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza."

The Jews, David? All the Jews?

And it seems, when asked to explain, David digs his hole deeper:

“It appears that the suffering by the Jews has not transformed their views on how others should be treated”.

Oh dear. The Jews, David? All the Jews?

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...of course anti-semitism isn't a problem in the UK

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Or maybe it is:

A spokesman for the Brighton Dome said the reason for the cancellation was to concentrate all security resources on one evening, in order that at least one show would go ahead smoothly with a "higher level of security". He said that the decision had been made following discussions about security with Sussex Police, and with awareness about the disruptions and protests at the Edinburgh shows.

It is appalling that people feel able to target a show simply because it is Jewish. And that the police are so supine and unready to defend free speech.

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