UK: Defeat the Witch-Hunt by the Metropolitan Police against Anti-Zionists!
Freedom of Speech for All Socialists, Anti-Zionists and Palestinian Supporters in the Labour Party!
Expel All Blairites and Pro Zionists from the Labour Party!
By Joseph Adams, RCIT Britain, 08 December 2018, www.thecommunists.net
On the 2nd November Cressida Dick, the Assistant Police Commissioner in the Metropolitan Police told LBC in an interview that she has started an investigation into hate crime in the Labour party over Anti-Semitism. These 45 cases of purported Anti-Semitism are secret and have not being revealed to any official in the Labour Party
“Scotland Yard has opened a criminal investigation into allegations of anti-Semitic hate crimes linked to Labour party members, according to the commissioner of the Metropolitan police. Cressida Dick said officers had reviewed a leaked party dossier detailing 45 cases of alleged antisemitism that was passed to her in September by the radio station LBC. The UK’s most senior police officer told the BBC she believed there could be a case to answer and, as a result, the force was consulting with prosecutors on the next steps.” [1]
“LBC handed the dossier to Ms Dick in an interview in September. Before it did so, it showed the material to former Met police officer Mark Chishty, whose view was that 17 instances should have been reported to the police for investigation, and another four were potential race hate crimes”.
Labour against the Witch-Hunt (LAW), a campaigning organisation in the Labour party, has shown that party members who support the Palestinian cause or attack the State of Israel are being disciplined, dismissed or suspended from employment in Labour controlled authorities, although it has no bearing on the jobs they do for the local authorities.
“Defend trade unionists’ right to free speech! Defend employment rights! Paul, a community safety Officer in Dudley and a member of Unison has been suspended by his employer, Dudley Council. According to a report in the local press, Paul was suspended by Dudley Council for a Facebook post Stating “Stand up for Palestine – Israel is a racist endeavor”. Paul is a long-standing anti-racist activist and campaigner against antisemitism and all forms of racism. He is also an active campaigner for Palestinian rights. Whatever one’s views on Israel or the nature of the Israeli state and its founding, there is nothing Anti-Semitic about this statement. Paul’s suspension is an attack on every trade unionist’s right to engage in political and human rights’ campaigns outside work; it is an attack on employees’ right to freedom speech and specifically an attack on the right to campaign over Palestinian rights”. [2]
This campaign of purported anti-Semitism has been launched by the Blairites and Zionists in the Labour party against Corbyn and his supporters. They have used the International Holocaust Remembrance Slliance definition of anti-Semitism which in some respects is flawed. Having failed to remove Corbyn in two coups after he was elected, both the Blairites and the Zionists have started a campaign to accuse any Labour party member who accuses the state of Israel as racist, criminalize them with the police actively investigating anti-Zionism as a hate crime. The bourgeoisie which is in a terminal crisis over Brexit is using any method to denigrate and stop the election of a Corbyn government. The Blairites are still strong as evidenced by the dropping of charges against the two Zionist MP’s Ian Austin and Margaret Hodge. Hodge referred to Corbyn in parliament as a racist and anti-Semite which was a clear lie but these MP’s have parliamentary privilege and can say what they like.
In recent studies by Middle Eastern Eye many black and Asian organizations have questioned the IHRA definition and criticized how anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism are conflated.
“More than 80 prominent organizations from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities in Britain published a letter on Friday slamming attempts to silence the discourse on Palestine and suppress information on human rights abuses "here and abroad". The letter criticizes the working definition of anti-Semitism adopted in 2016 by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which critics say conflates anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of Israel The BAME groups' statement comes amid signals that the Labour Party is prepared to adopt the full IHRA definition, including examples relating to Israel, amid accusations of anti-Semitism against its leader Jeremy Corbyn. We are deeply worried about current attempts to silence a public discussion of what happened in Palestine and to the Palestinians in 1948, when the majority of its people were forcibly expelled," the BAME letter says” [3].
When it comes to a real discussion of racism in British society many Blairites and Zionist Labour MP’s show no interest. Their sole concern is to act as agents of the Israeli state. There is evidence of collusion between the racist state of Israel and a number of Zionist Labour MP’s. The recent prevent legislation is an example of hatred against Asian and black students studying in our schools colleges and Universities. Prevent is a policy used by the government to instruct teachers and academics to find out who could be possible extremists or terrorists in our society.
“Muslims from across the UK - the people who are actually affected by Prevent - base their feelings on facts rather than "perceptions". These facts include statistics published by the Home Office last year, which showed Muslims are disproportionately targeted by the scheme, resulting in 65 percent (4,997 people) of Prevent referrals being for 'Islamist' extremism. By comparison, right-wing extremism makes up 10 percent of referrals (759 people). In 2018, the latest Prevent statistics showed that 95 percent of referrals were unnecessary and Muslims remained 50 times more likely to be referred. Reports by organizations such as the Open Society Justice Initiative (Eroding Trust), a report by Rights Watch UK and also commentary by United Nations agencies including the Human Rights Council clearly highlight human rights and discrimination violations by Prevent that have taken place but remain ignored” [4].
The RCIT has written extensively against Zionism and this latest campaign by the Zionists and Blairites in the Labour Party has a political purpose. It is drive out any opposition to the pro capitalist, racist and imperialist views prominent amongst the right wing in the Labour Party. They have conflated the issue of anti-Zionism as anti-Semitism and will not countenance any opposition to the racist and imperialist state of Israel. The most recent act of Anti-Semitism was in Pittsburg where horrific crimes against Jews united both Jews and Arabs to defend themselves against the right wing fascists who perpetrated the crime.
“In action, Anti-Semitism takes the form of damage and desecration of property and grave sites, beating up Jews, Holocaust denial, swastikas smeared on Jewish homes, slogans against Jews like in the case of Charlottesville Virginia, where the racists shouted "Jews will not replace us" and even cases of killing Jews
The latest tragic result of Anti-Semitic hatred has been the massacre in Pittsburgh on 27 October 2018. A right-wing fanatic supporter of Trump, who hates Jews as well as Muslims, opened fire inside a synagogue, killing 11 congregants. Not too many British are aware of how the Israeli state was formed. They do not know how, in 1948, three-quarters of a million Palestinian Arabs were forcibly evicted, with British backing, off their own land. To recognize this as racist, in the words of the IHRA code, would be "Anti-Semitic
The mainstream media has won and the Labour party has to re-formulate its definition of anti-Semitism to fit the one currently used by the conservative government. This development is dangerous for the working class, the pro-Palestinian groups and for democratic Jews. It is dangerous for all Jews as it push them to ally themselves with their real enemies - the far right and the ruling class - instead of allying themselves with the working class and the struggle against racism.” [5]
Many Zionists protesting against Corbyn and the pro-Palestine supporters in the Labour party have at the same time allied themselves with right-wing fascist supporters like Tommy Robinson and Britain First, a fascist organization praised and supported by Donald Trump.
The RCIT in BRITAIN puts forward the following demands to unite all Anti-Zionist and Palestinian supporters in the Labour party against the witch-hunt and the attempt to criminalize legitimate political support for Palestine as a hate crime.
* Oppose the Metropolitan Police investigation inside the Labour Party! For a proper workers inquiry inside the Labour Party into the activities of the Zionists!
*Anti-Zionism is not a hate crime! Jeremy Corbyn and the leadership must drive out the Blairites and Zionists inside the Labour Party. They are the real Racists!
* No to state interference inside the Labour party! Defend democratic rights.
* For a Free Red Palestine from the River to the Sea!
Footnotes
1) https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/nov/02/met-police-opens-criminal-inquiry-into-labour-antisemitism-claims, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46070229
2) http://www.labouragainstthewitchhunt.org/
5) https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/anti-semitism-and-anti-zionism/part-1/