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Antisemitism and contemporary politics

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    meanwhile the trolls like Tracy Ann Oberman are behaving very oddly about being blocked by the Northern Independence Party

    https://twitter.com/MLewisLawyer/status/1378722119119474692?s=20

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      Mark Lewis, lawyer to Riley and Oberman, previously fined 2.5k for offensive Tweets, which he claimed he made in a “dream-like state” due to meds.

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        https://twitter.com/0calamity/status/1379788994150563841?s=21

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          https://twitter.com/RobertCohen2/status/1381283511060021261?s=20

          interesting thread

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            https://twitter.com/boulezian/status/1382998745902690306?s=20

            Dave Rich, head of policy at the Community Security Trust, set up to protect Jewish communities from antisemitic attacks, lambasted Corbyn in an article in the Guardian headlined “Labour’s antisemitism code exposes a sickness in Jeremy Corbyn’s party”.

            A blog on the Trust’s website added that the code “brazenly contravenes basic anti-racist principles”.

            The Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council, both claiming to represent Britain’s Jewish community, stated that the adoption by Corbyn’s officials of the code would “further erode the existing lack of confidence that British Jews have in their sincerity to tackle antisemitism within the Labour movement”.

            The Jewish Labour Movement, a Labour party affiliate connected to the Israeli Labor party, argued that the code was “a get out of jail free card” for antisemites, and claimed it breached equalities legislation.

            Ephraim Mirvis, the UK’s chief rabbi, called the code “a watershed moment” for Labour and warned that it sent "an unprecedented message of contempt to the Jewish community".

            Dozens of rabbis backed him, accusing the Labour leadership of having “chosen to ignore the Jewish community”.

            And the Campaign Against Antisemitism, a pro-Israel lobby group, argued that “the code seems to be designed to give free rein to certain forms of antisemitic discourse”.

            But despite the outpouring of concern back in 2018, note LA4J, Jewish organisations have remained silent since Labour revealed that the same antisemitism code of conduct introduced under Corbyn is being used by Starmer’s officials in disciplinary cases.
            “This was never about what was going on inside Labour, as was claimed,” said Wallis. “It was about who was in charge. The aim was to remove Corbyn at all costs.”
            Last edited by Nefertiti2; 16-04-2021, 10:11.

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              meanwhile this kind of stuff passes unnoticed

              https://twitter.com/DawnHFoster/status/1382999717731315713?s=20

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                https://twitter.com/leninology/status/1382986891973251077?s=20

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                  Richard Seymour. That takes me back.

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                    He left, didn’t he?

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                      https://twitter.com/ta_mills/status/1385858403885592578?s=20

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                        Allegations of anti-Semitism in Peterborough against councillors -

                        Labour - suspensions (pending investigation?)

                        Tories - tumbleweed?


                        ​​​​​​​https://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/new...rough-20485051

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                          Baddiel being told what he should say about antisemitism by non-Jewish shill Euan Phillips

                          https://twitter.com/EuanPhilipps/status/1389522629518897159?s=20

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                            Pete Newbon a director of "Labour Against Antisemitism" (though not apparently a member of the Labour Party) Photoshopped an Image of Jeremy Corbyn reading "we're going on a Bear Hunt" by Michael Rosen to suggest that Corbyn was reading "The Protocols of The Elders of Zion" an antisemitic text about alleged Jewish Conspiracy

                            https://twitter.com/simonmaginn/status/1395008588385595405?s=20

                            Michael Rosen - a Jew who supportred Corbyn and is not a fan of the Israeli governement is understandably furious

                            the original image is here
                            https://twitter.com/postingdad/status/1395018552348864512?s=20


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                              That seems fairly actionable, to my admittedly, untrained eye.

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                                Originally posted by Nefertiti2 View Post
                                He left, didn’t he?
                                He did.

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                                  https://twitter.com/SolHughesWriter/status/1395050773143298049?s=19

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                                    Hi guys, I've been in deep despair over the latest situation – one that is just inevitable in so many ways – and have been avoiding OTF due to the paranoid fear of being saddened further. In fact, I've been avoiding this particular thread for approximately 4 months as it has tended (in my eyes at least) to be a thread that has contained an odd amount of space focussing on Corbyn/Labour-related schadenfreude rather than the extremely visceral and scary threat of contemporary antisemitism.

                                    Across the world, Jewish people are targeted because they're Jewish. Leftists, Rightists and Islamists all have bought into the worst view of what a Jewish person is and represents, and the amount of Nazi PotEoZ shit going around is sickening and frightening. There's being caught between the hammer and the anvil, and then there's the current sitch where you can add the forge itself into the mix.

                                    The videos I'm being sent showing brazen attacks on innocent Jewish people (in Western cities) over the past week number close to a dozen. People I know are removing mezuza's from their doors, and Jewish shops are being targeted.

                                    Against my better judgement, I took a peek here this morning, expecting (hoping?) to see those same videos, or at least the tweets relating to them. Alas, no.

                                    On the giant Trump thread, the Police Brutality one and the Israel one, there are innumerable links to heinous and violent acts perpetrated against the defenceless, with lots of righteous and indignant anger. Here though, I do not see it. Baddiel talks about this in his book: I guess Jewish people are this magical and otherworldly creation who simultaneously are white, wealthy, powerful and "on top" (we're punching up!) whilst also being subhuman scum (err, still – we're punching up!).

                                    If the board members are unaware or are ambivalent, then I give up.

                                    I'll leave this Golda Meir quote here.

                                    If we have to have a choice between being dead and pitied and being alive with a bad image, we’d rather be alive and have the bad image.
                                    Last edited by Posty Webber; 20-05-2021, 06:49. Reason: Closer to 1 dozen

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                                      Yeah, I'm pretty unaware tbh. I know there are problems in Hungary, that's been quite well documented, but the UK press don't seem particularly interested. Which western cities?

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                                        London, LA, NYC. Ohio I think. A few in Canada. These off the top of my head.

                                        This thread here demonstrates how I feel:

                                        https://twitter.com/frimetg/status/1395022609717268485?s=21
                                        Last edited by Posty Webber; 20-05-2021, 06:17.

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                                          It's horrible isn't it. A Jewish friend in Brighton shared a letter that her 12 year daughter had written saying she is scared to say or show she is Jewish at the moment, and reported antisemitic incidents in the UK have risen 250%. We've all seen that horrendous video of that convoy driving through Finchley.

                                          The constant conflation by the right of criticism of Israel with antisemitism, and lowering the bar further and further as to what constitutes antisemitism, has been counter productive I think. Some people have accepted the framing, and hold international Jews as synonymous with Netanyahu 's racist, murderous government. Some people who might have been more supportive of Jewish communities have been alienated by being constantly told that their support for Corbyn makes them de facto antisemitic. And plenty of people need no reason to be antisemitic as history attests.

                                          I always hate to post on this subject as the emotions are so raw, many of the issues are so nuanced that I feel I can't address half of what I want to say without writing an essay.

                                          But solidarity Posty Webber

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                                            Hi Posty, hope youre doing Ok and welcome back, hope you will stay a bit longer. By all means post examples of antisemtism on this thread, you are right that people need to be aware of them, like the horrendous attack on Rabbi Rafi Goodwin in Chigwell last weej- for which two men have been arrested. or the convoy driving through London and screaming antisemitic and sexist abuse,

                                            I started this thread and I revived it to talk about the way antisemitism and often what I consider "antisemitism" has been instrumentalised to attack the left. for being a jew who is critical of Israel and who thinks that antisemitism remains a bigger problem on the right than on the left tI have been abused both by Jews and fascists as an antisemite, a selfhating Jew, an asajew a kapo and so forth.

                                            Moreover I have seen accusations of antisemitism used to silence any criticism of Israel, claiming for example that saying Israeli bombs on Gaza kill children is "the blood libel" .

                                            The quote from Golda Meir is a false binary. Often the very people who want to hound Jews out of pour homes in Europe or the US, or Australia, are the same who are fervent supporters of the Israel- whatever it does. They see the world through racist eyes. and the message is that as the Jews now have a state why don't they all fuck off there.That was an argument against Zionism from the date of the Balfour Declaration and before.

                                            Israel under Netanyahu has had no plans for peace. they have worked only to secure the occupation and make life impossible for the people whose land they are stealing. We also need to remember that netanyahu came to public prominence when Rabin was promoting a peace process, and helped crate the climate in which he was assassinated. now the far right from whom his assssain came are welcome in the coalitions.

                                            As long as Israel uses the kind of rhetoric in the Meir quote to justify its human rights abuses in Gaza and the West Bank (and in israel itself) whilst working to ensure that any disquiet about its actions is muted or dismissed as antisemitic I suspect antisemitic attacks will grow, not lessen. Just as Israel needs Hamas, it also needs antisemitism.

                                            That's why it's crucial that those who oppose what Israel is doing should be mindful of antisemitism and call it out whenever it occurs. But we should also be wary of false equivalence. People shouting antisemitic insults froma car is horrible. But it doesn't compare with people killing your family whether in Germany in the 1930's or in Gaza now. Words aren't worse than bullets and bombs,

                                            The attempts to suggest that Jews live in fear of their lives in the UK is untrue -( see for example the claims by many that they would have to emigrate if Corbyn came to power) as it is to deny the real fears of those facing bombing in Gaza. I would add that those facing missiles in the South of Israel are also living in fear, though they are better protected by the infrastructure and have the possibility of shelter.




                                            Last edited by Nefertiti2; 20-05-2021, 07:36.

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                                              Well that's pretty depressing. It shouldn't be difficult for those groups to offer support to Palestinians, and to Jewish communities that are suffering abuse at the same time. Also quite concerning at the non-reporting in the UK press. I know there's a lot going on in the world right now, but I'd like to think that anti-semetic attacks in London would at least get a mention in the Guardian.

                                              Or have I just missed it? I live abroad, so maybe it was reported, and I didn't see it. This convoy mentioned above is the first I've heard of it, and tbh I'm not sure I really want to see the footage. From afar it feels like the UK has become a lot more openly racist since I left.
                                              Last edited by ooh aah; 20-05-2021, 07:48.

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                                                Ooh aah, it is certainly the case that racism is far more visible than it has been for a while. I was linked on Twitter to a daughter of a holocaust survivor saying for the first time in Britain she feels unsafe as a Jew. Then I looked at the replies and three of the first four were straight out anti muslim racist.

                                                I agree with much of Nefertiti post, but just because the term antisemitism is being weaponised to attack the left and defend Israel, doesn't mean that Jews aren't right to be scared.

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                                                  Originally posted by Etienne View Post
                                                  Ooh aah, it is certainly the case that racism is far more visible than it has been for a while. I was linked on Twitter to a daughter of a holocaust survivor saying for the first time in Britain she feels unsafe as a Jew. Then I looked at the replies and three of the first four were straight out anti muslim racist.

                                                  I agree with much of Nefertiti post, but just because the term antisemitism is being weaponised to attack the left and defend Israel, doesn't mean that Jews aren't right to be scared.
                                                  It's kind of relative, though, isn't it? Those who dress visibly as Jews are probably more likely to face attacks these days as happened to the Rabbi in Chingford and has happened in Stamford Hill recently. Obviously people who do this must be opposed at every opportunity.

                                                  I doubt that those attacks are more likely to happen to Jews than they are to Muslims or to Eastern Europeans and those attacks generally get much less publicity. Sadly some of the instittuions who are protecting Jews, like the Community Security Trust, have become hugely politicised, and try to dismiss and frame criticism of Israel as antisemitism.

                                                  The much missed David Graeber speaks for me

                                                  https://twitter.com/davidgraeber/status/1201950245804027904?s=20


                                                  I've no doubt that there is more anxiety amongst British Jews, and they face the small but real chance of facing antisemiitc abuse or worse. B ut those in the Jewish Community who have suggested that Jews would need to leave the country if Jeremy Corbyn were elected and made direct comparisons with the National Sociaists in Germany need to take responsibility not only for increasing tension but for desecrating the memories of the millions who were hounded out of their jobs, robbed, imprisoned tortured and murdered
                                                  Last edited by Nefertiti2; 20-05-2021, 10:11.

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                                                    Thanks for raising this Posty Webber
                                                    ​​​​
                                                    I had heard about the incident in London, and yesterday heard about the LA one (because I was having an online argument with someone who accused me of being anti semitic and when I protested she argued that this incident in LA showed that people supporting Palestinians were anti semitic)

                                                    I hope it goes without saying that everyone on OTF is appalled d by this shit. And it's horrible to learn that Jews are living in fear anywhere.

                                                    I think Nef is right when he says that the expansion of the definition of anti semitism to include any and all criticism of Israel is and will continue to be a massive problem - and for Jews mostly - as the word is being rendered meaningless. The incidents mentioned on this thread are awful and need to be dealt with, and "casual" anti semitism too needs to be addressed when it comes up (I have to do some of this too, unfortunately). But I was trying to get hold of a trauma specialist the other day and that apparently was anti semitic to which my response is to laugh and cry all at the same time. It's a bit boy who cried wolf.

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