George Galloway and Prof. Michael Rosen Attack Margaret Hodge’s Anti-Semitism Smear against Corbyn | Beastrabban\’s Weblog
Vile: Margaret Hodge.
Reblogged because you should read it – and then see the rest of the article on The Beast’s own website, which also has the link to the full interview.
A few days ago, Dame Margaret Hodge stood up in Parliament to denounce Jeremy Corbyn as an anti-Semite, who didn’t ‘want people like me in the party’ because the Labour leader had failed to bow to the pressure of the Israel lobby and adopt the full definition of anti-Semitism now being foisted on everyone by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. This attempts to outlaw as anti-Semitic criticism of Israel.
The media have just lapped up Hodge’s denunciation, and reacted with horror at the possibility that she might be disciplined for attacking her party leader in Parliament. A highly biased report in the I did its best to leave its readers with no doubt whatsoever that Corbyn was anti-Semitic, like the rest of the British press. In support of this the papers mentioned that Hodge was not only Jewish, but like very many Jews had lost family in the Holocaust. Further on in the I their columnist, Simon Kelner, wrote a piece arguing that Labour should adopt the I.H.R.A.’s definition of anti-Semitism, because it was formulated by Jews, who were the people best placed to realise what anti-Semitism is. This is all despite the fact that very many Jews reject the I.H.R.A’s definition of anti-Semitism. According to what I’ve heard, 36 Jewish organisations from around the world concerned with protesting and combating Israel’s brutalisation and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians gave messages of congratulation to Corbyn because he hadn’t caved into pressure and adopted the definition in toto. But you won’t hear that from the biased British press. Nor will you see it on TV. On the Andrew Marr Show, the eponymous presenter seemed to get very irritated and insistent with a spokeswoman from the Labour Party, Rebecca Long-Bailey, because Labour hadn’t adopted that definition of Anti-Semitism like everyone else. And then in parliament yesterday we had the revolting spectacle of right-wing Labour MPs standing up one after the other to denounce Corbyn as an anti-Semite.
[George Galloway’s radio talk show, The Mother Of All Talk Shows, recently featured a conversation between Galloway himself and Professor Michael Rosen, a children’s poet.] Rosen and Galloway have also known Jeremy Corbyn for a very long time, and Rosen himself is a Labour supporter, though not a member of the party. He’s also Jewish, and has a very different perspective on the accusations of anti-Semitism against Corbyn, which you certainly won’t read in the press. He and Galloway both state very clearly that knowing Corbyn for as long as they have, they know that he is certainly not anti-Semitic.They go on to discuss Hodge’s splenetic attack in parliament. Rosen says that it sounds very much like it was staged to cause maximum exposure. He states that if Hodge really felt that Corbyn was an anti-Semite, she would instead have raised the issue through the organs within the Labour party itself set up to deal with such grievances. She hasn’t. Nor has she made this complaint before.
In short, Hodge is a vile individual, who is libelling Corbyn as anti-Semite simply to prevent a genuine Socialist getting into No. 10. And she is supported by the Blairites in the Labour party, the Tories and the mainstream media. And it’s about time this stopped, and was exposed for what it is.
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It’s one thing to characterise Margaret Hodge’s actions as vile. Its quite another to describe her that way. It undermines what you stand for. Please stop.
Looking at her record, how would you describe her?
Michael Rosen is superb, an oasis of clarity and light! What a brilliant man.
Everybody should listen to his conversation with Galloway.
The Right wing and the Establishment controlled media will stop at nothing to prevent a Left wing Socialist government.
Typo alerts ” … A highly biased report in the I did its best to leave its readers …”
“…Further on in the I their columnist, …”
There’s a newspaper called the “I”.
Perhaps should be ‘I’ then?
I thought that it was called the “i”
A small distinction, I know but it would certainly avoid the confusion exampled above.
Congratulations, again, for highlighting this nonsense. I watched Sky News, last even, with dismay, as a young Jewish woman said, “you stand out.” As a black man, I know what it is like to stand out and the fact that I didn’t know that my best friend of the last 18 years was Jewish until he told me, says a lot about how Jews stand out in white Britain. Certainly, many Jews do stand out but most do not and I find what she said insulting. Furthermore, if Jews are best placed to realise what anti-Semitism is and should, therefore, define it, why has no other ethnic group been afforded the same privilege?
This is beginning to annoy me, now and it is doing Jewish people no favours.
I wrote to the Party, regarding this issue and offered my personal misgivings about the examples given with the International Holocaust Memorial Alliance’s definition and asked for a reply but like every other communication that I have made to the Party, it has not been reciprocated and this I find deeply disturbing.
Freedom of speech is fine in my view. If you don’t like Jews and say so that’s fine, if you don’t like whites that’s fine, if you don’t like blacks that’s fine too, and you have the right to say what you think. Trouble here is that we are talking about politicians who can never be trusted to say what they really think since they are driven by doctrine or the wishes of their backers. So to hear Galloway passing any kind of comment on this issue is hardly inspiring nor do I wish to hear it.
If someone hates Jews because they are Jews, then that person is a racist and an anti-Semite and I don’t care what else they think.
If someone hates white people because they are white, then that person is a racist and I don’t care what else they think.
If someone hates black people because they are black, then that person is a racist and I don’t care what else they think.
If you think it is acceptable, in this day and age, for people to hold such views, then I’m not particular about your other opinions either.