Anti-Semitism row: JK Rowling schooled by British Jew

Last Updated: September 15, 2018By Tags: , , , , , , ,

JK Rowling is a terrific author of fiction. As a political commentator, however, she leaves a great deal to be desired.

She recently weighed in on the Labour anti-Semitism row, throwing her weight behind those who want us to think Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite and the Labour Party institutionally racist, supporting a thread by a person going by the pseudonym “Nuddering Nudnik”.

She should have known better. The mere fact that this person was posting under a pen-name should have indicated that they have something to hide.

Of course, if a gentile had tried to explain the faults in Nuddering’s argument to Ms Rowling, she might have found them easy to dismiss.

We are fortunate, therefore, that Ben Goran – a British Jew – stepped up and provided a wealth of evidence to show what’s really going on.

I reproduce both threads below. See who you believe. Here’s Jo and ‘Nuddering’:

And now here’s Ben Goran:

See, one of the problems with “Nuddering”‘s story is in his dialogue between Group A and Group B. It’s fine up to the point where Group B “describes the behaviour that caused the upset.”

The next part – “Group A says “we get that. We won’t do it again as you are not our enemy & we have no reason to want to hurt you” – would be justified only if Group B had been the subject of unfair and unjustified treatment by Group A. And that’s not what is happening here.

Group B – Jewish people, or at least those claiming to represent them – have not been attacked by Group A – those people in the Labour Party, including Jeremy Corbyn, accused of anti-Semitism in the mass media. Don’t try to get past that point by saying there are anti-Semites in the Labour Party, just as there are in many other organisations; we all know this. But we’re discussing institutional anti-Semitism here, and the claims against Mr Corbyn.

As Mr Goran points out, the claims against Labour are politically-motivated, to prevent criticism of the Israeli government – not the Jewish people, culture, or religion, but the government of a foreign nation. This criticism has been prompted by the activities of the Israeli government and has been made using language that may not be described as anti-Semitic – unless the person doing so is unafraid of ridicule.

British Jews, knowing this, have no reason to fear the Labour Party or its leader. Unfortunately, many of them appear to have been misled by politicians and media organisations in which they have placed their trust.

But this has been explained before.

So we come back to the dialogue, and the moment when the next part becomes: Group A says, “We did not intend to cause you distress and, as we can demonstrate, you are not the subject of our criticism. Our facts are correct and we do have a point. We would appreciate your help to put an end to the injustice that we see.”

That is what has actually happened, and the next part is deeply unfortunate. It seems Group B then says, “What you have said causes me distress. Please don’t do that.”

What this means is that Group B – or those who have set themselves up as representatives of Group B, like “Nuddering” – is trying to claim victimhood, using this as cover to deny criticism of the genuine Israeli atrocities listed by Mr Goran, and to prevent criticism of the Conservative government by keeping the focus on faked failings of the Labour Party.

There comes a point when one is forced to conclude that Group B is distressed because Group B wants to be distressed; because being distressed – or at least showing it – is seen as a way for Group B to get what it wants. For that reason, I don’t think Group B really represents British Jews at all.

That is how it works. But I reckon anybody reading this already knows.

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11 Comments

  1. trev September 16, 2018 at 9:40 am - Reply

    Blimey what a palarva, Jk Rowling clearly enjoys great works of fiction so it’s surprising that she’s lost the plot on this one.

    • John. September 21, 2018 at 4:29 pm - Reply

      The antisemitism slurs against JC are fiction, so it seems appropriate she should be jumping on the bandwagon.

  2. iamcrawford September 16, 2018 at 10:48 am - Reply

    How can Rowling accuse Corbyn of antisemitism based on hysterical allegations with no substance, with a straight face, when there’s a lot of real anti-semitic tropes used in the “Harry Potter” books? (e.g. Gringotts Bank ).

    Like Jeremy Corcyn JK Rowling is obviously not antisemitic but this looks like “Double standards” to me.

    This article from 2011 tries to justify it even though it seems to suggest she must have been aware of what they were .- What do you think?
    https://www.momentmag.com/debunking-the-harry-potter-anti-semitism-myth/

  3. iamcrawford September 16, 2018 at 11:53 am - Reply

    How can Rowling accuse Corbyn of antisemitism based on hysterical allegations with no substance when there’s a lot of real anti-semitic tropes used in the “Harry Potter” books? (e.g. Gringotts Bank ).
    Like Jeremy Corcyn JK Rowling is obviously not antisemitic but looks like “Double standards” to me.
    This article from 2011 tries to justify it even though it suggests she must have been aware of what they were .- What do you think?

    https : // http://www.momentmag.com/debunking-the-harry-potter-anti-semitism-myth/

    ( Apologies if posted twice – but suspect first one may have been mistakenly identified as spam due to link in it – remove spaces to visit )

  4. Martin Odoni September 16, 2018 at 3:22 pm - Reply

    “Two Jews, three opinions.”

    NO ONE, be it the Board of Deputies, Labour Friends of Israel, or ‘Group B’, represents British Jews. British Jews can represent themselves, and will be as likely to disagree with each other as they are to disagree with anybody else.

  5. baronesssamedi September 17, 2018 at 11:42 am - Reply

    I would like to see an actual example of Labour anti semitism (that doesn’t refer to Palestine).

  6. Camille September 17, 2018 at 6:27 pm - Reply

    Without some research, I didn’t realize there were Jews who were not Zionist!

    • iamcrawford September 18, 2018 at 7:34 am - Reply

      There are approximately 15 million Jewish people worldwide.
      A small majority of these do not live in Israel.
      There are an estimated 40 million Christian Zionists* in the USA alone so the vast majority of Zionists are definitely not Jewish.

      * Christian Zionists apparently believe that all Jewish people have to be in Israel for the second coming to happen. Some even believe that all -including Jews ! would have to convert to Christianity then or be destroyed so anti anyone who is not Christian as well

  7. Timeless September 18, 2018 at 7:53 am - Reply

    to be honest, l believe Hodge put this whole farce into perspective when she was quoted to of said (or at least from what lve seen and read) that by removing Corbyn it would end antisemitism within the party which is pretty telling if you ask me.. that and the fact that if antisemitism was so rife within Labour surely there would have been more about it sooner before Labours current leader.

    if anything the Tories are the hypocrites with their islamaphobia, they dont hide it yet no one bats an eyelid because they are muslims, which by some twist of fate palastinians are predominantly muslim which kind of makes you wonder.

  8. Voice of Treason September 18, 2018 at 12:29 pm - Reply

    I just want to add a factual nugget to the discussion because I was surprised by the claim that 90% of British Jews identify as Zionist. This is false and have never been the case. The most recent poll, conducted by City University, London, in 2015, found just 59% of British Jews identifying as Zionists. The figure varies over time because it depends on what the word is perceived to mean but it has never been anywhere near 90%. Most British Jews are also quite critical of Israeli policy towards Palestinians and 41% can be considered to be non-Zionist (at least in 2015). Clearly, there is a at least a large minority of British Jews whose views are not well represented by very Zionist institutions like the BoD, LFI and major Jewish newspapers:

    https://972mag.com/fewer-british-jews-identifying-as-zionists-poll-shows/113858/

  9. John. September 21, 2018 at 4:34 pm - Reply

    The Zionist assimilation and ownership of all things jewish continues, fomenting violence, hate and fear to achieve their supremacist fantasies made real in Palestine are what they’ve been about for last 100 years.

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