Tag Archives: Anne

Are Roger Waters’ Germany concerts really anti-Semitic?

Many may say it’s not my business to judge, because I haven’t attended any of these shows.

But then, it seems many are also being influenced by strongly pro-Israeli writers on the social media, and I dare say their opinions will be treated as valid. Either way, if my conclusions are inaccurate I’m ready to stand corrected by anybody with a well-reasoned argument.

The complaint is that former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters has displayed anti-Semitism in his current tour, with the latest shows in Germany attracting particularly strong criticism.

A show in Frankfurt was cancelled at one point, due to concerns that had been raised – but Waters took the matter to court and the event was reinstated. This suggests there is no legal basis for the claim made against these performances.

If there were, then it seems enormously unlikely that they would be allowed to take place in Germany, a country that may be (perhaps should be) forever in penitance for the genuine anti-Semitism, persecution and genocide of Jewish people during the 12 years of Nazi government there.

Part of the show that has attracted particular attention is a moment when the names of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and world-famous diarist Anne Frank were projected on screens around the stage (see above).

The claim is that this is anti-Semitic because it links Israel with Nazism (Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by Israeli military forces and Anne Frank died in a Nazi concentration camp).

But is the government of Israel really every Jew? If so, are we to take it that the Nazis of 1933-45 are representative of every German in 2023? That is the logical supposition behind the claim. I tend to believe that it fails because Germans would not attend a performance by anybody who makes such a claim about them.

To me, it seems far more likely that the musician was linking Jewish people with Palestinians by pointing out that both races have suffered oppression – the former historically and the latter currently.

In both cases, their only crime (according to the on-screen verbiage) was belonging to a race that a foreign political regime had chosen to oppress, and in both cases the result was the same: death.

I’m aware that many say any comparison between the activities of anybody who is Jewish and those of the Nazis is an act of anti-Semitism but this makes it too easy to whitewash unacceptable acts of violence like the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh.

If the activities of the Israeli Defence Force are comparable in any way with those of the Nazis, then any such similarities need to be dragged under the spotlight and examined because if they were found to be accurate, then it would be the Israeli military who had betrayed their fellow Jews by acting in that way – not anybody who pointed out what they were doing.

Nobody could suggest that those people were acting on behalf of all Jews by (in this example) killing a Palestinian journalist and be taken seriously.

A further criticism of the show is that Roger Waters appears to don a Nazi uniform and mime firing a machine gun into the audience. This is supposed to demonstrate sympathy for the Nazis.

But, again, this claim is not supportable. In a show that attacks Nazi atrocities like the oppression and eventual death of Anne Frank, it is not reasonable to suggest that the performer is himself a Nazi sympathiser.

Instead, I question the motives of those making the accusations. They have no factual grounds on which to base their claims. It seems to me that they are simply trying to stir up an emotional response instead – mass hysteria if you like – against Roger Waters.

I wonder why they would want to do such a thing. What do you think?


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Tributes pour in for left-wing social media activist Maureen Fitzsimmons

This Writer is one of many who will be mourning the loss of a genuine asset to UK politics today.

Like many, I never met Maureen Fitzsimmons in real life; I only communicated with her on the social media, where her comments were a breath of fresh air amid the murk and miasma of Tory neoliberals and New New Labour backstabbers.

Her tweets enliven many Vox Political articles and much of my Twitter feed.

Tributes have been pouring into Twitter – and if you’re not following any of the accounts below, you should; they all support the kind of sensible politics that Maureen advocated.

Here’s a selection:

#JulianAssange appeals against extradition. Will #AnneSacoolas still come to trial?

Protest: the court’s announcement on whether to extradite Julian Assange faced huge public opposition.

Lawyers acting for Julian Assange have filed an application to appeal against a High Court decision to allow him to be extradited to the United States to be tried for espionage.

High Court judges must now decide whether one of the grounds of the appeal is a point of law of general public importance, before the application may be considered by the Supreme Court.

Birnberg Pierce Solicitors, acting for Assange, say they believe serious and important issues of law arise from the High Court’s reliance on US assurances regarding the prison regimes and treatment Assange is likely to face if extradited, and from its judgment.

Assange is wanted in the US over an alleged conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information following WikiLeaks’ publication of hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

A decision on the application is unlikely to be announced before the third week in January.

This Writer is now agog to find out if the US will still surrender Anne Sacoolas, accused of killing Harry Dunn in a road collision but who then fled the UK under the protection of diplomatic immunity, to court proceedings beginning on January 18.

See. Assange’s extradition is in line with a one-sided UK-US deal whereby the UK has to surrender anybody wanted by the US, but the US doesn’t have to do likewise.

The fact that Sacoolas was suddenly offered to the UK after the High Court allowed Assange’s extradition seemed extremely suspicious to This Writer, for precisely that reason.

And now that the extradition is in doubt, I’m on tenterhooks to find out whether the Sacoolas trial will still go ahead.

(Not that I ever expected her to come to the UK to serve any sentence, if she’s found guilty. Do you?)

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/


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After #JulianAssange extradition, #AnneSacoolas is to face UK court. Coincidence?

The late Harry Dunn: his family have been campaigning for justice ever since his death more than two years ago.

One aspect of the Julian Assange extradition case that has been well-examined is the fact that the US may demand that we hand over our people while there’s no reciprocal obligation.

That’s the reason Anne Sacoolas was given asylum in the United States after the death of Harry Dunn, who she is alleged to have killed in a road crash outside RAF Croughton on August 27, 2019 – she claimed diplomatic immunity and the US granted it.

Now, suddenly, everything has changed – and after the chief campaigner for the Dunn family had been told he had only a one per cent chance of securing a criminal trial:

The Crown Prosecution Service … sought an extradition warrant to bring her back to the UK to stand trial, but the US state department adamantly refused to grant her extradition, insisting that her status as the wife of a serving US diplomat meant she was not required to stand trial. The US confirmed she had been an intelligence officer.

The case would be heard at Westminster magistrates court on 18 January, the Crown Prosecution Service said. It is understood that she will appear via video link.

The Dunn family have always said they wanted her to face justice in the UK, and it is not clear what would happen if she was found guilty or whether she would serve a sentence or pay any fine in the US.

Was an under-the-table deal struck between the UK and the US – we give them Assange and they give us Sacoolas?

Its very hard to consider it a coincidence, what with both decisions occurring so close to each other.

I mean, people here were infuriated at the decision to extradite Assange to the US, due to a one-sided treaty with that country that doesn’t demand reciprocity. The announcement about Sacoolas gives the UK government a chance to save face.

It would be entirely in character for the UK’s corrupt Tory government to manipulate even the course of justice in order to win a public relations advantage.

Sadly, while one of those involved – Sacoolas – is likely to face justice, as This Site has reported already, it seems unlikely the other – Assange – will.

Source: Anne Sacoolas to face UK court over death of Harry Dunn | UK news | The Guardian

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Let’s call Priti Patel’s immigration Bill what it is: The Anne Frank Law

Who thought that, decades after fighting a war against the people who caught and murdered Anne Frank, the people of the UK would vote in a regime that would do the same?

“Tories have introduced an Anne Frank law, that means if someone hid Anne Frank in their attic [in the UK] today, they would be prosecuted as a criminal.”

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It is not a good day to be #JacobReesMogg

Rees-Hitler: he lacks the moustache but his attitudes are in line with the Nazi dictator.

What a prize-winning public school chump.

Jacob Rees-Mogg tried to be down with the kids by quoting England football anthem World in Motion, but instead only demonstrated that he was up his own nationalist rectum.

The comment from Russ Jones on Twitter was entirely deserved:

And the humiliation does not end there for nanny’s boy Jacob.

He also went on the record in support of Priti Patel’s new anti-Immigration law:

This is the Bill that could send members of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution to prison – for life – if they even try to save the lives of refugees in danger of drowning while trying to cross into the UK.

It is the Bill that turns the UK into a full-on Nazi country because

Clearly Rees-Mogg is the anti-Semite in this situation. Priti Patel is the anti-Semite for pushing this Bill through the Commons.

They are clearly both racist to the core – and he’s a hypocrite too:

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Canary Corbyn interview: it was labelled ‘Frontline’ so where were the bullets and bombshells?

Jeremy Corbyn: surprisingly, the interview didn’t even mention his new Project for Peace and Justice. Perhaps it was recorded before the organisation was announced?

What a lot of fuss about nothing.

When Kerry-Anne Mendoza announced that she had recorded an hour-long video interview with Jeremy Corbyn and it would be published by The Canary under its new Frontline strand, the usual suspects piped up immediately with their usual nonsense.

“All anti-Semites together!” they carped. There was some speculation about the content of the conversation, with a heavy accent on anti-Jewish racism.

Well, they were disappointed because there wasn’t a single word of that kind spoken.

It seems the detractors of Ms Mendoza and Mr Corbyn are far more interested in anti-Semitism than they. They seem to be living examples of the maxim that some people protest too much.

The conversation was a pleasant chat between two reasonable people about Corbyn’s origins – political and personal – his philosophy, and his hopes for the future.

And that’s all very well, but…

This was a missed opportunity.

There was a chance here to ask Corbyn about the challenges he faced during his leadership of the Labour Party, and the reasons it failed.

Many of us believe that he was stabbed in the back by right-wing “factionalists” (if you adopt the wording of a certain leaked report) who undermined his campaign in the 2017 election and may have done the same in 2019.

Does Corbyn believe this to be true? Was he unaware of it at the time? If so, to what did he ascribe the problems that beset his leadership?

And there were certainly questions to be asked about the anti-Semitism controversy. Perhaps Corbyn wanted to avoid them, although I see no evidence of him requesting that the issue not be addressed.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission recently found that Labour’s complaints investigation team discriminated against people accused of anti-Semitism in 60 per cent of cases*. This was deliberate; it was a policy adopted by the party’s governance and legal unit.

I was among those who suffered as a result of it. I had to take Labour to court to show that the party ignored its own regulations in order to trump up charges and falsify evidence against me, prior to using that false evidence to bring a verdict against me and expel me from the organisation.

This happened while Jeremy Corbyn was the party leader – while he himself was suffering similar false accusations. And he allowed it to go on. Why?

Did he think nothing was amiss? Or was he hoping that the right result would magic itself up out of nowhere, despite the fact that the malcontents in the party machinery had all the power and the rank-and-file members suffered all the abuse?

Did he hope to be able to resolve the issue, and think that a bitter injustice against a few dozen – maybe a few hundred by now – members was a reasonable price to pay? It wasn’t; and Labour will continue to pay the price for its abuse of process – and of justice – for some time to come, until all those who suffered wrongly during this dark period receive the compensation that is their due.

Perhaps it was too much to ask Corbyn for a word of explanation or apology for the suffering that happened under his leadership.

It’s still a good interview – don’t get me wrong. Mendoza gives Corbyn the time that so many so-called “mainstream” interviewers wouldn’t – although there are moments where a little more direction from her would have been welcome. I’m sure she’ll get the hang of it with practice.

*The only way I can understand that figure is if the other 40 per cent were genuine cases of anti-Semitism that did not require falsification of evidence. This is entirely possible as – remember – nobody says there isn’t any anti-Semitism in the Labour Party and expects to be taken seriously. Racism – like all the uglier sides of humanity – are present in Labour as in all large organisations, as This Writer has stated since the issue first arose.

Source: FrontLine episode 1: Jeremy Corbyn | The Canary

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