Tag Archives: voice

Labour faces legal action over alleged mistreatment of Jews

Keir Starmer: too much support for Israel and not enough for Jews?

A group of Jewish Labour Party members is calling on Keir Starmer to make amends for what they describe as “discriminatory treatment”.

Here‘s Jewish Voice for Labour:

Labour leader Keir Starmer is facing calls to acknowledge and make amends for discriminatory treatment of Jewish party members.

legal letter to the party from Bindmans LLP on behalf of Jewish Voice for Labour sets out compelling evidence that Jews who disagree with the current leadership about Israel, Palestine, Zionism and antisemitism suffer disproportionately from the Party’s harsh disciplinary regime. Jewish members are 6 times more likely to be investigated and 9.5 times more likely to be expelled from the Labour Party for antisemitism than non-Jewish members (see Annex B).

The letter, copied to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, says the Party has failed to understand the diversity of opinion among British Jews and misconstrued criticism of Israel as antisemitism, illegitimately restricting the free expression of Jewish views on Israel and on Zionism. Associated restrictions on the rights of ­all party members are contrary to Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and to the Party’s own rules.

Such practices undermine the Party’s commitment to eliminating antisemitism and are in conflict with Labour’s history as the party that pioneered laws against racial discrimination such as the Race Relations Acts of 1965, 1968 and 1976 and the Equality Acts of 2006 and 2010.

The letter notes the exclusion of non-Zionist Jews from consultation on and implementation of Labour’s complaints and disciplinary procedures, as referenced by Martin Forde KC in his report (pp. 110-12) on these matters.

The letter invites the Party to acknowledge that it: “is in breach of the Equality Act 2010 by discriminating unlawfully against its Jewish members and unlawfully harassing them in (a) the manner in which it investigates complaints made against them and (b) its failure to investigate complaints made by them.”

Details are summarised in a new update to the ongoing Crowd Justice appeal set up by Labour Activists 4 Justice.


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Jewish representative group stands up for Ken Loach

Ken Loach: he has been maligned with false allegations by a group that claims to represent all Jews in the Labour Party – but doesn’t.

How shaming for the Jewish Labour Movement, whose members don’t have to be either Jewish or Labour Party members, to be undermined by an organisation in which members must be both.

The JLM wrote to MPs and councillors in northeast England, trying to drum up sentiment against North of Tyne Mayor Jamie Driscoll, and support for the decision to leave him off the long list of candidates for the new North East Mayoralty.

The reason for this exhortation? Mr Driscoll and Mr Loach once attended an event and shared a platform together. By the same token, Keir Starmer should be barred from seeking re-election, having shared a Question Time panel with Mr Loach.

The celebrated British movie director has been expelled from Labour – but nobody seems to know the reason. Claims of anti-Semitism have been demonstrated to be false, so the party is unable to use them.

And now Jewish Voice for Labour has also written to MPs and councillors in northeast England, offering a more balanced perspective than that of the JLM.

But read it for yourself. The organisation’s letter states:

We are saddened and angry at the Jewish Labour Movement’s letter sent to MPs and Councillors in northeast England about the mayoral candidates’ selection process in the region. The JLM has no right to claim that it represents all Jews in the Labour Party and our organisation, Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL), was set up precisely because it did not.

We note Martin Forde KC’s comment that antisemitism has been weaponised in the Labour Party and used in factional disputes.

The decision to deprive Party members in the North East of the opportunity to consider Jamie Driscoll as a candidate for the forthcoming Mayoral election, with no reason given and no right of appeal, is anti-democratic. It is the very opposite of “defending the integrity of our party” as JLM suggests.

The JLM and others have loudly denounced Driscoll for sharing a platform with Ken Loach on the grounds that he had been expelled by the Party, insinuating that the expulsion was for antisemitism, recycling a catalogue of old allegations against him. Driscoll’s alleged crime was to have taken part with Loach in a discussion about his three latest films. Not only does this take “guilt by association” to an absurd level. It also accepts without challenge a ragbag of allegations against Loach. This conforms to the repeated pattern of attacks on vociferous supporters or Palestinian rights which appear designed to silence them.

Ken Loach is a man known across the globe for an unparalleled body of radical, campaigning work in film over more than half a century.

Instead of looking into this background, those attacking Ken Loach have presented the passionately held opinions of this committed, lifelong antiracist as if they were expressions of antisemitism.

JVL has provided short responses to each of the allegations against one of the UK’s most prestigious film makers, which can be found in this article (from which the above is extracted): In Support of Ken Loach, Free Speech and Democracy | Jewish Voice for Labour


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Jewish NEC member suspended by Labour on eve of party conference

Suspended: Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi with the RMT Union’s Mick Lynch.

This is unfortunate timing – for the Labour Party.

It has suspended Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, recently elected to the party’s National Executive Committee, on suspicion of having broken party rules nearly a year ago.

Why wait so long – until a significant event in the party calendar – if it’s a serious allegation? Doesn’t this correspond with the claims in the Al Jazeera documentary series The Labour Files about the party’s factional use of the disciplinary system?

Members of Jewish Voice for Labour, for whom Ms Wimborne-Idrissi is media officer, seem to think so:

This suspension along with a flurry of other eve of conference expulsions and suspensions bears out the evidence presented in the Forde  Report and the Al Jazeera programme, The Labour Files: The Purge, about the Party’s factional abuse of the disciplinary system.

Furthermore, the notion that the Action Plan, introduced in response to the EHRC investigation, has solved all problems has been shown to be travesty.

On Thursday afternoon Naomi received a Notice of Allegation and Administrative Suspension which charged her with having “spoken at an event run by proscribed organisations”. That event took place almost a year ago at the 2021 party conference. Why has this moment been chosen to suspend her from membership?

Naomi’s NEC candidature was backed by 13 different groups and many individuals who came together to campaign for the #Grassroots5 slate. Other members who have been charged with the same offence have not been suspended pending investigation. Why has Naomi been singled out for suspension? This action and its timing seem calculated to prevent her taking up her role as an NEC member representing constituency party members at the NEC AGM scheduled for Tuesday Sept 27.

We note that extraordinary numbers of other members, included elected CLP delegates, have been suspended or expelled just in time to prevent their participation in conference.

Naomi and JVL have campaigned powerfully and consistently against the misuse of allegations of antisemitism against the pro-Palestinian left. Naomi is the only directly elected Jewish member on the NEC. Approaching 60 Jewish party members have been investigated for “antisemitism”. Many Jewish members have resigned feeling that Labour is an unsafe place for non-Zionists.

How does this disproportionate targeting of Jews fit in with Keir Starmer’s talk of ‘”tearing out antisemitism”?

Could there be another factor in this carefully planned timing? Naomi’s suspension came hours before the airing of the first in a series of #LabourFiles documentary programmes revealing the extent to which staff and politicians on the right of the party worked behind the scenes to undermine and defeat those on the left. Programme Two on Saturday 24 September will include evidence of the abuse experienced by “the wrong sort of Jews”.

We deplore the misuse of disciplinary procedures to purge the party of left-wing activists who have always represented a strong strand in Labour.

We call for

  • the immediate lifting of Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi’s suspension
  • an end to the arbitrary and factional interventions by the party apparatus
  • implementation of the recommendations in the Forde Report including effective action against the racism and Islamophobia exposed so graphically
  • the restoration of the whip to Jeremy Corbyn.
  • Conference to review all decisions to ban proscribed groups.

Of course, there has been a fuss on the social media. Here’s Ms Wimborne-Idrissi herself:

And others have also chimed in:

That last tweet is pretty damning all by itself!

Expect absolutely no comment from Keir Starmer’s Labour and no effort to offer justice to all the Jewish people his party has wronged.

Source: On the suspension of Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi | Jewish Voice for Labour

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Jewish Voice for Labour’s Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi elected to Labour’s NEC

Elected: Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi

A co-founder of the much-maligned organisation for Jewish people in the Labour Party, Jewish Voice for Labour, has been elected to the party’s National Executive Committee.

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi’s achievement is all the more remarkable because she had once been suspended from the party altogether, for allegedly supporting claims that accusations of anti-Semitism had been “weaponised”.

Here’s JVL’s press release:

We are delighted that our Media Officer, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, has been elected to Labour’s National Executive Committee.

Naomi stood on the GrassRoots5 slate, backed by 13 left organisations including JVL. We congratulate the three other members of the slate, Jess Barnard, Gemma Bolton and Yasmine Dar on their election, but regret that Mish Rahman sadly didn’t get re-elected. We thank everyone who voted for the GrassRoots5. The coalition of 13 groups worked very well together and we hope there is scope for more collaboration in the future.

Naomi’s phenomenal campaigning activities, focusing on the issues facing working class people, and her solid support for striking workers, filled social media with energy and enthusiasm. JVL’s reputation for defending members’ rights and for opposing all forms of racism will also have been a factor in her favour for many of those members who have not been expelled or suspended or left in despair.

The hard work begins now. Naomi and her CLP and trade union comrades on the NEC will have a fight on their hands defending the left wing policies that had won so much support. As she argued throughout the campaign, radical measures are needed to end the cost of living crisis and defend workers’ rights and living standards. There’s also a job of work to be done to resist the divisions that are being propagated by the Tories and, regrettably, by some amongst the Leadership of the Labour Party. That will mean continuing to make the case for a democratic party that values its members and respects their right to freedom of expression.

And here’s a video clip in which she discusses herself and her views:

Source: Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi is elected to Labour’s NEC | Jewish Voice for Labour

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No rule for them: #NeilCoyle avoids #antisemitism inquiry – because he’s #KeirStarmer’s crony?

Neil Coyle: why is Keir Starmer’s Labour bureaucracy protecting him from an anti-Semitism complaint? Isn’t the party supposed to be tough on Jew-haters nowadays?

Far-right Labour MP Neil Coyle is (apparently) not being investigated for anti-Semitism – despite complaints from prominent Jewish members of the community.

The complaint arises from a tweet Coyle posted about the main organisation of left-wing Jews in the party, Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL).

The Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP said JVL members were “outright Communists who have their own political party/ies they can ruin”.

Accusing Jews of Communism is a long-standing anti-Semitic trope, often paired with the phrase ‘Judaeo-Bolshevism’ or the far-right crypto-version ‘cultural Marxism’.

Sir Geoffrey Bindman QC, Oxford Professor Avi Shlaim and solicitor Harold Immanuel – all Jews – wrote to Labour leader Keir Starmer.

Their complaint, sent in July last year, accused Coyle of ‘outrageous hate speech’ and said it was a clear breach of Labour rules against comments that ‘might reasonably be seen to demonstrate hostility or prejudice based on race, religion or belief’ meriting the ‘severest censure’: Expulsion from the Labour Party.

The only response was auto-acknowledgement and a promise that, if they were victims, investigators would maintain contact as the case progressed.

A request for an update in October was greeted merely with auto-acknowledgement.

Meanwhile Skwawkbox, reporting on the complaint, has demonstrated the apparent double-standard being operated by Labour:

Labour has or is conducting at least 46 investigations against left-wing Jews accused of antisemitism by the right for their defence of Palestinians and their comments on the conduct of Israel. It does not appear to be conducting even one against Neil Coyle – and according to the three complainants, Keir Starmer has completely ignored a request to do so, even though it came from one of the country’s leading lawyers whom he knows personally.

Labour’s activities against left-wing Jewish members are accelerating. While last year a JVL committee member was a staggering 224 times more likely to be targeted for investigation than a non-Jewish member, the latest data show that this has risen to almost 300 times.

This episode demonstrates that Starmer seems to share Boris Johnson’s apparent belief that rules for the general public (or, in this case, Labour Party members) don’t apply to him or his cronies.

It seems clear that he thinks it’s one rule for JVL members – and no rules at all for Neil Coyle.

Source: Exclusive: Starmer ignored antisemitism complaints vs Coyle by prominent Jews incl knighted barrister and professor – SKWAWKBOX

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Jewish activist expelled from Labour WHILE SHE WAS AT CONFERENCE

Solidarity: JVL members stand with expelled Leah Levane outside the Labour conference in Brighton.

Labour’s insane disciplinary process is continuing to target Jews with psychological warfare – while claiming to be protecting members of that ethnicity. And while attending conference, to boot.

Leah Levane is co-chair of Jewish Voice for Labour – a group of Jewish people who are Labour Party members and who, therefore, should be logical choices for advice on how to combat anti-Semitism in the party.

Instead she has been accused of siding with anti-Semites (although only organisations which have been falsely accused of anti-Semitism by the same biased Labour Party system).

In fact, her only crime is not being a supporter of the violent Zionism that is practised by the government of Israel, which dictates policy to Keir Starmer through its representatives on the Board of Deputies of British Jews.

It is this interpretation of Zionism that has caused the deaths of many thousands of Palestinian people – and not a few Israeli Jews as well.

According to JVL, her exclusion is

because she had signed an Open letter (along with 5,000 others) organised by Labour Against the Witch Hunt and spoken at an online meeting organised by Labour in Exile Network, both of which are organisations that were banned in July.

Yes – those organisations were banned for opposing false anti-Semitism allegations against Labour members, many of whom simply oppose political policies of hate – that Keir Starmer and his ilk seem to support.

The allegations are unfair because the organisations Ms Levane is accused of supporting were not proscribed by Labour when she collaborated with them, and she had no reason to suspect that they would be.

Worse, Labour followed its current policy of psychological warfare by sending notices of auto-expulsion (and that she could not be a delegate to the party conference) to her in the middle of the night.

It backfired, because she did not receive the emails.

But it led to a worse situation when this senior citizen was refused entry – with the police called in – when she arrived for the second day of the conference.

In a statement, JVL said:

This is yet another example of left-wing Jews, especially JVL Committee members being accused – directly or indirectly – of antisemitism.

In fact this has nothing to do with tackling the real threat of antisemitism.

It is  an attack on the left in the Party, the only part that has the ideas that can truly address the crises facing working class people made far, far worse under this pernicious Tory government.

Oh, and if Labour is expelling people retrospectively for criticising Israel, what about this offender?

Oh, but Starmer is exempt from disciplinary proceedings, isn’t he? How does that work, again?

Source: Leah Levane, co-chair of JVL, expelled from the Labour Party | Jewish Voice for Labour

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Wrong-headed: Labour anti-Semitism purge is pushing Jews out of the party

Anti-Semitism: it seems Keir Starmer’s Labour Party runs on it – according to Jewish people.

I’m not going to comment on this; it’s the latest stage of a story on which my views are well known. Let’s look at what other people are saying instead.

First, the Morning Star:

Jewish Labour members on the party’s left are being disproportionately targeted by investigations into anti-semitism, a shocking new report has claimed.

Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) published its study today, having submitted it to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) for investigation.

The dossier – also sent to the Institute of Race Relations, the Runnymede Trust and the Forde Inqury into Labour’s handling of anti-semitism complaints – catalogues what it says is a clampdown on Jews who disagree politically with the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Labour Movement.

JVL warned that the Labour leadership has limited its engagement “to groups who claim to represent ‘the Jewish community’ but who in fact represent only one position within it.” It said that disregarding wider perspectives in this way has led to the “administrative persecution” of hundreds of its members, which it branded a form of discrimination.

Now JVL itself:

David Rosenberg, cited by the Morning Star in the article below, captures the essentials of our complaint to the EHRC and the Forde Enquiry.

He says simply: “This submission by JVL is a truly shocking indictment of the way that Jews on the left wing of the party have been severely mistreated under a new management which said its first priority was to listen to the Jewish community and rebuild trust with it.”

Source: Push against anti-semitism ‘purging Jews from Labour’ | Jewish Voice for Labour

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Labour receives anti-Semitism complaint against hard-right MP Neil Coyle

Neil Coyle: right-wing anti-Semite.

How much hypocrisy will we see from Labour as the party tries to squirm out of this one?

After he published a tweet demanding that the left-wing organisation Jewish Voice for Labour should be proscribed by the Labour Party – its members expelled from party membership – the Labour Party has received a complaint of anti-Semitism against Neil Coyle MP.

Here’s his tweet:

The message clearly displays anti-Jewish hatred. He provides no evidence to support his claim that JVL’s members are Communists or that they have other parties they can “ruin” (because there isn’t any). He was just bashing the Jews.

The complaint states: “To request that people be expelled from the Labour Party for being members of Jewish Voice for Labour is blatantly antisemitic.”

It also refers to Labour’s case against This Writer – me, demonstrating that Coyle can’t get out of the accusation by saying he did not intend his tweet to be considered anti-Semitic – or even if he managed to prove that there is no anti-Semitism in his tweet (which would be a long stretch).

“As a precedent has been previously set by Labour Party investigations such as Labour Party vs Mike Sivier, where the statements ‘Whether your comments are anti-Semitic is neither here nor there’ and ‘This is about perception… It’s about how this is perceived by the Jewish community’ were made,” the complaint states, “there is absolutely no defence for Mr Coyle to claim that he didn’t mean his statement to be antisemitic. [I’ve added in the appropriate link.]

“The important point here, as Labour Party investigators have ruled, is the perception of his statement, and there is absolutely no doubt that his statement can be perceived as antisemitic.”

I should stress at this point that I have not made this complaint. I merely know about it because I am mentioned in it.

So how will Keir Starmer’s racist, anti-Semitic party wheedle its way out of this one and protect its swivel-eyed right-wing (fascist?) racist anti-Semite of a Parliamentarian?

I reckon they’ll dismiss the complaint because it doesn’t suggest overtly that Coyle has brought the Labour Party into disrepute – even though it is obvious to anybody with a brain that this is exactly what he has done.

His tweet not only shows demonstrable anti-Semitism but drags the Labour Party administration down with him because it implies that the plan to proscribe organisations, simply because (let’s face it) the current leaders don’t like them, is also anti-Semitic.

And it is – I’m sure there are plenty of Jews in Labour Against the Witchhunt, to name just one of the organisations suffering a blanket ban from Tuesday (July 20).

Worst of all, for Jewish party members and UK-based Jews in general, is the fact that victimisation of them is just the excuse that Starmer and his ugly cronies are using to divest the once-socialist, formerly-great party of anybody whose political views are to the left of Mussolini’s.

Keep an eye on this one. Starmer is likely to embarrass himself brutally – and the wounds will all be self-inflicted.

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Labour anti-Semitism row: members should use their votes to send a message nobody can ignore

Marie Van Der Zyl: The president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews needs to think before issuing bigoted press releases.

Congratulations are due to Labour deputy leader candidates Dawn Butler and Richard Burgon, who refused to kowtow to the Board of Deputies of British Jews by supporting their frankly anti-Semitic “10 pledges”.

In a hustings on Saturday, both confirmed that they did not support the demands, even though their fellow candidates for the deputy leadership – and all the leadership candidates have.

Ms Butler said she intended to wait until she had seen the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) report on antisemitism in the party – and that she would support whatever it said. Personally, This Writer thinks that statement is premature; she should wait to find out what the verdict is before deciding whether it is worth supporting.

Mr Burgon, who has a history of questioning the so-called “witch-hunt”, said he had concerns about some of the demands. He made it clear that he would not support any move to pass investigation of anti-Semitism accusations to any external organisation.

He also said that he did not accept the Board of Deputies’ demand that only Jewish organisations it supported should be consulted on issues relating to all British Jews; all Jewish groups should have a voice. And he said the BOD needed to explain how the IHRA “working” definition of antisemitism could be implemented in the Labour Party without compromising freedom of expression or the rights of Palestinians.

(See this article for a full report – including video.)

Like the knee-jerk bigots they are, the Board of Deputies responded almost immediately – and stupidly.

“It beggars belief that after four and a half years of failure on antisemitism, Richard Burgon and Dawn Butler still think that they know better than the Jewish community how to fight this vile prejudice,” the BoD said in its statement. Trouble is, the Board of Deputies doesn’t represent “the Jewish community” because there isn’t a single, unified Jewish community in the United Kingdom.

Not only that, but neither of them said they knew better – this is falsely attributing words to people who did not speak them.

Oh, and after four and a half years, there is less anti-Semitism in the Labour Party than in the UK at large – and much less than in right-wing parties like the Conservatives. But we never hear the Board of Deputies complaining about that, do we? Because they are predominantly Tories, perhaps? (And don’t try to call this whataboutery; this is a political issue and the politics of BoD members is relevant.)

“No other minority would be treated in this way and this sort of thing is the very reason why Labour is being investigated for institutional antisemitism by the EHRC.” True in part: no other minority is treated the same as Jews, because the Board of Deputies has demanded that they be singled out for special treatment. This may be viewed as anti-Semitic in itself – applying double-standards by treating them differently from any other ethnic group.

And it is hypocritical to use the EHRC investigation against these candidates when one of them – Dawn Butler – specifically said she is waiting for its outcome.

Here’s a link to the tweet. Be sure to read the comments because many of them are scathing.

But don’t just take my word for it.

Jewish Voice for Labour has been a voice of sanity in this affair since the start, and its comment on the “10 pledges” is a damning indictment against the Board of Deputies.

“This organisation, deeply unrepresentative of British Jewry, presumes in effect to dictate to a major political party how it should run its internal affairs,” JVL states.

“Make no mistake – these are not ten requests: they are ten demands and one threat. The threat to each of the candidates for leader of the Labour Party. is in effect. accept our demands or we will attack you as enablers of antisemitism just as we contributed to making Jeremy Corbyn virtually unelectable. This not only brings shame on the Board of Deputies. It also brings danger to Jews living in the UK who will be seen as claiming a privileged place in determining how the country will be governed.” Applying double-standards by demanding that they be treated differently from any other group – see?

“It is deeply regrettable that all the Leadership candidates have succumbed to this blackmail.”

The statement goes on to explain what’s wrong with the “10 pledges”:

“Demand 1 is that all outstanding disciplinary cases should be swiftly concluded with a fixed timescale. That sounds good, but some cases are more complex than others. Those accused of something as serious as antisemitic behaviour must be allowed appropriate time to mount a defence, may need extra time because of serious illness, etc. Justice is complicated. The Board is simplistic. And underlying its attitude is the clear view that the only verdict that will satisfy the Board is ‘guilty’.”

Labour has a historic problem here, in that This Writer’s experience is that the party automatically assumes any accusation made against a member to be proof of that member’s guilt in any case.

“Demand 4 is that prominent offenders who were expelled or who left while under investigation should never be readmitted to membership. Never is a long time. The current Labour rules allow for the possibility of readmission after any offence, depending on behaviour, after a 5-year period. There is no reason, other than malice, that for this sole category of disciplinary finding the possibility of behavioural and attitudinal change should be excluded.

“The aim of this demand is revealed by its inclusion of the word ‘prominent’. How can it be just or appropriate to specify different penalties for people depending on how well known they are or have become? How can it possibly be acceptable to single out people by name? The explanation is that the two people mentioned [Jackie Walker and Ken Livingstone] were prominent ‘scalps’ claimed by a political campaign to extend the meaning of antisemitism. This is political vengefulness.”

Indeed.

“Demand 3 is that “Jewish representative bodies” (read, BoD) be given access to details of ongoing disciplinary cases. The confidentiality owed to ongoing investigations into allegations that have not been established to have merit is to be tossed out of the window. It beggars belief: the BoD is demanding the right to information that would give them, and their allies on the right of the Party, the ability to put pressure on how individual cases are determined. Out goes the independence of the judicial process. And what about the breaking of hard-won data protection laws?”

I seem to recall mentioning this myself.

“Demand 2 is the very purest chutzpah. The demand is that processing of all complaints, in effect the whole disciplinary process, be outsourced to an independent provider. This would mean that the Party would lose control of who was entitled to be a member! No autonomous organisation could implement such a scheme, least of all a political party. It strikes at the very heart of the freedom to organise for political change in this country. Parties are voluntary associations of people who come together to achieve shared ends, within national legal constraints. Their freedom of discussion and action and of self-regulation is the very fabric of our democratic processes.

“Demand 5 is headed “Provide no platform for bigotry”. But honesty in advertising would require it to be retitled “No platform for those who disagree with us”. What it says is that when people are going through the out-of-control disciplinary process assured by Demand 2, and while the details of the investigation are being fed to the BoD and its allies as a result of Demand 3, any other members who argues publicly that this treatment is misguided or unjust will themselves be suspended – and indeed perhaps expelled. If enacted this would ensure that no members could challenge unjust or slanted decision-making. Because those that did so would very likely cease to be members.

“Demand 6 – to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) “international definition of antisemitism” with all its subordinate clauses, without qualification – begs many questions. Apart from the fact that the Labour Party has already done precisely this (misguidedly in our view), the IHRA document has proved ineffective in actual disciplinary situations. This is because its definition of antisemitism is so confused and its examples highly contentious, with no rules as to how to resolve the inevitable resulting disagreements as to what is and what is not antisemitic. The document was never drafted as a legally binding document, as countless critics (including Ken Stern, its drafter) have affirmed.

“Demands 7 and 8 both seek to define the “Jewish Community” by excluding many Jews – evidently the wrong sort. The right sort include those who run the Board, and the cadres of the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM). The JLM it should be pointed out refused to campaign for the great majority of Labour MPs at the recent general election. It does not require its members to be either Jewish or in the Labour Party.

“Demand 7 is that all Labour Party internal training in antisemitism should be carried out by JLM. For two years from 2016 the aggressively pro-Israel JLM did indeed deliver the Labour Party’s antisemitism training. Its course content was both didactic and dogmatic, based on the supposedly revealed truth of the controversial IHRA document. When in 2018 the Labour Party asked them to revise their approach JLM walked away in a huff. Now they want it back, but on their own terms. Demand 7 is that they be given it.

“Demand 8 extends the same monocular approach to the UK’s Jews as a whole. The Labour Party is required to agree to communicate only with ‘mainstream’ Jewish Groups. That is to demand the exclusion of two-thirds of the country’s Jews. Why would they be so afraid that Labour might communicate with the wrong sort of Jews? The  Jewish Chronicle had a ready answer when it reported Demand 8 as being ‘to engage with the Jewish community via its “main representative groups and not through fringe organisations” such as Jewish Voice for Labour (emphasis added)’. Are our demands for a pluralistic vision of the Jewish communities in Britain really so much of a threat that contact with them is contamination? For the Board is demanding, in essence, that expression of our views be banned in the Labour Party.

“Oy Vey.”

Let’s just go back to the Board of Deputies’ tweet for the last part of its statement: “In the Deputy Leadership election, members now have a clear choice about whether they want to become a credible party of opposition or waste yet more years fighting the Jewish community about who gets to define our oppression.”

It seems clear that it is the Board of Deputies that is “fighting the Jewish community” – by falsely claiming to be representing it and demanding the exclusion of all others.

But Labour Party members do have a clear choice now.

It is impossible to ensure that nobody votes for the candidates who have misguidedly supported the Board of Deputies’ childish demand.

But what a message it would be, if Dawn Butler and Richard Burgon received more support than any of the other candidates – by a significant margin.

If you are a Labour member, and you want sanity to be brought back to the party, then This Writer would like to appeal to you to abstain from voting for any of the candidates who have supported the Board of Deputies’ pledges.

Use your votes to make a statement that they cannot ignore.

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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Listen to the vile hypocrisy of the anti-Semitism witch-hunters

Jenny Manson: The chair of Jewish Voice for Labour has received vile abuse because she supports Jeremy Corbyn.

Isn’t it strange how the witch-hunters who accuse the innocent of anti-Semitism have a cloth ear when it comes to their own abuse?

They twist the words of their political enemies to make it seem they have directed hatred toward Jewish people.

But if a Jewish person opposes their nonsense, they see nothing wrong with comparing them with Nazis or suggesting they should be gassed.

Consider the case of Jenny Manson, chairperson of Jewish Voice for Labour – the organisation of Jewish Labour Party members (as opposed to the Jewish Labour Movement, which accepts people who aren’t Jewish and aren’t in the Labour Party, as long as they support Zionism).

She appeared on the BBC’s Newsnight last week to discuss the Labour anti-Semitism row and defend party leader Jeremy Corbyn.

It seems one of the witch-hunt supporters stalked her – at least inasmuch as he found out her home telephone number – and left a message on her answering machine.

It is utterly vile.

He called her “Nazi scum”. He said she should “burn in the gas oven” and “burn in acid”.

If you have the stomach for it, you can listen to the full message here.

Ms Manson has also received an abusive email, and says she is regularly stopped in the street by people who act aggressively towards her in response to her support of Labour.

It seems clear, to me at least, that this is what the witch-hunters want.

Jeremy Corbyn was recently punched in the head by a man who, it seems, was misled about Labour’s policy toward Brexit.

It’s only a matter of time until someone is assaulted – or worse – by supporters of the witch-hunt.

What excuse will they give for doing it? Who will they say enticed them into it?

We could all mention names, no doubt.

Perhaps it is time to hold them to account.

Next time they make unfounded accusations, perhaps we should lodge complaints against them under the Public Order Act – fear or provocation of violence.


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