Remember Deir Yassin - and Forget Paul Eisen!

WITHOUT  Fear or Prejudice. Jeremy Corbyn (second from right, in open neck) with friends at Islington event, in June this year.  Every picture tells a story, not always the same one (see below *).


THEY say a lie can get halfway around the world before the truth has got its boots on.  These days with electronic media the lie can get right round the world, and probably be on its way back, quite likely embellished, even after it has been refuted. But we must persevere.

On August 16 I took a critical look at a story in the Daily Mail smearing Labour leadership contender Jeremy Corbyn by association with a "notorious holocaust denier". http://randompottins.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-mail-finds-link-or-does-it.html
Thin as the story was - dependent on the MP's support for commemorating a notorious 1948 massacre, and the word of aforesaid Holocaust denier, one Paul Eisen, - it has been put to use, and is becoming shop worn.

That Jeremy Corbyn denies having anything to do with Holocaust denial, and repeatedly condemns antisemitism along with any other kind of racialism is of no importance to his opponents, or to some media hacks. They have a job to do.

I've seen claims on social media that Corbyn "shared a platform with a Holocaust denier" (which even Eisen did not claim) and in the Jewish Chronicle that 7 out of 10 British Jews actually "fear" what will happen if Corbyn wins the Labour leadership. I don't know who they spoke to, but it can't be the Jews I know in Corbyn's Islington North constituency who know and like the MP, and some of whom are supporting him in the Labour leadership contest.

I've not seen what if anything is being said  'Stateside, where people may not know much about our Labour Party, but on past experience when stories like those assailing Jeremy Corbyn are put around they get exaggerated  and cruder, whether because Americans don't do subtlety or their libel laws are more relaxed, and some stories suit certain agendas. So I am pleased to see that as well as some letters from Jewish people defending Jeremy Corbyn finally breaking through the media wall,  there's a Facebook group called Jews for Jeremy, started by that clever entertainer Ian Saville, and including besides British Jews supporters in the United States, Israel and other countries. Hopefully these chaverim will be able to help counteract the lying.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/903669616335883/?fref=ts

One of the "facts" that the Daily Mail writer found most telling was that when Paul Eisen approached Jeremy Corbyn - his MP  - fifteen years ago - about Deir Yassin Remembered, the MP took out his chequebook.  It does not seem to occur to the writer Jake Wallis Simons that fifteen years ago, far from Paul Eisen being "notorious", nobody had heard of him.  I doubt whether he's that famous now.  Whereas the massacre at Deir Yassin was well-known, and nobody denied it had happened, even if Simons and the Jewish Chronicle's Marcel Dysch seem to think they can relegate it to a "controversy" now.     

Stephen Marks on Facebook has managed to put Jeremy Corbyn's generosity fifteen years ago into context, with a little aide memoire:

As Jeremy has already pointed out in the C4News interview, he gave money to DYR when it was founded 15 years ago. At that time Eisen had not ‘come out’ as a holocaust denier, and indeed there is no evidence that he was one. And Jeremy Corbyn was far from the most distinguished public figure to give the cause his support.

According to the Jewish Chronicle on 16 April 2001;
‘Five prominent Progressive rabbis joined Sunday's Central London commemoration of the 1948 massacre of Palestinians at the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem. In a concluding prayer to the evening also attended by MPs, Arab diplomats and British-based Palestinians Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues' life president Rabbi John Rayner spoke of "sorrow and shame" that the "land of our ancestors" had been the scene of bitter conflict…

‘Rabbis David Goldberg and Mark Solomon, from the St John's Wood Liberal Synagogue, Finchley Reform minister Rabbi Jeffrey Newman and Durham University lecturer Rabbi Moshe Yehudai-Rimmer also supported the event, which attracted an attendance of several hundred.

‘Rabbi Newman confessed to having been "nervous" in advance about the atmosphere at the commemoration, organised by a joint Jewish and Palestinian group, Deir Yassin Remembered. But he told the JC afterwards that the mood had been "absolutely remarkable, particularly because of the absence of hostility, rage or anger. In many ways it was a mirror image of a Jewish evening of the best sort, with music, drama and poetry," he said. ‘

Moreover there was one other even more distinguished public figure who expressed his support for the event - Prime Minister Tony Blair. In a letter to Paul Eisen, Blair’s Private Secretary, Anna Wechsberg, stated, "The Prime Minister was grateful for your kind invitation, but regrets that due to his existing diary commitments, he will not be able to attend the commemoration on 1 April.” However she added that the Prime Minister “has however asked me to pass on his good wishes for the event.”’ [see http://www.deiryassin.org/pdf/blairletter.pdf].

Once Eisen’s holocaust denial became open most of the distinguished names on the Board of DYR resigned. But many of their names remained on the website (http://www.deiryassin.org) despite requests for them to be removed. Among those who resigned, either in protest at Eisen’s views or because of the co-option onto the board of such figures as the notorious antisemite Israel Shamir, are Israeli activists such as the civil rights lawyer Leah Tsemel and Michael Warshawski of the Alternative Informaton Centre, Jeff Halper of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, as well as Norman Finkelstein and Professor Ilan Pappe (see for example http://jewssansfrontieres.blogspot.com.au/…/lea-tsemel-resi… and (http://www.kadaitcha.com/…/bds-attacked-by-deir-yassin-rem…/)

As the latter site makes clear, Eisen’s board of DYR is opposed to the Palestinian campaign for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions. Meawhile Eisen has been vigorously, and predictably, defended by his old friend and ally Gilad Atzmon, who is on record as saying that the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, of which Jeremy Corbyn is a Patron and which has condemned Eisen and Atzmon, is ‘controlled by Jews’.

Another person who makes an informed and well-argued case against the anti-Corbyn smears is journalist Asa Winstanley on the US-based Electronic Intifada website:
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/4-reasons-anti-semitism-attacks-jeremy-corbyn-are-dishonest

The most shocking accusation, originating with The Daily Mail, is that Corbyn has “long standing links” with Paul Eisen, a “notorious” Holocaust denier involved in the group Deir Yassin Remembered.

Eisen certainly expresses disgusting views, denying the Nazi Holocaust took place and frequently expressing other anti-Semitic opinions on his blog.

However, his only real notoriety is for his attempts to infiltrate the Palestine solidarity movement.

Once it became clear what his views were, he was widely condemned and shunned by a movement which is fundamentally anti-racist in its basic principles. Indeed, even in the blog post which the Mail relied on as the source for its smear, Eisen admits that the movement has long “despised me.”

The only real link between the two men (as the Mail conveniently omitted) is that Eisen happens to live in Corbyn’s Islington parliamentary constituency in North London.

Eisen claims to have met him in that capacity – as Corbyn is his member of parliament. It is nonetheless odd that the Mail would be so keen to take the word of a Holocaust denier when it comes to his relationship with Corbyn.

A photograph has been produced of a memorial event which the Mail claims was run by Eisen. However, as this 2013 email sent out by the Palestinian Authority’s UK Mission shows, there was nothing in the advertising about the Holocaust and nothing naming Eisen. There were certainly no links to his blog.

http://palestinianmissionuk.createsend4.com/t/ViewEmail/j/E231FA473C5F10A4/E293E0DBA44E3B9DC67FD2F38AC4859C

Indeed, even on the Deir Yassin Remembered website, Eisen is not named on the contact page, the About page or the Board of Advisors page.

The page misleadingly includes several people as advisors who resigned after some of the the group’s troubling associations became clear.

This includes the Palestinian-American novelist Susan Abulhawa, who stepped down after Eisen wrote an anti-Semitic post on his blog.

See also:
How the Jewish Chronicle dismisses letter-writers supporting Jeremy Corbyn:

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/142553/anti-israel-activists-attack-jc-challenging-jeremy-corbyn

* And just to give a broader picture, as seen above,from United Synagogue news

On a recent look at events and stories on the You & US pages, I was intrigued to see an announcement that Islington Council, together with Islington Chabad were organising a commemorative plaque to be fixed to Barnes Court, Lofting Road, N.1 - the original site of North London Synagogue. - See more at: http://www.theus.org.uk/article/family-trip-down-memory-lane-islington#sthash.SZF05gWe.dpuf

Rabbi Mendy Korer, who helped to organise the event, followed with telling the audience of his involvement from inviting the local MP Jeremy Corbyn to Shabbat dinner when the MP suggested applying for the plaque to the procedure for residents in the locality voting for its installation.

Also in attendance was United Synagogue’s President Stephen Pack
- See more at: http://www.theus.org.uk/article/family-trip-down-memory-lane-islington#sthash.SZF05gWe.dpuf

Meddler on the Roof

SINGING from the same...er hymn sheet?  Or getting another report on Tower Hamlets? Eric Pickles, here with Home Secretary Theresa May, is Minister for Communities and Faith. So will he put money where his mouth is, and help repair synagogue roof?

(a real East Enders' tale)

A former East Enders actress says the series is unreal in its depiction of the area's ethnic make up. I've often thought the same about its socio-economic model. I can suspend disbelief and accept residents going to the cafe for breakfast, on Coronation Street or Albert Square, is a dramatic device.
But an entire community living by pulling pints or selling each other dodgy gear from market stalls seems a bit unreal to me.

With no one leaving the Square for work, or social life, I fear the effect of isolation and inbreeding once associated with Fenland villages, though it spares us Walford residents grumbling about London's transport problems or talking about the bus strike.

Steering clear of anything political seems a soap rule generally, though Coronation Street once had young Ken Barlow worrying his Mum by going on a CND march. (I don't know whether this had anything to do with ex-miner and Left-wing writer Jim Allen contributing scripts. I did go on a march down Cross Lane, Salford. not unlike the one heard going past the Street on Corrie.)  Brookside, which I rarely watched, had brother-sister incest and bodies under patios, one Liverpool-born critic I know praised the "social realism"; but as a regular fan confirmed to me, nobody in the series ever once mentioned the three-year long struggle waged  over Liverpool docks.  

This must have been galling for one member of the cast, ex-docker Peter Kerrigan, who'd entered TV in a Jim Allen play, and hadn't forgotten his old comrades. But in the end it was Robbie Fowler who broke the TV blackout on the dockers.

Anyway, to get back to 'East Enders',  I thought I'd suggest a real East End story, albeit introducing a couple of implausible characters. The Rt.Honorable Eric Pickles MP is, to quote his full job title, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government and Minister for Faith. After recent tragic events in Paris and before sending out a letter to mosques on their duty to prove they are British, Pickles took part in a photo opportunity alongside Home Secretary Theresa May, both holding up signs declaring 'Je suis Juif' - I am Jewish. My reaction when I saw this was a horrified shudder, but I suppose that is ungracious. There is a way that Pickles could win appreciation.  

Here is an item that caught my eye in the online Jewish News:
"A group of young Jews are fundraising to help save one of London’s oldest synagogues on Nelson Street, Whitechapel. East London Central Synagogue, founded in 1923 is the East End’s oldest purpose built synagogue, but its roof is collapsing and its original features are in need of major repair. Jewdas is aiming to raise at least £5,000 to save the synagogue, and have started a campaign. http://www.jewishnews.co.uk/fundraising-campaign-save-whitechapel-shul-state-disrepair/

Jewdas, as their name suggests, are a witty, irreverant but creative young group whose seemingly wild but well-organised cultural events have breathed new life into their community, and its better traditions, while blowing more than a raspberry at the Establishment. Some of these young people were to be seen marching behind the Young Jewish Left banner on last year's Gaza demonstrations.
Now they are showing the same lack of inhibition taking responsibility for something constructive and positive.

It's almost like a small piece of Cameron's forgotten 'Big Society', but without the big money advertising, over-paid CEOs,  and exploited charity workers.  Jewdas are just amateurs. 

To understand the background, mind, let's start with an item headed 'Politics and race: A tale of two mayors',  which appeared in 2013, in of all places,  The Economist:  

 STRIDING into the east London Central Synagogue, Lutfur Rahman grasps Leon Silver, a wiry Jewish elder, in his arms. Mr Silver hugs back. Since winning the mayoralty of Tower Hamlets, an east London borough with a quarter of a million inhabitants, in 2010, Mr Rahman has allocated some £3m ($4.5m) to repairing religious buildings. The synagogue is one of them. Tactile and soft-spoken, with a beaming countenance, Mr Rahman—a Bangladeshi Muslim—is every bit the local champion.  http://www.economist.com/news/britain/21589485-two-very-different-models-running-diverse-bit-east-london-tale-two-mayors

The contrast in styles was with Newham's Labour mayor Sir Robin Wales, who I'll deal with another time. The E15 mothers protesting social cleansing and taking part in Saturday's housing march have already been dealing with him.

That 'Economist'  article appeared on November 9, 2013,  which happened to be the anniversary of Hitler's Kristallnacht pogroms, a point that's only been given significance now by news of swastika graffiti in parts of east London, and Holocaust memorial posters being defaced.

 Lutfur Rahman was re-elected mayor of  Tower Hamlets last year, but his re-election is being challenged in the courts. In December, although a police investigation found no evidence of fraud, Eric Pickles sent his commissioners in to take over the council, having received a report from Price, Waterhouse and Cooper alleging a “worrying pattern of divisive community politics and alleged mismanagement of public money by the mayoral administration of Tower Hamlets”.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/17/eric-pickles-commissioner-takeover-tower-hamlets

So how does that affect the synagogue?
"East London Central Synagogue, founded in 1923, is the East End's oldest remaining purpose built synagogue. It is a remnant of a once thriving Jewish East End culture, and an important emblem of Jewish Heritage. The synagogue was due a grant from Tower Hamlet's Council to cover much needed renovations - in particular the roof, which the congregation has been waiting to repair for many years. However, due to recent intervention in the running of the council by communities minister Eric Pickles, the grant has been frozen, and is likely to be much lower in value if it is still given. " https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-the-shul

We might add that as well as amalgamating several previous congregations, the synagogue hosts varied cultural as well as religious activities. Keeping it going helps maintain Tower Hamlets' diversity, affording confidence to old East Enders staying in the borough and newcomers deciding to make it their home.  


One does not have to agree with Lutfur Rahman's policy of working with faith groups, or other aspects of Tower Hamlets council, to see that it is not quite the "divisive" policy unduly favouring Muslim groups or places of worship which media and political rivals have been suggesting. We do have to ask whether Pickles, and those egging him on,  have been divisive in singling out Tower Hamlets for intervention.  

And while we admire the spirit of those young people who have taken responsibility for raising funds for East London synagogue, it does not seem unreasonable to ask that Mr.Pickles and his commissioners, and anyone else who meddles in Tower Hamlets, should take responsibility for honouring the council's legitimate pledges.

   The synagogue in Nelson Street.
http://www.jewisheastend.com/nelsonst.html

Welcome Back on the Street

 The latest issue of Jewish Socialist magazine has hit the streets somewhat later than planned, in time for Saturday's demonstration against racism, but having gone to press before the editors had time to consider saying anything about Ukraine. Perhaps that's just as well.  While the great powers have thankfully hesitated so far to go to war, no such inhibition has restrained those friends on the Facebook left who rushed to take sides, throwing far more heat than light on the matter, and denouncing each other in terms that suggested imminent fisticuffs, not least among those gathered in the name of Left Unity.

That new grouping does get a mention, along with the People's Assembly initiative, in the latest Jewish Socialist.

More important however, is the magazine's focus on fighting all forms of racism and chauvinism, wherever they're found.  Roma Gypsies proudly waving their flags were at the front of Saturday's march in London, and Jewish Socialist has an original feature by Margaret Greenfields on how Jews and Roma are coming together in Solidarity in Budapest, as well as a report on resistance to clearances of Negev Bedouin.



Colin Green asks whether Israeli military operations on Gaza have been used as a testing ground for new weapons, while a new book on Anarchists Against the Wall is reviewed by Ross Bradshaw.

From generation unto generation, some memories evoked by last year's 75th anniversary statement on Kristallnacht and today's attacks on minorities are published, as is a report by two thoughtful school students on their visit to Auschwitz.

How the Left should confront the insidious growth of 'respectable' anti-immigrant racism exploited by Nigel Farage's UKIP, tipped to do far too well in coming Euro-elections, is  considered by veteran campaigner Don Flynn; while critical scientist Dave King alerts us to the sinister resurgence of research attempting to link genetics and I.Q. , a familiar way of trying to justify inequality.

All work and no play makes Yetta and Yankel into dull girls and boys, but fortunately Jewish Socialist maintains its claim to wider interests, with Dave Rosenberg visiting an exhibition on Jews in football, and Mike Gerber introducing us to hip-hop artist and poet the Ruby Kid.   A moving poem by 'the Kid' about the horrific 1911 Triangle  Shirtwaist fire in which over 100 garment workers were killed might suitably be footnoted by reference to the item by Paul Collins, of War on Want, on the struggle of garment wokers in Bangladesh.  

Tears of the Merry Widow

MUST admit I often turn first to the back of Jewish Socialist magazine to see what mischief is being wreaked in Dybbuk's Diary, and in this issue I am pleased to find some interesting info about America's first lady of Islamophobia, Pamela Geller. I don't often praise Home Secretary Theresa May, but I was pleased by her decision last year to stop a visit to Britain by Geller and her comrade in arms Robert Spencer. The pair had been due to delight an English Defence League (EDL) rally in Woolwich, with the obvious aim of exploiting the murder of Lee Rigby,for which two men have now received lfe sentences.

Geller's campaigns have ranged from opposing a Muslim cultural centre in New York (the supposed "ground zero mosque") through posters on the New York subway backing Israel as the "civilised man" against "savages", to allegations that President Obama's mother appeared in porn films and that Obama is Malcolm X's "love child". She has threatened to sue HM government over its ban on her and Spencer. Though various trusts fund their political campaigns, she has money of her own.

In 2007, police investigating a murder at Long Island's Universal Auto Sales, owned by Pamela Geller's  former husband Michael Oshry, uncovered a racket in which drug dealers and other criminals had been able to launder their proceeds and acquire expensive fast cars, which were registered to other owners. They also found bank statements had not been sent to the firm's office but to the Oshrys' home. Pamela Geller, though listed as a partner in the business, burst into tears, and told the cops she had known nothing about her husband's business affairs. That's quite a change from her usual beaming grin in photographs, and claims to know the President's innermost family secrets.

But, as Dybbuk says, it seemed to work. While a dozen people linked with Universal Auto were arrested, "Pamela Geller remained free to .collect a $4 million divorce settlement, a portion of the $1.8 million realised from the sale of theLong Island home, and then a $5 million life insurance payment when Michael Oshry died a few months after remarrying in 2008".

That sounds like quite a cutie the 'Tea Party' have got as a hostess, and the EDL have had as a friend, though I hear the police have not yet finished with Universal Auto. There is speculation that the shooting of Collin Thomas might be linked somehow with the killing of two cops, also in Long Island. There have been calls for the case to be handed over to the FBI.

Meanwhile I am interested in finding out more about the trusts that have been channeling funds to Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. And whether all that money has remained in the USA.

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And talking of money, YOU may be able to buy Jewish Socialist at political events or a decent bookshop, it's £2 a copy,  but to subscribe you can send cheques or POs for £10 for four issues, made out to Jewish Socialist publications. Send to Jewish Socialist, BM3725, London WC1N 3XX.    

Birds of a Feather flock to Croydon

KAHANIST with Holocaust denier Richard Edmonds, caught on camera by Guy Smallman for Reel News.


http://reelnews.co.uk/evf-look-ridiculous-in-croydon/

LUNAR House in Croydon is a 20 storey office block housing the UK Border Agency, that is the part of the Home Office which deals with immigration.  It deals both with applications to stay and detention of unsuccessful applicants. Some unfortunate families have called in for interview only to find themselves detained without warning in conditions which HM Inspectorate of Prisons criticised as inadequate. But of course not every member of staff agrees with that sort of thing, nor has any say in it. Most are just ordinary civil servants, clerks and the like. Many of the workers are immigrants themselves, or sons and daughters of such. 

Staff have been working Saturdays to catch up with a backlog of applications.

But this Saturday the staff and visitors to Lunar House faced another worry.  The English Volunteer Force (EVF), a militant breakaway from the anti-Muslim English Defence League (EDL), had announced its intention of holding a demonstration against immigrants outside Lunar House, and then marching on to demonstrate at a local mosque.

This was at the end of a week in which the government had billboard wagons touring six London boroughs telling "illegal immigrants" to "Go Home". Business Secretary Vince Cable described the campaign as "stupid and offensive" but Prime Minister Cameron wants to spread it around the land.

The militarist-sounding  name "English Volunteer Force", plainly modelled on the Ulster Prorestant UVF, and the known links between some of its members and the far-Right National Front, were a fair indication that it wasn't coming to Croydon for a friendly visit or to spread peace and love.


The council and local people and organisations in Croydon had appealed for the EVF demonstration not to be allowed, and Muslim leaders pleaded that there should be no provocation during Ramadan at the mosque. But police decided the demonstration could go ahead at Lunar House.

Unite Against Fascism(UAF), the Croydon Trade Union Council, and the PCS union which represents many of the Lunar House staff, joined forces to mobilise a counter-demonstration.

Urging all "nationalists" and "patriots" to join them, the EVF had promised to bring thousands of people out on Saturday. It mustered about 40 people all told. They were outnumbered more than three to one by their opponents, who were kept away from them by the police. A couple of anti-fascists were wrestled to the ground by police when they tried to get closer to the EVF. Local journalists who complained that they had been assaulted by EVF members that morning were ignored by police officers.

Photographer Guy Smallman managed to get some good photographs of both EVF and counter-demonstrators, as well as the police, and one of his shots tells a particularly interesting tale. The young man in the photograph above claimed to be a member of the far-Right Zionist Jewish Defence League (JDL), which originated in the United States, where it was led by Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane emigrated to Israel and founded the Kach party, which even the Israeli authorities decided was a "terrorist" group. This did not impede its activities too much, ranging from inciting Gaza settlers to resist evacuation to holding provocative marches through Arab areas, and campaigning against African immigrants in south Tel Aviv. That is a Kach tee shirt the young man is wearing, unless I'm mistaken, on a demonstration against "extremism" and "terrorism" in Croydon.

But who is the old gent in the picture? That's Richard Edmonds,who during a career back and forth between the National Front and British National Party notched up certain minor and 'spent' criminal convictions. In 1988, The Sunday Times revealed that Holocaust News, a publication that claimed The Holocaust was an "evil hoax", was being published by Edmonds, on behalf of the Centre for Historical Review, and distributed by BNP members. Edmonds also spent three months in custody over a 'racially-motivated' assault in 1993^[5] and had previously been convicted for damaging a statue of Nelson Mandela on London's South Bank. For a time Edmonds seemed like Nick Griffin's loyal rival, then after the BNP's poor showing in elections in 2011 he announced he was contsting the party's leadership, but switched to the National Front.  He was the party's candidate in the 2012 Croydon North by-election, finishing eighth out of twelve candidates with 161 votes (0.7% vote share).^[14]

We don't know how real is the Jewish Defence League presence in Britain. Its website admits to being hosted abroad. When American Islamophobes Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer were banned recently from travelling to Britain for a rally of the EDL, the JDL protested. That does not exactly surprise us. But when the representative of an outfit that used to shout "Never Again" turns up in the company of a man who insisted the Holocaust never happened in the first place, that's worth noting. And rubbing their faces in.

Born Rebel, Fine Writer, and Extraordinary Diplomat

ILAN HALEVI - "100 per cent Jewish and 100 per cent Palestinian"
 
A REMARKABLE man died in Clichy, Paris, this week, and the Palestinian cause and that of peace in the Middle East lost a unique fighter.

Ilan Halevi was born under one Occupation, and joined those struggling to end another.  He was born Georges Alain Albert, the son of Jewish parents in Lyon, France, in 1943. His father was a Yemeni Jew whose family had settled in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 20th century. His mother was of Turkish Jewish origin.

As Michel Warshawski observes in a tribute to Ilan, "We do not inherit our identity but create it, on the basis of sociological givens, and this identity is always multiple...Let Ilan speak for one last time."I am 100 per cent Jewish. and 100 per cent Arab".


Growing up when Algerians were winning their independence from France,  Halevi moved to Israel in 1965, aged 22.  As he would later explain: "I came to Israel because in Algeria I discovered the importance of the Palestinian problem. I sat there in coffee houses, I heard people, I spoke with intellectuals and I understood that the Palestinian question preoccupies the people of the Arab world. It is really in the center of their obsessions. I decided I want to study this reality up close and from the inside…I wanted to study the Israeli reality."

It was as Ilan Albert that he joined the left-wing anti-Zionist group Matzpen, which had broken out of the rigidity of the Communist Party and sought links with leftists in the Palestinian camp. Later with a breakaway Revolutionary Communist group, better known by the name of its journal Ma'avak (Struggle), and Maoist influenced, he sought more direct alignment with the Palestinian resistance.

If the 1967 war and occupation had both clarified Israel's position in Palestine, and paradoxically, facilitated Palestinian resistance and the beginning of joint struggle, the 1973 war showed Israel was not invincible, but also that Palestinians must strive for independent initiative and recognition. Halevi turned to groups in which Israelis and Palestinians were working together against the occupation. He also showed his particular skills by helping secure permission for Bashir Barghouti, a Palestinian activist and member of the Jordanian Communist Party's governing council, to return to the West Bank. (Under the Moscow-led policy of respecting existing state boundaries, and tying Communist Parties to existing states, Palestinian communists were for some time obliged to join either the Israeli or Jordanian CPs, and not permitted to form a party of their own, even though this hindered them forming a presence in the PLO.)


In 1977, Halevi went to Beirut, where he met with PLO members. In 1982, while the Palestinians came under siege in Lebanon, and Yasser Arafat recognised the importance of Israeli opposition to their government's war, Ilan Halevi received an official role in the Palestinian organization.

After Issam Sartawi was assassinated in Portugal, where he had gone to speak for the Palestian cause at the Socialist International, Arafat made the significant gesture of appointing Ilan Halevi as Sartawi's successor, so the diplomatic effort could continue. It was more than a gesture. With his culture and command of languages, Halevi could tear down stereotypes and open doors for the PLO in Europe.  Besides becoming Fatah’s representative at the Socialist International, he was a representative for the PLO at the Madrid peace conference, a member of the political committee of the National Palestinian Council, an adviser to Arafat, and deputy to Nabil Shaath when the latter was the Palestinian Authority’s foreign minister.

As a writer he produced a highly-regarded History of the Jews, and both political works and a novel on the Israel-Palestine conflict. He was a founding member of the Revue des Études Palestiniennes (Palestinian Studies Review) in 1981.

Whatever the refined circles in which he might have to exercise his diplomatic skills and intellect, Ilan was no stuffed-shirt diplomat dishing out the Ferrero Rocher as per the commercials, nor did he show the snobbish "side" one sometimes encounters from far less significant politicos and intellectuals who fancy themselves here.

When I met him all too briefly in Paris after a conference sometime in the 1980s, Ilan was about to set off for Belleville to eat cous-cous with a couple of pals from Israel, both Moroccan-born and former militants of the slum-bred Black Panther movement, and one in the Knesset with the Communist list.  Had I not just come back from the same restaurant with friends I would have been tempted to join them though my languages are not that good. He kept up similar friendships in France.

They say a diplomat is someone who lies for his country. Ilan Halevi, who described himself as “100 percent Jewish and 100 percent Palestinian.” told the truth for both his peoples.

Some tributes to Halevi from:



Michel Warshawski, of the Alternative Information Centre:
http://www.alternativenews.org/english/index.php/politics/opinions/6734-ilan-halevi-1943-2013.html

Union Juive Francaise pour la Paix:
http://www.ujfp.org/spip.php?article2816&lang=fr

Liberation:
http://www.liberation.fr/monde/2013/07/10/ilan-halevi-l-ame-en-paix_917451

A Well Aimed Stone

A WELL-AIMED stone, as we know from the Bible, can topple a giant, or shatter the feet of clay of a mighty idol. There are plenty of stones about the landscape of Palestine, as the Israeli army discovered, and they can'r be stopped by an Iron Dome that keeps out rockets, but can ultimately do more damage.

The latest issue of Jewish Socialist 
(no.65) has just reached me hot from the presses,and as you'd expect it has plenty of material looking at the recent onslaught on Gaza, some of which never made the "mainstream" media, as well as articles on the ongoing struggle, such as the children in Israeli jails, and experience at Qalandiya checkpoint.

"Will Israel Listen to Palestine Now?", it asks with regard to the UN vote for recognition. If it doesn't we may see the voice raised at the UN heralding a return to the language of stones.

Dr.Richard Stone was the west London GP who asked why it was that whenever he recommended patients as needing rehousing, he was told Westminster council had nowhere available, yet wherever he went on his rounds he came across empty boarded up flats. His question led eventually to the downfall of Dame Shirley Porter, the Tesco heiress and leader of Tory Westminster council, charged with keeping properties empty until they could be put up for sale, in order to change the social character of neighborhoods and gerrymander elections.

Richard Stone went on to ask more questions as a panel member of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, and in the new Jewish Socialist he says he finds it odd "that most people involved in government inquiries do not stay with the agenda they have set". Though comparing himself good-humouredly with a grandfather who kept poring over rabbincal texts in search of answers, he remains concerned over the human tragedy of Stephen Lawrence's death and continues to pursue questions raised in the Inquiry, asking which recommendations have been implemented, and whether the police have really reformed their ways. Dr. Stone has a book Hidden Stories of the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry due to come out in February.

 Tony Lerman's book The Making and Unmaking of a Zionist has aroused as much interest and appreciation, and from a wider audience, as his development raised controversy. Like myself, Tony was a member of the labour zionist youth movement Habonim, but our career paths were somewhat different. Having gone to Israel, and served in the army, he returned to become, inter alia, editor of the Jewish Quarterly, chief executive of what is now the Rothschild Foundation, and director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research.  

Along the way Tony alarmed the Jewish Establishment by publishing an article by Dave Rosenberg of the Jewish Socialists' Group; enraged Tory fundraiser Stanley Kalms (of Dixons); and was denounced by then Daily Mail writer Stephen Pollard, now the editor of the Jewish Chronicle. All of this because he disagreed with the party line on Jewish life and antisemitism, and knew what he was talking about. As he confesses in the interview along with the review of his book in Jewish Socialist by Stephen Marks, it was quite late in his career that he decided he wasn't a Zionist, and became one of the Independent Jewish Voices demanding recognition of Palestinian rights. This was enough to bring down the rage of another Daily Mail columnist, Melanie Phillips, who described him and his associates as "Jews for Genocide". We can all call her "Mad Mel", but it takes a Tony Lerman to bring on that kind of outburst and show her up for what she is. A man of integrity, and well worth reading.

Remembering some heroes and struggles of yesteryear, Karl Lewkowicz.pays tribute to East End -born Lou Kenton, who died in September aged 104, the oldest surviving British veteran of the International Brigade in Spain, and Lydia Syson describes how researching for her novel A World Between Us, she was reminded of things her grandfather, communist Jack Gaster, and others of his generation had told her.  Dave Rosenberg, who has become somewhat well-known for his East End Walks, tells the story of Cable Street's almost forgotten sequel, the 1937 Battle of Bermondsey against Mosley's fascists (and brutal police), and yours truly has an article about the rising in Algiers on November 8, 1942, when a bunch of ill-armed rebels opened the way for the Allies' operation Torch.

All this and much more, including a worrying report on reproductive rights for women in Central America, a controversial piece by Victor Schonfield supporting a Cologne court's decision to outlaw male circumcision, and Ralph Levinson reviewing a book, Does Your Rabbi Know You're Here?, about Jewish supporters for football clubs, including his beloved Leyton Orient. Truly, once again Jewish Socialist lives up to its claim to reach the parts other left-wing magazines don't touch.

JEWISH SOCIALIST costs £2 or subscribe £10 inc. post and packing for four issues. If you are already getting it why not give a sub as a Chanuka/Christmas present to someone you know?

JSG, BM3725, London WC1N 3XX

www.jewishsocialist.org.uk 


 .   

Spare a Thought for Some of the Losers

"Hey Benjamin, wassup?

Remember how much you intervened and tried to influence the presidential elections here in the States?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Oh, no reason  :) "

How one Israeli humourist imagined the conversation.

OK, so Barack Obama is not the kind of guy we'd like to see as president  Not the sort of person his opponents claimed. He's not a socialist, he is not that great a reformer, he isn't going to curb the power of Wall Street and he may not even stop those murderous drones. 

But those people on the Left who are saying this election is meaningless are not just off the wall, they are out of touch, and maybe they are not even admitting their own feelings. Smile, your face won't crack! There are more important things than staying pure and proving how much cleverer you are than the poor deluded masses. And besides, if you see nothing to rejoice at in the winner, just take a look at those that lost.

The right-wing headbangers who denounced Obama "the Muslim", Obama "the Red", with everything from home-made posters to magazine articles and radio shows, must be asking themselves what went wrong.  The Tea Party alliance of hate preachers, tax dodgers, loud-mouthed lumpen and vulgar rich, some of whom encouraged the English Defence League thugs in Britain, have suffered a set-back whatever they say.

Tea Party movement-backed candidates lost to Democrats in Indiana and Missouri, among other states, undermining Republican chances of seizing control of the Senate. Six Tea Party caucus members were defeated at the polls, plus another seven who retired, lost a primary or sought higher office. Both tea party candidates who ran for the Senate, Reps. Denny Rehberg of Montana and Todd Akin of Missouri lost.

Tea Party congresswoman Michelle Bachman held on to her seat in Minnesota, but Allen West lost in Florida and Joe Walsh in Illinois. West, a leading member of the Tea Party Caucus had denounced a number of Democrats as 'traitorous Communists', and spent $13million to hold on to his seat - nearly four times as much as his opponent Patrick Murphy raised.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2229060/Michele-Bachmann-clings-seat-key-conservatives-beaten-Democrat-challengers.html#ixzz2BYZeNjSp

It's true the Tea Party is not dead. It is boasting of the way it took over the Republican agenda. This was shown by the way Mitt Romney vowed to repeal federal health care laws not too different from the ones he supported when he was governor of Masachusetts. But in taking the wheel in the Republican Party and steering it to more reactionary social policies they ran it on to the rocks. 


http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/timstanley/100188297/is-the-tea-party-over-radical-social-conservatism-might-have-brought-it-to-an-end/

Billionaire property man Donald Trump is not happy at all with the way the election has gone.Trump kept shouting the odds about Obama's not being a real American, and demanding to see his birth certificate, offering $5 million dollars to charity if the President could produce it, even as people were starting to show more interest in seeing Republican Mitt Romney's tax returns. they asked what was patriotic about stashing millions in offshore tax havens.
 
This morning as the results came in Trump took to Twitter to attack the US electoral system, the Electoral College and the whole business. "This election is a total sham and a travesty. We are not a democracy! "
"Well, back to the drawing board!" Trump tweeted shortly after several networks, including Fox News, called Ohio in the president's favor, sealing the win. "We can't let this happen. We should march on Washington and stop this travesty. Our nation is totally divided!"

Oddly, Trump had not seen anything wrong with the system before, say back in the days of Bush and the hanging chads in Florida. If his march on Washington fails to materialise he will have to console himself with playing the laird on his golf course with his honorary degrees in Scotland.

 Abroad, one man who was assuring colleagues earlier this year that Obama did not have long to go was Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. He was confident his government could ignore US strictures not to expand settlements, and count on US backing if and when it attacked Iran. It looked as if he was right. Netanyahu had lectured Obama in the Oval office, A supposed "snub" in not inviting him to the White House after his performance at the UN was made part of the anti-Obama campaign. Romney accused the President of being prepared to "throw Israel under the bus", held his fundraiser in Jerusalem, and promised to move the US embassy there, even as the harassment and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian residents was getting worse.  

Now as one Israeli commentator tells us:

"If there is one loser in the U.S. election outside the U.S., it is Benjamin Netanyahu – and all of Israel knows it. No one is fooled by his denials that he backed Romney and opposed Obama as demonstratively as he possibly could. The widespread conviction, now that Obama has won four more years in the White House, is that Bibi has endangered Israel’s relationship with America in a way that is unprecedented in its recklessness. No Israeli prime minister ever took sides in a U.S. presidential election like Netanyahu just did, and his side lost.

If Romney had won, people here would be hailing Bibi right now as a genius, a prophet. But Obama won, which makes Bibi, in Israeli eyes, a screw-up of historic magnitude. He went and tracked mud on the Oval Office carpet right in front of the president’s eyes. The president couldn’t say anything during the campaign because of American domestic politics, but the campaign’s over and now Israelis are wondering when and how this newly-liberated president is going to take revenge on them for their prime minister’s spectacular arrogance. Conclusion: The only way to get America back on our side is to get rid of Bibi.
http://972mag.com/after-bibis-bet-on-romney-peace-camp-can-beat-him/59271/

Already before the election it was becoming evident that the Romney-Netanyahu ticket was failing to convince one important sector of the electorate - the American Jewish community. Even some of the most notoriously pro-Zionist figures like former New York mayor Ed Koch, writer Elie Wiesel and lawyer Alan Dershowitz who might have been expected to oppose Obama came out saying that he was not so bad after all, that he had not let down Israel, and what's more, his social policies were in line with Jewish values. Perhaps they were moving with the wind. It is reckoned that about 70 per cent of the Jewish voters supported Obama for a second term.    
http://972mag.com/pro-israel-figures-who-rebuked-obama-now-endorse-him-for-president/58971/

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=289859

http://forward.com/articles/165564/obama-rides-jewish-mandate-to-second-term/

That left Romney-Netanyahu with a minority including some seriously dodgy business figures and flamboyant characters even by Tea Party standards. The Republican's biggest backer, who also finances a freesheet called Israel Hayom supporting Netanyahu , was Las Vegas casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson. Back in August, The New York Times wondered whether his effort to put Mitt Romney in the White House had anything to do with a federal criminal investigation into his company's business practices.

The Times editorial page mused that "since Mr. Adelson's financial future is riding on the outcome of these federal investigations, it is legitimate to ask whether he has motivation for supporting the Republican ticket so lavishly, beyond his sharp disagreement with the Obama administration's position on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process."

The top reason Adelson gave for backing Romney and opposing President Barack Obama was "self defense," referencing the probe into Las Vegas Sands Corp. "Adelson said a second Obama term would bring government 'vilification of people that were against him.'

Adelson's casino empire, the bulk of which is based in Asia, is being investigated for bribery and money laundering.  "When I see what's happening to me and this company, about accusations that are unfounded -- that kind of behavior ... has to stop,"

In other words, Adelson was spending millions of dollars to curry political favor in the United States, hoping to fend off charges that he spent millions of dollars to curry political favor in Asia.
Among a number of stories in the press lately, The New York Times dove into the murky China-dominated world in which Adelson's casinos thrive:

Federal investigators began looking into the Sands's China activities after the former president of the company's Macau operations filed a wrongful-termination lawsuit in 2010. The former executive, Steven C. Jacobs, charged, among other things, that he had been pressured to exercise improper leverage against government officials in Macau, and that the company had turned a blind eye to Chinese organized crime figures operating in its casinos. (The Jacobs lawsuit raised questions about payments to another well-connected local figure -- a lawyer and legislator in Macau -- that were recently explored by ProPublica and are also part of the federal bribery investigation.) The Sands declined to respond to a detailed list of questions provided by The Times more than a week ago, saying in a statement that it was cooperating with the inquiries and was confident that once they were concluded "no current member of senior management will have been found to have been involved in wrongdoing."

Adelson said he was willing to spend $100 million or more to unseat President Obama. As it is,after first backing Newt Gingrich he spent about $30 million supporting Romney and various other Republicans who were unsuccessful. You would think a man who made his fortune from punters gambling away their money would have been smarter placing his own bets. 

http://forward.com/articles/165546/tough-night-for-sheldon-adelson/

The Dishonourable Member for Rotherham exploits Toulouse tragedy and distorts union policies

IN October 2010 the Parliamentary Labour Party suspended former Europe Minister Denis MacShane from the whip while he was under criminal investigation over his expenses claims.

Writing in this week's Jewish Chronicle, under the headline Tragedy in Toulouse shows Jew-hatred is alive and well, MacShane lumps the gunman Mohammad Merah's deluded grievances together with Islamism and antisemitism, and with any opposition to the State of Israel and Zionism.

Whatever creative imagination the MP for Rotherham exercised in claiming for his garage as a constituency office is nothing to the way he smears opponents, particularly those in the unions that sustain his party.

First he finds what should be an easy target. Ahmadinejad. Only in so doing, he not only picks on one of the Iranian ruler's more reasonable statements, but proceeds to rationalise the actions of the Toulouse gunman:

'This week, President Ahmadinejad returned to one of his favorite themes when he told German channel ZDF that Israeli statehood "was a colonialist plan that resulted from a lie". It is this language that justifies the atrocity in Toulouse, along with the earlier killings of two Muslim French soldiers, apparently on the grounds that France fights in Afghanistan'.

Justifies? The view of Zionism as a colonialist enterprise deriving its ideology from myth is a perfectly respectable historical approach, which many including Israeli writers have accepted in retrospect. Most recently Shlomo Sand, Professor of History at Tel Aviv university, published "The Invention of the Jewish People "( Hebrew: מתי ואיך הומצא העם היהודי?‎, Matai ve’ech humtza ha’am hayehudi?, literally When and How was the Jewish People Invented?). It was in the best-seller list in Israel for nineteen weeks, and reprinted three times when published in French (Comment le peuple juif fut inventé, Fayard, Paris, 2008). Uri Avnery, who fought in the 1948 'War of Independence' and did not disavow his Zionism though he became a peacenik, entitled a historical chapter in his book "Tolstoy meets Cecil Rhodes", to show how utopian idealism became entwined with colonialism. Nowadays with armed Jewish settlers stalking the West Bank and seizing resources it is hard to see beyond the crude colonialism.

Such an analysis may be open to criticism. But nobody -apart perhaps from the dead gunman in Toulouse, and it seems, the Labour MP for Rotherham, - suggests that accepting the viewpoint justifies killing small children outside a school in France, or anywhere else for that matter. Even in Iran, where Ahmadinejad has said and done much worse things, the estimated 25,000-strong Jewish community does not show signs of feeling threatened by them.

But mentioning the Iranian leader is only an appetiser, before MacShane - a onetime leader of the National Union of Journalists and later, policy director of the International Metalworkers Federation, moves on to attacking targets closer to home.

"There is little media or political concern when the National Union of Journalists or the University and College Union back boycotts of Jewish journalists or Israeli academics. The NUJ or UCU would never dream of boycotting Saudi Arabia or China, where human rights and core freedoms are ruthlessly suppressed. But when it comes to Jews in Israel, the double-standard of contemporary antisemitism prevails".

http://www.thejc.com/comment-and-debate/columnists/65561/tragedy-toulouse-shows-jew-hatred-alive-and-well

In fact, unions adopting boycott motions have come under a lot of fire. But there is a good reason why the unions concerned were not attacked for taking decisions such as MacShane describes. It is because such decisions were never taken.

The academic boycott, as we've pointed out before, has been aimed not at individuals but institutions accused of colluding in their government's oppressive policies. Some of those who have campaigned for it happen to be Israeli academics! But the boycott is at the behest of Palestinians who are at the receiving end of those policies, and whose own instutions are often under siege by the occupation's tanks and guns - much more effective than any leafletting pickets for a boycott! What's more, all the UCU did was agree to bring the issue to the attention of its members.

If there were similar calls from rights campaigners or trade unions in China or Saudi or anywhere else the unions here would undoubtedly consider them, just as we supported a boycott of South Africa, without so far as I am aware Denis McShane complaining.

The National Union of Journalists was never asked to back a boycott of Jewish journalists. What it did, in the wake of the Israeli onslaught on Gaza and continuing blockade was to support a motion for a consumer boycott of Israeli goods, and submit this as an opinion to the TUC. To counter ill-informed or mischievous criticism afterwards the union's executive issued a statement making clear that it was continuing to engage with both Palestinian and Israeli journalists' unions, and would not countenance any antisemitism. That should be clear enough even for Denis MacShane, former president of the NUJ and member of the Privy Council, to understand.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/apr/13/nationalunionofjournalists.mediaunions1

http://www.nuj.org.uk/innerPagenuj.html?docid=400&string=Palestine

Not long ago I ran into Jim Boumelha, of the International Union of Journalists, at a meeting on human rights in the Philippines, where he was taking careful note of the situation and discussing what could be done. Last week I was at two meetings addressed by Bangladeshi trade unionists, the second one in Congress House with the Southern and Eastern Region TUC international committee. They spoke about the sweatshop conditions of cheap labour which produced goods sold at big profit in our Western stores. But while they want us to put pressure on the big name buyers, they advised against a boycott which would misfire hitting jobs and worsen their conditions.

In each case then a tactical decision that has to be taken in consultation with those involved at the sharp end, and nothing to do with any "double standards" or prejudices, as Denis MacShane pretends.

There are arguments to be had about the boycott tactic as applied to Israel, and how far it is effective or justified. But there is little point discussing tactics with someone like Denis McShane, who cannot stick to the truth about his old union, and has chosen his side.

A prominent member of the Labour Friends of Israel, MacShane has also signed up to the Henry Jackson Society , advocating the spread of what they call liberal democracy across the world, including by military intervention. The society also supports "European military modernisation and integration under British leadership". He was naturally a keen supporter of Tony Blair's foreign policy. including the 2003 invasion of Iraq, which has left such a fine legacy of democracy as testified by ruined cities, religious dominance, death squads and thousands of refugees.

Also in 2003 MacShane criticised the Muslim community, saying it did not do enough to condemn acts of terrorism. The MP demanded that Muslim community leaders choose between "the British way" of democracy and Islamic terror. Recalling how antisemites incited anti-Jewish hostility on the back of terror in Palestine in the 1940s, the Jewish Socialists' Group condemned the notion of collective responsibility implicit in this ultimatum, as well as the onus placed on minorities to prove their suitability for "the British way".

MacShane was chair of the inquiry panel of the All-Party Parliamentary Group against Anti-Semitism, which reported in September 2006, claiming Islamicists and pro-Palestinian campaigners had contributed to rising antisemitism on campuses, and condemning the UCU for allegedly interfering with academic freedom as well creating difficulties for Jes by its boycott policy. Hee was an advisory board member of the now defunct Just Journalism, a pro-Israeli media advocacy group which shared an office with the Henry Jackson Society (HJS).

During the 2009 expenses scandal the Daily Mail featured a story stating that MacShane had claimed £125,000 over a period of 7 years for his garage, which he used as a constituency office. One fellow Labour MP privately told the journalist that he was ‘very surprised’ at the scale of Mr MacShane’s claims given that he does not have to pay to rent an office.

In total, MacShane was ordered to repay £1,507.73 in wrongfully claimed expenses, with his appeals against the ruling being rejected. In addition, MacShane is alleged to have passed twelve invoices from the "European Policy Institute" for "research and translation" expenses to the parliamentary authorities, and claimed for eight laptop computers in three years. A number of newspapers stated that the EPI was "controlled" by MacShane's brother, Edmund Matyjaszek, a claim which MacShane denied: "The EPI was set up 20 years ago by a network of people on the Left working in Europe and the US...Ed is my Brother, but simply administrates it."

On October 14, 2010 Labour decided to suspend Denis McShane from the whip after the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards had referred an expenses-related complaint about him to the Metropolitan Police. In June 2011 The Daily Telegraph highlighted further discrepancies in MacShane's expenses which had been uncovered by former independent candidate Peter Thirlwall. As a result he held an emergency meeting with House of Commons officials and agreed to repay a further £3,051.38.

MacShane had previously written an article for The Guardian in which he quoted Macaulay ridiculing the British public in its "fits of morality", and tried to play down the expenses scandal: "There will come a moment when moats and manure, bath plugs and tampons will be seen as a wonderful moment of British fiddling, but more on a Dad's Army scale than the real corruption of politics."

The Rotherham MP referred to big business interests buying influence by awarding directorships and other rewards to media stars. Maybe he was right. Or maybe it was sour grapes.

But there is another issue which ought to exercise the Labour Party as much as dishonest expense claims. That is an MP elected by working people as a Labour man, using his position to slag off our unions and distort their oppositions to an oppressive regime. An MP exploiting a tragedy like that in Toulouse, to falsely accuse the union he once led of racialism, and smear legitimate solidarity with the Palestinians by associating it with murder and terrorism.

The people of Rotherham surely deserve better? And if Labour is not prepared to remove the disgusting Denis McShane, I hope trade unionists and socialists will make it their business to send him packing and into obscurity.

Sheikh Salah can sue. So what happens to CST ...and Cameron??

SHEIKH RAED SALAH getting the last laugh?

THE High Court has ruled that Sheikh Raed Salah was unlawfully detained and is entitled to claim compensation. This is an embarassment for Home Secretary Theresa May, who ordered his detention.

Sheikh Salah, leader of the northern section of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and a former mayor of Umm el Fahm, came to this country on June 25 to honour speaking engagements, one of them with MPs at the House of Commons.

These meetings had alll been pre-advertised and were public. No one told the Sheikh that he was banned from this country. An immigration officer at Heathrow scanned his passport reportedly ignored an alert to exclude him.

Three days after entering the UK, having spoken at at a meeting in Leicester, and with his other engagements, including that at he Houses of Parliament, to keep, Sheikh Salah was detained at his west London hotel, handcuffed and taken to Paddington Green police station, which has often been used for alleged "terror" suspects.

No clear reason was given. No crime had been committed, although newspapers like the Mail implied Sheikh Salah had somehow breached Britain's security. The Home Ssecretary subsequently served a deportation notice on him, on the grounds that his presence in the UK was "not conducive to the public good".

Salah challenged his removal and obtained bail in July. He is appealing against the decision to deport him in separate proceedings before an immigration tribunal which continues next week. In the judgment released on Friday, Mr Justice Nicol found for Salah on one of three grounds that his detention was unlawful. He rejected his claim on two other grounds.

It was reported this week that senior officials at the UK Border Agency had opposed the Home Secretary's decision, warning that the evidence against him was disputed, open to legal challenge and the case "very finely balanced". Salah had sought damages for illegal detention, arguing in an earlier hearing that he had been "confined without lawful authority" and subjected to what was essentially "false imprisonment".

It was also observed that the government action had succeeded in prolonging the Sheikh's stay in Britain for much longer than his originally planned trip.

Salah has been imprisoned before in Israel for funding Hamas and leading a violent demonstration. But unlike some other cases - from the Anglican Canon Riah al Awal to the nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu - he had evidently not been banned from travelling. Yet the order banning him from entering the UK has apparently been based on allegations from Israel concerning antisemitism as well as fundamentalism.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/26/may-warned-case-sheikh-salah?INTCMP=SRCH

It is reported that Theresa May decided to act after receiving a dossier on Sheikh Salah from the Community Security Trust (CST). a body whose official remit is to protect Jewish people and institutions in Britain from any threats, and monitor antisemitism. The CST, which has enjoyed good relations with the police for some years, boasts of having alerted the authorities.

Informed members of the Jewish community, including those who have worked with the CST, say it receives much of its guidance from the Israeli state. Supporters of Sheikh Saleh say that the evidence against him, including alleged antisemitic statements, was fabricated.

I've nothing against people organising to defend themselves and others against racist attacks, and antisemitism, quite the contrary beingJewish myself. But I've had my own experiences with the Jewish community's security, and so have friends, and they did not leave us feeling secure. It was the Community Security Organisation, as CST used to be called, which excluded several people from a film festival, apparently because one of them had been recognised from a previous occasion selling Jewish Socialist. Even after he spoke to the organisers, whom he knew, assuring them he had come to see the films and not sell magazines, the security men told them they would not be responsible for the security of the festival if this man was admitted.

On another occasion a couple I know were trailed around the foyer of the Royal Festival Hall by these Community Security heavies even though they were only treating his parents to a concert of Russian Jewish music. What kind of security "threat" they were suspected of plotting neither they or I know. But I did recognise one of the "security" team as having doubled as a guard for Ariel Sharon when he visited London.

I doubt whether I would have much political agreement with Sheikh Raed Saleh. I would certainly not support his party if I was a Palestinian. But that is different from seeing him as a "security threat" or saying he has no right to speak to members of the public or MPs in this country. As for his alleged antisemitism, considering some of the people the government has allowed in, for instance extremists who support the ant-Islamic EDL. it is hard to justify privilege. Nor would I trust an Israeli security-influenced source for evidence.

If some of us have learned to distrust an organisation which confuses security with policing, terror with politics it does not like, and leaves doubt as to where its accountability lies, one man thinks it is fine. Prime Minister David Cameron was guest at a CST dinner earlier this year. "And it’s great to be able to show my support again for Community Security Trust and the brilliant work you do. ... I believe CST is a model for all our communities in Britain. So much of what you do epitomises what I’m getting at when I talk about the Big Society. You don’t say “just leave it to the government, it’s not my responsibility", uou say “I want to play my part; I want to do my bit.”

"I want to be frank with you. It shames our country that our Jewish schools should need protection. But they do. And it’s fantastic that CST provides it. But just as your community does so much to raise money so we should help too. So I’m proud that Michael Gove has announced up to £2 million on security for schools this year and there will be more to come for all the years it’s needed in our country".

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/46044/david-camerons-speech-cst

Cameron went on to extol the importance of countering extremism by educating in British national identity.

Welcoming Salah's arrest in June, CST's blog said "Most of the publicity regarding his visit had concentrated upon his speaking in the House of Commons tonight, alongside various pro-Palestinian activists and Jeremy Corbyn MP, Yasmin Qureshi MP and Richard Burden MP.

"Salah’s Islamist ideology is reflected by those organising the events, most of whom are leading lights in Britain’s pro-Islamist, Muslim Brotherhood type circles, such as the MEMO group. These groups and activists seek to dominate the ideological and political leadership of Britain’s highly diverse Muslim communities. Many on the secular far Left have made common cause with these Islamist ideologues: not because they believe that British society will be a better place for having such groups dominate Muslim communities, but rather because both ideological streams are would-be revolutionaries with many enemies in common.

"The fiasco over how Salah actually entered the UK, should not distract attention from the crucial fact that the Government has shown the meaningfulness and intent of its recent review of Prevent counter-extremism strategy. Salah’s banning and subsequent detention demonstrates that Government has now moved beyond only seriously challenging those who are explicitly pro Al Qaeda, or otherwise in favour of terrorism against Britain and British overseas forces and facilities.

"Now, Government is also facing up to the enormous challenge of how to reverse the influence of those pan-Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood (including Hamas) and Jamaat-i-Islami, both of which make common cause and have significant control over British Muslims’ physical and political infrastructure; including an extensive network of lobbying groups, umbrella bodies, charities and mosques. Prior Governments have attempted to work with such groups (largely out of perceived necessity), but have repeatedly found them to be, ultimately, not conducive to the public good and social cohesion.

"The Labour Party may also have shifted its position. Some Labour MPs have long mixed in the Islamist and secular pro-Palestinian circles demonstrated by Salah’s visit, and exemplified by the past behaviour of Ken Livingstone. The Shadow Home Secretary has criticised the Government’s handling of border controls, but such criticism risks rebounding unless Labour is able to rein in those MPs and Lords who move in such circles"

http://blog.thecst.org.uk/?p=2639

Note that satisfaction over Salah's detention and some lumping together Muslim parties and "secular pro-Palestinian circles" was followed by the admonition to Labour to "rein in MPs and Lords..".

The writer seems confident of having his way. Mind you that was in June, and this is September.

A Voice They Could Not Silence

TEN MEN AROUND HER, AND NOT ONE MENSCH. Peace activist Rae Abileah needed hospital treatment after raising her voice against Netanyahu in Washington DC. Five other protesters were also injured.

IT wasn't all standing ovations for Binyamin Netanyahu in Washington, though with almost thirty of these the supposed representatives of the American people gave a performance that said more for their physical agility than their political sense or morality.

Here is America's Democracy Now radio station commenting:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech was warmly received by Democrats and Republicans in Congress on Tuesday. According to ABC News, he received 29 standing ovations during his address—four more than President Obama received during his State of the Union address earlier in the year. However, there was at least one dissenting voice inside the halls of Congress on Tuesday. Rae Abileah, a Jewish-American activist of Israeli descent with the peace group CodePink, disrupted Netanyahu’s speech. Standing in the congressional gallery, she yelled, “No more occupation! Stop Israel war crimes! Equal rights for Palestinians! Occupation is indefensible!” As she screamed, members in the audience tackled her to the ground, and undercover security forces later dragged her outside. She was taken to George Washington University Hospital where she was treated for neck and shoulder injuries. At the hospital, police arrested Abileah and charged her with disorderly conduct for disrupting Congress.

“Netanyahu is the Main Obstacle to Peace”: CodePink Activist Disrupts Israeli PM Speech to Congress

The campaigning group Jewish Voice for Peace has condemned the violent way Rae Abileah was treated, though if anything JVP was less shocked over this behaviour than over the enthusiasm with which congress applauded Netanyahu.

Five of the Jewish peace campaign's members were attacked the night before when they protested at a meeting of the America Israel Public Affairs Committee(AIPAC), Israel's main lobbying organisation in Washington, reports JVP deputy director Cecilie Surasky.


Declaring it "unbelievable" that US politicians greeted the Israeli premier's speech so warmly, Cecilie Surasky says: "To put it simply, Netanyahu proved yet again that he prefers settlement expansion and Jewish domination of Palestinians to any kind of true peace agreement that would benefit both peoples. He claimed that Israel isn’t occupying anyone—ignoring nearly 44 years of increasingly brutal Israeli control over the lives of millions of Palestinians".

Going through some of Netanyahu's assertions and answering them, the JVP leader urges fellow-Americans to protest to their political representatives over what happened, and says people outside America should write to President Obama about it.
http://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/blog/take-action-no-applause-for-netanyahu

Calling for an end to America's $3 billion annual military aid to Israel,Rae Abileah is a member of both the women's group Codepink, and Young, Jewish and Proud, formed by young JVP supporters. Interviewed from hospital on al Jazeera she said some of the people who attacked her were not Congress security, but visitors, members of AIPAC.
http://vodpod.com/watch/9553913-al-jazeera-interviews-rae-abileah

For more on this see:
http://www.moveoveraipac.org/2011/05/jewish-protester-disrupts-netanyahu-during-congressional-address/
http://www.wikio.com/themes/Rae+Abileah

And for more pictures of the incident, see:
http://mobius1ski.tumblr.com/post/5852087195/help-identify-rae-abileahs-attackers

Summonsed before Grand Jury in the Land of the Free

WHENEVER we see West Bank settlers interviewed on TV they seem to have American accents. The breed has given us Baruch Goldstein, who perpetrated the Hebron mosque massacre, and still has a posthumous cult following. More recently, we have seen Nahum Shifren, the 'surfing rabbi', back from his rightwing settlement to California, to campaign against immigrants with the Republicans; but finding time to fly into Britain to stir up anti Muslim hatred with his friends in the EDL.

These right wing fanatics are not representative of US Jews, the majority of whom are more liberalminded than the mainstream lobbyists, let alone the nutters of course. In fact some Jewish Americans are determined to do whatever they can for peace and justice in Palestine. Unfortunately, while it is the far Right who catch the ear of the media, it seems to be the left and the peace activists who attract the attention of US law enforcement.

Even when it is hard to see what law, if any, has been broken.

Sarah Smith, a Chicago woman who happens to be Jewish, has been subpoenaed by the FBI to appear before a grand jury on January 25 to explain her trip to Israel-Palestine with two Palestinian women friends. All three young Chicago residents have been subpoenaed, thereby joining other peace activists from the Mid West who have been targeted by the US authorities in recent months.

Here is Sarah Smith’s full statement from a December 6 press conference:

Friday morning, December 3, I received a phone call from an FBI agent. He asked if I had about 30 minutes to sit down and speak with him so he could ask me some questions. I asked about what and he said he “was not at liberty to discuss it.” I then asked if I needed a lawyer present and he said it was up to me but that I was not in any trouble and that they just had a few questions.

I felt something suspicious about him telling me he wanted to ask me some questions, but he would not tell me what these questions were. So I said that I had to consult a lawyer and check my schedule and that I would get back to him. I reiterated that it would be easier for me to meet him if I knew why an FBI agent wanted to sit down with me. He then said that it had to deal with the trip I took this summer. He then emphasized, “I think you know which one I’m talking about.”

The trip I took last summer was to Israel and Palestine. I am Jewish and wanted to see first hand what life is like for Israelis and Palestinians. If I went on the standard tour to Israel, I would not be shown how Palestinians live. So I went on a tour that showed me both worlds, Israel, and the Israeli occupied Palestinian West Bank. I went with 2 Palestinian-American friends. You would think Jews and Palestinians going together to visit Israel and Palestine is something the U.S. government would encourage.

Instead, we are now being ordered by the FBI to go before a Grand Jury for going on that trip. The US government says it supports peace between Israel and Palestine. It says it supports separate Israeli and Palestinian states.

So why does the FBI investigate us because we went to see the Palestinian land? Top US government leaders meet with Palestinian leaders, so why does the FBI investigate us because we talked to average Palestinians on the street?

I went there so I could make up my own mind and talk about what I saw. It seems to me our government wants to hide what Israel is doing to Palestinians. I would like to thank the Committee Against Political Repression for standing up for me and my friends. You can learn about case at stopFBI.net, and please make a donation there. Or you can make a donation for our legal expenses: to NLG Foundation, memo line: FBI raids and mail it to Sarah Smith, 2961 S. Bonaparte, Chicago, IL 60608

Smith’s father, Stan Smith, added “I think Patrick Fitzgerald, the US District Attorney, Robert Parker of the FBI need to see my daughter and her friends and apologize to them. And I think President Obama, who was elected in 2008 because he said he would stop this sort of thing, should make a point on his next trip to Chicago to personally apologize to my daughter and her friends for how his government is intimidating them.”

Back in September the FBI began raiding homes and offices in Minneapolis, Chicago, and other places. Computers, phones, documents and personal items were seized, and people were subpoenaed to appear before a Grand Jury. People in the peace community are being questioned by the FBI, and asked what they know about the subpoenaed activists 'material support for terrorism'.

In the wacky world view of the FBI, this need not involve anything to do with weaponry and explosives, sending people on shooting tours of the West Bank, or , as we have seen, organising bombings in places like Iran or Cuba. After all, these are the tolerated activities of the American Right, when not actually sponsored and organised by the US government.

But when it comes to supporting peace and justice for the Palestinians, or others whose human rights are not recognised by the United States and its allies, things are different. As lawyers for the subpoenaed activists note, the current definition of 'material support' can cover just about anything, including humanitarian aid. So if you so much as send a first aid kit or a textbook to Gaza, or raise money for such purposes, then like the Israeli military blockaders, the US authorities can claim this might end up in the hands of an organisation which they class as 'terrorist'.

It is the same with posting a link to a website or carrying out research or reporting which might be deemed sympathetic to the cause of the 'terrorists'.

None of the fourteen people subpoenaed from Minneapolis or Chicago has been charged with any crime. But they can be jailed if they fail to show up before a Grand Jury. None of the property taken away in the raids has been returned either.

President Obama gave up on putting pressure on Israel to freeze settlements, for the sake of Middle East peace talks.

But the US authorities are stepping up pressure on Mid West peace campaigners, apparently to suit Israel.

Thanks to Cecilie Surasky' s Muzzlewatch site, an offshoot of Jewish Voices for Peace, for the information in this posting. Comments of course my own.
http://www.muzzlewatch.com/2010/12/15/yes-virginia-the-fbi-really-can-subpoena-you-just-for-going-to-palestine/

A Year Later, Complainers Get a Result

They say a lie can get halfway round the world before the truth has got its boots on. It unfortunately also seems to be the case that a story can go on circulating on the Internet, and generating comment, well after the facts have been disputed. And we are not just talking about inexperienced or irresponsible amateurs or "conspiracy" freak websites, but a supposedly reputable newspaper.

The Jewish Chronicle used to style itself "the Organ of British Jewry". Rightly or wrongly, this weekly was widely trusted within the Jewish community in Britain and by anyone else interested in matters of Jewish concern. If its regular readers joked about it occasionally they did so affectionately for the most part. And the 'JC' reporters one met seemed decent and honest enough folk, even if they could not do much about their paper toeing the establishment line.

Things change. Far more Jewish people in Britain today are ready, even consider it their duty, to criticise the behaviour of the Israeli state towards the Palestinian people, as we saw reently when film and theatre director Mike Leigh refused to attend an event in Israel, in protest at the new 'loyalty oath' law which he said was the 'last straw'.

Under editor Stephen Pollard particularly, the Jewish Chronicle seems to be going the other way.

Unable any longer to ignore viewpoints of which it disapproves, it ran a front-page story reporting "Mike Leigh's distaste for Israel is so bad he won't even visit his 90-year old aunt".
(Zionism? To hell with that, says film director, JC North, October 22, 2010).
I suppose it would be too much to expect that this concern over politics interfering with family duties would extend to Palestinians prevented by Israeli restrictions from visiting relatives, even husbands and wives kept apart?

But perhaps after Mike Leigh and his aged aunt, we could read about another Jewish artist, former Israeli paratrooper Dror Feiler, who now lives in Sweden with his wife and children? Dror, who grew up on kibbutz Yad Hanna, was recently prevented from entering Israel, where his mother and other relatives still live, because earlier this year he was one of the volunteers on the Gaza freedom flotilla.

About a year ago, the Jewish Chronicle website carried a story claiming that a Jewish man was subjected to "overpowering racist jeering" when asking a question at a meeting in the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). This referred to a Palestine solidarity conference considering parallels between South African apartheid and Israel occupation and racism today.

The man in question, Zionist Federation co-vice chairman Jonathan Hoffman, had accused one of the speakers, from South Africa, of having a record of antisemitism. According to the JC report, which was originally carried by the BBC, but has continued to run on the JC website for the past year, Hoffman "was told he was "not welcome" after revealing his 'Jewish name'.’

What the JC story did not say was that this was vehemently denied by many of those present, including many Jews, that the panel included veteran anti-Apartheid fighter Ronnie Kasrils, a former member of the ANC government, who is Jewish; nor that Hoffman is well-known for turning up to oppose people and events considered critical of Israel. It was Hoffman, for instance, who organised a demonstration outside the Hackney Empire against the Skies Are Weeping concert for Rachel Corrie, and Hoffman who was more recently photographed waving an Israeli flag alongside supporters of the English Defence League, outside the controversial Ahava products premises in Covent Garden, opposing a boycott.

"No-one jeered at Hoffman for being Jewish," says Mike Cushman, one of the organisers of the SOAS meeting. "It was his history of hostility to Palestinian human rights that made him unwelcome."

Oddly enough, it did not seem to occur to Hoffman himself to complain of mistreatment till after the story had been told. The SOAS story was fed to the BBC by a man called Raheem Kassam, formerly of Conservative Future, and active with Student Rights, which specialises in exposing "Islamic extremism" on campus. Odder still, the video of the meeting showed Hoffman speaking without being shouted down or subjected to any anti-Jewish jeering. It also showed Naomi Wimbourne-Idrissi being applauded by the audience after mentioning that she was Jewish.

The BBC withdrew its story after complaints. But JC editor Stephen Pollard responded dismissively last May when Naomi Wimbourne asked him to withdraw the story.

"We drew his attention to the fact that the BBC Editorial Complaints Unit had acknowledged errors in a BBC Online story that was the source of the JC’s report, but he refused point blank to discuss it," says Naomi. In an email exchange in June, Pollard insisted the JC story was "entirely accurate" and wrote: "I do not propose to enter into a correspondence with you or your contemptible organization." (Naomi is a member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians, and co-founder of Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods).

The Press Complaints Commission said the JC story had made "serious allegations." It breached the Editor’s Code on accuracy by failing to take care "not to publish inaccurate or misleading information" and by failing to tell readers that its account was strongly contested.

"Only after we involved the PCC did the paper admit to misleading its readers," says Naomi. She found it disappointing that the PCC had fallen short of requiring the JC to admit that its story was plain wrong, not just "contested". But she said it was positive that the Commission had insisted on the statement which now follows the JC’s online story.

I can't help casting my mind back almost thirty years, to the time when the Jewish Socialists' Group, which I had just joined, was accused among other things of "crying wolf", for saying that the Jewish Chronicle, in line with the then policy of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, was playing down or not reporting antisemitic incidents, such as the daubing of swastikas on synagogues.

(The Board's usual explanation for its "no publicity" policy at the time was that it did not want to encourage copy-cat attacks. But the Board's leadership, engaged in negotiations with the Home Office, was anxious that young Jews did not get involved with organisations such as the Anti-Nazi League - or the Jewish Socialssts' Group).

There was one significant exception to the 'softy softly' approach, and that came when some swastikas appeared on Jewish premises in Dundee. This suited a Zionist campaign against Dundee's Labour city council, which had twinned with Nablus on the West Bank, and hoisted the Palestinian flag on the town hall for a visit by Nablus mayor and councillors. The JC naturally had to report how the community was valiantly rallying to resist this outbreak of "antisemitism".

Things have changed, but we saw the other side of this coin this year when JC editor Stephen Pollard came out firmly in defence of Polish right-wing politician Michal Kaminski, saying he could not possibly be an antisemite, as some people had claimed, because he is a supporter of Israel. Kaminski is leader of the group to which the Tories are affiliated in the European Parliament, and he has now been invited to Britain by a rabbi at Mill Hill synagogue, in collaboration with the Conservative Friends of Israel.

Notwithstanding which, Jonathan Hoffman of the Zionist Federation could not resist an allusion to "Polish antisemitism" this week when he organised a demonstration outside the Polish Centre in Hammersmith against a Palestinian concert and drama evening being held there.

Jonathan Hoffman is a joke.
But antisemitism is not a joke.
And it is worrying to think that anyone should be left to depend on the Jewish Chronicle under an editor like Stephen Pollard for their news and information on this serious topic.

(With thanks to J-BIG and BRICUP for press release, and JfJfP for making available)
http://jfjfp.com/?p=19513