The Chair of Croydon CLP has been suspended from the Labour Party because of a tweet (rapidly un-tweeted) which suggested that Ken Livingstone may have been factual correct in stating that the Nazis and certain, quite rich, Zionists had concluded a deal to send said rich Zionists to Israel.
I have checked, and he is right (however clumsily Ken may have put it). It was called the Havaara Agreement and agreed to release Jews with enough dosh to go to Israel in exchange for the majority of their worldly goods. To state this is simply a matter of fact and not a demonstration of antisemitism. To suggest a moral confluence between Judaism and Hitler, on the other hand, would most certainly be an anti-Semitic assertion. So far as I can ascertain, not a single Labour figure charged with “antisemitism” has done so. The M.P. whose tweet started this current furore. Naz Shah, was actually retweeting an intended humorous meme from a noted Jewish anti-Zionist called Norman Finkelstein. He lost the overwhelming majority of his family in the Holocaust, so it is rather difficult to call him an anti-Semite. As it is, indeed, to orthodox Hasidic Jews, who universally oppose the state of Israel! Naz Shah is, however, Muslim, and in our current condition of official Islamophobia is fair game! I have seen the meme and I cannot detect any antisemitism in it whatsoever.
This culling of the Labour Left by the Labour Right and the Labour apparatus (which is largely Blairite) is rapidly assuming the appearance of a McCarthyite purge. So what the hell is going on?
Real antisemitism is certainly on the rise in Europe, where real fascists are taking advantage of the economic crisis to attack Muslims AND Jews: one form of racism tends to encourage all others. But in the UK, with its excellent tradition of fighting racism, it is a pretty minority affair (along with those who peddle it!). It is not “respectable” as it once was. What is prevalent, however, is a healthy disgust for what the state of Israel is doing to the Palestinians, particularly in Gaza. This disgust is shared by many Jews, observant or not. It is not anti-Semitic.
Now let us be clear: the Labour Right has never been at the forefront of fighting racism, including antisemitism. The Left, both in and out of the LP, has. So associating the Left with antisemitism is a bare-faced lie. Many Jewish people are prominent in the leadership of Left organisations.
The Labour right, clearly supported by the apparatus, is cynically conflating antisemitism and anti-Zionism (opposition to the idea of a racially pure homeland). The effect is to purge any criticism of the actions of the Israeli state and its armed forces: the Orwellian-named “Israeli Defence Force”.
But why now? This fake association has been peddled by Israel since 1947 to avoid criticism of its murderous policy towards Palestinians (Arabs AND Christians: the latter are 10% of the Palestinian population).
I believe the answers are quite diverse. On Israel’s side, the BDS divestment and economic isolation campaign has become a serious drain of her resources and the horror of Gaza is ever more obvious. An opportunity to dismiss this as “antisemitism” is simply too good to miss. The Labour side of the equation is more complex. Pro-Israel feeling was originally a hallmark of the Left: the socialist-seeming character of the kibbutzim and the justified horror of the Nazi Holocaust (Shoah) were obvious reasons. This faded with the increasingly blatant attacks on Palestine and the 3rd class citizenship of Israeli Arabs, who made up 20% of the Israeli population even after the Naqba. The standard bearer for Israel became the Labour Right mainly, I suspect, to underpin the increasing Islamophobia of UK policy in the Middle East. They were certainly conspicuous by their absence from any mobilisation against racism generally.
The current spat was quite clearly a pre-arranged ambush, designed to inflict the maximum damage possible on Labour election prospects in the recent local elections. A major catastrophe for Corbyn would be the only possible way of achieving a new leadership contest that was winnable by the Right. The Right was clearly willing to sacrifice Labour’s election prospects, up to and including the 2020 General Election, to dispose of Corbyn and the appalling S word: Socialism! The manoeuvre, at the least, displayed a cynical collusion with the (Tory) mass media – including the Broadcaster Backing Cameron [BBC] – and the distinct possibility of collusion with the Tories, anxious to conceal their impending prosecution for election fraud. In the event, it largely failed, though it may have lowered the vote in some areas. However, the Right and the apparatus is trying to create a climate of fear and a sense of crisis to hamstring the Left and bolster its own prospects.
Several things are becoming obvious:
- Conciliation with the Right and its apparatus is not possible. Unilateral conciliation by the Left is equivalent to surrender
- The Left must fight back both in, and out, of the Labour Party. If we do not, racism generally will be enhanced by the real anti-Semites
- The Left must demand that Corbyn put a stop to the McCarthyite purge
- The Labour Left must move to challenge and replace the Blairite bureaucracy
- Right wing M.P.s, whose conduct materially benefits the Tories must be challenged and, if necessary, de-selected
Dorset Socialists opposes all racism and strenuously opposes the repression of Palestinians by the state of Israel. This is not antisemitism. It is humanity.
Tim Nicholls
