colliric wrote:Anti-zionism is a specific form of anti-Semitism.
No it isn't. zionism is an ideology, not a people, and most zionists aren't even Semites.
Palestinians are Semites tho.
You are basically anti-Semitic against the Israeli Jews specifically.
Feel free to prove this. You can't, but at least try, come on...
You must be one of those people who believe repeating things over and over again make them true; perhaps for the feeble-minded, but I think there's just a few of those types on this board, particularly ITT.
Sivad wrote:That's it? That's what you call antisemitism? I hope you got more than that cause that's pretty weak.
It's all weak-sauce. These attacks on Corbyn and his supporters have happened a number of time before he won party leadership and since then. They'll no doubt happen during the next elections too, since zionists have little else they can argue beyond accusing everyone who opposes their racist ideology as being racists
. They failed before and they will fail again.
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Back on topic, here is a letter from an ISRAELI JEW, a member of the Palestine Live group, responding to the pitiful attacks on pro-Palestinian activists, I recommend all those accusing me of racism to read it all:
Howard Cohen wrote: Sunday 11th March, 2018
J’Accuse!
To whom it may concern
I write this letter in response to the vicious attacks by David Collier on the Facebook group Palestine Live and its members; attacks which have been published uncritically in many of the mainstream media outlets in the UK as well as in the Huffington Post and Israel’s Haaretz.
Let me begin by saying that I am a dual U.K. and Israeli citizen. I grew up and was educated in the UK and have been living for the past 21 years in Israel. I am also a proud member of Palestine Live. Palestine Live has a solid membership of over 3000, at least a third of whom are Jewish (and possibly many more) and which includes many Israelis like myself as well. According to Collier, Palestine Live is made up of a viper’s nest of anti-semites. Collier’s manipulative and politically divisive dossier accuses all those within the group as anti-semites either directly or by association. His intention is clear – his is a politically motivated attempt to discredit Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters and to silence and intimidate all those who speak out against Israel’s apartheid policies and the crimes it commits with impunity on a daily basis against the Palestinians. Many of those criminal activities do not get published in MSM and hence the importance of sites like Palestine Live where its members can be informed.
The conflation of anti-zionism with anti-semitism is nothing new in British politics but today it has taken on a dangerous and ever-growing momentum fuelled by the Israel Lobby and its protectors. Its aim is to put an end to justified criticism against Israel and both mute and punish those that do so. It must be proclaimed loudly and clearly – these are McCarthyist tactics and they have no place whatsoever in a modern, democratic society where they are being used against those who are speaking out bravely and unashamedly in defense of humanity and against the violations of human rights.
Collier uses cheap, rhetorical devices to attempt to try to assassinate his opponents; his opponents being those public figures like Jeremy Corbyn who threaten to come into power and who are clearly sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians and critical of Israel’s apartheid policies and inhuman crimes, and those like Max Blumenthal who are influential activists who speak out publicly against them. Let me take a moment to dwell on Max Blumenthal, for Collier devotes a considerable amount of pages to besmirching Blumenthal’s name and anybody who has any association with him whatsoever. Collier makes it clear from the outset that Max Blumenthal is a perfidious anti-semite whose name is so acrid to him that all those who even respond to his posts must, by association, be perfidious anti-semites in their own right too. And yet, as with the majority of those whom Collier attempts to liquidate, no valid proofs are presented to reveal why exactly Blumenthal is an anti-semite. So vehement is Collier’s dislike for him, however, that the undiscerning reader takes for granted that Blumenthal must be the monster that Collier depicts him as, and thus too all those whom Collier painstakingly picks out for associating with him. This is the rhetoric that Collier uses throughout his poisonous dossier and for the undiscerning eyes it proves most effective. Indeed, the MSM have certainly enjoyed publishing the story and once more having this opportunity to lash out against Corbyn and his supporters.
And so a few words are necessary regarding Max Blumenthal. What Collier conveniently failed to point out in his dossier is that Max Blumenthal is a well-known Jewish author and journalist and the son of the influential journalist and former political aide of the Clintons, Sydney Blumenthal. Collier can not abide the fact that Blumenthal is a very vocal and influential, high-profile activist for human rights speaking out against Israel’s crimes and violations; nor can he abide the fact that Blumenthal sat on the Russell Tribunal in Brussels where he provided very powerful and shocking evidence for the war crimes that Israel committed in Gaza during the 2014 offensive when over 2000 Palestinians, including over 500 children, were killed. Blumenthal is certainly no anti-semite! He is a concerned Jew, like myself, and like hundreds of other Jews who are members of Palestine Live, who are shocked and anguished over the crimes that Israel has committed and is continuing to commit against the Palestinians. Blumenthal feels that it is obligation, as do I, to speak out against them! Collier, however, can not admit that there are Jews who oppose the ideology of Zionism and so the simplest solution for him is to neutralize them, to sully their name and their character, by referring to them as anti-semites. For there is no dirtier word in the English language today than an anti-semite! There is, of course, another extremely useful motive for Collier to depict Blumenthal as a rabid anti-semite - when Jeremy Corbyn makes a reply on one of the posts concerning a Blumenthal lecture in London which he was unable to attend, he automatically (through Collier’s logic) becomes an anti-semite too through association, rather than the concerned humanist that he is!
There are also the academics and other potentially influential figures in Palestine Live who are outspoken against Israel’s crimes and whom Collier believes might prove a nuisance, and so they need to be “dealt with” as well. Figures like Dr. Alan Maddison, a dear 70-year-old retired biochemist with three degrees (whom Collier takes pride in referring to as a “faux academic”) and not a single ounce of inhumanity in him. Alan Maddison is a truly beautiful human being, a cultured, compassionate man who cares intensely about the suffering of humanity and is vocal in defending the rights of the Palestinians and critiquing the crimes of Zionism. It would seem, however, that Collier objects most of all to the pain-staking work that Dr. Maddison has carried out to reveal the McCarthyist witch hunts taking place under Labour designed to silence and expel those who critique Israel by accusing them of anti-semitism. Maddison’s claims that these witch hunts are largely politically motivated obviously irks Collier greatly, as it undermines the very work he is involved in, and so Maddison too must fall under the hammer of the sacred accusation. Collier’s manipulative tactics to “neutralize” Dr Maddison are similar to those he uses for many of his other victims. Maddison, like so many others, is an anti-semite through association! Collier’s “proof” of Maddison’s anti-semitism comes through his claim that 43% of Maddison’s posts were comments “on shares already highlighted within this [Collier’s] report.” The base rhetorical ploy involved in these tactics must not go unreported. Maddison and others are charged with anti-semitism for commenting upon posts belonging to those whom Collier has taken the pains for us to define as anti-semites. And we already know that deeply humanist Jews like Max Blumenthal who dedicate themselves to exposing Israeli war crimes and other crimes against humanity that the Israeli state has committed, are de facto rabid anti-Semites for doing just that! Why? Because Collier tells us so! Thus according to Collier’s logic, anyone who comments upon a post of Max Blumenthal is necessarily an anti-semite too. Nowhere does Collier actually produce any of the comments that Dr. Maddison wrote on these posts as proof of his anti-semitism. And the reason is clear. Just as clear as I can personally vouch for Dr. Maddison’s character through my acquaintance with him. Alan Maddison does not contain an ounce of racism within him and would never utter a comment that could be deemed as an offense to Jews or any other race for that matter. His search is for justice as is mine and as is the search for the overwhelming majority of members of Palestine Live .
I would like to finish this letter with a few words regarding my dear, compassionate friend Elleanne Green and how important the group she runs is for myself and for so many like-minded others, of all denominations, and from so many different countries around the world. I joined the group in 2014, shortly after the Israeli offensive into Gaza which killed and maimed so many innocent Palestinians. I was invited by a valued Jewish friend of mine Peter Cohen, who also has worked tirelessly for Palestinian rights for many years, and who was aware of my deep distress. For I lived the bellicose horror from within Israel, witnessing at first hand a nation hell-bent on causing death and destruction of an already depleted and oppressed people trying to survive under the yoke of subjugation, and regarded as sub-human by their oppressors. The demonization of the Palestinians and the wish for their total destruction was pervasive. Huge billboards went up across the cities sponsored by the banks and other institutions supporting the offensive and any public figures who spoke out against the destruction and the carnage were expelled from their jobs and vilified in the media. Over 98% of the country supported the offensive and even though there were barely any protests, many of those that did protest were arrested. Palestinians within Israel were snatched out of their cars and lynched in the street in broad daylight. It was gruesome and I was close to a breakdown. I felt lost and abandoned in a sea of the most intense nationalistic hatred and I had nowhere to turn. Both Peter Cohen’s site Humanity for Palestine and Elleanne’s group Palestine Live saved me from an emotional breakdown. I realized that I was not alone in opposing this nationalistic frenzy and madness that was slowly decimating another people in the name of a supremacist ideology that I had come to oppose with all the fibres of my being. I was also surprised by how many Jews, and past and present Israelis, were part of Elleanne’s FB group as well. There were people like myself who felt ashamed that Israel was behaving with such unconscionable immorality whilst claiming that it was representing all Jews throughout the world in doing so. I was living in Israel, but most of the Jews in the group were not. We all needed, however, this base to disassociate ourselves from the monstrous behaviour that was taking place, and we all needed to cry out from the rooftops through out deep distress and pain, “Not in my Name!” But we weren’t simply there for a negation either. Being there was for us (and this would go for everyone within the group that I had contact with, Jews, Christians, Muslims and others) an affirmation. It was an affirmation of our humanity, and of our indignation at the great injustice that was taking place in Palestine at the hands of a nation that had seemingly lost all moral compass. It was our indignation at the apartheid policies and inhumane treatment of the Palestinians that we refused to be silent about. For silence is complicity, and we all know from the horrors of our past where such complicity leads.
There was and is something very positive about Palestine Live. First and foremost it facilitated the sharing of information of what was happening on the ground in Israel and Palestine that MSM, both in Europe and Israel, simply wasn’t reporting upon. I am aware of the fact that very rarely some of the posts or information shared there was inappropriate. There was the occasional conspiracy theory that was bandied around that in my opinion detracted from the essence of the group’s purpose, and I criticised these when I saw them. Nevertheless, I personally never came across an anti-semitic post or I would have decried it and so would have Elleanne, but I don’t doubt that there might have been the occasional unsavoury post. Elleanne was vetting the posts most of the time alone, and with more than 3000 members, that in itself is a formidable task. Palestinian Live is no different from any other FB group in that sense. Sometimes unsavoury material gets through. I am also sure that more stringent means will now be put in place to try to avoid this in the future. Nevertheless, Collier’s attempt to portray the group as a nest of vipers crawling in anti-semitic rhetoric could not be further from the truth. Neither I, nor anyone else I know, would have remained in the group if that were the case. As well as facilitating the access to information on what was happening on the ground, the group also serves to facilitate aid for Palestinians and serves too as a platform to advertise protests and talks against the occupation. I have also published articles in the group that I have written against the apartheid reality in Israel and many members from the group donated to my fundraising campaign that I set up for one of my Bedouin students called Noor.
Noor was a Bedouin student at the Engineering College in Beer Sheva, Sami Shamoon, where I was teaching. He approached me at the beginning of one of my courses to inform me that he had no course materials because his house, and that of many others in his village, had been recently demolished by the Israeli authorities. Orders had been given to raze the Bedouin village, Um el-Hiran, in the Negev desert that he grew up in, in order to build a Jewish-only settlement on the ruins. He told me that his father had been shot inside his jeep when leaving the house to try to salvage the family belongings on the day of the demolitions, and that he had been left to bleed to death with all medical help denied him. His house was subsequently destroyed and all his belongings, including his materials for study, were left buried under the ruins, whilst the family’s savings had been stolen from the jeep by the army police. It was a hearbreaking tale that was to occupy me for many months. I had heard about the ruthless ethnic cleansing of the village on the news and how they had murdered his father and then falsely tried to insinuate he was a terrorist (until aerial footage and first-hand witnesses destroyed all the fabrications that the army and police tried to assert in defense of their actions). My heart went out to Noor, even though there was so little I could do to help. He began the course sleeping outside under the stars upon the ruins of his father’s house and I visited him on the ruins of his village several times during the course. I did the least that I was able to do in the circumstances and set up a fund-raising campaign for Noor and his orphaned family. Elleanne was magnificent in supplying me with contacts who donated generously, and many of the members of Palestine Live contributed too. I am indebted to all of them.
In January of this year, I left Israel. My conscience would not allow me to continue living in a country which quite blatantly propagates a supremacist and fascist ideology at the expense of the rights and welfare of another people. The analogies that are being made today by many concerned Jews and non-Jews alike about the fascism inherent within Israeli society should not be taken lightly. Despite the attempt of Zionists and the Israel Lobby to claim otherwise, speaking of the fascism and supremacism within Israeli society and policy is not based on any anti-semitic platform; it is based on a deeply human concern for the welfare and rights of humanity and in this case the rights of the tragically oppressed Palestinian nation both within the 67 borders of Israel and in the territories occupied since. It was no anti-semite but a deeply religious orthodox Jewish philosopher, the most esteemed and prolific philosopher Israel has ever had, who first coined the term “Jew-Nazi” in relation to the inhuman behaviour of the Israeli occupier towards the Palestinians following the ’67 territorial expansion and the brutal subjugation of the Palestinians. It was not used lightly then by Professor Yeshayahu Leibowitz and the similar comparisons that are increasingly being used today with respect to Israel’s behaviour are not used lightly either. It is indeed a tragedy of utmost proportions both for Israelis and Palestinians and we are all most deeply aware of it.
Before I left Israel, I visited London in the summer of 2017 and there I met up with Elleanne in person after years of conversing through our virtual channels both in Palestine Live and privately through messenger. I was already aware of Elleanne’s deep humanity and compassion for the sufferings of mankind, but in person her sensitivity towards the plight of others was even more pronounced and I became more aware too of the great sacrifices she had made in her life to singlehandedly maintain the running of Palestine Live – that tremendous source of comfort, hope, information and activism against the occupation and for Palestinian rights that spoke to so many of us over such a long period of time. Elleanne cares about trying to right the wrongs in this world and like all of us in Palestine Live she is not content to be silent and watch from the sidelines whilst such injustices are taking place. As a result of her stance Elleanne is respected and admired for her work, not just by me but by so many human-rights activists around the world, and this includes Jewish and Israeli activists like Ariel Gold, Miko Peled, Medea Benjamin, Moshe Machover and Max Blumenthal as well as Israeli journalist Gideon Levy, with whom she has met on more than one occasion and who also is not afraid to speak out against the brutal crimes perpetrated by his country.
Knowing how sensitive Elleanne is, I can imagine how distressing to her these vile bullying tactics by Collier must be; these attempts to discredit her as a person, and the group as an entity, must be terribly painful for her. Indeed the tactics that Collier is using is distressing to all of us, since acting as both judge and jury, he convicts all members as one within Palestine Live and depicts us all as loathsome creatures crawling within a hideous nest of hatred and supremacism. Nothing could be further from the truth. A truth that Collier is intent upon neutralizing. The truth that we are deeply-bedded humanists who insist on standing up for the rights of the oppressed and crying out against the evils of fascism and supremacism and revealing the deep and unconscionable injustices that are taking place against the Palestinians. For any unsavoury comments on Palestinian Live we humbly apologise, but they were always rare and wholly unrepresentative of the group as a whole. Let it be abundantly clear though! We will not be silenced nor intimidated into submission by the likes of Collier with his manipulative rhetoric and unsubstantiated claims behind which lie his only too obvious political ends.
Yours most faithfully,
Howard Cohen.
Born: London May 1966
Resident of Israel from May 1996 – Jan 2017
Currently resident of Lavaur, France.
Free Palestine.
- By Pants-of-dog
- By litwin