David
Collier who was used by the media to attack Corbyn called Palestinian refugees
‘Dripping
Poison’
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| Collier sitting alongside Tommy Robinson supporter and devotee Brian Thomas |
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| Collier’s friend Brian Thomas is the key Zionist supporter of Tommy Robinson – they both went round Israel together in a car |
may remember David Collier was portrayed in the media just before the local
elections as an ‘independent researcher’
rather than the virulent racist which he is.
Collier was a useful stick to beat Jeremy Corbyn with when he revealed
that Corbyn was a member of a Facebook Group Palestine Live. His ‘research’ into Palestine Live
demonstrated, so it was claimed that the group was ‘a veritable cesspool of
antisemitism’.
to Melanie Phillips Collier is ‘a
British Jew who devotes much of his life to chronicling the anti-Israel and
anti-Jewish attitudes which have become epidemic in political and intellectual
life.’ Of course Phillips herself is a far-Right nutcase but her
comments are no different from others in the media. Jewish News described
Collier ‘a writer, researcher and
activist, who goes undercover to expose online hatred and anti-Semitism.’
The neo-liberal Guardian called
Collier a ‘businessman’ rather than a
Zionist activist and blogger. I showed
how Collier’s claims to be an independent researcher were accepted at face
value not only by the right-wing press but by the Guardian too.
A
modicum of research would show that he is an Israeli, not a British Jew, with a
far-Right racist agenda. His claim that his research ‘is fully independent. I am
not affiliated with any political group or community organisation. I believe
this independence is important and adds to the integrity of the work.’ is laughable
given that he attempted to brand Free Speech on Israel, a group of mainly anti-Zionist
Jews inside the Labour Party, on the basis of no evidence whatsoever, as ‘a group of Jewish
Palestine Live members, who created FSOI to deflect accusations of
antisemitism.’
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| Our ‘independent’ researcher is here attacking the Labour Party’s newly appointed legal counsel Gordon Nardell QC because he isn’t a fully paid-up Zionist |
Leaving aside that the media at no time scrutinised
Collier’s claims about Palestine Live, which I understand were based on
fake and manipulated images, I know for a fact that Free Speech on Israel had
no connection with Palestine Live. I
happened to be at its inaugural meeting 3 years ago and can vouch for the fact
that Palestine Live never even once entered the conversation. Why should it have done since it is entirely
separate from the group.
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| Collier with his far-Right Zionist friends |
Likewise to claim
as Collier does that FSOI was created to ‘to deflect accusations of antisemitism’ demonstrates where Collier is
coming from. FSOI was created not to deflect but to oppose the weaponisation of
anti-Semitism by people like Collier.
in his ‘Report’ that ‘A small, but highly
vocal group of Jewish anti-Zionist activists is engaged in using Jewish
identity as ‘a weapon’ to deflect accusations of antisemitism.’ is another
way of saying that Jews who are not Zionists reject the idea that criticism of Zionism
is ‘anti-Semitic’ and are happy to assert that being Jewish does not mean you
have to be a Zionist.
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| Collier’s fake statistics are completely unsupported |
themselves from the charge of antisemitism by substituting the word ‘Zionist’
for ‘Jew’. is pure fantasy. Nowhere
in his ‘Report’ was even the slightest evidence produced concerning these
teaching seminars, because of course they don’t exist. What Collier and his compatriots cannot stand
is that some us make a clear distinction between being a Zionist, i.e. a racist
and being Jewish. It is a distinction
that the Zionist movement, not least far-Right elements like Collier dislike.
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| Collier and the all-weather bigot Melanie Phillips |
with far-Right Zionists in Britain who make common cause in making a
hero out of the anti-Muslim fascist prisoner Tommy Robinson, such as Brian Thomas. It is a campaign which is popular amongst the
Zionist Right at the moment. [See Ha’aretz, Esther Solomon, 30.5.18. #FreeTommy:
Why Israeli Fanboys Back a U.K. Far Right anti-Muslim Campaigner
a ‘debate’
with Melanie Phillips, Brian Thomas and others Collier gave a well received
speech on the Palestinian refugees. In it he cannot even bring himself to
acknowledge the refugees are human beings.
He repeatedly refers to them in the third person, ‘It’ as in ‘it was created’. In other words the Palestinian refugees,
rather than being a product of the forcible expulsion by the Zionists in 1948
onwards, are simply a creation by the Arab states designed to do Israel down.
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| The Guardian was as happy as the rightwing press to treat Collier as a neutral researcher |
can read an extract from Collier’s speech below and also listen
to the speech.
“The Palestinian refugee was forged as a
weapon. It was created as an artificial
entity inside a paradigm of no to normalisation and it cannot exist outside of
that paradigm. It will do everything it
can to stop any type of settlement and today, as demographics have changed in
the West this weapon has taken up camp here too.
Today it spearheads BDS yet
another external movement that does not care about the well being of the people
inside Gaza or the West Bank. (applause) So if not now then when. You will never solve anything until you stop
the dripping poison from entering the wound.
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| Collier with his fascist friends including Paul Besser (in blue jacket) of Britain First |
First the refugees then everything
else. Unwrap this parcel from the outside in. This is not a 2 state solution it
is about 2 stages. You tell those British girls that they are British. You tell
the Jordanians that they are Jordanian You scrap the ridiculous definition of a
Palestinian refugee you dismantle UNWRA and you tell Lebanon (applause) that
after 70 years it is about time that it stopped abusing the human rights of
those people born within its borders. Taking an addict and feeding his
addiction and his delusion simply because everybody is too scared to tell them
the truth. It is abuse.
Working to help
or to solve or assist the situation of refugees in places like Lebanon is a
humanitarian cause. Kicking the can down the road only ensures that the
conflict continues and everyone remains trapped. Caught in a perpetual catch-22
with those on the outside working to permanently toxify the environment. If you insist on permitting the artificially
sustained and hate infested desires of those on the outside to dictate the
terms of the discussions between the Jews of Jerusalem and the Arabs of
Ramallah in a deteriorating environment with no type at all of any type of
settlement. So if I am asked will I
support some empty worthless idea that rejects reality and simply wants to kick
the can down the road my answer is simple.
No I will not. ‘
