The Banning of Corbyn – The Big Lie & Asa Winstanley’s ‘Weaponising Anti-Semitism’ because they ‘caused deep hurt among Jews in Britain” Renders Unite’s Policy on Palestine Meaningless
Defy @UniteSharon, Kid Starver & their Zionist Friends – See The Big Lie on Sunday 30 July – Register Here
https://www.tickettailor.com/checkout/view-event/id/2848027/chk/9145/?modal_widget=true&widget=true
It is the unanimous view of groups such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem that Israel is an Apartheid state. According to B’Tselem there is
A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid
In the West Bank there are two legal systems – one for Jews and one for Palestinians. This is the quintessential definition of Apartheid. Israel is a settler colonial regime where soldiers accompany and protect settlers as they stage pogroms against the Palestinians.
Israel is also a settler colonial state even within 1948 Israel. Israeli Arabs are considered a fifth column. That is why the Israeli state, a ‘Jewish’ state, has tried to Judaise areas like the Galilee and Negev.
The Koenig Memorandum of April 1976 by Yisrael Koenig, a senior member of the Israeli Labor Party, proposed to:
Expand and deepen Jewish settlement in areas where the contiguity of the Arab population is prominent, and where they number considerably more than the Jewish population; examine the possibility of diluting existing Arab population concentrations.
Imagine someone proposing to dilute the Black population of London or Whiten Birmingham. That is the politics of the National Front or BNP. Racial engineering was at the heart of Nazi lebensraum. See Christopher Browning’s ‘Nazi Resettlement Policy’. Koenig spoke about the duty of ‘those dealing with the Arab sector… to familiarize themselves with the Arab mentality.’
For those who don’t get it I suggest they try the phrase ‘Jewish mentality’. Today open Jewish supremacists such as Police Minister Ben Gvir reign supreme in Israel. Even Moshe Yalon, former right-wing Likud Defence Minister terms Gvir ‘Mein Kampf in Reverse.’ How else does one defend all this? By crying ‘anti-Semitism’.
At the root of the cry of ‘anti-Semitism’ is the belief that the opposition of Palestinians to Zionism and a Jewish State has nothing to do with the confiscation of land or demolition of homes but is solely on account of Israel’s racists being Jewish racists.
Gail Cartmail & Sharon Graham – Appeasing Starmer and Supporters of Apartheid Whilst Attacking Unite Supporters of the Palestinians
Accusing those on the left of ‘anti-Semitism’ was how the Labour right and the Zionist lobby destroyed the Corbyn left between 2015 and 2019. That is what Asa Winstanley’s book is about and that is why the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, an Israeli state organisation operating in Britain, has done its best to prevent the book being read or Jeremy Corbyn – The Big Lie being shown.
For the past few weeks Unite officials have peddled a series of lies to justify preventing The Big Lie being shown at Unite’s Portsmouth offices. Sarah Carpenter, SE Regional Secretary, told us it was about ‘resources’ and not meddling in internal Labour politics.
Finally the truth has emerged. It has taken a lot of prodding and probing before the lies of Unite’s officials crumbled.
It all began on 8 June when the Chair of Unite SE 6246 branch, Damian McCarthy, wrote to Carpenter asking if it was true that she had cancelled a showing of The Big Lie and if so why. Carpenter’s reply was disingenuous:
Hi Damian
I have asked for the screenings to be cancelled whilst I seek further guidance. I have not had any instructions to cancel. I hope to get back in touch with the Portsmouth Community branch as soon as possible to clarify the position.
Best wishes
Sarah Carpenter
Regional Secretary, South East Region
On the one hand Carpenter hadn’t had any instructions to cancel the screening yet she needed to seek ‘further guidance’ about the instructions she hadn’t received! It is of course difficult to lie effectively as Kid Starver demonstrates daily!
On 13 June Carpenter wrote back to McCarthy with a whole new set of lies. Now the screening had been cancelled because
The issues covered in the film are pertinent to internal Labour Party matters and that is not the focus of our union. Unite’s members are working on issues linked to our local communities and to industrial issues, and union resources are prioritised in these areas. Resources include use, maintenance and security of Unite buildings.
Although Unite can give Starver’s Labour Party the very blank cheque that Graham denied she was giving, some £2m a year, it couldn’t afford the cost of security for a union building to show a film. The pathetic lies of Graham’s officials need not detain us.
There was a time when trade unions did their best to educate and politicise their members. Today they do their best to keep them in ignorance as they cosy up to Labour’s neo-liberals.
On 5 July Carpenter sent me a letter. In this she double downed on the original lies:
Dear Tony
To address the questions that you ask I can be clear that Unite has not been contacted by any group in regards to the decision made. After careful consideration by senior union officials, the decision taken was grounded in our focus to prioritise resources to fight for members pay, terms and conditions and issues facing our local communities.
I will draw your attention however to Rule 17.3 within the Unite rule book, of which all branches should be aware…
‘… that no general purposes funds shall be used for political objects’.
Therefore, the wish of the branch… regarding making a donation to Platform Films in this instance can be described as political and therefore the branch cannot, under rule, make a donation.
Unfortunately these lies hadn’t been squared with the CAA. The CAA boasted about their success in persuading Sharon Graham into cancelling the film and Winstanley’s Bristol book launch. There were no references to ‘Unite resources’ or ‘security’. The CAA wrote
Following correspondence with Campaign Against Antisemitism, the Unite union has cancelled the screening of a propaganda film about the antisemitic former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn that was due to be shown alongside a book signing and talk from Asa Winstanley.
In other words the CAA has once again weaponised anti-Semitism in exactly the ways that Winstanley’s book exposes.
The first demand Unite members should make is to see all of the correspondence between the CAA and Graham.
Graham couldn’t even be bothered to lie to members herself. This nepotistic General Secretary left that to Gail Cartmail, Unite’s Assistant General Secretary. Cartmail claimed that “Asa Winstanley’s publication has already caused deep hurt among Jews in Britain.”
Jo Glasman ‘we slaughtered Corbyn’
Why should British Jews be ‘hurt’ by a film that exposes how the Israel lobby destabilised Corbyn and then boasted of it? That seems anti-Semitic!
It’s not Britain’s Jews but Israel’s apologists who were ‘hurt’ by the revelations in the film and book. There isn’t a shred of evidence that British Jews were concerned about the film or book. Censorship is for Zionist zealots and cowardly General Secretaries and their servile courtiers.
But even if British Jews were offended, so what? When Muslims attacked Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses the Guardian proclaimed If we don’t defend free speech, we live in tyranny. But when anti-Zionists attack Apartheid ‘preventing hurt’ to racists is what counts.
According to Electronic Intifada Cartmail stated that she was responding at the request of Sharon Graham. Ken Loach noted that
Asa Winstanley’s book has been widely praised, including by noted Jewish commentators, for its rigorous and authoritative research.
By banning the author from discussing it in this way, Unite has shown the title to be accurate – anti-Semitism has indeed been weaponized. This is a critical political issue. Buy this important book and judge for yourself.
This was the CAA’s ‘tribute’ to the longstanding Jewish MP Gerald Kaufman – his crime? Supporting the Palestinians
The book launch was scheduled for Monday 24 July at Tony Benn House, Unite’s regional office in Bristol. Benn would turn in his grave if he knew what Unite’s dessicated bureaucrats had done.
A local union official told organisers that the event would be cancelled after “discussion with senior colleagues.” Asked to explain why he would only say the decision “relates to advice and opinion on controversy around the film” and that “the leadership of Unite” did not want to “be drawn into contentious political debate.”
Skwawkbox editor Steve Walker told Electronic Intifada that
Who are the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism?
The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism was formed in August 2014 to undermine solidarity with the Palestinians during Israel’s Operation Protective Edge when 2,200 Palestinians, including 551 children died. The CAA’s sole purpose was to weaponise anti-Semitism.
The CAA said nothing about the welcome for this neo-Nazi at a demonstration supporting Israel
The CAA has said nothing about the growing alliance between Zionist activists such as Jonathan Hoffman, the former Zionist Federation Vice-Chair, and the far-Right. When Tommy Robinson turned up to a pro-Israeli demonstration outside the Israeli Embassy in May 2021 he was given a hero’s welcome. The CAA said nothing.
When Jacob Rees-Mogg attacked two fellow Jewish Tories, Sir Oliver Letwin and John Bercow, as “Illuminati who are taking the powers to themselves.” the CAA said nothing. As Michael Berkowitz, Professor of Modern Jewish History at UCL wrote:
The CAA waged a war against Jeremy Corbyn on behalf of the Israeli state – all with the Charity Commission’s blessing
‘With his nod to “Illuminati” – pointed at Letwin and Bercow – Rees-Mogg is knowingly trafficking in the portrayal of Jews as underhanded and sinister. … while studiously avoiding the word “Jew”, he has exhumed, embellished, and rebroadcast one of the most poisonous antisemitic canards in all of history.
Even Jonathan Freedland, the Guardian’s resident Zionist, condemned Mogg for his attack on George Soros, saying that ‘Jacob “Illuminati” Rees-Mogg has form in this area.’ .
The paper of Israel’s settlers just love Germany’s neo-Nazi Alternative for Germany party
You might expect the CAA to vigorously condemn Mogg, who also retweeted the comments of Alice Wiedel, leader of the neo-Nazi German Party AfD but all you will find is a neutral article Jacob Rees Mogg defends sharing German far-right leader’s speech on Twitter which reports what he said without any of their normal vitriol.
The CAA attacked social activist hero Jo Solo and Hate Not Hope Got Their Fingers Burnt in the Backlash
Why does the CAA not criticise Mogg’s comments? Because Mogg is as ardently pro-Israel as the AfD. When it comes to anti-Semites the CAA goes easy on them as long as they are pro-Israel.
The CAA played down criticism of the AfD, the most pro-Zionist party in Germany, saying that the ‘AfD has a long history of problematic language and policies’. The Nazi Party also had ‘problematic language and policies’. If the CAA had been around in 1933 then they would have said nothing. After all the Nazi Party was also pro-Zionist.
The Liars of the CAA Alleged Prof. Moshe Machover, an Israeli anti-Zionist Supported Hamas – Machover is a Marxist, Hamas are religious conservatives – but Sharon Graham was taken in by the CAA
I have no doubt that the CAA is funded, directly or indirectly, by the Israeli state, via people like Gerald Ronson. When I applied for disclosure on their sources of funding in my libel action against them the CAA resisted to the bitter end.
To date there are no less than 1056 CAA posts attacking Corbyn. One of their officers, There are none on Tommy Robinson. The CAA was one of two Zionist groups, the other being the Jewish Labour Movement, which made a complaint to the institutionally racist EHRC about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.
In order to maintain the pretence that it opposes the far-right too, the CAA devotes a tiny fraction of its resources to tackling fringe fascists such as the mentally ill Holocaust denier Alison Chabloz.
The CAA is an Islamophobic Campaign
The CAA’s 2016 Report British Muslims and antiSemitism is a vile racist tract. It has a picture of a Muslim man on the front cover holding a ‘Hitler was right’ poster. The implication is clear. Muslims are Nazi supporters.
The Report also included a full colour profile of a Muslim man which if it had been of a typical Jew would have been met with loud cries of ‘anti-Semitism’. The CAA report read:
… the gradual buildup of understanding and friendship between Britain’s Jews and Muslims has been utterly eclipsed by growing antisemitism amongst British Muslims. (my emphasis)
On every single count, British Muslims were more likely by far than the general British population to hold deeply antisemitic views…. many British Muslims reserve a special hatred for British Jews … British Muslims largely do not recognise antisemitism as a major problem.
It has long been suspected that sections of the British Muslim population harboured hatred towards British Jews…. the prejudice is horrifyingly widespread.
What the CAA doesn’t mention is that Islamaphobia/anti-Arab racism among Zionist Jews far outstrips Muslim prejudices against Jews.
The CAA has been at the forefront of attacking academic freedom. Because Bristol University lecturer Rachel Gould wrote Defining Anti-Semitism in 2011 describing how the holocaust intimidates people into self-censoring their views on Israel the CAA targeted her.
Palestinian PhD student and union vice-president at Exeter University, Malaka Shweik, was targeted by the CAA. She was eventually cleared and even the Daily Mail & Express apologised for carrying the malicious smears of Sharon Graham’s favourite Zionist group, the CAA
This McCarthyist organisation demanded that Rachel publicly retract her article and write explaining why she had retracted her essay. If she declined to do so then she be dismissed “and her dismissal should be made public so as to clearly signal the University of Bristol’s values”.
Shahd Abusalama, a Palestinian PhD student and lecturer was targeted by the CAA at Sheffield Hallam University and forced out
The CAA forgets that Britain is not Israel (yet)! Academic freedom is not a term that the CAA is familiar with. It has used the IHRA Definition of Anti-Semitism as a weapon against anti-Zionists and Palestinian supporters. Even the IHRA’s principal drafter, American academic Kenneth Stern said , in testimony to the US Congress, that the CAA’s attack on Gould was ‘chilling and McCarthy-like’.
The Problem that the CAA faced was that it was the Right that was anti-Semitic – King’s College’s Daniel Allington Solved That Problem Through Academic Fraud
The CAA was set up with a single goal – to label Israel’s anti-Zionist opponents as ‘anti-Semitic’. It faced a serious problem though. Its target, anti-Zionists and Palestinian supporters, many of whom are Jewish, are almost exclusively on the Left, whereas genuine anti-Semites are almost exclusively on the Right.
Since 2014 the CAA has produced an ‘anti-Semitism barometer’. Despite their best efforts they found that anti-Semitism was more common on the right than the left. As their 2017 Anti-Semitism Barometer concluded:
‘Supporters of left-wing political parties and ‘remainers’ are less likely to be antisemitic than those on the right or supporters of the ‘leave’ camp’.
What the CAA needed was an academic who was willing to prostitute himself by producing bogus ‘research’ that would enable the CAA to claim that anti-Semitism was primarily a problem of the Left.
The CAA needed to invent a set of questions that would ‘prove’ that it is the Left who are the anti-Semites not the Right.
Step forward Daniel Allington who was prepared to use his academic credentials in what is no less than an academic fraud. With the help of Allington, the CAA drew up 6 statements in its 2019 Antisemitism Barometer, allof which related to Israel: They were:
1. “Israel and its supporters are a bad influence on our democracy.”
2. “Israel can get away with anything because its supporters control the media.”
3. “Israel treats the Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews.”
4. “I am comfortable spending time with People who openly support Israel.”
5. “Israel makes a positive contribution to the world.”
6. “Israel is right to defend itself against those who want to destroy it.”
I have to confess I would have been uncomfortable spending time with supporters of Apartheid South Africa or Nazi Germany. By this definition that makes me a racist!
By constructing these fraudulent questions, which bear no relationship to anti-Semitism as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary and as understood by 99.99% of people – ‘hostility to or prejudice against Jews as Jews’ the CAA was able to end its articles with the strap line:
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
The fact that Sharon Graham has banned a film about the campaign to destabilise Jeremy Corbyn at the behest of an organisation whose Chair, Gideon Falter, is Vice-Chair of the Jewish National Fund, an organisation which refuses to rent or lease the 93% of land in Israel that it owns or controls, is a disgrace. It makes Unite party to Israeli Apartheid. Graham might not care if she covers for racist Zionists but union members should care.
The CAA took this post down very quickly when it alleged Jackie Walker was a holocaust denier – unknown to them the quote they objected to came from Israel’s first Prime Minister – David Ben Gurion!
The CAA has seen as one of its tasks engendering fear of anti-Semitism amongst British Jews. Anshel Pfeffer, commenting on the CAA’s 2015 Anti-Semitism Barometer wrote in Ha’aretz that:
take for example the statement that “Jews think they are better than other people.” Of course it’s not the thing that one should normally be caught saying in public – but is it anti-Semitic? For a start, many Jews do subscribe to the Jewish notion of “the chosen people,” and for that matter it’s not only Jews; members of many if not most nations, religions and ethnicities believe they are better than the others. That’s natural and normal national pride. Even if this view runs counter to liberal orthodoxy, believing that Jews think of themselves that way can certainly be a fair and honest assessment.
The same can be said of another of the survey’s statements: “Jews talk about the Holocaust too much in order to get sympathy.” That’s a rather nasty accusation but the fact is too many Jews, both political leaders in public appearances and ordinary Jews on social media, are often too quick to bring up the Holocaust in order to make a point. The sad truth is that many Jews have cheapened the memory of the Holocaust by using it in an inappropriate fashion. Holding that opinion doesn’t necessarily make you an anti-Semite.
Pfeffer accused the CAA of an ‘eagerness to see the anti-Semitism in Britain, which inarguably exists, as much more widespread than it really is’. There are no prizes for guessing why this might be so.
About the ‘finding’ that 56% of British Jews agree that “the recent rise in anti-Semitism in Britain has some echoes of the 1930s.” Pfeffer wrote that
If the majority of British Jews and the authors of the CAA report actually believe that, then it’s hard to take anything they say about contemporary anti-Semitism in their home country seriously…. To compare today’s Britain, for all its faults, with the Jews’ situation in 1930s exhibits a disconnect from reality which borders on hysteria.
That Graham, Cartmail, Carpenter and other officials took the complaints of the CAA serious without doing any due diligence is a disgrace. Not once did they ask themselves why the CAA wanted to silence a film that Ken Loach and many others have praised.
This was what the ‘antisemitism’ campaign was really about – demonising mainly Jewish anti-Zionists and anyone supporting the Palestinians
The Big Lie is a film in which many Jewish socialists explain why they have been expelled as a result of false allegations of anti-Semitism from the Labour Party. People like Graham Bash, Jackie Walker, Leah Levane, Naomi Wimborne Idrissi and myself. In getting into bed with the CAA Sharon Graham has torn up Unite’s policy in support of the Palestinians. See
UK union cancels “Weaponising Anti-Semitism” book launch
Exclusive: Graham’s Unite bans Corbyn film from all its buildings
UK union cancels “Weaponising Anti-Semitism” book launch
The Campaign Against Antisemitism is a campaign against Palestinians
