Tony Greenstein | 28 June 2017 | Post Views:

Charity Commission Under Islamaphobe William Shawcross Turn a Blind Eye
to the CAA’s Blatant Racism

Sign the Petition Calling for the
Deregistration of the
Campaign Against Anti-Semitism

The Campaign against ‘Anti-Semitism’ do their best to have Europe’s largest Palestinian event cancelled
This is why the CAA is allowed to do what it wants – because the Charity Commission is chaired by a racist and Islamaphobe

Despite having toyed with the idea
of cancelling Palestine Expo 2017 even
Sajid Javid, the Tories pro-Zionist Communities Secretary couldn’t find a reason
to ban Palestine Expo.  Javid is . reported
as saying at a Conservative
Friends of Israel
 lunch in
2012,  that “if he had
to leave Britain to live in the Middle East, then he would choose Israel as
home. Only there, he said, would his children feel the ‘warm embrace of freedom
and liberty’
.

I
hate to disappoint Javid but if he was seeking refuge then Israel would be the
last place that he would be welcomed. 
Not to put too fine a point on it, not only is he not Jewish but he is
Black.  He may be one of those disgusting
Uncle Toms who think that money will make him an honorary White, and maybe in
the British Tory Party these days it will, but in Israel he would be treated
like all Black refugees.  He would be
deported or refused admission or held in a concentration camp in Holot in
Israel’s Negev desert.  See Israel’s
unwanted African migrants
& Eritrean
refugees in Israel sent to Uganda and Rwanda
This racist caricature of Muslims was posted on the CAA site and printed in a publication of theirs – this is their contribution to ‘community relations’ – it’s a pity that the CAA weren’t around a century ago, they could have produced some remarkable Jewish cartoons
The forthcoming Palestine Expo 2017 on July 8th
and 9th at the South Bank Centre promises to be the biggest social, cultural and entertainment event on
Palestine to ever take place in Europe. 
It will include a session run by Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods and
Free Speech on Israel on false allegations of anti-Semitism.  It has a number of Israeli and Jewish
speakers such as Miko Peled and Prof. Ilan Pappe as well as people like John
Pilger.
William Shawcross – the Islamaphobe who chairs the Charity Commission
None of this,
of course, stopped the so-called Jewish Human Rights Watch aka far-right
solicitor Robert Festenstein claiming it was an ‘anti-Jewish hate fest’.  It
is not difficult to understand why the racist Campaign Against Anti-Semitism should have leant its voice to
trying to stop a Palestinian event taking place. 
The Charity Commission appear to be wriggling out of their previous commitment at the instigation of their racist Chairman Shawcross
The CAA have though outdone
themselves with the statement that

It is
extremely troubling that this event is being held at an iconic,
government-sponsored venue, right opposite the seat of British
democracy. We are writing to the Secretary of State for Communities and
Local Government expressing our concerns.

This
is a classic example of how ‘terrorism’ is used as part of a campaign to limit
and restrict freedom of speech.  The
organisers Al Aqsa and associated individuals have allegedly supported
‘terrorist’ organisations in the past such as Hezbollah and Hamas.  There is a very simple answer to this.  Neither organisation is a terrorist
group.  Both have, with varying degrees
of success, fought the Israeli government. 
That doesn’t make one a terrorist whatever Tory ministers and their
lackeys say.
What
the CAA are saying is that Palestinian=terrorist and therefore, in view of
recent terrorist attacks, anything connected with the Palestinians should not
be held ‘opposite the seat of British
democracy’
i.e. Westminster.  It is
difficult to think of a more racist statement than this.  Just imagine that someone had said that a
Jewish event should not be held at Westminster for similar reasons.
The CAA’s attack on me and Baroness Jenny Tonge
The
real disgrace though is the lack of action of the Charity Commission, under
their racist Chairman William Shawcross. 
As the Huffington Post noted

Muslim charities have been disproportionately affected by
investigations from the Commission since the appointment of Shawcross, with 38%
of all disclosed investigations initiated between 1st January 2013 and 23rd
April 2014 being on Muslim charities.’
 

Shawcross was a
trustee and Director of the cold-war Islamaphobic Henry Jackson Society.  In 2012
Shawcross saidEurope and Islam is one of the
greatest, most terrifying problems of our future”.
Shawcross
is a paid up member of the British establishment. According to his Wikipedia entry
From St Aubyn’s prep school in Rottingdean Brighton (since closed down) he went
to Eton and Oxford  before joining the BBC World Service Advisory Council. In 2008 he became a
Patron of the Wiener Library and in 2011 he joined the board of the
Anglo-Israel Association and was appointed to the board of the Henry
Jackson Society
.
It
is this which would appear to explain the Charity Commission’s reluctance to
tackle even the most egregious example of racism by a Zionist group.  Of course if the CAA were an Islamic group
and singled out Jews for the same attention then they would be deregistered
tomorrow.
I
have therefore written a further letter to the Charity Commission (see
below).  It would seem that whatever the
CAA does is going to be given the green light by the Charity Commission.  I will also be considering what further legal
steps can be taken given what appears to be a refusal by the Charity Commission
to take any action.
Tony
Greenstein

Correspondence with Charity
Commission

Charity
Commission
Woodfield
House,
Tangier,
Taunton
TA1 4BL

Dear Ms Grenfell

Subject: Re: 20170322 – To Tony Greenstein –
update – CAMPAIGN AGAINST ANTI-SEMITISM 1163790 CRM:0162547
To:    PCT – Taunton
(Queue) <[email protected]>
          RC Landing
& Correspondence (Queue)
On 6th, 20th
February 2017, 1st March and subsequently I wrote to the Charity
Commission concerning the Campaign
Against Anti-Semitism
.  The CAA was
not operating to provide any public benefit but was acting as an overtly
political and Zionist organisation whose speciality was the launching of
partisan political attacks on those who are critical in any way of the State of
Israel and Zionism.
It has, at the time of writing,
made some 94 separate attacks
on Jeremy Corbyn.  For an organisation
supposedly devoted to anti-Semitism it displays a strange obsession with
attacking and demonising anything to do with the Palestinians.  One example of the malevolent nature of its
attacks was the article they posted on the death of Gerald Kaufman MP,  Sir Gerald Kaufman MP’s words
have left a rotting stain on our institutions. 
  That you could allow, without passing
comment, a charity to post such a disgusting and foul-mouthed article on the
death of the Father of the House of Commons speaks volumes to your own lack of
judgement.
No sooner than I had made a
complaint against the CAA then on 26th February the CAA devoted one
of its posts to making a highly personal and defamatory attack on me, calling
me a ‘notorious anti-Semite’ without
any evidence whatsoever.  Tony
Greenstein’s attempt to shut down Campaign Against Antisemitism showcases the
similarities between far-left and far-right.
  As someone who is Jewish this is particular
offensive and anti-Semitic.


The CAA has recently taken the
lead in attacking Palestine Expo, the biggest social, cultural and entertainment event
on Palestine to ever take place in Europe and which is scheduled to take place
on July 8th and July 9th at the South Bank Centre.  In an article CAA RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT PALESTINE EXPO HOSTED AT GOVERNMENT-OWNED
CONVENTION CENTRE OPPOSITE PARLIAMENT
it challenged the very right of
Palestinians to organise politically, culturally or socially under the guise of
‘anti-Semitism’. It concludes its article by saying that ‘It is
extremely troubling that this event is being held at an iconic,
government-sponsored venue, right opposite the seat of British
democracy. We are writing to the Secretary of State for Communities and
Local Government expressing our concerns.’


This is an
outrageously racist statement, even for the CAA.  It is suggesting that it is ‘troubling’ to hold a major Palestinian
event near the Palace of Westminster, with the obvious implication that
anything Palestinian is related to terrorism and that, in the light of recent
events, it is poses some form of danger. 
If such a suggestion were made about a Jewish event there would rightly
be an uproar.


Yet
the Charity Commission sits twiddling its thumbs, doing nothing, saying nothing
and allowing the CAA to continue regardless.
Perhaps I should remind you that
on 22nd March, Alex Young from your Liverpool Office wrote to me
stating, in respect of both of my complaints, not least that related to the
failure to identify its trustees that I am advised there is the prospect of 
decisions on these matters within a week from today, after which we will
communicate to you our view on the issues you have raised.
’ 
On 8th May, some 6
weeks later, I wrote to you asking why I had heard nothing despite your
promises.  You wrote back the same day to
inform me that you had taken over the examination of my complaint but that

It is not possible at this stage to give any
timeframe for the conduct of this case. However, once I have completed my
analysis I will let you know.
I appreciate
that this will be frustrating for you, but I can confirm that I am looking in
detail at the information you have provided.’
On 8th May I raised further concerns
regarding the involvement of the CAA in attacking certain parliamentary
candidates in the middle of the General Election.  Instead of issuing advice to the CAA or
indeed charities as a whole you said that it wasn’t a matter for you, which raises
the question of whether or not you are fulfilling your statutory duty to
regulate the charity sector.
You also seemed to be rowing back on the previous
pledges you made when you stated that:
‘As we have
informed you previously, we are considering all of the points you have made. It
is not our policy, and we do not have the resources, to keep those who provide
information to us, informed of progress on individual cases.’
This is a direct contradiction of your previous
pledges, not only to complete the investigation within a week but to keep me
informed.  I do not believe, for one
minute, that you don’t have the resources to inform me as to the progress of my
complaint.  There is no reason whatsoever
for you not having completed your investigation and there is even less reason
for you not having informed me of the outcome of any investigation.
The only inference that can be drawn is that you
are prepared to turn a blind eye to the activities of the Campaign Against
Anti-Semitism despite its clear breaches of charity law.  I repeat what I have previously tried to make
clear to you.  The Campaign Against
Anti-Semitism is entitled to act as a political campaigning body it is not
entitled to do this with all the financial advantages accruing from being a
charity.
The petition we launched
calling for the deregistration of the CAA has now reached nearly 3,000 people.  I look forward to you breaking your normal custom
and practice and providing a full response into the complaints that I and
others have made.
I also wish to make it clear that I am submitting a
third complaint in respect of the CAA’s racist campaign against Palestine Expo
2017.
Please also advise me of the various avenues of
appeal if you continue to refuse to respond to my complaints against the CAA.
Yours sincerely,
Tony Greenstein

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