Statement from Palestine solidarity activists and organisations concerning Peter Gregson
For a number of years Peter Gregson has been an activist on the fringes of the Palestine solidarity movement. Whereas previously he has been treated as a nuisance today his activities pose a threat to the solidarity movement and should be treated as such.
Gregson is notorious for setting up his own ‘campaign’ groups such as LAZIR (Labour Against Zionist Islamophobic Racism) and the Campaign Against Bogus Anti-Semitism. Now it is the One Democratic Palestine [ODP].
In setting up ODP he is deliberately misleading people into believing that it is the same as the One Democratic State Campaign and One Democratic State Initiative.
Gregson was initially expelled by Labour Against the Witchhunt in 2019 for posting a petition linking to an article by Ian Fantom that defended a holocaust denier Nick Kollerstrom, who Gregson described as a ‘holocaust sceptic’. Fantom wrote that Kollerstrom ‘had been targeted in a witch-hunt for a literature review he wrote on ‘The Auschwitz “Gas Chamber” Illusion and a… swimming pool at Auschwitz.’
When requested to take this link down Gregson refused. Fantom and Kollerstrom are co-founders of the Keep Talkinggroup which has hosted a variety of conspiracy theorists like Piers Corbyn and anti-Semites such as Gilad Atzmon.
Gregson’s reasons for participating in the ‘Keep Talking’ group’ was that ‘we need to use every single platform we can find to get our message out.’ This included the anti-Semitic far-Right. The Jewish Chronicle published an article based on correspondence which Gregson had made public detailing what had happened.
Gregson has since been refused membership by Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Jewish Network for Palestine and a host of similar groups.
Recently Gregson has espoused openly anti-Semitic arguments seeing the source of the government’s support for Zionism as being due to the undue influence of Jews. In an article on the anti-Semitic Redress site, he stated:
The people who foisted the IHRA definition upon us were the Jews in the UK who support Israel, so the question arises: do Jews in the UK have significant leverage within the bodies that represent our interests – our courts, our media, our trade unions, our political parties, our government?
Gregson answered his question in the affirmative. In a section ‘Rich Jewish bankers’ Gregson declared that ‘Right from the outset, rich Jewish bankers such as Lord Rothschild backed Zionism. It is unlikely we would have Israel now were it not for his influence.’
The suggestion that Israel owes its existence to ‘rich Jewish bankers’ is a classic anti-Semitic stereotype. It is also untrue. The Rothschilds were a house divided with the majority of the British family opposed to Zionism. For example the President of the anti-Zionist League of British Jews, formed in the wake of the Balfour Declaration, was Sir Lionel Rothschild, a Tory MP.
The Jewish bourgeoisie were overwhelmingly opposed to Zionism. The only member of the Lloyd George cabinet who opposed the Balfour Declaration was its only Jewish member, Sir Edwin Montagu. However facts rarely disturb Gregson.
Gregson wrote that ‘Plenty of politicians too… are Jewish and support Israel.’ Support for Israel is common to all politicians, Jewish and non-Jewish. Gregson singled out Jon Lansman and Rhea Wolfson who ‘used their tribal background shamelessly in 2018 to successfully remove our freedom of speech on Israel.’ Gregson completely ignores non-Jewish and Christian Zionist support for Zionism.
Gregson asserted that ‘it was the wealthy and influential Jews in politics and the media who foisted the IHRA definition upon us’. Gavin Williamson, who threatened universities with a loss of funding if they didn’t adopt the IHRA, is not Jewish. In conflating being Jewish with Zionism and Israel, Gregson echoes Zionist propaganda and the IHRA itself.
The struggle for Palestinian liberation and against Zionism is an anti-racist struggle. There is no place in the Palestine solidarity movement for those who spread anti-Semitic propaganda under the guise of support for the Palestinians. In so doing Gregson plays into the hands of the Zionists and Israel’s supporters.
We advise supporters of Palestine to reject Peter Gregson and keep a wide berth from his many and varied organisations.
| Name | Organisation (if any) |
| Huda Ammori | Palestine Action |
| Beatrice Andrieu | Brighton and Hove PSC |
| Ronnie Barkan | |
| Richard Barnard | Palestine Action |
| Graham Bash | Jewish Voice for Labour member |
| Jonathan Bellos | |
| Tom Bimpson | Labour Friends of Palestine |
| Haim Bresheeth-Zabner | Jewish Network for Palestine |
| Cambridge Palestine Solidarity Campaign | |
| David Cannon | Jewish Network for Palestine |
| Ted Clement-Evans | |
| Tom Coady | |
| Mike Cushman | Jewish Voice for Labour member |
| Deborah Darnes | |
| Iola Davies | Worthing PSC |
| Helen Dickson | Liverpool Friends of Palestine |
| Greg Dropkin | Liverpool Friends of Palestine |
| Jacob Ecclestone | |
| Mark Elf | |
| Cathy Farnworth | |
| Pete Firmin | Brent & Harrow PSC & Labour Representation Committee |
| Terence Gallogly | |
| John Garrett | |
| Andrea Gilbert | |
| Ellen Graubart | Brighton and Hove PSC |
| Tony Greenstein | Jewish Network for Palestine/ Author Zionism During the Holocaust |
| Jenny Hardacre | Cambridge PSC |
| Jeremy Hawthorn | Liverpool Friends of Palestine |
| Nina Heaton | Hastings PSC |
| Mark Jones | |
| Kathy Karavas | |
| Shareen Khan | Birmingham Stop the War/Birmingham PSC |
| James Lake | |
| Penny Leigh-Brown | |
| Les Levidow | Jewish Network for Palestine |
| Kathy McCubbing | |
| Angie Mindel | |
| Anne Mitchell | Brighton and Hove PSC |
| Fiona Monro | |
| Adie Mormech | Manchester Palestine Action |
| Elizabeth Morley | |
| Mick Napier | Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign |
| Michael Noble | |
| Norwich Palestine Solidarity Campaign | |
| Pam Page | Brighton and Hove PSC |
| Jeremy David Parker | Palestine Action |
| Angela Peoples | |
| Roland Rance | |
| Leon Rosselson | |
| Gabriela Rubin | |
| Ibrahim Samadi | Palestine Action |
| Satish Sekar | |
| Lynda Sergeant | |
| Roger Silverman | Socialist Labour Network |
| Stephen Sizer | Convivencia Alliance |
| Dermot Smyth | |
| Jane Speare | |
| Linda Speight | Jewish Network for Palestine |
| Kenneth Tomkins | |
| John Tymon | Football Against Apartheid |
| Adam Waterhouse | |
| Asa Winstanley | Journalist, author of “Weaponising Anti-Semitism” |
Representatives of religious Zionist youth group Bnei Akiva Meet Jewish Racist Bezalel Smotrich in London
Gregson’s Anti-Semitism Doesn’t Hurt Jews But It Does Hurt Palestinians
As Palestine solidarity activists are well aware, accusations of anti-Semitism are the only defence that apologists for Israeli Apartheid have left in their armoury. With Jewish neo-Nazi Ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in Israel’s coalition government and the reign of terror that is being conducted by the military junta in the West Bank, ‘anti-Semitism’ is their only answer to the call for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions.
It is with extreme reluctance that I circulated the statement below to activists asking them to sign a call for people to avoid Peter Gregson and his increasingly bizarre anti-Semitic statements such as his remark that
The people who foisted the IHRA definition upon us were the Jews in the UK who support Israel
Those of us with longer memories than the day before yesterday will recollect that it was the distinctly non-Jewish Gavin Williamson who foisted the IHRA fake definition of anti-Semitism upon universities by threatening their funding.
Jonathan Freedland – Led the Fake ‘Antisemitism’ Campaign Against Corbyn
Even worse was the remark of Gregson that the Zionist movement supported the annihilation of European Jews. Such hyperbole is totally unnecessary. As I show in my recent book Zionism During the Holocaust the Zionists did many terrible things, from blocking routes of escape for Jewish refugees to entering into an trading agreement with the Nazis that destroyed the Jewish Boycott but there is no evidence that they supported Hitler’s final solution.
until 1940 most Jews refused to move to Israel on religious grounds. These were the people that Hitler gassed. With Zionist support. Proof? Over the period 1942-44, Rabbi Weissmandl of Hungary made a deal with Adolf Eichmann whereby the Germans would “sell” the Jews to him
Weissmandel made no deal with Eichmann, that was Rudolf Kasztner, the leader of Hungarian Jewry. If Gregson is referring to the Europa Plan of Weissmandel it was with Dieter Wisliceny not Eichmann. To accuse any Jew, even Zionists, of having supported Hitler’s extermination of the Jews is clearly anti-Semitic because it is blaming the dead for their own murder. The Nazis did not distinguish between Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews in the gas chambers.
As Boris Johnson demonstrated with his racist and anti-Semitic novel 72 Virgins the Zionist movement has no objection to genuine anti-Semitism. Instead it seeks to redefine opposition to racism as racism in an exercise of double think that Orwell long ago predicted.
Jews in Britain are overwhelmingly White and suffer no discrimination on account of being Jewish. Jews in Britain are a largely middle class community as Jewish historians Geoffrey Alderman and William Rubinstein have documented. Of course not all Jews are prosperous but on average they are. Nor do they suffer from state racism.
Nonetheless anti-Semitic prejudice is to be condemned, not because of its effect on Jews but because it is extremely damaging to the Palestinian cause. It lends weight to the false accusations of the Zionists that support for the Palestinians is anti-Semitic.
It is welcome that Asa Winstanley, author of Weaponising Anti-Semitism, which documents the scurrilous ‘anti-Semitism’ campaign waged against the left and Jeremy Corbyn,has signed the statement. Altogether 57 people and organisations have added their signature, representing a cross section of the Palestine solidarity and Jewish anti-Zionist spectrum. It is regrettable that noone in the Jewish Socialists Group signed the statement although people are welcome to add their signatures by commenting on the article or emailing me.
Although national PSC declined the opportunity to sign the statement activists from 6 PSC branches have added their signature in addition to two branches, Norwich and Cambridge. Mick Napier, founder member and former Chair of Scottish PSC has also signed.
Palestine Action Activists Picketing Court Hearing
Five activists from Palestine Action, including founders Huda Ammori and Richard Barnard as well five members of Jewish Network for Palestine have added their names as has John Tymon of Football Against Apartheid.
The Rev. Stephen Sizer – Victim of Justin Welby and the Zionists
Especially welcome is the Rev. Stephen Sizer, who was defrocked earlier in the year after false allegations of anti-Semitism from the Board of Deputies were upheld by a rigged Church of England tribunal. Justin Welby, the most right-wing Archbishop of Canterbury since George Carey, presided over the campaign against Stephen. Carey was later found to have covered up child abuse in the Church of England as Welby has also done.
The statement below conveys a very simple message. The cause of Palestine is an anti-racist one and when anti-Semites take up the cause we will act to isolate them in just the same way as we did Gilad Atzmon a decade ago.
Unlike the Zionists and the multiplicity of lobby groups such as the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism/CST/Board of Deputies etc. we will not tolerate racists in our ranks and we will call them out.
Speaking of which Joseph O’Neill’s Interfaith for Palestine based in Chester also needs to be ostracised. As this report of a speaking engagement by Alain Alameddine of One Democratic State Initiative shows,
Joseph O’Neill’s Interfaith for Palestine group is stuffed the most appalling bigots and anti-Semites. They invited me to speak a few years ago but when I took a look at their other speakers, who included holocaust denier Israel Shamir I declined.
Tony Greenstein
Spot on Tony. We as brothers and sisters who fight Israels human rights abuse should always call out antisemitism in our movement.
Tony you describe me as a Conspiracy Theorist (in phrase “conspiracy theorists like Piers Corbyn”.
Please explain
1. what is a Conspiracy Theorist?
2. What particular thong have I said which is conspiracy theory and why is it wrong.
Hi Folks,
I have just been subjected to a humoungous attack by Tony Greenstein in his blog; see “Why the Palestine solidarity movement should have nothing to do with Peter Gregson” at https://azvsas.blogspot.com/2023/09/why-palestine-solidarity-movement.html
Tony has pulled an impressive array of people in to condemn me, including Asa Winstanley, who has just written a book about how various Jewish groups, directed by Israel, worked together to create the bogus antisemitism hysteria that has gripped the UK. Yet Asa condemns me now for saying the same thing!!
Even Huda Amori from Palestine Action is in there condemning me, which is surprising, since I volunteer for them.
Tony is part of a group that thinks support for Israel has nothing to do with Zionist power in the UK, which I posit is significant, is directed by Israel and is largely driven by the 70% of UK Jews who support Israel. And who have pushed for the adoption of the fraudulent and politicised IHRA definition of antisemitism, which equates criticism of Israel with Jew-hate. Of course, they are ably abetted by the right wing of the Labour Party and the Tories. But the promotion of the IHRA itself was by many Jewish groups (the Campaign Against Antisemitism, the Community Security Trust, the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), Hope not Hate (a misnomer!), Labour Against Antisemitism, the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the Jewish Leadership Council, the three Jewish newspapers (Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News, Jewish Telegraph), UK Lawyers for Israel, Friends of Israel, Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre (BICOM) – and of course the Israeli Government ). You may recall that the IHRA Definition was foisted upon us by some well-known Jewish people saying they would not be safe to walk the streets unless it was added to everyone’s rulebook; this is what has driven the antisemitism hysteria- and which has led to the evisceration of both the left and Palestine activists from the corridors of power.
Just to point this out makes me, in Tony’s eyes, a Jew-hater. Which of course I am not. As Rabbi Weiss of Neturei Karta says of me “He is in no way anti-Jewish; on the contrary he has tremendous respect for Jews and Judaism, while maintaining his moral position of sympathizing with the oppressed people of Palestine.” But then again, Tony has condemned them too ( https://azvsas.blogspot.com/2012/06/idiots-and-fools-of-neturei-karta.html ) .
Tony and his pals who have joined in with his condemnation of me are part of the “shunning/ no-platforming/cancel culture” attitude that has split our movement and undermines work to seek justice for the Palestinians. I feel Asa Winstanley is now guilty of the action he himself condemns of the Zionists in destroying Corbyn.
It is grim to be subject to these attacks from fellow travellers. It feels like those around Tony have become the unwitting pawns of Zionism. The Israelis must be rubbing their hands with glee to see him doing their dirty work for them. Tony recently declared in an email to Ken Loach and I that it was entirely appropriate that the GMB had expelled me (see why they did at http://www.onepalestine.land/rogues-gallery/#pete-gregson ).
It is depressing that people on the left prefer attacking one another to fighting the real problem: Zionist support for apartheid Israel.
Please feel free to share this email.
Best wishes
Pete Gregson (Chair)
One Democratic Palestine
http://www.onepalestine.land
Yes, it’s absolutely the case that the majority of Jews rejected Zionism up until 1939. These are the ones that Hitler gassed. But the Zionist Federation was being bankrolled by the likes of Rothschild. Orthodox Jews rejected Zionism. Which is a secular movements that works against the Torah. (“The Messiah has not come- Jews should not be moving en masse to Palestine, etc”). But there could never have been an Israel without enormous amounts of cash- to buy land, to build houses, to buy weapons. When I was 20 years old and long before I ever knew of Palestine, I had a Zionist girlfriend, daughter of one of the richest Jews in London- I got to know the family, etc. Back in those days, I had many Zionist friends. I think I know a little of what I am talking about. But Tony, coming from the hard left, is obsessed with protecting Jews from criticism- which he does by blaming the US and imperialism instead. The PSC are run by left-wing people who consider themselves Jews who care intensely about the portrayal of Jews- far more than they care about the Palestinians. The weird thing is that amongst those who consider themselves Jews, whether they be Zionist or anti-Zionist, I find a general antipathy against us Goys when it comes to writing about Palestine. This is their baby, after all, they say – “What do you know about it?”, they say… In my opinion, the argument needs to be broadened. What is a Jew? My view is that it is first and foremost someone who follows Judaism. This really pisses off Tony, because he (like the Nazis) considers Jews a race. But they are not- Ashkenazis are Europeans. These is virtually none of the ancient Hebrews in their DNA. But genetic studies infuriate “intellectual Jews”- this line of argument undermines their identity. But it also stops us acknowledging that the real descendants of the ancient Hebrews are the Palestinians, who converted first to Christianity and then to Islam in the 9th Century. This argument needs to be part of our struggle- but it is founded on genetic studies; something that lefties really oppose- because, being non-scientists, they automatically equate it with eugenics. I have a degree in biochemistry though. It is the muddled thinking about the struggle for Palestine that weakens our cause. We lost the human rights argument long ago, nobody at the UN cares much about that. The whole claim to Israel is based around imagined Jewish rights to that land- by people who gave up Judaism when they embraced Zionism. These people are following lessons from the evangelical Christians. This is the case we should be making; that Zionists are not Jews, just opportunistic European colonists. At present the major immigrants to Israel are from Ukraine. They fit in well in racist Israel. Golda Meir, Netanyahu- both Ukrainian too…
I do not intend to replying to this load of shite. Gregson considers the Palestinian struggle is about genetics well good luck to him but we won’t allow him to distract and poison the solidarity movement.
As he says an impressive group of people signed the statement because they are thoroughly pissed off with the anti-Semitic and racist antics of Gregson.
The argument about DNA is a non-starter. The idea that imperialism is not to blame, it’s merely Jews omits the salient fact that the non-Jewish ruling class adopted Zionism well before the Jewish bourgeoisie which was vehemently opposed to the Balfour Declaration.
Piers
a conspiracy theorist is someone who explains the world via various hidden or secret conspiracies. Who instead of laying the blame for the world’s ills on capitalism and imperialist speaks of globalists and the Global World Order as you did to me in Brighton when you stood with fascists in protest at the drag queen reading stories to children. ‘Protecting children’ from sexual deviants is a long standing tradition amongst fascists and the far right as you will be aware.
You deny climate change which 99% of scientists believe is happening and as we can see with our own eyes. COVID is another conspiracy on your part Piers. I’m sorry but you have abandoned class politics