The Community Security Trust has done excellent work over the years, both in protecting Jewish communities in the UK, and educating the wider population on the continuing threat from anti-Semitism. So it has been both baffling and disappointing to see it produce a report which effectively claims the “Labour Party’s anti-Semitism crisis” has some kind of conspiracy behind it. It calls the apparent conspiracy the “Engine of Hate”.
At the very outset, those it claims are part of this “Engine” are cast as “online networks”, and the report contains several diagrams not-really-hinting at links between them. It is the kind of nudge-and-wink that, were it written about people who are Jewish, would be condemned as anti-Semitic, and rightly so. It is a bizarre exposition.
One Tweeter has pointed this out: “This is the most bizarre report and this dubbing of Twitter accounts as interconnected and in some sort of 'engine room' is disingenuous and full of holes … By suggesting that there is some sort of mechanical operation gives this whole narrative a whole new meaning. That a number of different and entirely unrelated or connected accounts could be working together suggests some sort of conspiracy”.
Shaun Lawson has looked at the CST report and found it wanting. “I've just browsed through the report. I'm startled by what I found. The report claims to have identified 36 Twitter accounts responsible for propagating antisemitism. And, to be fair to it, it does highlight at least some antisemitic tweets and accounts”. There is more.
“Yet it's also done the most extraordinary thing. In effect, the CST have come up with a new definition of antisemitism …The CST appear to be suggesting that you're 'antisemitic' if you’ve: 1. Angrily criticised Rachel Riley … 2. Angrily criticised Tom Watson … 3. Used the hashtag GTTO (Get The Tories Out) … 4. Referred to what al-Jazeera exposed in their film, The Lobby … 5. Criticised Luciana Berger”. Yes, really.
He gives this summary. "Far and away the worst thing the report does is accuse those who've highlighted: 1. That Labour's 'antisemitism crisis' has been openly weaponised for political gain … 2. That a great deal of it is indeed a smear, because it's not backed up by these awkward things called facts … Of antisemitism. Outrageous and disgraceful. What the report's authors need to account for is: 1. Why antisemitism has been repeatedly found to be considerably LOWER on the left than on the right … 2. Why it's been found to have FALLEN on the left since Corbyn became leader”. And his conclusion?
“The final bullet point in CST's mission statement is as follows: ‘To speak responsibly at all times, without exaggeration or political favour, on antisemitism and associated issues’ … Folks: from a British Jew and grandson of a Holocaust survivor... you could've fooled me”.
And one Tweeter who the CST included without any evidence to do so has told them “I said NOTHING antisemitic. I can support my views on [Luciana] Berger with evidence. I'd like my tweet removed and my account name redacted from this reply which had NOTHING to do with me”. There may be others.
Worst of all is the inference that the Labour Party is somehow involved, but it is not. It is difficult to see what the CST’s report hopes to achieve. Other then smearing Labour.
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2 comments:
All part of the tragicomic Carry On Smearing.
I smell Vauxhall Cross and Langley Cowboys rats.
Wait until a general election. It will get so bad words will be overwhelmed by rabid spittle. Until then there will be more of the usual steady drip of poisoned propaganda, especially from broadcast media jobsworths.
Meanwhile, some of the New Labour quislings in the shadow cabinet - Watson, for instance - will be deciding the best time to do maximum damage through resignation. Apparently unaware that the vast majority of the party membership will rush to pay their quisling bus fare to tory/LibDem Austerity HQ.
These right-wing so-called Jewish "leaders" who persistently promote this falsehood about Labour as "institutionally" antisemitic are doing Britain's Jewish community inestimable damage that may take decades to heal.
If Labour loses an election and it's claimed as a reason, if the Tories lose an election and the fear is ramped up there will be no winners. They are opening a Pandora's Box of hatred from which there be no winners,most certainly not the Jewish community.
And as a British Jew I now abandon that community and want nothing to do with them. I will deal with people on a personal basis no matter what their politics but I renounce the community that sits idly by while the fabric of Britain's community is ripped apart while they sit in smug comfort in almost what are "gated" communities where the gathering of various ethnic groups in various suburbs was something I always liked but now is looking very sinister.
Do they really think they won;t be eventually targeted by the new Tommy Robinsons of the world once they have finished with Muslims?.
The entire Jewish community is staying completely silent while phony right-wing "leaders" and gutter tabloids bully politicians and the media into silence or agreement for partisan political reasons. This report is just more of the same and there is not a word of dissent from anyone in any sort of leadership role apart from various Labour Jewish members who are continually derided as not the right sort of Jews.
What in the hell do Britain's Jews think will happen? Do they think they won't be collectively blamed, wrongly but blamed anyway?. Why are they silent?.
This report is not just "disappointing" or "baffling"- it's just more of the same. It's false. It's a lie and it's utterly outrageous but it's deliberate. Past good deads are easily wiped out in an instant by garbage like this. If you are silent, you covertly support the lies and you will pay a price.
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