Day: 6 June 2016

The Jewish Chronicle reports that “A spokesperson for Labour confirmed that Ms Ellis had been suspended pending an investigation.”

You can read Ellis’s blog in full here. Below is an excerpt:

Momentum Black ConneXions (MBC) calls for the Labour Party to reinstate Ken Livingstone and to recognise that he was trying to defend both you Jeremy and Naz Shah MP against the brutal attacks of the media and those they are representing in opposition to all Black Communities as well as, the more general public. It is regrettable Jeremy that you have allowed this unjustified suspension of Ken Livingstone from the Labour Party and it is our belief that your statement on 30^th April 2016, in response to these attacks, plays right into the hands of Zionist criminals. We hoped, Jeremy, you would be stronger than this and feel that a disloyalty to someone who was trying to support and strengthen your position is difficult for us to countenance. Momentum Black ConneXions appeals to you to rectify the situation and let it be done as transparently as possible without making it seem as if Ken Livingstone has committed an offence. We are all interested to know what the Labour Party has to say to validate this. We understand that Shami Chakrabarti will convene an investigative enquiry. What will be its terms of reference and how will you ensure that there will be due process?

We are mindful of the contributions Ken Livingstone has made with the use of egalitarian policies that date back to the Greater London Council (GLC) in the 1970s/80s. His administration sought to improve the lives of disadvantaged Black and other minoritised ethnic groups within London as well as women, the disabled and lesbians and gays. Funding was allocated to minoritised groups in the belief that social change could take place from the margins and it is a sad testimony to that success that Prime Minister Thatcher later destroyed the GLC as a consequence.

Continue reading here

David Hirsh, a long-time opponent of calls for BDS in the University and College Union and a founder of the often scurrilous Engage website, has written a highly inaccurate account of this year’s UCU Congress. The account, published in the Times of Israel, says, “There are a few Jews there, but they are Jews who support and kosherize the boycott campaign” – the wrong sort of Jews.

Only Jews who subscribe to ‘my Zion right or wrong’ are real Jews in Hirsh’s eyes – the rest of them, a steadily growing number, are presumably ‘asaJew’ as Engage so eloquently describes them.

The article wilfully misdescribes the academic boycott:

If an Israeli is willing or able to disavow their institution and speak or submit to a journal or a conference without mentioning their institution then they may be exempted. The ‘institutional boycott’ is a myth; a political test by another name. It is an exclusion of Israelis who work at Israeli institutions.

Neither the PACBI guidelines not the BRICUP UK call says this. Indeed the PACBI guidelines are more than explicit: ‘Mere affiliation of Israeli scholars to an Israeli academic institution is therefore not grounds for applying the boycott’. Individuals submitting papers are not boycotted whether they state their affiliation or not. The boycott covers people of all nationalities, Israeli or any other, who work at Israeli universities who seek to represent their institution, for instance speaking as Dean seeking to recruit to their faculty. I will leave aside for now the curious fact that there is no Israeli nationality.

Hirsh also claims that ‘In the old days UCU tried to set up a McCarthyite political test so that it could exempt Israeli academics of whom it approved.’ This is a simple untruth, at no time has there been a UCU Congress motion or debate suggesting such a test – the boycott motions have always followed the PACBI principles.

The prompt for this conflation of falsehoods is the resolution agreed at the Congress. It was a resolution about Palestine, so Hirsh’s whinges such as “The failure of western governments ‘to hold Israel accountable for war crimes’ is added to the picture. No mention is made of other governments,” are pitiful. As the debate was about Palestine and Israel it is hardly surprising.  Resolutions about the Health Service similarly did not deplore the Government’s attacks on schools.

Similarly Hirsh evinces surprise that, “the conflation of ‘anti-Zionism’ with ‘anti-Semitism’ is held to be ‘orchestrated’”. Does he expect UCU, or anyone else, to believe that there has been a spontaneous uprising of the recent spate of accusations at a time when a succession of Israeli government representatives have stated their intention to pursue all supporters of BDS? At a time when the media is full of a succession of Zionist leaders, right-wing Labour politicians and Tory ministers making similar mendacious accusations? Continue reading “The wrong sort of Jews”

The ninety-seven signatories include Chair of Momentum, Jon Lansman, Gillian Slovo, Miriam Margolyes OBE, and Susie Orbach:

This submission has been drawn up by a group of Jewish Labour Party members who have been active within human rights organisations, anti-racist and anti-fascist campaigns and training, refugee support, education in a range of contexts and at all levels, and have been involved in a range of Jewish organisations and projects such as:

Jewish Socialistsʼ Group, Jews for Justice for Palestinians, Independent Jewish Voices, Jewish Cultural and Anti-Racist Project, Jewish Music Institute, Friends of Yiddish, Kehillah North London.

Our submission is relevant to all the terms of reference of the inquiry, but we focus particularly on those aspects that aim to:

• understand and address antisemitism in the wider context of racism in general;
• provide the most effective context for training on these issues at all levels of the party; and
• ensure that Jewish people are welcomed and integrated into the party alongside other minorities.

We feel strongly that the education and training of Labour Party members and officers on issues relating to antisemitism must be the responsibility of an inclusive and progressive Jewish group that is able to meet the demands of this role because it would be positively focused on Jews in the Labour Party here in Britain.

Before this Inquiry was announced, a number of us had been discussing the need for such a representative group as a permanent element within the Labour Party. The events during the run-up to the local and Mayoral elections, and the establishment of the Inquiry, have encouraged us to address this more urgently. With our long, deep and broad range of experience, we intend to help form such an inclusive group, along the lines stated in the following proposal.

Proposal on Jewish representation in the Labour Party

We wish to see the setting up of a broad-based organisation which can become a “Jewish Section” or an affiliated organisation of the Labour Party.

It will be open to all Jews who are members of the Labour Party.

Its guiding principles will be rights and justice for Jews everywhere without wrongs and injustice to other peoples anywhere.

Welcoming the fact that Jews are an international people with communities in many countries, its outlook will be internationalist and anti-racist and it will link the interests of Jewish people with those of other minorities and oppressed groups.

While individual members of the new group may have particular attitudes towards or connections with Israel/Palestine or any other country, it will not impose on its members a stance on proposed solutions to conflicts in the Middle East; instead it will encourage a free and respectful exploration of the issues from Labour/socialist perspectives, and will reserve the right to criticise any regime on the grounds of human rights violations.

Its purposes will be to:

• provide a platform to represent the concerns and interests of Jewish members at all levels of the Party;
• campaign against antisemitism and all forms of racism and discrimination, and assert a progressive Jewish identity as part of multicultural Britain;
• strengthen links between Jews and other ethnic minorities in Britain;
• uphold and continue the long tradition of Jewish involvement in struggles against oppression and for social justice, both locally and globally;
• act as a cultural and social hub, which can share the cultural resources of Jewish members and organise social and cultural events as well as political forums in which issues can be freely debated from various viewpoints; • seek support for the Labour Party among the wider Jewish community.

Its constitution will affirm that its primary allegiance is to socialism and the values of the Labour Party.

Such a section or group would expect to be consulted by the Party leadership and the National Executive Committee where issues directly concerning Jewish members arise.

It would also expect to fulfil a training role in the Labour Party, and act as an advocate in cases where disputes arise concerning Jewish matters.

We do not feel that the Jewish Labour Movement (known until 2004 as Poʼale Zion, Workers of Zion) is the correct vehicle for this role because it has an explicitly Zionist constitution, is committed to promoting “the centrality of Israel in Jewish life”, and requires that its members adhere to a particular view of the Israel/Palestine conflict and Zionism. In doing so it excludes a large proportion of Jewish Labour Party members, including many of the signatories to this submission. We believe our Jewish perspective has a natural home in the Labour Party, but would not wish to sign up to the constitution of the Jewish Labour Movement, nor would we be welcome to join it. Continue reading ““Jews for Jeremy” submission to Chakrabarti Inquiry: the Zionist Jewish Labour Movement should have no role in training Labour members”