FSOI have just issued the this statement in response to the spate of attacks on us following our successful meeting in Brighton. It is a tribute to our growing effectiveness that so much abuse is being hurled at us.
Free Speech on Israel rebuts claims of Holocaust Denial
• Miko Peled did not endorse Holocaust Denial
• Entrapment and character assassination tarnish political life
Allegations that have been made that Free Speech on Israel, a Jewish-led organisation, is complicit in holocaust denial are a signal episode in the manufacture of fake news.
They are distortions based on highly selective quotations, ripped out of context, from a strong and principled speech by celebrated Israeli Army veteran and author Miko Peled at our fringe meeting at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton. These allegations, too readily re-broadcast by an insufficiently critical press, misrepresent the meaning and intention of his talk. His words, read in the flow of his speech, offer no support at all to holocaust denial. These tactics of attempted entrapment and character assassination tarnish the integrity of political life in Britain.
Free Speech on Israel always challenges Holocaust denial whenever it rears its head, just as we are resolute in our opposition to antisemitism. Like Miko we are equally determined to fight false accusations of antisemitism and their use to silence criticism of Israeli crimes or to suppress support for Palestinian rights.
If you are in Brighton for the Labour Conference please don’t miss our fringe meeting
How Israel Silences Its Critics: Why We Oppose the Witch Hunt
Monday 25 September 12.30 pm
Friends Meeting House, Ship St Brighton BN1 1AF
Miko Peled – The Israeli General’s Son
Miko Peled is Jewish. He was born in Jerusalem into a staunchly
Zionist household. His grandfather was at the signing of Israel’s declaration of independence, his father was a General in the Israeli Defence Force – IDF. Miko himself was a Captain in the IDF. In 1997 his niece was killed by Palestinian suicide bombers. Instead of reacting as one might expect, he was determined to find out what would drive young Palestinians to such desperate measures. He uncovered so many myths and lies about Israeli history that he became a peace campaigner and profoundly anti-Zionist.
Salma Karmi-Ayyoub, Chair Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights
Why we need to talk about Israel: achieving Palestinian rights means breaking Israel’s taboos
You will also want to go to Jewish Voice for Labour’s Inaugural Public Meeting
Jewish Socialism Past and Present: Antisemitism, Israel and the Labour Party
Monday 25 September 6.00-8.00pm
Ballroom, Mercure, on the sea front, 149 King’s Rd, Brighton BN1 2PP
PROF AVI SHLAIM
one of Israel’s new historians, author of The Iron Wall etc,
Professor Emeritus at Oxford University
The Myth of Antisemitism in the Labour Party
SIR STEPHEN SEDLEY
a former judge of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales,
and author of Ashes and Sparks: Essays On Law and Justice and more
Free Speech, Antisemitism and Criticism of Israel
DAVID ROSENBERG
educator-writer-activist, long-standing member of the
Jewish Socialists’ Group and author of Rebel Footprints: A Guide to Uncovering London’s Radical History
Old Ideas for New Times: Building on the Jewish Radical Tradition
NAOMI WIMBORNE-IDRISSI
Vice-Chair, Chingford & Woodford Green CLP and a member of the JVL Executive
Organising in Defence of Free Speech
I have put this up on my Twitter page @ Methusalda74
I have also made an announcement on my Twitter page for any of my friends who are CLP delegates to contact me so I can inform them what is going on in the Labour Party & Tom Watson !
I shall need one or two telephone numbers of people you trust to connect hopefully with my friends who are delegates & may have need of contacting you