Staunchly pro-Israel newspaper, the Jewish Chronicle, has revealed another Muslim Councillor ‘has been spoken to by the [Labour] party after the JC brought his comments to light.’ Waseem Zaffar sits on Birmingham City council.
Zaffar made a number of considered & insightful comments on the role played by the UK government’s support for what he identified as Israel’s state-sanctioned terrorism in ‘fuelling “violent fundamentalism”.’ He was also filmed endorsing the Palestinian civil society call for a boycott of Israel.
The JC has seen a letter posted on Zaffar’s website, in which he responds to an invitation from Ruth Jacobs (Representative Council of Birmingham & West Midlands Jewry) to meet with the Acting Israeli Ambassador to London, Eitan Na’eh, when he visited Birmingham in October 2015. Zaffar outlined the concerns he wished to be conveyed to the Ambassador.
Here is his principled letter in full:
Dear Ruth,
Thank you for your invitation to meet the Acting Israeli Ambassador on 14th October.
Unfortunately I will not be able to attend as I will be on a training course on that day. However, I would like to have been able to attend to convey to the Ambassador the anger that is felt amongst Birmingham citizens about the way that Israel has treated and continues to treat the Palestinians. This anger has been expressed by thousands on our streets a number of times and in campaigns for boycott, disinvestment and sanctions. We are a multicultural and multi-ethnic city with a powerful tradition of fighting for equality and civil rights and against racism in all its forms. Israel’s actions are diametrically opposed to this tradition and our values.
As the situation in Palestine/Israel looks more and more like the beginning of a third intifada, I would have wanted to ask the Ambassador how could the Israeli Government believe that, by maintaining an inhumane blockade of Gaza, by shooting dead protestors, by continuing to build illegal settlements, by doing little to stop settler violence against Palestinians and by daily humiliations at road blocks, it was securing a future for all the people who live there, whether Jewish, Muslim, Christian, other faiths or of no faith. Surely a path of talking to and treating the Palestinians as equal human beings, ceasing land expropriations and home demolitions and seeking a just agreement would be more likely to lead to a sustainable peace?
And do not tell me that you would like to do this but first you have to deal with terrorism. That tired and hypocritical argument lost all credibility last year when we saw the terror on the faces of Palestinian children during your bombardment and military invasion of Gaza over many weeks last year. In fact it has never had any credibility as it is clear that Palestinian violence has been a reaction to Israeli oppression and violence. Even when Palestinians protest peacefully, they are shot and often killed or maimed by the Israeli armed forces.
Finally, I would have wanted to explain to the Acting Israeli Ambassador that Israel’s actions made our work to counter those such as Da Esh and Al Qaida much harder. Unfortunately, Israel’s actions and the support given to Israel by our government and other western governments feed violent fundamentalism.
I would be grateful if you could convey my views to the Acting Israeli Ambassador and if you could let me know of any responses he might have. It is only fair to let you know that I will be making my views as expressed in this email public.
Many thanks.
Best wishes,
Cllr. Waseem Zaffar MBE
A Labour spokesperson said:
These views are not shared by the Labour party and Councillor Zaffar has been reminded of his responsibilities as a Labour councillor.
The JC reports there have also been calls for the suspension of Mr Zaffar.
Why no suspension I wonder? Is this because it is becoming more and more obvious that this is a racist purge against Arabs and ‘Arab-lovers’ in the words of the leader of Israel’s racist ‘Labour Party’ which is calling the shots in UK Labour.
Zionism is the hegemonic racism of today. It means racist bullies and thugs like John Mann are in the saddle in Labour as well as the Tories.
I am appalled by the reaction of the Labour Party to these well-considered words by the Councillor. Many of the submissions to the Inquiry that I have seen are clear that we need to distinguish between taking a political stance against Israel’s oppressive occupation of the West Bank and the actions she takes to maintain it and Antisemitism. I am a Jewish member of the Labour Party and have been for much of my adult life. However I am dismayed by the tendency of the Party to react in ways which seem to be driven by the agenda of Israeli and Zionist propagandists. And I refuse to take back my use of the word Zionist!