Thread by @JVL_Watch

.@uklabour 1/16 JVL member spotlight: getting to know Steve Allen. He’s also organiser of Budapest BDS (the boycott campaign against Israel)

2/16 Allen attacks Margaret Hodge, using the sinister stereotype that she has loyalty to a foreign power: ‘Hodge will defend Israel come what may’

3/16 Allen also accuses @margarethodge of ‘faux indignation’ about antisemitism and ‘misusing’ it for ‘political’ reasons.

In other words Allen is saying she is untrustworthy, manipulative and has an agenda. Classic antisemitic characteristics assigned to Jews.

4/16 In a clear example of institutional racism, the victim is not only disbelieved but also becomes the perpetrator, because Labour ‘isn’t picking any fight’.

5/16 Allen also bizzarely conflates @margarethodge’s feelings about being targeted by Labour for being Jewish with being ‘anti-Palestinian propaganda’ and ‘the human rights of Palestinians’. But Hodge didn’t mention that subject.

6/16 In usual JVL fashion, he clumsily uses his identity to downplay antisemitism, speaking ‘as a Jewish member’. It is a regular occurrence with Allen and other JVL members, as we’ve documented many times

7/16 The very next day he tweets again, ‘as a Jewish member’ to attack @margarethodge for ‘misuse of the antisemitism card’. This sounds like a phrase straight from the far right.

It shows how JVL are legitimising antisemitism and giving it the kosher stamp of approval

8/16 The idea of @margarethodge using antisemitism maliciously, as part of a political plot on behalf of Israel is also used by extreme right publication ‘Veterans Today’

9/16 Even the people showing solidarity with the Jewish community are seen as part of a plot...

When MPs backed the Jewish community against Labour’s diluted definition of antisemitism, Allen didn’t see antiracism. He saw a political plot by people who ‘can’t stomach socialism’

10/16 Allen is out of step with the vast majority of the Jewish community - he’s against the IHRA definition of antisemitism

It exists to stop antisemitic discourse and specifies criticism of Israel is fine. Perhaps he’s disappointed antisemites don’t get more wriggle room?

11/16 Steve Allen also attacks the Jewish community leadership, calling them ‘unelected’. If he had any involvement with the Jewish community then he’d know that the Board of Deputies are in fact elected

12/16 Allen doesn’t just misunderstand how the organised Jewish community works. He appears to not know the basics of the religion. Jewish texts and prayers are littered with references to ‘zion.’

13/16 He shares a wildly innacurate JVL article about the organised Jewish community. The quote he picks is about the Jewish leadership wanting to overthrow and humiliate Corbyn. It’s more institutional antisemitism, turning the victims into powerful, unforgiving perpetrators

14/16 So it’s no surprise Allen also misunderstands the basics of antisemitism. He defines it as ‘attacking people as Jews for being Jews’. But antisemitism is normally the exact opposite. It’s blaming Jews for the ills of society - whether it be capitalism, wars or anything else

15/16 As you’d expect, Allen denies there’s an antisemitism issue in Labour, calling them ‘appalling antisemitism slurs’ and gaslighting the vast majority of Jews.

16/16 Steve Allen is part of a movement who seek to enable and protect the antisemitism of Labour and their leadership.

They do it using language couched in antisemitism, giving license to non-Jewish racists to freely express their antisemitism.