Thread by @RobertCohen2

THREAD:

Good morning Alex, @alexsobel

For you to describe my original headline and article from July 2018 as “Grade A racism” shows the mess and muddle we have got ourselves into when it comes to understanding antisemitism in this country.

Here’s the link to the article for you patheos.com/blogs/writingf…

Context, as even the #IHRA document points out, is important. So here’s the context.

My original headline ‘The Jewish War Against Corbyn risks bringing real antisemitism to Britain’ was responding to the joint editorial in three Jewish community papers under the title “United we stand”, which accused Corbyn’s Labour as an “existential threat to Jewish life”.

The three newspapers claimed to be reporting “the Jewish community’s fears” as if we were a single unified entity.

The @BoardofDeputies and @JLC_uk have adopted the same claim, to be speaking on behalf of us all with a single voice and using that claim to vilify the Labour Party in its entirety.

My original headline mirrored (deliberately and ironically) that incorrect assumption of Jewish unity and universal outrage.

After a few hours I could see the hysteria the headline was creating by those I doubted were bothered to read or engage with the points I was raising. I realised that Twitter was not a good place for irony and, without the context, the headline would be read as antisemitic.

I amended the headline to reflect my article’s critique of the formal Jewish leadership in the U.K. and its behaviour. I deleted the original tweet and tweeted the blog again with the amended headline. There was no reason to change anything in the article itself.

Fair comment in a complex, multi-agenda political environment is not antisemitism. Neither is a dissenting Jewish voice on the role of Israel and Zionism in modern Jewish identity.

If anything I’ve published over the last eight years is branded “Grade A racism” then we really are in troubled waters and antisemitism, not to mention democracy and freedom of speech, is losing all meaning.

In the wider Israel/Palestine debate there is a desperate need for truth and honesty and then dialogue and reconciliation. Accusing me of racism does nothing to further that aim.

Since I’m not a member of Labour I can’t be expelled. But if others are expelled from Labour just for sharing my writing then the original fears I expressed last year will have been well founded. I thank those who have been defending me on Twitter in the last few hours.

I’m more than happy to meet you in Leeds or London to discuss any of this in a private conversation. Just message me and let’s arrange something. We really do need to elevate the quality of the debate on this issue.

Sincerely, Robert

Cc. @Oliverkamm