Apologies for long thread and appreciate I may lose a few followers for this. But I know I'm not the only one who has concerns about this JVL statement, even after its revision...
jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/statement/unra…
jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/statement/unra…
We're on much firmer ground in defending Peake, RLB and exposing the cynical opportunism of Starmer if we acknowledge that any alleged link between Israel and the killing of George Floyd plays to a dangerously and virulently antisemitic theme, even if clearly unintentional..
Of course there is nothing wrong with pointing out use of the same technique by Israeli police against Palestinians. But that's far removed from the implied assignment of some kind of responsibility or culpability to Israel for the death of George Floyd...
Ironically, this has only served to undermine both the BLM and PLM movements and obscure the real links between them. Worse, it necessarily detracts from the responsibility ascribed to police in the US and UK where institutionalised racism long predates the existence of Israel...
Above all, it weakens resistance to an extremist government in Israel that is currently doubling down on its racist agenda through the proposed annexation of the West Bank...
I don't accept the argument that asking people to steer clear of baseless conjecture and recognise what are intrinsically antisemitic ideas means criticism of Israel is held to a higher standard of accuracy than any other country...
Spurious associations between Israel and police brutality in the US are borne of the same blindspot that affects Centrists who blame Russia for Brexit or Trump. Small elements of truth never justify the bigger falsehood...
And the Left SHOULD hold itself to a higher standard of evidence-based argument. There is more than enough substantiated evidence of Israel's oppression and brutality to focus on...
And I don't understand why we can't acknowledge that real antisemites (on both the left and right) do play with notions of Israel's hidden global power and malign influence over the West...
Just yesterday someone posted on my Facebook feed "Jews should stop training US police to kill black people". We need to call out this racism loud and clear and, at the same time, stop giving weapons to those seeking to exploit antisemitism to serve their own political agenda.
