Anti-Semitism

BBC Radio 4 - Moral Maze, Anti-Semitism

"For more than three years now the Labour Party which has often talked as if it had a monopoly of virtue has wrestled with accusations that it's institutionally prone to one of the oldest vices... the picture that's been painted most recently in a damaging expose on the BBC Panorama program, is that it has grown largely unchecked and the leftward shift of the party under Jeremy Corbyn.

The central allegation is that many activists associate all Jews with the capitalism they detest, and the State of Israel, which they regard as oppressors of those with whom they sympathize. The party is now being investigated for racism by the Equality and Human Rights commission… Is anti semitism just another form of racism or given its dreadful history, something uniquely pernicious?...

‘In my view, anti semitism is unique in its obsessional imputations of world conspiracy and unique malice against the Jewish people, based entirely on lies. Anti Zionism or anti Israelism has exactly the same unique characteristics and I believe this is no coincidence.’...

Anti Zionism depending on what you mean by that, is pretty reprehensible. And I rather agree with your view that... one of the things that justifies Israel's existence is part of all of this. But you can be extremely critical of the State of Israel, indeed, I have been known to be. And you can be very critical of particularly the actions of the Israeli government. When you wish the state to disappear, to deny a state that's been in existence for 71 years, and you pretend that you can just push it into the sea, then I think it is verging on if not necessarily, always anti semitism.

So I think criticism of Israel is fine... If you criticize the Israeli government for something, for instance, the nationality law, which many of us don't like, if you do that, that is fine. But you then also need to be seen to be criticizing other governments. If alone of all states, the only state you criticize, and the only state you express this kind of loathing for is Israel, then I think you have a serious problem, and you're probably an anti Semite...

In the Labour Party, we also read that Jews are regularly being accused of financing the slave trade, a conspiracy to subvert US foreign policy, they're called dirty Zionists. There are pictures of an alien creature with the Star of David on its back clamped on the Statue of Liberty. Jews are being blamed for 911, for ISIS, Rothschilds are said to be controlling the world...

‘The Labour Party is dealing with hundreds and hundreds of these examples. How many would it take for you to say there was a serious problem here?’

‘Certainly a lot more than have been alleged at the moment’...

There is nothing wrong with criticizing Israel, it should be criticized like any other country, the issue is it’s not criticized like any other country. The issue is, it is subjected to lies and libels, which consists of or are intended to destroy its legitimacy as existing at all. That is delegitimized, dehumanized and demonized. That is the problem with it.

And the problem with the support for the Palestinians is that what people don't really accept is that the Palestinian cause is itself based upon a denial of the Jews’ own history. And Palestinianism is marked. I'm not talking about the Hamas, I’m talking about the Palestinian Authority, which people of moderate views support as being moderate.

And they are coming up with stuff saying the Jews are behind 911, they control the world's media finances and worse, sermons say the Jews are the fabricators of history who dance and live on the body parts of others and the blood of others. They demonize Jews.

Now if people support Palestinianism, and never even criticize, never even mention this, is it surprising that those people come up with exactly the same kind of libels about the Jewish people controlling the world's finances, being behind 911 in the Labour Party? It’s not a coincidence"