Vol. 79/No. 47 December 28, 2015
London meeting debates Jew-hatred, Israel boycott
LONDON — There was a lively debate on Jew-hatred — the danger it poses and if it’s being advanced today by some of those claiming to speak for the Palestinian struggle for national rights — at a Nov. 3 meeting here titled “The Left and Jews in Britain Today.” About 120 people came to the event at Birkbeck University, organized by the Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism.
The meeting was called in response to “the controversies that swirled around the candidacy of Jeremy Corbyn for the leadership of the Labour Party,” said David Feldman, the Institute’s director. He was referring to remarks by Corbyn referring to Hamas and Hezbollah as “friends” and defending the 2012 visit of Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement in Israel, to the U.K.
The speakers panel included Alan Johnson from Britain Israel Communications & Research Centre; Lesley Klaff, lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University and UK Lawyers for Israel; David Rosenberg from Jewish Socialist Group; and Nadia Valman, lecturer at Queen Mary University of London and Independent Jewish Voices.
Johnson said that while Corbyn is not anti-Semitic himself, if Jew-hatred “doesn’t come wearing a uniform and speaking German” he doesn’t seem to recognize it. Adding, “Salah’s vile Jew-hatred is a matter of public record.” Johnson also peddled allegations of anti-Semitism by communist leaders from Karl Marx to Vladimir Lenin.
Rosenberg protested the “demonization of the left by the Jewish right” in the “smears, allegations and innuendo thrown at Jeremy Corbyn,” and praised the Labour leader for opposition to racism and fascism and his commitment to “multiculturalism.” Rosenberg said he created a Facebook group “Jews for Jeremy” that had attracted several hundred supporters, including a few Israelis.
“A problem with the anti-Zionist left,” Klaff said, is “an unconditional and thoughtless acceptance of anybody who speaks as an enemy of Israel.”
Participants also debated the “boycott Israel” campaign. An ad signed by more than 300 academics in the liberal daily Guardian Oct. 27 stated they were boycotting Israeli universities, which are “at the heart of Israel’s violations of international law and oppression of the Palestinian people.”
A week earlier, in a letter entitled “Israel needs cultural bridges, not boycotts,” writers, academics, Members of Parliament and others, including writer J.K. Rowling and actress Zoë Wanamaker, argued, “Cultural boycotts singling out Israel are divisive and discriminatory, and will not further peace.”
Speaking from the floor, Jonathan Silberman, Communist League candidate for mayor of London, condemned the Israel boycott. “The rise of Jew-hatred today is an international question,” he said. “It doesn’t stem from the existence of the state of Israel but is an inevitable consequence of the slow-burning capitalist depression.”
In contrast to the left’s “we are all Hamas” views, Silberman defended the historical record of the communist movement in opposing Jew-hatred, including the leadership of the Cuban Revolution. “The salvation of the Jewish people is bound up with the struggle to overthrow capitalism,” he said.
The discussion took place in the context of an increase in reported anti-Jewish attacks in the U.K. Meeting participants cited a number of incidents and debated whether the existence of Israel and the course of the Israeli government were behind the rise of Jew-hatred.
Several people cited remarks the previous week by Labour MP Gerald Kaufman at a Palestine Return Centre event in Parliament. Kaufman said that many of the recent stabbings of Jews in Israel by Palestinian youth had been fabricated, and that “Jewish money” was influencing the Conservative Party.
Many in the audience considered themselves part of the broad “left,” and some supported Corbyn. Others described themselves as Conservative Party voters.
Two participants picked up copies of Abram Leon’s The Jewish Question and six bought copies of the Militant.
Related articles:
Communist League: Oppose attacks on Muslims, Jews
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home