How does a lifelong campaigner for anti-racism come to be labelled as an anti-Semite? Pay close attention to the political ideology of those furthering that message and we find a deep rooted racism in the ideology of this claim's biggest perpetrators.
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During the course of Corbyn’s tenure as opposition leader, it seemed incredibly difficult to disentangle the knotted threads that made up what Labour represented under the new socialist leadership. As the mainstream media got used to the initial shock that a socialist leader had secured a stable position in mainstream politics, there was a lingering confusion over the history of the labour movement prior to the rise of the left. Vapid commentators on question time espoused with confidence that the Labour party were at the heart of the very politics they now condemned, and left dumbfounded when socialist MP's agreed. The response to this dazzling display of ignorance on understanding British political history was a rather confusing explanation of the history of the labour party, and its conjuncture with British political common sense. “Well you see, labour used to be left wing, and then after Thatcher and the rise of neoliberalism, Blair came in and removed most of the left wing elements, and so after that…”. The story is quite simple to follow; if you were interested. The problem (as it relates to racism) for the British political sphere is that- far from being interested- the British understanding of racism and Britain's relationship to racism as a colonial super power is severely underdeveloped.
Why am I talking about this? What I am trying to highlight here is how the smear of antisemitism has become itself a very confused term (which at its core is deeply racist in itself), and how this term has not so much to do with any Israeli politics or the identity of the Jewish diaspora, but has been used as a foil for a right wing politics to further its own ends without questioning what kind of sentiment is portrayed in the use of the antisemitism smear. The smear itself has become an object to analyse, or more accurately, a term that needs unraveling to discover the right wing rot that holds it together. Stifled and stumped by the accusations of antisemitism, the British left has lost its footing in this slippery territory, and have resorted to a meager defense of their position. Yet why would campaigners against racism take lessons from a deeply racist British state and its media allies? It is time for British left to take note of the inherent racism of the antisemitism smear, and question why it is that the left Jewish diaspora have been white washed by powerful right wing economic and cultural institutions.
The antisemitism smear was created in a web of ever confusing relationships between internal labour politics, and a media that censored any criticism of the Israeli state by omission. The relationship that the media and their centrist parliamentary allies share is their right wing conception of an acceptable Jewish identity. Now that the smoke has cleared a little we can see clearly that there has existed a right-wing Parliamentary Labour Party that has been devolved from the grassroots members, that has acted alongside senior members to muddy the waters and further a racist agenda of its own. Understanding this right wing party within a party is crucial for understanding how the right have crafted an idea of the Jewish diaspora that they see as being in need of defense, whilst whitewashing any elements they deem unacceptable. The elements that are deemed unacceptable to right wing racists in this case are Jewish left wing groups and a younger generation of Israeli Jews who are outraged at the apartheid state that Palestinians are forced to live under.
The existence of this right wing "fifth column" is no secret. The leaked labour report showed how internal senior executives worked together to exacerbate antisemitism complaints by delaying their progress, as well as showing a blatantly racist and misogynistic attitudes towards BAME MP’s and members (such as Dianne Abbot).
Labour’s internal right wing are quite happy to further their political ideals by whatever means necessary - whether their method of doing so is based on a racist, whitewashed portrayal of the Jewish diaspora, and a deeply Islamophobic tendency to accept the brutal treatment of Palestinians, is of no consequence to them. Perhaps for some, this is a convenient boon.
The racist attitude that scaffolds the antisemitism smear can be seen quite clearly now that the cleft between the right and left of the party has been shown in the recent declaration of labour as a right wing project by Keir Starmer in his firing of Rebecca Long Bailey over sharing an article with an alleged “anti-Semitic conspiracy theory”. What has been labelled as a conspiracy theory in this case is the fact that Israel has trained United State’s police forces. What is conveniently omitted in this case, as with every other case of the project of anti-antisemitism smears from the right and the right singly moderate, is the omission of left wing Jewish voices decrying the same criticisms.
For the right wing centrist, or ‘moderate’ - the idea of a left wing Jew who criticises Israel's treatment of Palestine is often so confusing they can only describe it as a degraded tendency towards self-hatred. Such was the case with Bernie Sanders’ campaign, when he criticised the Israeli colonial project. “How could it be that a Jew would criticise Israel? Well that is impossible, he must hate Jews himself!”. This racism is so ingrained, that a conception of Jewish people outside their narrow worldview must immediately be demonized. This tendency was explored thoroughly by Jean Paul Satre's Antisemite and Jew, but naturally as a left wing Jew, this voice is stricken from the record. Right wing Jews, as with any right wing tendency, are unscrupulous in their bending of history and incessant march toward inequality - their ideology is one based on hatred and dominance, and to ignore this context is deeply problematic towards the conception of Jewish identity.
It seems that the claims of antisemitism from the right stem from the same racial and international ignorance that is so prevalent in British culture generally. It should come as no surprise that Britain, a country where 59% of those surveyed have pride in the British Empire, that British people struggle to understand racial tensions. Yet, the idea that somehow the mainstream British commentariat is suddenly on the pulse of racial tensions has taken hold. The left should not be afraid to point out the hypocrisy and danger of their claims.
The firing of Long-Bailey in itself was ridiculous in that it refused to believe that Israel can in fact do any harm. It seems impossible (for the right-wing moderate or conservative) to believe that Israel is in fact an close ally to the United States who are one of the top 10 “security” exporters in the world; that Palestinians live in the same conditions and fear that Black people lived under in apartheid in south Africa; that Palestinian people are regularly imprisoned without trial, murdered in the street, beaten with batons, and tear gassed at protests all at the hands of IDF soldiers and Israeli settlers. Palestinian people are denied access to electricity and water; they are regularly thrown off of their own land so that new Israeli homes can be built in their place; Palestinian people are considered less than human to the Israeli state.
When Keir Starmer proclaimed that Black Lives Matter – which lives did he mean?
This make-believe construction of Jewish people as inherently in support of this right wing project is not just patently wrong, but dangerous – as it continues to paint the idea that there exists no such thing as a left wing Jew. The fact is that the Jewish diaspora is very varied, and there exists a large portion of Jews that are incredibly critical of the far right settler colonial project that exists in Israel. Groups like the Jewish Voice for Peace , the Jewish Voice for Labour, and left wing Jewish thinkers and politicians such as Noam Chomsky and Bernie Sanders criticise Israel to such an extent that the right wing in the British media would foam at the mouth at such a rabid display of what they describe as antisemitism.
This portion of the diaspora is so large and prevalent in left wing Jewish politics that it seems one would have to be completely dogmatic in their commitment to pigeon-holing the Jewish people as being purely in support of Israel’s far-right settler colonial project not to take them into account in their understanding of Israel and its relation to British politics. It is this dogmatic understanding of the Jewish diaspora which highlights a central tenant of the British right and its understanding of antisemitism – that Jewish people may only exist in the context of a project in which they approve of. With no uncertain terms, the antisemitism slur is deeply, deeply antisemitic in itself – and we must recognise that this racism has not come through an active attack on the Jewish people, but through a campaign of omission by the right wing and moderate mainstream media which dominates British political understanding.
Credit: Jewish Voice for Peace
But we should not stop here in our analysis of the antisemitism smear. Most importantly*, we must recognise the continued project of Islamophobia that has been highlighted by this project, in the form of continued support for the Israeli settler colonial project in Palestine. Is it any wonder, that the right wing are all too happy to support the project of Muslim extermination carried out by a far right Israeli government?
*I say most importantly, because it is exactly this criticism that the left wing of the Jewish diaspora highlights that is omitted, and the cornerstone to the racism of the antisemitism smear.
Why might these prominent British racists be in favour of the genocide of Muslim peoples?
What we need to ask is why the moderate is so happy to endorse this behaviour alongside far-right figures. The conclusion we can draw is that our centrist politicians simply do not care about Palestinian lives. They are quite happy to continue to omit any criticism of the Israeli annexation on Palestine– and in that they have also highlighted their Islamophobia. Perhaps we should have seen this coming. Just look at Starmer’s complete lack of support for the people in Kashmir. How sickening it is, that Keir Starmer would take a knee in support of black lives matter, only to condemn Palestinian lives to suffer the horror of a colonial project just over one week later.
Over the course of the black lives matter protests we have seen many quotes, and to draw a semblance between the struggle against racism and the covert racism we have seen used in the deployment of the antisemitism smear I will highlight this quote by Desmond Tutu:
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality.”
As a white man, I understand that it is not my job to be the white knight of oppressed minorities – but to highlight the injustice of oppressed minorities, and show solidarity with them; most importantly where it is perpetrated by white moderate men. In solidarity with my Jewish and Palestinian comrades on the left, I must highlight that white silence is white violence. To continue to omit this understanding of the right wing’s whitewashing of the Jewish diaspora is exactly that.
In light of this I would ask you please, not to just read my voice on the matter, but look to left wing Jewish voices – and to stand up and argue that they should be heard so that this continued whitewashing can no longer be continued. In that spirit, I link below articles of Jewish voices doing just that:
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