THE JEWISH Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies on Monday night launched a demonstration outside the House of Commons accusing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn of being a ‘poster boy for anti-Semitism’.
They insulted workers by alleging there are ‘no safe spaces’ in the Labour Party for Jews, and that ‘Rightly or wrongly, Jeremy Corbyn is now the figurehead for an anti-Semitic political culture, based upon an obsessive hatred of Israel, conspiracy theories and fake news.’
The Zionists are angry that Corbyn and Labour support the right of the Palestinians to have their own state, and to struggle for their own state, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Under Corbyn, Labour fought the last election and turned the Tory government into a minority regime, with a number of socialist policies including that a Labour government would recognise the State of Palestine, call for an end to Israel’s blockade and occupation of Palestine, and also an end to the construction of illegal settlements.
The Tories at that time were busy celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, in which the UK promised to hand over Palestine – that is, somebody else’s country – to the Zionists.
As a result of the Balfour Declaration the State of Israel was established in 1948. This was over the dead bodies of many thousands of Palestinians. Further, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were driven out of their homes as their villages were burned down, and they were turned into permanent refugees.
The ‘Jewish State’ was founded by massacre, and has continued in the same way.
It is a racist state. The Sephardic chief rabbi of Israel called black people ‘monkeys’ during his weekly sermon last Saturday evening.
His comments came just days before Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a speech to the Negev Conference in Dimona that migrants coming into Israel are a bigger threat to the country than terrorism. ‘How could we have guaranteed a Jewish-democratic state with 50,000 and after that 100,000, and it would have reached 1.5 million?’ said Netanyahu. ‘We would have had to close down the country, but we didn’t,’ he added.
The Zionists maintain that opposition to Israeli colonialism equals anti-Semitism.This is nonsense. It is proven by the fact that at the same time and place as the Board of Deputies were demonstrating their hatred of Corbyn, hundreds of Jewish workers and youth demonstrated for Corbyn. Presumably these are anti-Semitic Jews!
Also present at the pro-Zionist demo were up to 15 Labour MPs. These fought to keep Corbyn out of the Labour leadership, fought to keep socialist policies out of Labour’s general election manifesto, are opposed to carrying out the 2016 referendum result to quit the EU, and support Israel 100%.
They are manoeuvring to push through a motion in the House of Commons to remain in the EU, and are opposed to a Labour government that will protect workers’ jobs with nationalisation, and that will also recognise the State of Palestine. They view that forming a common front with Tory ‘remainers’ – the SDP, the SNP and other right wing Labour MPs to stay in the EU and support Israel – as being more important than electing a left Labour government, or even maintaining the unity of the party!
Many of them went straight from the Board of Deputies rally to a Labour Party meeting in which they threatened that they would split the Labour Party over its opposition to Israel, and its support for a Palestinian State. They are now openly on the other side of the barricades, as they proved when they supported May’s war drive against Russia and jeered their own leader, Corbyn, when he demanded proof. They are in full support of the drive to war that is now proceeding at a hectic pace.
Labour must put its house in order! It must maintain the Corbyn leadership, fight May’s drive to war – now hand-in-hand with Trump – demand a general election, and deselect all those Labour MPs who are cuddling up to May’s war drive and to Zionism. They must fight the election on the same programme as the ‘snap’ election that removed May’s majority, that of leaving the EU, the Single Market and the Customs Union, recognising the Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem its capital, and carrying out socialist policies in the UK.
