The lie that anti Zionism is anti Semetic.

 With acknowledgment to  Counterpunch for the following interview of a member of of Jewish Voice for Peace in which he outlines the enormous pressure that his organisation and others are coming under from Zionists in the USA to outlaw the activities of Jewish organisations in the country who oppose the far right government of Netanyahu and attempt to bring about the genocide of all Palestinians living in Gaza. Sadly the discredited definition of antisemitism drafted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance was foisted on the Labour Party by Keir Starmer on pain of expulsion from the party for any democratic attempt to question its legitimacy.

We have recently been hearing reports that JVP and other anti-zionist groups in the US are coming under attack by zionist groups. Could you tell us more about what’s happening and how you are dealing with this?

Sadly, attacks on pro-Palestine organizations have been increasing since Oct 8, 2023. The organized Jewish community in the US, with support and funding by the government of Israel, has portrayed our organizations as antisemitic and Jewish anti-zionists as self-hating Jews and worse. Building on false charges of antisemitism, many US states have passed laws making Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel illegal even though courts have ruled that these laws are not constitutional. Fundamentalist Christian zionists have been very active in supporting these efforts to censor our advocacy by conflating opposition to Zionism with antisemitism.

The Heritage Foundation, a right-wing Christian-focused think tank that created Project 2025 to guide the Trump administration’s attacks on progressive values, has also produced “Project Esther,” which uses the lie that opposition to Israel is antisemitic to suppress all pro-Palestine advocacy in the US. Al Jazeera published an excellent analysis of Project Esther on Nov 15, 2024. This plan brings together and expands oppressive tactics used against our movement by zionist groups, both Christian and Jewish.drafted by 

What is the legal basis, or maybe legal pretext, used for such attacks?

These actions are built on the false statement that opposing Zionism is antisemitic. For a number of years zionist groups have focused on getting government and institutions to adopt the discredited working definition of antisemitism drafted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). By conflating Zionism with antisemitism, they are attempting to use alleged violations of civil rights to delegitimize our work. 

 

Atrocities that shame my country.

 Having been born into Great Britain many years ago my citizenship was decided but recently I have felt more and more detached from the country of my birth, whose government I did not vote for,  and whose policies make me ashamed to be British. The government has not only stood by as the Israelis have been committing genocide in Gaza but they have been aiding and abetting it in this illegal act by supplying the Israelis with aid and intelligence and may therefore be guilty itself of war crimes. On top of this it is prostituting itself to a corrupt regime in Kyiv and pitching at a disastrous European war.

 The country that I grew up in under Churchill, Atlee, MacMillan and Wilson has disappeared into the long grass where pygmies of the political arts stumble about from crisis to crisis shaming the name of Great Britain and meanwhile steer the sinking hulk to financial disaster. My country where art thou?