Thats-heresy - Unbetitelt

After last weekend’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations, a heart-warming picture emerged on the internet. A kind-faced, suit-clad, elderly white man with a sign saying, ‘Racism is a virus, we are the vaccine’, sat deep in thoughtful conversation with a young Black woman. The image went viral on Facebook and Twitter garnering millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes and shares. An apparent beacon of hope against racism.

One minor issue. That kindly, elderly man? His name is Jim Curran, an Irish nationalist and regular attendee at meetings of the Far Right/Left crossover group, Keep Talking. This extremist organisation was recently exposed by the CST and Hope Not Hate. They detailed how extremists from across the political spectrum (ex-Labour members Elleanne Green and Peter Gregson, Gill Kaffash and Tony Gratrex formerly of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and convicted Holocaust Denier Alison Chabloz and former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke compatriot, James Thring) met to obsess over antisemitic conspiracy theories: from the ‘Jews did 9/11’ to outright Holocaust denial.

…Curran’s identity been brought to my attention by antisemitism researcher, David Collier, I tweeted at two top accounts who were sharing the picture to explain Jim Curran’s background.

Their response? To block me. And not just me, but everyone raising the issue.

Meanwhile, when I tweeted the woman in the picture, Rosie Smith, she said: “He is an activist and a beautiful man. Spoke some real deep truths”. And then – chillingly – “His words brought me to tears. He said the genocide the news [sic] went through, was nothing on slavery and what black people endured and are still enduring”.

It seems Jim Curran had literally been dripping Holocaust denial into her ear, at an anti-racism rally.

Ms Smith went on to say: “I…judge him on our convo and from his vibe and his work. The jews are not innocent, #israelosnotinnocent they deal with mad racism!”. And also blocked me.

Despite the fact that concerns about Mr Curran were now flowing around social media, a series of prominent media and social justice organisations were more interesting in promoting the romantic narrative that than the messy truth. The Labour group, Momentum, posted the picture on their Facebook page with the caption “more of this please” and a leading figure in Amnesty UK shared it. Pro-Europe organisation, Best for Britain, defended their decision to promote the image on their Facebook page (to my utterly jaw-dropping disbelief) saying:

“Some people have identified that the old gentleman in the photo is a holocaust denier. We believe that this fact makes it even more important to share this image. It is worth applauding the fact that these two people from different generations have found common ground, and had a friendly conversation in the middle of a day of violent protests.” (My italics).

A common ground of Holocaust denial and antisemitism? No. I don’t think that’s to be applauded, Best for Britain, not really, no.

…At a time when there is so much positivity about tackling racism in this country, this whole series of events shows something deeply rotten. We’re at the stage where actual Holocaust Denial is dismissed or downplayed for ‘the greater good’ or because it’s inconvenient to ‘the narrative’. The romance of the picture more important than the truth. Something as a campaigner with Labour Against Antisemitism I’m all too familiar with. Corbyn fraternising with the IRA and Hezbollah? Mere details. Jeremy is a good man, a life-long anti-racist.

It’s easy to understand why antisemitism is so attractive to the modern Left. It pits ‘rich white Jews who benefit from the Holocaust and oppress the Palestinians’ at the top of the pile against poor, dispossessed people of colour. It makes Jew-hate edgy, striking back against ‘the man’. Making it a zero-sum game, that Jews can’t win.

Calls have been made to incorporate Britain’s colonial exploits and Black History into the mainstream history curriculum. I wholeheartedly agree. But going by recent days, the history of the Jews and antisemitism needs to be right along beside it.

Ha! Mine too.

桜が満開

Why won’t Israelis let themselves be killed?

The global woke loathing for Israel is taking an even darker turn.

by Brendan O’Neill

This is the question anti-Israel campaigners have never been able to answer: why do they treat Israel so differently to every other nation on Earth? Why is it child-killing bloodlust when Israel takes military action but not when Turkey or India do? Why must we rush to the streets to set light to the Israel flag but never the Saudi flag, despite Saudi Arabia’s unconscionable war on Yemen? Why is it only ‘wrong’ or at worst ‘horrific’ when Britain or America drop bombs in the Middle East but Nazism when Israel fires missiles into Gaza? Why do you merely oppose the military action of some states but you hate Israel, viscerally, publicly, loudly?

https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/05/12/why-wont-israelis-let-themselves-be-killed/

Source

Once HRW is relying on ICERD to define what racial discrimination is, they must then include the very next paragraph in ICERD, which applies directly to Israel - and which they do not quote in their report.

This Convention shall not apply to distinctions, exclusions, restrictions or preferences made by a State Party to this Convention between citizens and non-citizens.

This one paragraph completely destroys HRW’s “apartheid” argument.

Israeli laws do not distinguish between Israeli Jewish citizens and Israeli Arab citizens. They distinguish between Israeli citizens and non-citizens - which every nation on Earth does.

HRW and others will base their “apartheid” arguments on claims like saying that Jewish “settlers” in the territories have different laws than their Arab neighbors. HRW says that Israeli “policies include limiting the population and political power of Palestinians, granting the right to vote only to Palestinians who live within the borders of Israel as they existed from 1948 to June 1967.” But that is  a lie -  there are thousands of Israeli Arab citizens who live across the Green Line in French Hill, Beit Hanina, Beit Safafa and other communities, who can vote in Israeli elections, just like Israeli Jewish “settlers”  can.

And if someone like, say, Peter Beinart decided to move to Ramallah to prove that Palestinians are wonderful people who wouldn’t murder him, he would not be allowed to vote in Israeli elections even though he is a Jew - because he is not an Israeli citizen.

Virtually every example of discrimination in the HRW report, as well as in other articles that make the claim of “apartheid,” is based not on whether someone is Arab or Jewish, but on whether they are citizens or non-citizens - the exact distinction that the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination made clear is not to be considered racial discrimination.

This one paragraph in the ICERD demolishes their entire 213 page report.

The authors of the Human Rights Watch report definitely knew this when they decided not to quote the other section of the ICERD that they base their entire argument on. 

The Spectator

Europe’s blind spot over anti-Semitism

You would think that we Europeans might have learned a thing or two about anti-Semitism over the past century or so – and perhaps come to un

by Rod Liddle

If only our TV news programmes and politicians could bring themselves to call it all ‘Far-Right Terrorism’, then something might get done – because we all know that Far-Right Terrorism is the biggest threat to our democracy. But they don’t. Even though it is, of course, far-right terrorism, lower case – the real far-right terrorism which our politicians do not want to think about and indeed lock people up when they complain a little vociferously about it.

A week or so back the Dutch football club Ajax of Amsterdam played a cup tie against the Israeli side Maccabi Tel Aviv and as a consequence what the media carefully call ‘pro-Palestinian’ thugs attacked the visiting Jewish supporters, with five hospitalised and 20 to 30 more injured. Many of the attacks were carried out by young men on mopeds – according to one Dutch politician, Moroccan young men on mopeds, which is about as close to actually identifying who these perpetrators might have been as you will get. The Israeli government reacted with shock, booking two planes to bring the football fans home from the fetid ghetto that parts of the decent, liberal Netherlands has become. Dutch politicians lined up to do the platitude stuff. The reliably witless Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, was among the first out of the blocks: ‘I strongly condemn these unacceptable acts. Anti-Semitism has absolutely no place in Europe. And we are determined to fight all forms of hatred.’

Just read that vacuous bilge again – the bloodless and vague ‘unacceptable acts’ and ending with a commitment she does not remotely mean to keep. Oh, and anti-Semitism has absolutely no place in Europe? Au contraire, Ursula. It has many, many places, largely as a consequence of policies enacted by people like you. So, in that crescent (fittingly) of Europe from north-west France, through Belgium to Rotterdam and the Hague – and now arcing further north, to Malmo – these are the places where a large diaspora of Muslims from the Maghreb and the Levant have settled. Hey, it’s just occurred to me – gee, could there perhaps be some connection? If there is you can bank on the mainstream politicians and the mainstream media not to make it.

Eclipse From The ISS

So, how do we feel about the fact that for decades, Holocaust survivors and their descendants call what Israel is doing to Palestine a genocide? Or, are we just supposed to ignore that?

How many Holocaust survivors see and describe it as genocide? That's not an argument, Holocaust survivors also have a right to their personal view, which I don't have to share.