Tony Greenstein blasts more fake anti-semitism insanity

In May 2019 Labour became the largest party on Brighton & Hove Council and took control. The response of the right was to make false allegations of anti-Semitism resulting in the suspension of Kate Knight and Anne Pissaridou and an ‘investigation’ into Nicki Brennan.

Kate resigned from Labour and Nicki Brennan soon followed. Instead of defending their colleagues Council leader Nancy Platts and now Labour Group leader John Alcock chose to side with the right. This whole affair was orchestrated by Peter Kyle, MP for Hove, ex-leader Daniel Yates and Fiona Sharpe of Sussex Friends of Israel, a group whose co-chair Simon Cobbs has demonstrated with the ultra right English Defence League.

The result was that the Green Party took control of the council. The allegations were part of the war against the left by Starmer, as detailed in Labour’s Leaked Report. The Forde Inquiry into that report has been put on ice after Starmer bought off those Labour officials who had spent their time undermining Corbyn.

The result, after the Green Party won a byelection is that the Greens now have 20 seats to Labour’s 17 (or 16 depending on the position of Anne Pissaridou).

None of the three councillors are anti-Semitic.

• Nicki was investigated for having participated in a picket of the Council in October 2018 when it decided to support the IHRA misdefinition of anti-Semitism.
• Kate was suspended for saying that anti-Semitism had been weaponised against the left
• Anne for sharing a post referring to the Rothschilds and saying that it was an ‘interesting article’.

The use of the IHRA to attack critics of Apartheid Israel and supporters of the Palestinians has even been condemned by Kenneth Stern, the person who drafted it.

The definition was not drafted, and was never intended, as a tool to target or chill speech.’

Kenneth Stern. In testimony to Congress

Kate’s offence is denying that there ever was an anti-Semitism problem in the Labour Party, a view held by 70% of Labour members. This is dismissed as ‘denialism’. Free speech on the issue has been banned. Israeli ‘democracy’ has now been imported into the Labour Party.

Racists such as Daniel Yates and Peter Kyle, Hove’s MP, know very well that there is no substance to these allegations of anti-Semitism, hence they seek to ban any contrary narrative.

Unfortunately Anne decided to confess. She is reported as saying:

“I am deeply sorry for my actions and any distress I have caused to the Jewish community.

Anne Pisssadirou

It is well known that many victims of false allegations decide to equally falsely confessed such as the Central Park 5 ‘rapists, of 1989 awarded $41million damages in 2014 and Stalin’s purges during the 1930s.

Contrast that with Luke Akehurst, on Labour’s National Executive who works for We Believe in Israel. In 2018 he supported the Israeli army using snipers to kill unarmed protestors at the Gaza fence.

Over 300 were killed, including 50 children. Has Akehurst been suspended or expelled? Of course not.

It should be obvious, even to the most cowardly Momentum supporter or Labour Councillor that opposition to Apartheid is not the same as anti-Semitism. Historically most Jews opposed Zionism as a form of Jewish anti-Semitism (its belief that Jews are one nation/race whose ‘real home’ is in Israel not where they live.)

I have therefore decided to write an Open Letter to John Alcock, co-leader of the Labour Group with Carmen Appich. Carmen is an open Zionist/racist. Alcock, who was a supporter of Peoples Assembly, presumably still says he is a socialist.

Dear John Alcock,

‘Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first drive mad’. It is difficult to find any other explanation for the Labour Group’s political suicide. The decision to force two councillors to leave the Party and a third to inhabit the political equivalent of purgatory resulted in the Green Party gaining office.

Jewish Voices for Labour reports that Jewish members of the party are six times more likely to face accusations of anti-Semitism, and JVL members 20 times the average rate.

Cllr Nancy Platts, who formerly worked in Corbyn’s office, makes Judas seem like a model of probity and loyalty. A year ago she said that she was ‘deeply sorry to the Jewish community on behalf of the council’s Labour Group.’ What for? An innocuous Facebook post that Anne Pissaridou shared five years ago?

But if you and Platts want to do some apologising, then I’m more than happy to provide you with a list of items to apologise for starting with supported the Balfour Declaration in 1917, even before the Liberals and Tories. The British Empire gave Palestine, to the Zionist Organisation to ethnically cleanse.

Genuine Labour anti-Semitism has always been the property of the Labour Right. It was Peter Mandelson’s grandfather Herbert Morrison who refused to admit all but a trickle of Jewish refugees from Nazi occupied Europe.

You are not the only left councillor to have made the journey to the right. It is noticeable that all of the Momentum supported candidates have remained silent, but there are councillors who stayed true to their principles and remained true to their principles and socialism. Francis Tonks, a former miner and mayor, who is now over 90 and Jack Hazelgrove, broke ranks with their colleagues over plans to transfer the council’s housing stock to an ALMO.  In a ballot in February 2007 of Council tenants 77% rejected New Labour’s privatisation plans under Council leader Simon Burgess, today part of Lloyd Russell-Moyle’s team.

You have chosen to go along with these utterly fake allegations of ‘anti-Semitism’ by the supporters of Israel, the world’s only Apartheid state. Both you and the Momentum supported councillors should hang your heads in shame.

In solidarity

Tony Greenstein

(All heavily subbed for length. For the complete posting click here.)