Margaret Hodge has launched an attack on Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn’s key crime according to her is the NEC’s decision not to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism ‘in full’. This accusation is repeated by many other right wing and Zionist commentators.
The central problem for them is that the NEC has adopted the full definition. It is
‘Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.’
What the NEC of the Labour Party did not do was to accept the guidelines which are pro Zionist. Anthony Lerhman writes eloquently on the issue. In a blog he shows that the roots of the IHRA clauses were the activities of pro-Israel lobby group. The media seem reluctant to mention the 36 Jewish Groups that back Labour’s NEC.
Meanwhile in Palestine /Israel a number of events have occurred this week. This was from the BBC on the 15th July.
‘Israel has carried out its biggest attack against Hamas militant targets in Gaza since the war in 2014, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says.’
On July 20th there was a headline ‘Israeli soldier killed by gunmen, retaliatory airstrikes kill 4 Palestinians’[vii]
Yesterday, 23rd July, a 15 year old Palestinian boy in the West Bank was killed by Israeli troops.
These events come after Israeli snipers killed about 140 unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza.
A week ago there was a demonstration against the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar. It is a Palestinian village just outside Jerusalem. The Israeli authorities plan an illegal settlement. This threatens to link Jerusalem with the illegal settlement of Ma’aleh Adumim. This is a further step in cutting Palestine in half and making a Palestinian state impossible.
On Thursday 19th July the Guardian had a headline ‘EU leads criticism after Israel passes Jewish ‘nation state’ law’. This law enshrines the idea that Israel is the nation state of the Jews and ends the status of Arabic as an official language. One Arab-Israeli politician, Ayman Odeh, denounced it as “the death of our democracy” and added “[The Knesset] has passed a law of Jewish supremacy and told us that we will always be second-class citizens.”
There are 65 other laws that entrench the oppression of the Palestinians within Israel.
Overall Israel is stealing land, oppressing the Palestinians, killing them when they dare to protest, killing them when they fight back and making a two-state solution impossible.
A very powerful lobby of right wingers, Zionists and a right-wing media want to stifle attacks on Israel under a slur of anti-Semitism. They are doing a huge disservice to the cause of justice for the Palestinians and also obscuring real anti-Semitism.