Jamie Stern-Weiner - Antisemitism and the Labour Party

This eBook is licensed to K S, kartik.ynwa@gmail.com on 04/13/2020

This eBook is licensed to K S, kartik.ynwa@gmail.com on 04/13/2020

Edited by Jamie Stern-Weiner

This eBook is licensed to K S, kartik.ynwa@gmail.com on 04/13/2020

This ebook edition published by Verso 2019

All rights reserved

The moral rights of the authors have been asserted

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Verso is the imprint of New Left Books

ISBN-13: 978-1-78960-671-3

Corbyn Under Fire and The Never Ending Story Daniel Finn 2018, first appeared in Jacobin; Smoke Without Fire Jamie Stern-Weiner and Alan Maddison 2019, first appeared on Jewish Voice for Labour; The Chimera of British Anti-Semitism and Why the Labour Party Should Not Adopt the IHRA Definition or Any Other Definition of Antisemitism Norman Finkelstein 2018; 60 Times Jeremy Corbyn Stood with Jewish People @ToryFibs; Briefing for Canvassers and The Riverside Scandal Jewish Voice for Labour 2019, first appeared on Jewish Voice for Labour; A Disinformation Campaign Justin Schlosberg and Laura Laker 2019, first published by Media Reform Coalition; The Fake News Nazi David Edwards 2019, first appeared on Media Lens; Is the Guardian Institutionally Antisemitic? and Labour Party Conference or Nuremberg Rally? Jamie Stern-Weiner 2017 and 2019; Hue and Cry over the UCU Richard Kuper 2011, first appeared on openDemocracy; When Jews are Just Fodder for the Tory Propaganda Machine Antony Lerman 2019, first appeared on openDemocracy; Antisemitism, Cosmopolitanism and the Politics of Labours Old and New Right-Wings Jeremy Gilbert 2019, first appeared on openDemocracy; Critiques of Elite Power Arent Antisemitic or Conspiratorial They are Necessary Michaela Collord 2019, first appeared on Red Pepper; Is the Labour Party Against Empirical Sociology? David Miller and Tom Mills 2019, first appeared on Ceasefire; Jews, Antisemitism and the Law Naomi Wayne 2019, first appeared on Jewish Voice for Labour; There is Another Way to Resolve Labours Toxic Wrangles Around Complaints David Rosenberg 2019, first appeared in Morning Star; Stereotypes Should Be Discussed Not Sanctioned Jamie Stern-Weiner and Alan Maddison 2019, first appeared on Verso Blog; The authors of the testimonies all retain their copyright.

This eBook is licensed to K S, kartik.ynwa@gmail.com on 04/13/2020

Corbyn Under Fire
Daniel Finn

The Never-Ending Story
Daniel Finn

Smoke Without Fire:
The Myth of a Labour Antisemitism Crisis
Jamie Stern-Weiner and Alan Maddison

The Chimera of British Anti-Semitism
(And How Not to Fight It If It Were Real)
Norman G. Finkelstein

Sixty Times Jeremy Corbyn Stood with Jewish People
@ToryFibs

Briefing for Canvassers:
Challenging False Accusations of Antisemitism
Jewish Voice for Labour

Labour, Antisemitism, and the News:
A Disinformation Paradigm
Justin Schlosberg and Laura Laker

The Fake News Nazi:
Corbyn, Williamson, and the Antisemitism Scandal
David Edwards

Is the Guardian Institutionally Antisemitic?
Jamie Stern-Weiner

Labour Party Conference or Nuremberg Rally? Assessing the Evidence
Jamie Stern-Weiner

Hue and Cry over the UCU
Richard Kuper

Why the Labour Party Should Not Adopt the IHRA Definition or Any Other Definition of Antisemitism
Norman G. Finkelstein

The Riverside Scandal:
Louise Ellman and the War on Riverside Labour Party
Jewish Voice for Labour

When Jews Are Just Fodder for the Tory Propaganda Machine
Antony Lerman

Antisemitism, Cosmopolitanism and the Politics of Labours Old and New Right-Wings
Jeremy Gilbert

Critiques of Elite Power Arent Antisemitic or Conspiratorial They Are Necessary
Michaela Collord

Is the Labour Party Against Empirical Sociology?
Notes on Power, Elites, and Anti-Racism
Tom Mills and David Miller

Jews, Antisemitism, and the Law
Naomi Wayne

There Is Another Way to Resolve
Labours Toxic Wrangles Around Complaints
David Rosenberg

Stereotypes Should Be Discussed Not Sanctioned
Jamie Stern-Weiner and Alan Maddison

This eBook is licensed to K S, kartik.ynwa@gmail.com on 04/13/2020

The editor wishes to thank Norman G. Finkelstein, Clestine Fnfgeld, Leo Hollis, Alan Maddison, and Deborah Maccoby for their assistance in the preparation of this book and/or the development of the ideas that informed it. Special thanks, also, to those Jewish members of the Labour Party who gave permission to reproduce their testimonies.

This eBook is licensed to K S, kartik.ynwa@gmail.com on 04/13/2020

We are approaching the 2019 general election in bizarre circumstances. From the climate crisis to homelessness, Brexit to the NHS, the stakes could scarcely be higher. Yet a story about the Labour Party that has no basis in fact, is prima facie absurd, and whose partisan motivations are transparent is playing a significant role in our national conversation and might even influence the result. This story has dragged out for fully four years. Time and again, criticisms appear to have been answered, positions clarified, and measures implemented only for the same allegations to not just resurface in, but return to dominate political discussion. Like a creature from a horror film, the Labour antisemitism controversy just wont die.

The antisemitism campaign is, in its profile and its protractedness, unprecedented in modern British politics. To find an analogy requires reaching back to those outbursts of collective madness which periodically stain the annals of human history and astonish all succeeding generations. If its consequences do not compare with those of the Salem Witch Trials or the McCarthyite purges, still, in its combination of cynical calculation, bottomless irrationality, and self-perpetuating moral hysteria, the propaganda offensive against Labour lies squarely in the trajectory of these infamous episodes.

It is a curious experience to write about the antisemitism allegations against Labour, because there is barely anything of substance to engage with. A miniscule proportion of the partys half-million members were found to have posted offensive remarks on social media; so far as can be told, the entire furore reduces to this. Were it not for the Civil Rights Movement, African Americans would have continued to suffer the rigid segregation, harsh discrimination, and routine brutality of the Jim Crow South. Were it not for the Labour antisemitism campaign, a small number of questionable Facebook posts would have received less publicity. Indeed, this book might fairly have been titled, A Comprehensive and Exhaustive Examination of Nothing.

If Jeremy Corbyns historic candidacy is defeated, it is likely that the antisemitism charge will briefly take on renewed salience as factional opponents seek to engineer his ouster. If and when he is ejected, the whole issue will vanish overnight, consigned forever to Orwells memory hole. What happens if Corbyn wins is less certain.

In any case, the Labour antisemitism campaign set a template that is sure to be deployed against other popular movements of the left as supporters of Bernie Sanders are beginning to discover. on the Labour antisemitism affair as a contribution to this effort.