Jews against Zionism?

London Conference 1100-1730 Saturday 4^th September 2010

Jews and Palestine:

Our role in the solidarity movement

The global campaign to support the Palestinian call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) is gathering pace, forming the focus for a broad-based solidarity movement.

Many Jews are actively involved but we lack a clear sense of our specific contribution to Palestinian liberation.

Jews for Boycotting Israeli Goods (J-BIG) invites all Jews who share this concern to join us from 11.00 to 17.30 on Saturday September 4 at

The Magdalen Centre, St Mary's Church

Eversholt Street, London NW1 1BN (close to Euston station)

Panel discussion with:

Haim Bresheeth, filmmaker, Chair of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of East London, member of the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine (BRICUP)

Antony Lerman, former director of the Institute for Jewish Policy Research

Moshe Machover, founding member of the Israeli socialist organization MATZPEN, mathematician and professor emeritus, Kings College London

Mike Marqusee, activist and writer. Latest book:
If I Am Not For Myself: Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew

Workshop sessions and plenary on themes including:

- Making Jewish solidarity with Palestine more prominent, more effective, more coordinated

- Clarifying the strategic objectives of BDS and the broader movement

- Considering our role in shifting opinion within the UK Jewish community

- Understanding and combating the Israel lobby

- Dealing with attempts to define BDS/Palestine solidarity as anti-Semitic

- Defining how our understanding of Zionism influences solidarity strategies

- Reviewing current organisations, Jewish and otherwise

- Planning effective structures for the future

Booking essential. To reserve your place email your name and details tojews4big@gmail.com

Contribution payable on the day: £3 minimum per person (Refreshments provided)

Location map: http://tinyurl.com/37qby82

Judge Goldstone to call SA Chief Rabbi a liar?

This is funny, funny coincidental rather than funny funny. No sooner had I got the homophobic email denouncing the rabbis that congratulated Goldstone than I got one pointing to Judge Goldstone's letter to the South African newspaper, Business Day, suggesting that South Africa's Chief Rabbi, Warren Goldstein, is no fan of the commandment about not bearing false witness.

It looks to me like Judge Goldstone is saying that South Africa's Chief Rabbi has lied about the latter's approach to the saga of Judge Goldstone not attending his grandson's bar mitzvah.

Here's a list of articles in South Africa's Business Day newspaper:

http://tinyurl.com/2uequrv

Here's an article with the SA Zionist Federation apparently granting permission to Goldstone to attend his grandson's bar mitzvah

http://tinyurl.com/347cevp

FORMER Constitutional Court Judge Richard Goldstone, who chaired a United Nations report accusing Israel of war crimes in Gaza, will be allowed to attend his grandson's barmitzvah in Johannesburg next month, the South African Zionist Federation said today.

News of his likely return from Washington for the family ceremony in Johannesburg met with opposition from the South African Zionist Federation, which lobbied the synagogue in question to prevent his attendance.

[the sheer arrogance of these people!]

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Here's the Chief Rabbi saying "ban, what ban?"

http://tinyurl.com/35ah3m4

AT THE heart of the storm around the barmitzvah of Judge Richard Goldstone’s grandson there stands an ancient and sacred principle: open synagogues.

The rabbi and lay leaders of the Sandton Synagogue, where the barmitzvah is taking place, consulted me and, together, we took the decision that the synagogue is open to the entire family, including Goldstone, and that everything possible would be done to ensure that the barmitzvah be celebrated with the dignity and joy befitting such an important religious milestone.

Only a few months ago, Business Day published an article of mine in which I criticised Goldstone’s report on Gaza as replete with numerous procedural and substantive injustices, all of which tainted its findings legally, factually and even morally.

His severely compromised report has unfairly done enormous damage to the reputation and safety of the state of Israel and her citizens.

Nevertheless, and in spite of all he has done, there is a great principle at stake here, one which is central to Judaism: open synagogues.

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Here's Judge Goldstone's letter calling the Chief Rabbi's version of events into question:

http://tinyurl.com/34pb4f2

I read with dismay Chief Rabbi Goldstein’s article in yesterday’s Business Day. I was dismayed that the chief rabbi would so brazenly politicise the occasion of my 13-year-old grandson’s bar mitzvah to engage in further personal attacks on me.

I am prepared to respond fully to those attacks, but not in the run-up to my grandson’s bar mitzvah.

He and his family have been working for close to a year preparing for the once-in-a-lifetime rite of passage into the Jewish community. Of all people, the chief rabbi should be aware of the importance of this. Yet, for whatever reasons, Chief Rabbi Goldstein would rather focus on me.

I was further dismayed when I read his article because his rhetoric about “open synagogues” simply does not coincide with how my family and I have been treated. The chief rabbi has been well aware of the situation, and instead of using his position of leadership in the South African Jewish community to promote the “open synagogues” principle that he purports to profess, he would rather write articles and threaten others with lawsuits. I must state that at no time whatsoever has the chief rabbi reached out to my family. Acting on information that we received from the synagogue, and the recent threat by the leader of the South African Zionist Federation of demonstrations if I attend the synagogue service, it was decided that it would be better if I did not attend the bar mitzvah. We have taken that decision in the best interests of my grandson and my family.

My only concern at the present time is that my grandson’s bar mitzvah should be the joyous occasion that he deserves it to be. I would dearly love to attend my grandson’s bar mitzvah. The questionable and unfortunate approach of the chief rabbi, in all the circumstances, makes it less, and not more, possible for me to do so.

Judge Richard Goldstone

Via e-mail

-------------------

And finally, an article rounding up the sorry saga:

http://tinyurl.com/373cvua

The chief rabbi had at no stage “reached out” to his family.

Goldstein said last night he empathised with Goldstone’s “anguish as a grandfather”, but called on him to understand the pain his report had caused.

“Under difficult circumstances and amid heated emotions I, together with the rabbi and executive of the Sandton shul, ensured that he would be free to attend the bar mitzvah; and we did our utmost best to persuade those who wished to protest not to.”

But people did not need his permission to protest in a “free democracy”, he said.

Goldstein last week threatened activist Zackie Achmat with a defamation lawsuit, after Achmat accused him of betraying his predecessor’s “tolerant tradition” by supporting the SAZF’s stance against Goldstone. He withdrew the threat on Monday.

Can't wait for the full version of Goldstone's case against South Africa's Chief Rabbi, Warren Goldstein

Never again - For anyone!

I received a mailout from the International Jewish Anti-zionist Network about the Never again - For anyone tour. I've had to change nearly all the links because, as Sarah in the comments noticed, they were internal googlemail links. Where the links were to unpublished letters I have simply reproduced the letters below:

Dear friends,

Here are some of the press articles & letters arising out of the Never Again - For Anyone tour, beginning with a major piece on Dr Hajo Meyer in the prestigious Huffington Post An Ethical Tradition Betrayed.

The tour began in Scotland - the Glasgow Herald published Auschwitz survivor: ‘Israel acts like Nazis’ but not IJAN's letter in response. The Jewish Chronicle, in one of a number of attacks on the meeting in the House of Commons on Holocaust Memorial Day, wrote Gaza ethnic cleansing talk attacked as ‘an appalling offence’,* and did not publish our letter,** nor would the Independent on Sunday publish Yael Kahn's letter.***

The Camden New Journal wrote a very positive article Auschwitz survivor, 86, takes on the protesters, as did Press TV Auschwitz survivor sees Nazi acts in Israel. The letters column of the Camden New Journal has carried more attacks, and more letters defending Dr Meyer.**** And finally East London Lines reported on the "controversial" Goldsmiths meeting, Holocaust survivor heckled in Lewisham.

For a video of Dr Meyer's speech on the tour, please click here. And for three of Dr Eid's speeches, made especially for this tour, please click here & here & here. See more on the Never Again website.

Following the House of Commons meeting, a number of people who had offered testimony on the genocide of their communities, are continuing to work together. We met at a full-day meeting (no Zionists allowed!). From this came a collective process to challenge the exclusivity of Holocaust Memorial Day in the UK, and instead speak of genocide rather than holocaust; to make explicit the genocides and ethnic cleansings historically and today; and to confront Zionism and the many forms of racism we all face. We will soon be giving you a report of this effort, and asking for your input.

Please keep in touch.

Yours against Zionism,

Selma James, Sara Kershnar, Michael Kalmanovitz

Notes and unpublished letters:

*Article seems to have changed from the original. Need to scroll down for the original headline.

**IJAN's unpublished letter to the Jewish Chronicle, 2 February 2010

Dear Letters Editor,

We brought together Auschwitz survivor Dr Hajo Meyer and Palestinian activist Dr Haidar Eid (via live telephone link from Gaza) and speakers from communities that had suffered and resisted genocide and other forms of mass-murder: Armenian, Irish, Native American, Roma, Rwandan, and others. Our aim is to realise the expression: never again, for anyone, anywhere.

Yet Dr Meyer was insulted and attacked by the JC: Jonathan Hoffman calls Dr Meyer “the Amazing Dancing Bear” (January 24); your article headlines the meeting as “an appalling offence” (28 January); and at the meeting itself Zionists tried – and failed – to prevent Dr Meyer speaking. One Zionist gave the Nazi salute & shouted “Heil Hitler” as MPs had police remove him.

Typically, Zionists try to destroy anti-racist organizing because they think it is also directed at them– and they are right. We know the difference between Judaism and Zionism, between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, and between commitment to collective humanity and commitment to the interests of an apartheid State. In coming together to stop the ‘slow-motion genocide of Palestine’ we are Zionism’s enemy, and every day since Gaza more Jewish people are with us.

Yours,

Selma James, Michael Kalmanovitz

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

***Yael Kahn's unpublished letter, Independent on Sunday, 7 February 2010

Anne Karpf rightly says that "philo-Semitism is a form of anti-Semitism" ("Anti-Semitism is at the limits of irony", 7 February). I wonder how she would define abuse of Holocaust survivors and Jewish Rabbis in traditional Jewish garb if the attackers claim to support the rights of Jews?

This is not a hypothetical situation nor from decades ago, but an actual event in the House of Commons and of all days, on Holocaust Memorial Day (27 January 2010). A Jewish Auschwitz survivor was repeatedly shouted at and was stopped many times from speaking about Auschwitz. He and other Jews, including a Rabbi, were persistently attacked, in spite of repeated police warnings, until 4 of them were escorted out. One of the attackers made the Nazi salute and shouted the Nazi obscenity, "sieg heil". While not all the attackers were Christians, they were all Zionists, in fact, mostly Jews. The Jewish victims were all anti-Zionists.

As Anne Karpf rightly says "We should never be complacent about anti-Semitism" - should attacks like that on the 27 Jan 10 be exempted?

Yael Kahn

****Holocaust survivor’s courage

Published: 4 March 2010

I HAD the privilege of seeing Auschwitz survivor Dr Hajo Meyer’s courage in the face of the repeated attacks at the House of Commons meeting, and he certainly did not look like someone “wheeled out... who has been bamboozled...” (letter by Nicole Segre, February 25).

The attacks at Dr Meyer on the Holocaust Day event escalated until House of Commons police escorted out a Jewish Zionist official.

Then another heckler was escorted out by a policeman but, just when he passed next to us, mainly Jewish people, he shockingly waved his hand in the Nazi salute and shouted “sieg heil”. By contrast, John Gulliver showed his humanity in his compassionate article about the keynote speaker 86-year-old Dr Meyer (February 4).

With dignity Dr Meyer watched the hateful hecklers, only to resume his coherent account of his personal experience and historical analysis.

Unfazed in the face of the Zionist attackers, he told the audience of the lessons on the Siege of Gaza to be learned from the Holocaust.

Dr Meyer’s talk was a special inspiration for me, being an Israeli, currently having regular contact with Gaza, and a daughter of parents who escaped Nazi Germany.

I find Dr Meyer’s lessons poignant, especially when I face denial and silence in spite of the evidence of the death, hunger and suffering caused by the merciless siege of Gaza imposed by Israel.

Yael Kahn
Chair of Islington Friends of Yibna

Bankrupt

Published: 11 March 2010

THE treatment of Auschwitz survivor Dr Hajo Meyer by Zionist Jews comes as no surprise to people like me who have personally experienced the kind of thuggish behaviour they regularly indulge in.

As a Jewish person who has been on the receiving end of their threats and intimidation, I regard it as important for others to know that bullying and cowardice are their stock in trade. The only useful thing to take from their behaviour towards Dr Meyer is that it reveals once again their disdain for civility, the bankruptcy of their politics and the perversity of their claim to speak for the welfare of Jewish people whether they live in Israel or any place else.

Ivor Dembina, SE1

The True meaning of Never Again

Published: 18 March 2010

WE brought together Auschwitz survivor Dr Hajo Meyer and Palestinian activist Dr Haidar Eid, whom the Israeli blockade prevented from leaving Gaza but who addressed the meeting via live telephone link, (Letters, Yael Kahn, Holocaust survivor’s courage, March 4).

They were joined by speakers from communities who had also suffered and resisted genocide and other forms of mass murder: Armenian, Irish, Native American, the Atlantic slave trade, Roma, Rwandan, and others.

Our aim is to realise the true meaning of Never Again, not only for Jews but for anyone anywhere.

Why did Zionists attack Dr Meyer?

Why do they want Jewish people to be the exception?

It seems that this somehow excuses Israel’s exceptional brutality against Palestinians. How can we allow our history of suffering to hide and even be an excuse for the suffering of others?

Dr Meyer, whom Zionists have always failed to silence, knows the difference between Judaism and Zionism, between anti-Semitism, and anti-Zionism and between commitment to collective humanity and commitment to the interests of an apartheid state.

Michael Kalmanovitz
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

Good bit of work, theirs not mine. Well done those people.

Ethics 101: Compare and Contrast

JSF readers, we have a quiz for you.

Please explain, in your own words, what each of the writers in the following passages perceives as a "moral dilemma." Can you articulate in each case the two 'lemmas' (horns) of the dilemma as competing moral principles? What are the proposed solutions? Are they satisfactory? Can you imagine a situation in which the proposed ways of solving the dilemma would be satisfactory for you? Where and how do you draw the line?

A.

Sarah Roy writes that being Jewish means “bearing witness, raging against injustice and refusing silence. It means compassion, tolerance, and rescue. In the absence of these imperatives…we cease to be Jews.”

However, a deeper reading of Judaism shows that whilst Jews as a people have been defined by their capacity for compassion and tolerance of others, there are times when we are forbidden to act upon those feelings because such action would be destructive...

It is important to feel compassion for the residents of Gaza, but that feeling of concern and sympathy must not be confused with ethical and moral clarity. On the contrary, making a decision not to mount a defense against lethal terrorists based on a feeling of compassion is not only immoral and un-Jewish it is also idiotic and deeply irresponsible. (Rabbi Levi Brackman)

B.

One basic principal must be the absolute rule for the SS man: we must be honest, decent, loyal, and comradely to members of our own blood and to nobody else...We shall never be rough and heartless when it is not necessary, that is clear. We Germans, who are the only people in the world who have a decent attitude towards animals, will also assume a decent attitude towards these human animals.

hitler and nazism compared to Israel in gaza and palestinians

But it is a crime against our own blood to worry about them and give them ideals, thus causing our sons and grandsons to have a more difficult time with them. When someone comes to me and says, "I cannot dig the anti-tank ditch with women and children, it is inhuman, for it will kill them", then I would have to say, "you are a murderer of your own blood because if the anti-tank ditch is not dug, German soldiers will die, and they are the sons of German mothers. They are our own blood". ( Heinrich Himmler )

Hat tip to a certain rabbi kook.