This week’s bright and bushy tailed article by Jessica Elgot illustrates why fewer people on the left now read the Guardian.

Let’s get some context here. There were totally unacceptable posts which appear to have been published in Palestine Live, a Facebook group. David Collier collected these awful posts and published a ‘dirty dossier’. I say ‘appear’ because David Collier, a well-known extremist Zionist blogger (with an over detailed and rather tiresome pseudo-academic style) is the author of this dossier and someone whose work is, in my opinion, not to be taken at face value.

Collier’s real targets of course were not the admins of the FB group, but Officers of the non-Zionist Jewish group Jewish Voice for Labour, the anti-Zionist Free Speech on Israel, myself, Baroness Tonge, a couple of MPs and of course Jeremy Corbyn, who all appear to have taken very little active part in Palestine Live as far as I can see (wading through the dossier was tortuous and I may have dozed a bit).

Jessica Elgot (Guardian journalist) speedily publishes the story as soon as it’s released, not bothering to research Collier’s background (or perhaps she does? perhaps she knows him already?). There’s barely a deviation from Collier’s content. She simply translates his smears into Guardian-speak, endorsing Collier’s mixture of ‘some’ truth, fake news and smears to give the blogger an authenticity that should embarrass any serious newspaper.

You might ask, surely Elgot, before she reproduced Collier, must have done some digging? I mean lessor mortals find it near impossible to get the ear of a Guardian journalist! Well, you might think that, but it would appear you would be wrong (thanks at this point for the research of Steve Cooke).

Collier is a well-known face in pro Palestinian meetings. According to reporter Asa Winstanley, “Collier’s blog contains a considerable amount of virulently anti-Palestinian racism”.[1] But it’s not Collier’s style to disrupt meetings in the way so many extreme pro-Israel activists do. Collier instead prefers to go covertly, wearing a false beard (I kid you not), accompanied at times (bizarrely, given the potential for volatility in these meetings) by his around 10 year old son and wife, in order to twist truth and re-package events to fit his warped view of the world.

Given the story of Corbyn Collier has manufactured it’s more than interesting that since 4 August 2016 he’s been a member of a 27,000-member Facebook group called ‘International Community’.

Anti-semitic and Holocaust denial content is regularly posted in International Community, alongside Islamophobic material (as well of course as entirely innocuous posts). For example:

There are in fact many examples of hate speech on the page, including the posts above, none of which appear to have been challenged by Collier.

Debra R Cohen added Collier to International Community. As can be seen from the screenshots, Cohen has expressed genocidally anti-Muslim views in the group, which again Collier doesn’t appear to have challenged.

Let’s be more generous than Elgot or Collier, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt — let’s say Collier ‘didn’t notice’ the many offensive posts. After all, people are added to groups all the time and it can be difficult to keep track of what’s happening on FB pages. But we should reflect at this point that Corbyn’s ‘active participation’ in the ‘Palestine Live’ group, which ended some years ago, amounted to no more than replying to a couple of posts where someone tagged him. Given Collier’s involvement in such an anti-semitic, racist group, how can any serious journalist accept what he says in his dirty dossier, in particular as he targets Corbyn and his supporters for (some might say) lessor failings?

Now to Collier’s laughable attacks on me (echoed by Elgot in the Guardian). Apparently, Elgot says, “In one post, Walker appears to ask: “How safe is this group? to which the group’s founder, Elleanne Green, replied: “Very. No one is allowed in who is not trusted. I am very very careful, it is a secret group.”

Yup — I asked that. Yes, like many people I’m a member of a number of Facebook groups, some public (like my own page), some secret and others closed. Given the level of harassment and smears from Collier and his ilk, is it surprising that I asked the question? Given the level of harassment and smears from Collier and his ilk and their apparent easy access to the main stream media, to the disciplinary processes of the Labour Party, is it surprising that people on the left seek a private space to speak to each other?

Elgot then gave a reason for my current suspension. Now, you would think she should know the reason, after all she has been writing about me for nearly two years. Why then did she choose to fabricate (perhaps the wrong word), let’s say, not bother checking her facts when she wrote (another piece of) libel about me in this article? Why, even after I contacted the Guardian, though they removed the libel, was there no apology forthcoming?

For 2 years the Guardian, no doubt for its own editorial reasons, has done what it could to destabilise Corbyn and promote the idea that Labour has a significant anti-semitism problem. Doesn’t matter that all evidence says the contrary. The Guardian chooses NEVER to check a story about me …. with me….and blocks the publication of article after article, including from me, that would counter the narrative they have obviously decided to promote.

So Elgot removes her earlier libel — no apology — never mind, job done you might think. No, because the Guardian goes on, blinded and dumb to the racism it (at least through complicity) promotes, doing what it can to undermine the Left and squeeze out concern for oppressed minorities. You see the Guardian espouses ‘liberal’ ideals while at the same time acting as gate keepers, blocking free speech that would enable any real balance of opinion getting out to a readership hungry for the truth, hungry to know what is happening in the Labour party on all forms of racism, including anti-semitism.

I can’t help but note at this point, that for all the newsworthiness of the Chair of the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) Jeremy Newmark being investigated by police over, I believe, substantial missing funds from two Jewish organisations (including from the JLM, an organisation affiliated to the Labour Party, a group that many believe have been central in stoking false allegations of anti-semitism), the Guardian passes over this story. Instead the Guardian chooses to publish garbage from Collier rather than deal with the real scandals in the Labour Party around race; the victimisation of anti-zionist Jews, the police investigations of Jeremy Newmark and the decreasing representation of people of colour. It tell us everything we need to know about the newspaper.

What purpose, you may well ask, does publicising Collier’s dirty dossier have? Looks to me it’s an obvious; ‘job done.’

[1] https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/how-racist-blogger-david-collier-infiltrated-labour-party

As they say, Berlin is unusual for a German city; diverse, rough at the edges, it’s home to the fastest growing Jewish, Israeli community in the world. I’d been booked to speak at a conference, “In the time of the slanderers’.

As you would expect, any conversation around anti-Semitism in Germany is highly charged. The organisers were cautious; ‘don’t book your ticket yet’. ‘Would the venue cancel?’ ‘Would people come?’

I have never been so reminded of Europe’s Nazi past. How can you look through the Brandenburg Gate and not see the spectre of Hitler? And in truth Berlin makes no attempt to hide its past. The Memorial of Jews Murdered in Europe, like some ancient henge, sits at the heart of the city. Exhibits in museums, tourist brochures ask again and again, ‘How Did This Happen?’ Everything is planned to leave us with no shred of doubt — Germany knows where racism leads.

The day before the conference I’m asked to speak at a meeting sponsored by the International Branch of Die Linke. They’d booked the back room of a local cafe. Like every venue I now speak at, the café receives its share of abuse and threats. ‘Jackie Walker is an anti-Semite’ they are told. This was my introduction to the mind-set of the Anti-Deutche (AD). The owners are shaken, the organisers re-assure, precautions are taken and this time the meeting proceeds. By 7:30 around 40 people have squeezed into the room. As more arrive we delay the start and the door to the main café is wedged open so more can hear.

A product of German unification the AD, who claim to be a ‘far left’, anti-fascist group, defend Israel with a militancy that would make Netanyahu’s heart (I’m assured he has one) skip a beat. Anti-nation state, the AD believes Israel should be the ‘last state standing’. They don’t need a conference, there’s no doubt in their minds, anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism. I’m told they also see themselves as anti-racists, though it’s hard to believe — they’ve apparently described Muslims as ‘Untermenschen’ (sub-humans) — the Nazis slur once used against Jews.

It sounds exactly what it is, politically crazy. They are a tiny group so why mention the AD at all? Their influence, I’m told, goes beyond their numbers and I have no doubt, their ideology reflects confusions on the left around race, politics and the so called ‘New Anti-semetism’, not just in Germany and the rest of Europe, but closer to home in Britain. I want to understand more. Perhaps, in the next few days, I’d get an opportunity to see the AD in action.

As I begin the atmosphere in the room becomes intense. The audience is well briefed, politically astute with an age profile much younger than in Britain. Questions range from the Labour Party, Corbyn and anti-Semitism, to the state of the British left and Brexit.

To watch the meeting: https://www.facebook.com/jacqueline.walker.3990/videos/10155547993849912/

Later I join activists at a restaurant and food project run by, and for, a much larger refugee collective. Yes, I’m told, Chancellor Merkel let refugees in, but as ever, it’s more complicated. While the German Establishment publicly acknowledges the disaster that is racism, white refugees are processed with (relative) speed. This food project however was formed as a response to a refugee of colour who died, starving, after being forced to queue, day after night, in freezing temperatures.

Next day the AD threats of protests hang over the conference but again, fail to materialise. Originally for 140, organisers increased capacity to 200 only to be inundated by over 400 requests for places. From Britain Ken Loach sends greetings. Moshe Machover, via video link, gives a razor sharp analysis of the anti-semetism witch-hunt and its political purpose. My session presents a political and methodological context for producing and performing my one woman show, The Lynching.

Conveniently, all three UK contributors have been denounced that day in the German national media as anti-Semites. Loach’s work is well known and admired in Germany. As one attendee comments, these accusations make the supporters of the ‘New Anti-semetism’ look ridiculous. I have to agree.

Next evening, hosted by Jewish Antifa Berlin, The Lynching has its first German production. I’m told the 140 or so mostly young activists, who sit on window ledges and watch crossed legged from the floor after seats are filled, are the core of Berlin’s young left.

A Syrian rap group kicks off proceedings, a Palestinian poet is next and then the audience laugh; it’s a joke in Hebrew, told by an Israeli performance artist, recently labeled an anti-Semite. Her crime? To dare to speak ‘intifada’ and ‘liberation’ in one poetic sentence. Having received regular commissions will she ever get paid work again? She shrugs her shoulders.

So to The Lynching and the audience gets it, the jokes, the songs, the references, they get the whole narrative and rise to applause as we share a moment of yes, you can only call it exhilaration and political solidarity.

A woman approaches and tells her story. Her mother is Jewish, her father Romany. She works commemorating the Holocaust. She’s not generally political but came because she identified with what she’d heard me say. Her dual heritage, her experience of having the genocide of her father’s people barely referenced, has become almost unbearable. We embrace.

The performance space, Jewish Antifa Berlin say, having been occupied by the AD, this is ours now! All Berlin, all those on the left at least, will hear what’s happened tonight.

Prague was not planned, but once asked I was convinced; if I could, I should go. The audience for The Lynching, as expected, was smaller than Berlin, but even so the room is packed. Many in this audience are the people political activists are always trying to reach — they don’t come to meetings and know only enough to know what they’re being told makes no sense and they want to know more.

Prague I’m told was the city Hitler planned as a future home, a new center for the Reich. This, and the capitulation of the Czech government, left the old town beautifully intact. After the revolution, the urge to disengage from the USSR and re-orient to the US meant the first foreign visit of the new President was to Israel. Military (they call it ‘security’) links with Israel are strong. The government does what it can to protect homegrown Jewish culture. As a result, the Jewish population has, at least in part, re-established itself, populated by returning Czech Jews and their descendants, Israeli Jewish migrants as well as a number of converts. From everything you can see, this Jewish community thrives.

Yes, the present President may be a well-known, far-right racist. But racism doesn’t hinder close relations with Israel in the Czech Republic or anywhere else it seems. This apparent paradox is now so widespread and well known I hardly give it a thought. Instead my attention is drawn to another story.

A scandal has been brewing for years around the site of a concentration camp. Romany people, mostly children, died there. The site is now a pig farm. Only in the last few weeks, after years of lobbying, have the government taken decisive action to buy the land and commemorate the crimes that occurred there. You have to call this what it is; the continuing degradation and abuse of a people who remain the most abused and excluded minority in Europe.

Along with Jews, the Romany people were singled out for total annihilation by Hitler. In the Czech Republic the Nazis almost succeeded and yet I’m told of a number of other Romany sites of Nazi genocide, in the Republic and elsewhere across Europe, that remain unacknowledged and debased.

Later I debate with an Israeli arms dealer, David. In many ways it is as depressing, and distressing, as you might expect. He treats the (woman) Chair with such disdain (telling her to shut up) that a man steps in to replace her. He avoids questions on settlements, says nothing about racism, seems unable to define Zionism and responds, when he gets into difficulties (which was often) with ‘Hammas’ as if this one word incantation excuses all the crimes, the violations of International Law and Human Rights that Israel continues to perpetrates. At one bizarre moment David shouts, ‘Who killed Jesus?’ to prove no Palestinians were in the place called Palestine. For a moment the room is silenced. Suddenly a voice shouts back, ‘Hammas’ and the audience dissolve into laughter.

Finally we are asked, ‘What does the Holocaust mean to you?’ David replies — it has taught him that Jews must never again act as sheep, they must always be armed and ready. For me, the message is clear; Nazi bestiality could happen again, today, tomorrow, to any people, anywhere unless we understand the real lessons of fascism and racism.

It was a trip, and one I’m still processing.

Want to find out more? jackiewalker.org

There’s a writer who calls herself Lucy Lips. I’ve been reliably informed Lucy is in fact a man, Harry Toube — who writes at times for the Guardian (no wonder it’s going bust) who used to be on the Pro Pal side of things, till he saw the light — or the dark, depending on your point of view. Anyway, whatever the reality, Luscious Lucy has made a number of truth claims to justify her smears of me and a number of other suspended comrades. Let me be clear, I have no problem with gender bending, in fact I’m all for it, but bending the truth for political purposes, in particular, when it not only affects the reputation of individuals but the Party you claim to support — that is a deviation too far and worse, it’s just plain intellectually LAZY Lucy.

After all, it would have taken little research to know that I was not the first, but the third person, to ask what definition was being used by the Jewish Labour Movement’s so-called trainer Mike Katz (for goodness sake, why would I say there was not ANY definition of antisemitism I could work with? I earned my living as an anti-racist trainer for years). Mind you, the coyness of Katz in defining his terms was understandable. Having taken participants through a session that was remarkable only for its lack of theory or evidence to back up his sweeping claims of antisemitism, not just in the Labour Party but in the country as a whole, Katz knew the IHRA definition he was reluctant to confess he was basing his session on, would be torn to shreds by a significant and well informed proportion of the audience.

By the way, the IHRA definition being touted by every Israel supporting and right wing hawk in town at the moment, is in fact a re-hash of an earlier definition which had been rejected by …. virtually everybody, and for good reason; it makes neither legal or ethical sense. Having understood what an effective tool false accusations of antisemitism might be, some bright sparks realised that if the tried and tested definitions of antisemitism (you know, for example, hatred of Jews for being Jews) was not doing the job of protecting Israel and its Zionist friends, they would just have to come up with — yes you guessed it — a ‘New Antisemitism’. And this ‘New Antisemitism’ could then be backed up by a new definition that could be as self-serving to the interests of Israel as they needed. Personally, whenever people stick a ‘new’ in front of a term, I shudder — you know, New Labour and all that! But for those from that ‘New’ neck of the woods, they took to this New Antisemitism like ducks to water.

Now it seems there’s an issue in Labour, for while the Compliance Unit of the Labour Party, for example) has adopted the full IHRA definition, including all the ‘we mustn’t criticise Israel’ nonsense, the leadership of Labour appear to have only adopted the first paragraph, something that all good people should be happy to sign up to. But let’s leave this drivel for the moment where it should be — dripping out of Lucy’s I suspect not so luscious lips.

And Lucy, you naughty girl, not satisfied with bending the truth with your rendition of the training session (if you haven’t, I suggest you watch/read at least one of the alternative narratives to the Zionist propaganda you have been so enthusiastically wrapping your lips around, the Aljazeera documentary The Lobby for example http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/01/lobby-episode-2-training-session-170112085805744.html or the statement by Free Speech on Israel made by witnesses who were actually at the training session http://freespeechonisrael.org.uk/jewish-labour-activists-defence-jackie-walker/#sthash.uauWqafU.dpbs.) you then turn your doubtful vision on the workings of the Steering Group of LAW … and vision is the right term isn’t it Lucy unless you have been, or are, a member of the LAW Steering Group?

Because the truth is Lucy, whatever you have been taking, whoever has been feeding you this narcotic brew of smear and half-truths, you actually have no idea of the reasoning of the Steering Group or the discussions that led to the request for exclusions do you? And in any case, anyone with any knowledge of me knows my antipathy to Gerry Downing in particular is long standing. I will not share a platform with Downing or Donovan because their ideas lead in the direction of anti-Semitism, as well as to ‘the socialism of fools’.

Now you could say, why didn’t you leave LAW straight away? Well, some of us believe, when we are part of a group, we should allow democratic and political process to go forward before making any such decisions.

And by the way, what makes you think I love the Labour Party ‘the most’? Most of what? Or is that just another meaningless rhetorical flourish? As for your take on my record — jeez — as football supporters might chant, “who the f….ing hell are you?”.

I have nothing to justify, certainly not to you, a true non-entity, someone who won’t even apply their real name to the nonsense they write. I’m more than happy with what I’ve achieved. I continue to serve the agenda I began with. I’m not stoking the fires of a witch hunt that is benefiting the enemies of our movement. Not helping to silence the voices of minorities who are not just the victims of bigotry but are excluded at all levels, not only of the Labour Party but of British society as a whole. I’m not backing a settler colonial regime that seeks protection behind a wall of the most offensive allegations and devious actions. I’m not supporting a disciplinary system that would be laughed out of any British court or industrial tribunal.

But hey, why would you, or people of your ilk Lucy of the Lips, concern yourselves with the oppressed when you have the poor, browbeaten, friendless Israeli state to defend? Especially when, according to Labour Friends of Israel Chair Joan Ryan, there is in fact no other racism in the Labour Party except … yes you guessed it… anti-Semitism http://www.lfi.org.uk/analysis-thornberry-lays-out-labours-israel-agenda/.

Mind you if, as a (Jewish) comrade said at the launch of Jewish Voice for Labour this year, Labour is so riven with antisemitism, I would say, given the level of representation of Jewish MPs, given that the last Leader (a Jew) had to defeat his Jewish brother for the post, that the present leader is a life long anti-racist well known for his good relations with Jews in his constituency, that there are Jews in key positions as advisers in the Labour Party and of course, as you noted, as Chair of Momentum, given all that, if the Labour Party is rife with antisemitism, it’s really not doing a very good job of Jew hating is it? Whereas the witch hunters — they seem to be victimising anti-Zionist Jews very nicely indeed.

By the way, you have no idea of me, my record. And you — I say again, who are f***ing hell are you? I suggest until you have the courage to put your name to the crap you write, until you manage to grow a pair (of ovaries or balls) Lucy, you should just crawl back into the incognito hole you came from.

http://labourvision.org.uk/labour-vision/antisemitism-is-the-greatest-moral-challenge-facing-our-labour-party/

Yes — so called Labour Vision (who the hell are they?) has enlightened us at last!

The greatest moral challenge facing ‘our’ Labour Party is not the arms trade, global warming or poverty. It’s not the gender gap, the gap between rich and poor, the gap in life expectations — no. It’s not the millions of people from (most) minority groups in Britain who fill psychiatric hospitals, prisons, low paid jobs, who are excluded from the best schools, the media, positions of power in the Labour Party, the Labour movement, institutions and organisations. Silly me, of course it isn’t!!How could I ever think that having young people from your community underachieving, being killed in police custody is an ethical issue, no — no!!!

The major problem is not whether the poor and disadvantaged have a home, it’s not whether your home is clad in materials cheap enough to make it become a living crematorium no, it’s when, “members of a truly Socialist party” (the Labour Party) are, “complacent about, and even become advocates of anti-Semitism.”

And what evidence does the writer offer for this oft’ repeated claim? Not that these people need evidence because, yes you’ve guessed it — if you have the audacity to ask for EVIDENCE you are, yes — an anti-Semite.

Of course this vision of the Labour Left excludes the finding of recent reports not just by Chakrabarti but by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research that finds only 2% “of British adults can be categorised as ‘hard-core’ anti-Semites…. And that most of those with these ideas are outside of “the far-left”. So what’s going on here? Reading the report in detail we have it.

“The research also finds that levels of anti-Israelism are considerably higher than levels of anti-Jewish feeling, and that the two attitudes exist both independently of one another and separately.” And of course that’s the rub, for organisations like “Labour Vision”, blind to all else but their desire to support the Israelli regime, are desperate to establish a link that equates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. But I say, we must not allow these bigots to take over our Party (urghh….sorry, I sort of got into the style of this gobbledeygook for a moment).

Never mind — the writer still has his ace, “Can we confidently say,’ he suggests ‘that the Jewish people, against whom more grotesque crimes have been committed than against any other have nothing to worry about and nothing to fear from the Labour Party?” Not of course that there is any hierarchy of racism or genocide…… something I’m often told by people who appear to be insisting on the precedence of their group’s suffering.

I would say, how can we claim to be a truly socialist party while we endorse selling arms to countries who repeatedly break international laws, that lock up large numbers of children? How can we harbour people in our Labour Party who prioritise the suffering of one people over another in the way this writer appears to? When will we make our Party, the Party our ancestors fought for, a place that is safe and fair for people of colour, for Romany people, for Muslims, for women, for minorities excluded from power? For, to use the phraseology Labour Vision provides us with, until those who seek to impose their unethical political agenda onto our party are defeated, none of us can feel politically safe.

To Richard, or Dick, on your blog on the Lynching at SOAS… you have to read his blog to get it…..

https://richardmillett.wordpress.com/2017/09/14/jackie-walker-brings-her-lynching-to-soas/#comments

Dear Richard, as you, and anyone else at SOAS should recall, yours was the most bizarre intervention of the evening. Jonathan Hoffman, well-known disrupter (banned I believe from the LSE) made comments which were simple denials of truth. Fair enough. But Richard, your repeated, and angry (after all, I had to ask a number of times that you stop shouting) demands that the panel and audience (made up of 30–50% Jews including my partner) make plain their desire to ‘kill Jews’ was disturbing and concerning.

I suspect some form of paranoid delusion, perhaps post traumatic trauma but as a consultant psychiatrist sitting very near you at the time pointed out later, had one of her patients exhibited such outlandish, self abusing behavior, she would have considered them in need of serious intervention.

It’s interesting that your display of cognitive dissonance that evening is so complete and well structured it allows for detailed elaboration. For example, you report my father was a jeweller (only mentioned by the character Jack Cohen once) but fail to add the main characteristic which he discussed — that he, like many other politically active Jews at the time, was communist. I presume this was either too emotionally uncomfortable for you, for your potential blog audience, or that you simply do not have the historical knowledge to understand the significance. By the way, I’m also concerned at your focus on Jack Cohen’s wealth — a bit of a trope Richard, but hey, let’s move on.

You then proceed with a series of fantastical comments, or perhaps you were not listening, or your psyche has simply reconstructed the facts (a common experience for those exhibiting your symptoms) to suit the limits of your emotional tolerance for the truth. Again, for example you say, “she (that’s me) claimed that she was merely asking for a definition of anti-Semitism she could work with”. No Richard. I can send you the script if it would help. I said I was the 3rd or 4th person who had said I had not heard a definition of anti-Semitism I could work with here (i.e. in the training session).

On the slave trade I think my mother’s character was pretty scathing, and this might have been particularly hard for you to hear but she did clearly say that as Holocaust Memorial Day only commemorates holocausts that happened AFTER the Nazis, claims for its inclusiveness are ill informed. As for the rest — why come to a meeting if you’re not going to LISTEN?

I will finish with something I know you could and should get help with urgently, that must be eating you up and causing much of the anger you exhibit, something revealed by your claim that The Lynching says my father abandoned me. I can only presume some awful trauma in your past has made you PROJECT some unfortunate experience you have had with your father onto me. Dick, I’m sure your friends must call you Dick sometimes, and I feel oddly close, or perhaps it’s better to say, more sympathetic to you now I have more understanding of what drives you, can I suggest that you get some help for that anger — very soon.

Massa’ Andrew an’ sum a u you gud white folks seems to be just falli’n ova yo’selves to teach me a thing or two ‘bout ma histry, an white terror an’ all those complicated things. I never had a thowt of none of it till y’all toll me ‘bout it jus now. Anyways, all this made me kinda of think, it was time, yessir, te give som-a dat lovin’ concern an’ thinkin’ right back to y’all!

Ok - I could keep writing like that, but you get the point? Seems people, well some people, have been feeling distress, OH NO!!! And remember, causing distress is now a potential offence (if you’re a member of the Labour Party that is). Yes; if as a result of seeing, or even hearing, of a black woman using an image of a black woman being lynched for The Lynching you feel distressed, this is a potential offence even if you’re … white.

But hey, these people are TRAUMATISED you might say, they need help. So I thought, I better put things right, you know, not leave people hanging too long in case their distress made them feel strung up or strung out. So I thought it was up to me to make some sense of this.

It appears to have escaped Mr Coates (and his troubled, fragile political comrades and associates) that yes, not only am I black but I hold an American passport (having been born, yes, you got it, in America). Not only that, but if Mr Coates had researched however briefly before he wrote, something I would reccomend, he would have gathered that my mother was … yes, a Civil Rights Protestor who, in his words had ‘suffered real terror’. And that of course, being a descendent of slaves, that it IS my people that have been murdered, tortured, starved, lynched and raped as well as terrorised, not for 5 or 10 years, but for centuries yes — Coatsie - hope I haven’t upset you too much now but in case you want to know what you are trying to talk about, this trailer of the show might be of some help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Juq9r6q_6UE&feature=share

As an aside, somebody told me an interesting story that links to this somehow in my mind. During the Theodore Roosevelt administration a delegation of European Jews met with the US President to implore him to speak out and help motivate resistance against pogroms in eastern Europe and Russia. Roosevelt said he would do everything he could, but he was restrained by the fact that domestic politics wouldn’t allow him to speak out against lynchings in the south. After all, he asked, how could he do one and not the other?

You know what, I’m soooooo…… looking forward to making sure people understand the notion of metaphor and something about Black history at the Beautiful Days Festival next week, I can hardly wait to fill you in on what happens next….

https://www.facebook.com/notes/dolong-b-blavats/fake-vs-real-anti-semitism-20-copyright-daniel-waterman-6th-april-2017/1053242488139213/?hc_location=ufi

Click here to see a trailer of The Lynching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Juq9r6q_6UE&feature=share

The Lynching is my one woman show. The first half follows the story of my mother in the Civil Rights Movement in the US in the 1950's, my family’s migration to, and settlement in Britain 1959–1965. The second half adresses my own, more recent political experiences as an activist.

The build up to, and fall out from the first public performance of The Lynching at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2017 has followed an oft times hysterical, sadly predictable arc, with comments coming almost entirely from people who have never seen the performance.

First they try to get The Lynching banned (yes, I used the ‘they’ word but you know, ‘they’ isn’t a trope — not yet, though ‘they’ are working on it). Then if you object to their (at times underhand, unpleasant and unhinged) lobbying, they accuse you of being a conspiracy theorist and, yes - damn you and whatever you have done, as being ….yes you guessed it — antisemitic!

Best way to crank things up is to start with a straightforward statement, get it shared quickly. So something like a simple ‘Walker gets standing ovation for antisemitic play’ makes for a good start.

By the way notice, have I ever called it a ‘conspiracy’? No — and I certainly have NOT mentioned it being Jewish, and I’ve never said antisemitism doesn’t exist but hell, who cares about accuracy when you’re trying to destroy someone’s reputation. I mean, as long as you smear, you don’t have to prove anything … shit sort of sticks like glue (that’s a SIMILIE though a rather confused one).

And even if ‘they’ are already getting busy trying to shut down the next venue I’m due to attend (The Lynching at the Beautiful Days Festival in Devon in a few weeks time -17,000 people attending and all tickets sold out — hope to see you there), if ANYONE, especially me, even suggests this is a plan, they call it a conspiracy theory (again) AND at the same time accuse that awful Jackie Walker of (using another literary term because it seems to work) — a TROPE!!!! Oh no, not a trope! Now I am in trouble….

So — why do The Lynching at all you may ask?

I and many others have faced, in the last almost 2 years, a combination of news black outs if we attempt to counter their dominant narrative (that’s a mixture of a literary term and cultural theory by the way), which centres around antisemitism, constructed (at least in my case initially) by that innacurate and partisan rag, the Jewish Chronicle. This is then followed up with general media smears and a good helping of downright defamatory remarks, repeated, reported and distorted in a game of whispers….

Now I could have gone where a well known Jewish Labour Movement member recently suggested people like me should go — in a hole to die (look, I didn’t take it personally, as it was pointed out a number of times, by the General Sec of the Labour Party Ian McNichol when he sent me an email telling me why said member (Ella Rose) was not to be disciplined, this was only a METAPHOR and the JLM member using the term, and the other threats made against me and others was onlu using it METAPHORICALLY).

So what would silence by me or others in this context mean?

WAKE UP! Silence doesn’t cut it! Look at the relatively silent Malia Bouattia — she got crucified, or lynched, or burned at the stake (ALL METAPHORS) even after staying pretty much silent as her name was dragged through the mud (METAPHOR)…. so much so that she ended up emotionally shattered after a well organised, and ‘spontaneous’ campaign of haters, Islamaphobes, supporters of Israel and the ‘right’ commenced her decimation from the moment she was elected as President of the NUS.

Second, like it or not, silence is complicity — it means those who press Israel’s case, including the ‘right’ who consistently support them and do whatever they can to ‘knock’ the Left, Corbyn and his supporters, it means the majority of the mainstream media — it means it’s them who get to decide the agenda. It means there’s no counter pressure building to support the pro-Palestinian cause. Silence for me would mean accepting the narrative ‘they’ promote; that antisemitism is a major problem in the Labour Party and, while I totally agree it exists in and outside the Party — that’s right IT EXISTS — I don’t agree it is a major and exceptional problem on the LEFT or in the Labour Party.

Then there’s the ‘not now’, wait till we get elected, don’t rock the boat crew, the ‘it’s a distraction’ and the ‘nobody cares’ brigade….. There’s some truth here. When you knock on doors, speak to ‘ordinary people’ very few (in electoral terms) spontaneously if ever in my experience raise antisemitism at the door. Of course this by itself should not be a measure of its importance but it does suggest a question as to why the media is so … obsessed with it.

So — to the ‘it’s a distraction.’ ‘Do we really want to feed the media monster’ that bombards the leadership with questions — not about the economy or any new socialist agenda, not about minorities excluded from the Labour Party, but about one form of racism — antisemitism. And if you aren’t black, care about freedom of speech, believe in the new politics, seek justice in domestic and foreign affairs then maybe you should just sit down, pay your memberships fee and button up (sounds a bit New Labourish but hey — anything to get into power). Mind you, if you think silence would make a difference, you really haven’t been watching the progress of those who conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism have you.

Now having cranked it up let’s go on to the more official style of smearing, for example, the nonsense regurgitated by the Board of Deputies. By the way, at this point I’m ignoring the comment from my FB page that opined ‘If you’re such a threat, how come it’s only the deputies who get involved and not the first team?’ Ahem!!!

Never mind, getting back to the Deputies contribution, let’s also ignore that most of the points they make have been addressed a number of times …

So, while the Board is in the mood to talk of the past, let’s just have a look at some of the history of commentary by the Board (and others) and judge if the METAPHOR ‘book burning’ is in any way applicable.

This one goes back a way, after all the Board has followed me round a number of venues since the start, using its status as a representative of synogogues to ‘pack a punch’ (METAPHOR) when trying to get meetings shut down, in particular, at church venues.

But leaving beside the Board, I’m particularly partial to this example from the self proclaimed ‘Eye on Antisemitism’ run, I think, by that woman called Shitrit (no joke) and a few of her mates from a living room in suburbia that smears by using, for example, a random quote ‘from the rivers to the sea’ (which I have neither spoken or written) couched in another well known and successful technique — call yourself the campaign for apple pie and you look as if you should be taken seriously and, if you are really lucky, you can twist things enough, appearing to be the victim (while you harrass and troll others) being ….victimised.

And we all know what awful warmongerers and thugs the Quakers are don’t we….always silently going in for Jew-hate fests the way they do … ahem!

Now — to the objection to the title, the use of the term LYNCHING!!!

I mean, how dare a black woman make a reference to lynching when much of the first half of the show deals with the American Civil Rights movement, the atrocities her ancestors experienced and, yes you guessed it, lynchings!!!

Who is she? Doesn’t this woman understand it’s up to white people to make those kind of choices of what to call hanging black people from the neck with a rope and bringing your friends to watch it as a way of controlling blacks??!!! And heaven help her if she extends that image (a literary term) and uses lynching as a metaphor (use of literary terms are OURS!!!), as in the well used term ‘a political lynching.’ What the fuck is wrong with her, tweets David Sugarman, an obvious expert on the matter of lynchings, black history, black culture, my family ancestry AND metaphors.

So that’s part 1 — or the background….. to The Lynching, this attempt at ‘book burning’ (a METAPHOR) of The Lynching (a METAPHOR with a historical reference). Part 2 will be along very soon. If I haven’t of course been lynched…..

https://medium.com/@Jew_Know/jackie-walker-and-the-jewish-jacket-5b72f6ec21fc

Recently there has been a(nother) spate of attacks of the ‘Jackie not a Jew’ type. Most have been downright racist, some hilarious, all show an obsessive concern for genealogy, an old trope of racists, in their attempt to police something which is in fact too complex to be policed, in this case Jewish identity.

This most recent contribution by ‘Jew Know’ made me think (probably because I was on holiday), not just about my identity, but of Jewish identity, of racism, ethno-nationalism, racial purity and of those who put themselves up as guardians of identity whether they are white, black, Jewish or any other.

First thing ‘Jew Know’ — learn something about cultures that are not your own, otherwise you are simply an ignorant Jew Know-little.

You cannot trace the ancestry of Caribbean people using records (alone). Slave records are limited (for obvious reasons). Parentage was often not attributed, or falsely attributed. Records were ‘manipulated’, for example, especially when women had ‘relations’ or were raped by white men (the description ‘white’ in this instance includes Jews in the context of the racialised, colour ordered Caribbean). In any case, in a society where even long term, committed relationships between white and black would/could not be officially endorsed/recognised another ‘father’ was often named on official documents.

Neither does ‘Jew Know’ take account of the particular oppressions experienced by Jewish refugees on the run from Christian persecution, for example the ‘Conversos’ (Jews who were forced, often on pain of death, to convert) and the other Jews of the Caribbean who were forced to compromise in so many other ways simply to survive, or those who chose to take on a more fluid, syncretic idea of what made them Jewish.

Yes, Jew Know appears pretty ignorant of the positioning of Jews in the Caribbean, the flow of Caribbean ethno-religious cultures, the conversion to Judaism undertaken by enslaved African women who wanted/were coerced into ‘marrying’ Jewish men. There is no comment on this — and for good reason, because Jew Know doesn’t have a clue, you know.

The binary outlook reflected in Jew Know’s blog betrays deep-seated ignorance of the many variations of Jewishness that have historically always been part of Jewish history. But according to Jew Know everything to do with Jewish identity has the simplicity of all authoritarian ideologies; you are either Jewish or not. There is no scope for variation, no intersectionality, no understanding of the potential conflicts, complex histories inherent in being black and Jewish, Arab and Jewish, Asian and Jewish. No, In Jew Know’s kosher world there is no room for complexity, no Jewish diversity, just a nice, easy, genetic (or is it religious) monoculture where bright eyed Jewish mothers give birth to Jewish children and people have access to the easy going charms of the local Rabbi to sort things out when things get …. mucky, for Jew Know cannot tolerate a world of self-determination — no — a higher authority must always decree.

But as we all know — none of that’s true — Jews, like every other people, come in all sorts.

Jew Know expresses a definition of Jewish identity that is both religious and ethnic but leaves no room for those of us with no religious commitment but with the necessary ancestry, those who have been adopted, those ‘in care’, those orphaned and separated from the community. Jew Know does not admit the perspective of Reformed Jews, those who advocate that Jewish identity can be inherited from a father as well as mother — no.

Then tell me Jew Know, in your little, little world, what about the people of Jewish heritage born to people who have not practiced any religion, maybe for generations? Ok — strike them out!

And is acceptance of a Jewish state part of being Jewish? When and who decided that one? And are the very many non or anti-Zionist Jews ‘self-haters and not real Jews in your book too? I think I know your awnser.

I have nothing to prove to you Jew Know. You shame the Jewish heritage you claim.

To deny my Jewish heritage is racist, deeply racist, and you are a racist. It is as unacceptable to deny my Jewish heritage, deny the political and historical struggles that brought my parents together as it would be to deny my African or Caribbean ancestry. Your attitudes reflect the deep-seated and shameful racism entrenched in too many sections of the Jewish community.

It reflects a shameful intolerance, a lack of inclusivity, empathy, an essentialism that harvests a paucity of the soul. As with all ethno-nationalists these attitudes undermine the high-ground they seek to attain; complexity is the life-blood of creativity, the life-blood of a modern, tolerant society, the only path of progress for humanity. Want help with these ideas? I suggest you contact Mocha Jews and find out more. http://mochajuden.com

Jew Know, you appear in fact to Know Little of the multi-faceted history of the Jewish people, a people that in the last 2,000 years engaged and yes, MIXED at times, and very often with the rest of the world, were an essential part of much of it. These Jewish people fought to be a part, not set apart, from the countries they inhabited. …. Hurrah!

And then, in true racial purity tradition you dig up what you claim are my genealogical records and publish what you again claim is my family tree (sordid aren’t you, it will be my underwear drawer next I presume). By the way, I know nothing of some of the people you refer to as my ancestors — and truth is neither do you — though I can take you back on one side to the 15th century and the pogroms of the Spain and Portugal and on the other to an African griot.

My DNA (which I have had detailed analysis of before you purists were in my life) is the business of me and my family — and my friends who have seen it. As for the rest ……

You have caused distress to many people, Jewish and non Jewish. Your intolerance and racism is an embarrassment, not just to Jews but to all good people everywhere. You have caused outrage, in particular to members of the black and Caribbean community in Britain.

Jew Know — I wouldn’t ask you to prove your Jewishness, I would however welcome you proving your humanity but truth is on that one, I won’t be holding my breath.