Dear Keir Starmer, rooting out left wing Jewish anti-racists is not rooting out antisemitism
Vice-chair of Chingford and Woodford Green Constituency Labour Party Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi and chair Gary Lefley have been suspended following an online meeting in which they criticised Labour leader Keir Starmer and general secretary David Evans for their handling of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) report on antisemitism.
More Labour Party suspensions
At the meeting, Lefley expressed solidarity with Jeremy Corbyn and accused Starmer of “collusion” with the Tory Party. Wimborne-Idrissi, a Jewish Voice for Labour leader, praised a speech highlighting the “weaponisation” of antisemitism. She went on to assert that the “cynical manipulation of Jewish fears and concerns is unforgivable and undermines all our work against racism of all kinds”.
This comes after the suspension of another left-wing Jewish Labour Party member, prominent mathematician and philosopher Moshé Machover on 30 November. It also comes after Angela Rayner’s warning that Labour will suspend “thousands and thousands” of party members over alleged antisemitism unless they “get real”. Judging by the suspension of Jewish Labour Party members for expressing views on antisemitism, it looks as though the Labour Party is more than happy to target its left-wing Jewish members.
Anti-racist activist Wimborne-Idrissi told Double Down News that she has been labelled “not a proper Jew; the wrong sort of Jew; self-hating Jew” for her support of Palestinian rights and her attempts to challenge the dangerous conflation of antisemitism, anti-Zionism, and opposition to the Israeli government.
She went on to say:
eminent Jewish scholars who have written extensively on the subject of antisemitism in the Labour Party, and demonstrated that the definition that is being pushed to define what is antisemitic is untrustworthy, faulty, actually dangerous, because it conflates being Jewish with being a supporter of Israel. Being Jewish with being a Zionist.
Support for Wimborne-Idrissi
In the wake of the witch-hunt, former Derby North MP Chris Williamson has established the Left Legal Fighting Fund to bring a legal claim against the Labour Party on behalf of those on the left who have “been treated appallingly through unjust disciplinary action”.
Wimborne-Idrissi was met with an outpouring of support on Twitter:
Solidarity with Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi this morning.
The Labour Party are a disgrace.
— Chris (still a socialist) (@Socialist_Chris) December 4, 2020
Others challenged Starmer about the decision, and highlighted the campaign to silence Corbyn’s supporters within the party:
Dear @Keir_Starmer,
A bit of advice.
When you're having to suspend an 84-year-old Israeli-born Jew from the Labour Party on the pretext of "fighting antisemitism", maybe it's time to admit it's not actually "antisemitism" you're fighting.
Maybe it's socialism.
— Frank Owen's Legendary Paintbrush🥀🇵🇸🇾🇪 (@OwenPaintbrush) December 3, 2020
A concerted effort to shut down prominent activists who go against the narrative & who are supportive of @JeremyCorbyn.
It’s no surprise to me; we’re a threat because we are not “loony lefties” but, actually: sensible, rational & articulate.
They hate it. And us. Onwards…✊
— James Foster (@JamesEFoster) December 4, 2020
Party leadership has made it clear that the likes of Wimborne-Idrissi are not welcome. It looks as though more Labour Party members who sit within the long tradition of Jewish radicalism are in danger of being silenced, intimidated, and cast out under the leadership of Keir Starmer.
Featured image via Guardian News/YouTube
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If it talks like an arse, looks like an arse, and behaves like an arse, I for one will not be voting to support it.
Shame for the local Labour candidate who is pro-Corbyn and a decent person, but if they won they’d have to be under Steer Calmer, and you don’t need a degree or to watch ‘Team America II’ to know what eventually happens if you are stuck under an arse.
“Yes Garry, I’m afraid the blojo wasn’t enough, now you’re going to have to prove your loyalty through skat”.
I wish he’d throw Corbyn out now already. But he won’t – he’ll do it so close to the next election there will be no chance of him joining or starting a rival Party.
Steer may be an amoral, power-grubbing neoliberal Bliar clone sociopath, but he’s no fool.
Is he no fool? Starmer has shown himself so blatantly that I wonder! If he is so devious then why is it so obvious that he wants to turn the Labour Party into a tool of the right wing establishment and the Israeli lobby. Oh no! have I committed an antisemitism? I must confess and turn myself in! Only please don`t make me listen to Hodge!
A Labour leader who isn’t a hapless fool. What a refreshing change.
Isn’t expelling or suspending Jewish members of the Labour party because of the views they hold on Palestine in itself an act of racism and anti Semitism? Starmer is a racist.
I should add that I agree with Gnu, don’t vote Labour unless there is a major change in direction. A government run by a centrist Labour Party is no better than one run by the Tories, remember Bliar? The centrists refused to support Corbyn, why should the left vote for them?
The Jewish people have seen this persecution down through the ages for having an open mind.
The most frightening thing of all for closed ones.
It heralds a new era with this discussion about what having an open mind means, and how it benefits us all.
Human Rights has brought us into our modern age as far as I can see by allowing differing views a space to be heard in. Science has done so well with this approach, but politics hasn’t.
One must remember when the the Catholic Church spoke only in Latin to their flock who didn’t speak or read Latin. Now that was a closed mind for those poor souls to suffer through.
Starmer has had an easy ride. The media seem to have forgotten all the criticisms they had of the Labour Party only a few short months ago and he has the most open of open goals every PMQs. Despite this he lets Johnson off every week and seems determined to divide and drive out some of the most dyed in the wool Labour voters!
He CAN speak well and he looks good in a suit. Basically the two requirements the voters actually want from a PM. To get elected all he needs to do is both of those things until the next election ie don’t cock it up. The electorate will have ‘Tory Fatigue’ by then and will have gone through COVID and Brexit. Even the most hardened Tories might blanch at another term. And the electorate DOES, luckily for Starmer, have an incredibly short memory. The ONLY thing that could change this is a divided Labour Party and a lacklustre leader. Cue Keir Starmer..
Boris Johnson looks good in a suit?