When a non-Jewish Palestine Solidarity Activist Calls out a Jewish MP for Antisemitism

There are those moments – rare, fleeting, glimmers in the grayscape of the internet, of the world – where I am reminded that the world has hope embedded in its strange human crust.

The other day, a Member of Parliament in the UK, Gerald Kaufman, made obscene, antisemitic remarks about “Jewish money” controlling UK politics. MP Kaufman is Jewish. Some online bigots took this [gleefully] as proof that MP Kaufman must be telling “the truth;” for how could a Jewish person possibly profess anti-Semitic tropes? Just as, certainly, there are no blacks who espouse racist views of black people; no Muslims who promulgate offensive stereotypes about Muslims…

It was within this context that I was moved and grateful to see the following letter written by Gary Spedding, a non-Jewish Palestine Solidarity Activist from the UK, addressed to MP Kaufman.

”Dear Sir Gerald,

I am writing to you today after news broke of the remarks you made at an event in Parliament on Tuesday 27th October 2015, where it is reported that you made a number of conspiratorial statements regarding Jews, Jewish money and Israel.

As a Palestine solidarity activist I am deeply disappointed by your use of language at the Palestine Return Centre’s event. Such words are not only racist and anti-semitic, but also highly damaging to the hard work put in to build Palestine solidarity here in the UK. Each time there is an incident such as this with a high profile public figure such as yourself it brings the Palestine solidarity movement into disrepute and puts others off giving their support to the Palestinian people.

It is frustrating for individuals like myself – people who work off virtually zero budget and rarely get our voices heard in national media – when damage is done to our hard work in promoting the rights of Palestinians. We push very hard for a just resolution to the Israel-Palestine conflict through the use of international law and well-established accountability mechanisms in order to promote peacebuilding and conflict transformation. All of this goes unnoticed because the focus is usually upon bigoted remarks such as those you made on Tuesday.

Despite my anger at the damage caused, I am also writing to you in the hope of highlighting two pieces of published literature that I believe might be of help to you.

The first, a piece written by a Palestinian-American student, Yasmeen Serhan, was published in response to anti-semitic discourse surrounding Israel’s horrific slaughter in Gaza last year. It’s a very important read for Palestine solidarity activists as it makes a very clear and straightforward case about Anti-semitism not having any place in Palestine solidarity.

Secondly, and perhaps more relevant to your recent remarks, is a piece written on a blog entitled ‘This is Not Jewish’ where the author writes an article entitled ‘How to Criticize Israel Without Being Anti-Semitic‘. The sections most relevant to yourself are the points about not saying ‘Jews’ when you mean ‘Israel’ and not accusing Jews of having dual loyalties or controlling the banks/media/country. Also, based on some of your previous statements where you used Hitler and the Nazis as a rhetorical prop, I think reading point 14 on the list will be of use to you as well.

I hope that you can see my intentions here are to provide advice to you on a way forward now that your most recent remarks are out in the public domain. You should make a public statement apologising for the language you used and clarifying your position opposing anti-semitism. Please take this as an opportunity to make amends – both to the UK Jewish Community AND the Palestine Solidarity Movement that you have brought into disrepute.

Your statements are something that I do not wish to be associated with as a Palestine solidarity activist. You really have done a massive disservice to the Palestinian people by making the focus about what you have said rather than the current suffering of those human beings with whom we are supposedly in solidarity.

I look forward to hearing a response from you at the earliest convenience.

Sincerely yours,

Gary Spedding”

2Comments

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1

Moriel Rothman-Zecher on November 2, 2015 at 12:30

Hi Paul.

1. You’ll not that neither I nor Gary used the term “anti-Semite” in our writing, nor have I ever used the term on this blog, except in “quotes.” I do not find it a helpful category; instead, I use the term “antisemitism,” which describes not a person and their core, but rather actions, words and a bigoted historical phenomenon which even well-meaning people can contribute, whether or not they are Anti-Semites themselves.

2. There is no such thing as “Jewish money.” Money does not have an ethnicity. This is a term used only by bigots, similar to discussion of “black crime,” as if the crime itself has a race. When MP Kaufman talks about “Jewish money,” guess who he is indicting? Me. All of my family. Most of my activist community. The green grocer down the street. And so on. It is a bigoted term, and one that plays into deep, hideous historical tropes.

3. I don’t particularly care how long MP Kaufman has been in office. Strom Thurmond was a Senator for quite a long time himself. Perhaps, even, too much time spent doing the same thing can make a person myopic, lose touch with reality.

4. If MP Kaufman wanted to make a reasoned political argument, about certain individuals and organizations, then there would be a way to do so, without slandering Jews as a collective. Does he have trouble with the Board of Deputies? Fine. With some donor who is Jewish? OK, argue with the donors politics, without brining in his ethnicity. Or are there 10 of them? Great. So take the time to argue with all ten of them. Bigotry provides a convenient shorthand, a la, The Muslims are taking over Europe, or The Blacks are making our cities unsafe. But I am not interesting cutting slack to those who seek to shorthand their political arguments by using bigotry.

5. Also, it’s manifestly offensive, and just plain silly, to think that the Conservative Party has been “tricked” by Jewish money into supporting Israel. The Conservative Party supports Israel because Israel has become a great item to support for Conservatives around the world.

6. Re: your last point about accusations against Gary, etc, first, see my #1. And second, I wasn’t looking at labels. In fact, I’d never heard of MP Kaufman before this in my life. He may well be a swell fellow. I wasn’t pre-biased against him, but rather, I did exactly what you encouraged, ie., saw what he actually said, and then judged the content of his speech, which I found to be pretty clearly antisemitic. So that was why I was encouraged by Gary’s sophisticated read on the situation, and disappointed by others who were disturbingly quick to defend MP Kaufman.
2

Paul Seligman on November 2, 2015 at 02:31

Hi Moriel
Here’s the thing. Calling Gerald Kaufman an anti-semite does not prove the veracity or otherwise of what he says.

It is manifestly true that a number of wealthy Jewish individuals and organisations continue to put enormous effort into influencing politicians and political organisations, as well as media, in a pro-Israeli direction, in US and UK for sure and readily evidenced. (In UK, it is less visible than AIPAC and all the funding committees from which 75% of US Senators accept money – on the record. The UK puts relatively low limits on the amount of money spent on direct electioneering).

This doesn’t mean that Jewish money controls the media or the world. Or that the British Conservative party takes a very pro-Israeli position only, or even mainly, because of that pressure (though they do have a long tradition of granting favours for money). But is it anti-semitic to call it out if it happens?

Sir Gerald is the ‘father of the house’ i.e. the longest serving Member of Parliament. It’s just possible that after 45 years in the House of Commons he might know something about how funding influences policy, don’t you think?

By the way, Gary Spedding has faced many accusations from pro-Israeli people and organisations, including extremism and that he is ‘flirting with anti-semitism’ himself (see http://ukmediawatch.org/2011/12/26/why-is-anti-israel-extremist-gary-spedding-affiliated-with-holocaust-memorial-day-trust/). Does this mean we have one anti-semite accusing another of anti-semitism? Or shoudl we look behind the labels and see what these individual actually say and do before rushing to jusdgement?
Paul