{"id":1666,"date":"2018-09-06T17:26:23","date_gmt":"2018-09-06T16:26:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/?p=1666"},"modified":"2018-09-06T17:26:23","modified_gmt":"2018-09-06T16:26:23","slug":"labour-nec-bends-under-pressure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/?p=1666","title":{"rendered":"Labour NEC bends under pressure"},"content":{"rendered":"

The massive pressure by right wing Labour, Zionists, and the right wing media has paid off.\u00a0 The Labour NEC has adopted the IRHA definition and its examples.\u00a0 Previous blogs<\/a> have explained why we in PSC do not like some of the examples given.<\/p>\n

The right wing succeeded in framing the debate.\u00a0 The key issues were about Israel.\u00a0 The NEC had previously accepted the IHRA definition of anti Semitism but not adopted four clauses about Israel.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

Imagine if all the headlines over the summer had been \u201cLabour split on the issue of Israel\u201d \u201cLabour NEC split on whether Israel is an Apartheid state\u201d.\u00a0 What would have followed would hopefully have been a rational debate on the policies of the Israeli Government (which evidence shows to be racist) and what is the way forward.<\/p>\n

Instead we had an appalling string of headlines attacking Corbyn and the Labour left as an anti-Semite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe NEC has today adopted <\/a>all of the IHRA examples of antisemitism, in addition to the IHRA definition which Labour adopted in 2016, alongside a statement which ensures this will not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

We in the PSC feared that the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism was an attempt to silence criticism of Israel.\u00a0 This is shown by the reaction to the NEC addition.<\/p>\n

\u2018Labour Against Anti-Semitism said the move “<\/a>appears to be about protecting the freedom of racists to present vile views”.\u00a0 A spokesman said: “There can be no caveats, no conditions and no compromises with racism.\u00a0 “We are disappointed by the decision of Labour’s governing body, the NEC, to diminish the IHRA working definition of anti-Semitism via the attachment of a ‘clarification’ that risks giving racists in the party a get out of jail card.\u201d<\/p>\n

‘Simon Johnson, the JLC\u2019s chief executive<\/a>, said in a second statement that Corbyn had \u201cattempted shamefully to undermine the entire IHRA definition\u201d, adding that the free speech caveat \u201cdrives a coach and horses\u201d through that definition.’<\/p>\n

\u00a0‘Labour Friends of Israel director\u00a0Jennifer Gerber <\/a>called the NEC\u2019s decision \u201cappalling\u201d and claimed the \u201cfreedom of expression”\u00a0clause\u00a0\u201ctotally undermines the other examples the party has supposedly just adopted\u201d.’<\/p>\n

\u2018Dame Margaret Hodge<\/a>, who is herself Jewish, said: \u201cHe should have simply adopted the full international definitions with absolutely no ifs and buts\u2026 “He’s sullied it. I’m saddened that it was sullied by this attempt that there is a get-out clause \u2013 the sullying that he was reluctant to go forward.\u201d\u00a0 She had described the NEC’s decision as: “Two steps forward and one step back.”<\/p>\n

So the right to defend Palestinians and attack Israel is \u2018a step back\u2019 according to Hodge and \u2018appalling\u2019 according to Gerber.<\/p>\n

‘While the media has a frenzied<\/a> attack on Corbyn the \u2018Israeli government announced a further enlargement of its massive colonial project in the occupied West Bank<\/a>. Plans were now advanced, it said on Wednesday, for a further 1,000 \u201chomes\u201d in Jewish \u201csettlements\u201d \u2013 still the word we must use for such acts of land theft\u2019<\/p>\n

Last week is was announced that \u2018Trump cuts more than <\/a>$200 million in U.S. aid to Palestinians\u2019<\/p>\n

This is part of an attempt to remove refugee status for the Palestinians.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The blockade of Gaza goes on.\u00a0 The prevention of free movement to Palestine goes on.\u00a0 The oppression goes on.<\/p>\n

The fact is that Israel is built to privilege people of Jewish ethnicity over that of the Palestinians.\u00a0 Its racist policies flow from defending and perpetuating that structure.\u00a0 It steals Palestinian lands and water.\u00a0 In the west Bank it has established an apartheid state.\u00a0 These are unpalatable facts to the right wing Labour, the media, and to the Zionists.\u00a0 The statements are not anti Semitic.\u00a0 Only a minority of Jews and some right wingers, support expansionist Israel and its establishment of Apartheid.\u00a0 We need to shift the debate from a flawed definition of anti Semitism, to what is happening in Palestine.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The massive pressure by right wing Labour, Zionists, and the right wing media has paid off.\u00a0 The Labour NEC has adopted the IRHA definition and its examples.\u00a0 Previous blogs have explained why we in PSC do not like some of the examples given. The right wing succeeded in framing the debate.\u00a0 The key issues were … Continue reading Labour NEC bends under pressure<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dicks-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1667,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666\/revisions\/1667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sheffieldpsc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}