Letter about Sacks/Corbyn
To the i newspaper by email only
Your front page headline
"Ex-chief Rabbi condemns Corbyn comments on British Zionists" is
exactly correct so far as Corbyn did lambast Zionists - though what their
ethnicity was neither we nor Sacks know, unless there is a published ethnic
breakdown of the audience. Claims of anti-semitism are simply assumptions.
Indeed it is Sacks, not
Corbyn, that is recklessly assuming Anti- Zionism is Anti-Semitism. In my
experience, Zionists that seek cover for their racist views invent
anti-semitism to hide behind.
My experience of touring an
exhibition and presentation about Gaza Child trauma over many years
demonstrated that Jews were as likely to be organising my event as heckling it.
As were Christians. Some Christian Zionists were particularly virulent
antagonists, whilst Israeli students were sometime hecklers at university, as
the Israeli Government, I'm told, will pay £2000pa to students for
"promoting Israel" at Palestine events in the UK. They get a manual
on how to do it. And the Israelis offered Labour Friends of Israel £1m too.
So Corbyn correctly defined
supporters of Apartheid Israel as Zionists - whether they be Christian or Jew,
British or Foreign.
And Sacks makes Corbyn's
point for him: It's ironic when racists claim it is racist to call them racist!
Indeed Sacks complains that identifying
someone as a Zionist might somehow result in rivers of blood here, rather than complaining
about someone being a Zionist, which
has already resulted in rivers of blood in Palestine.
British or not, Zionists
don't understand irony. Didn't Corbyn say that?
