Over In Ukraine.

It seems that Mayor of Uzhgorod, Sergey Ratushnyak is running for the Presidency of the Ukraine.

Ratushnyak is a rather unsavoury individual, the Kyiv Post reports:

“Serhiy Ratushnyak, known for his combative behavior, is facing a criminal investigation.

Uzhgorod Mayor Serhiy Ratushnyak, known for combative behavior, may have outdone himself this month.

First, on Aug. 6, Ratushnyak allegedly physically attacked a woman – an activist for presidential candidate Arseniy Yatseniuk. Ratushnyak reportedly knocked down a Yatseniuk tent after Natalya Butrymko, 21, failed to produce government permits for setting it up and handing out campaign flyers.

Ratushnyak denied the assault, but then disgusted people even more by calling the woman “a stripper” and referring to Yatseniuk repeatedly as “Jew” and a “criminal.” (Yatseniuk has never identified himself as Jewish and says his religion is Greek-Catholic.)”

I think we’ll hear more of this.

Green Rupert And The Anti-Jewish Racist.

Thanks to Greens Engage, we now find out that Rupert Read is pushing that well-known anti-Jewish racist, Gilad Atzmon.

Dr. Read was a perspective Parliamentary candidate for the Greens in Norwich North, and a rather shrewd individual, well-educated, articulate and even has a column on the Eastern Daily Press. To top it all he’s an author and academic.

Dr. Read on his Twitter account pushes a link to Atzmon’s site with the title “Britain must de-Zionise Itself Immediately” [I'll upload a screen dump of it later on, just in case it vanishes]

Astute readers will remember the SWP’s honeymoon with Atzmon and their weak defence of him, that was some time ago and nowadays few, if any, deny Atzmon’s racism.

One example of Atzmon’s racism is how he argues that Jews fund war and revolutions, and anyone competent enough to read Far Right and neo-Nazi web sites will remember that old racist chestnut.

More recently Atzmon was portraying Israelis and Jews as ghouls and traders in body parts.

None of this should come as a surprise to Dr Read, a simple search across the Internet would reveal the racist nature of Atzmon’s views. Even Wikipedia, which apparently tries to strike a neutral balance, acknowledges there is criticism of Atzmon’s views.

Merely substituting “Zionist” for “Jew” should not fool a sophisticate such as Dr. Read, I am sure he is familiar with the usage of euphemisms in racism, he’ll find a lot of that in Atzmon’s work.

I think Dr. Read’s support for Atzmon illustrates a long standing problem, that those who spend an inordinate amount of time swimming around in the currents of “anti-Zionism” often become desensitised towards anti-Jewish racism, and when it is staring them in the face, as with Atzmon’s filth, they can’t recognise it.

I do hope that Dr. Read will admit his mistake and take a training course on basic racism: how to recognise it.

Update 1: As promised the screen dump from Dr. Read’s twitter:

Update 2: Dr. Read after making an apology on Engage and Greens Engage compounded the problem by stating “I think that the influence of ‘the Israel lobby’ in this country as in many others is nefarious. “ [My emphasis].

Sadly, I don’t think Dr. Read has fully understood the anti-Jewish racism embedded in the sentiment that he articulated.

Update 3: Dr. Read has updated his blog, but without a mention or a moment’s regret on this issue. I will assume that he pre-wrote that last entry on Friday and hope that he’ll deal with this issue and his notion of “nefarious” in a post shortly.

Update 4: Mira Vogel made this excellent contribution. it helps explain Dr. Read’s and others misconceptions:

“Rupert, it has already been pointed out to you several times that Atzmon conflates Jews and Zionists. So when he calls for de-Zionisation, the clear implication is de-Jewification.

“he is of course Jewish which makes it hard for him to be anti-Jewish anyway”.

He calls himself an ex-Jew, Rupert. He hates Jews.
http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=1559

Of course you can be Jewish and antisemitic. You can be gay and homophobic. You can call it the internalisation of oppression – you can call it what you like – it is not unusual. Example from a recent episode of Andrew Marr’s ‘The Making of Modern Britain’ – the way some British women joined in with attacks on the British women campaigning for the franchise.

Please do the right thing and write a further self-appraisal in which you reflect upon how antipathy against Zionism (as opposed to lucid criticism) can prejudice anti-Zionists and corner them with antisemitic thinkers. We will make sure it is the last thing people see on this post. It will of course be subject to criticism (analysis, I mean), but if it’s good it will draw a line under this episode.”

[My emphasis]

Update 5: Dr. Read has replied at Engage and Greens Engage, neither of which seems fully satisfactory to me:

“Rupert Read Says:

November 21, 2009 at 8:04 pm

Look, we obviously disagree about quite a few things. E.g. Several of you seem to think that Oborne’s documentary was wrong or biassed or dangerous. I disagree; I think it was brilliant.
Parts of the Atzmon post just rehash in a provocative way the Oborne documentary. I found that interesting. The post was forwarded me by a friend who is usually a reliable source. I read it swiftly – TOO swiftly! I _wish_ I had read it more slowly, because then I would have no doubt noticed (for instance) the dodgy way he was sliding between ‘Jewish’ and ‘Zionist’, and then I wouldn’t have retweeted it, and then we would all have been saved a lot of trouble…
I obviously regret the offence and any embarrassment caused. I’ve said sorry, and I’ve learned from this.
So, while I don’t appreciate the slagging-off and name-calling that I have suffered during this unfortunate incident, which I think has been unwarranted and does not help us to mutually ‘engage’, I _do_ appreciate having been shown just how dodgy this man and much of his writing are, and having been reminded about the need for pro-active vigilance and care against genuine anti-semitism.
So, in that regard, thank you to those who have written here.”

and

Rupert Read November 21, 2009 at 7:50 pm

“To be clear: I NEVER endorsed Atzmon’s article. I read it [too quickly - I regret that!], found some of it interesting, agreeing with some of the remarks he made [which were mostly a rehash of the excellent Oborne DISPATCHERS programme exposing the extremely-worrying influence of the Zionist lobby in politics in this country], and tweeted it. THAT’S ALL. I did _not_ endorse it as a whole.
The Atzmon post was forwarded me by a friend who is usually a reliable source. I read it swiftly; I _wish_ I had read it more slowly, because then I would have no doubt noticed the dodgy way he was sliding between ‘Jewish’ and ‘Zionist’,
and then I wouldn’t have retweeted it, and then we would all have been saved a lot of trouble…
I obviously regret the offence and any embarrassment caused. …I also distinctly regret the unpleasant personal attacks on me and false descriptions of me in a couple of comments above. Please bear in mind, colleagues, that if you really do want to ENGAGE with people, you need to try not to slag them off and make potentially damaging false allegations against them…
I welcome the chance of clarifying things, and hope that we can start to draw a line under this, now… {See also my comment on Mira’s next post.)”

and

Rupert Read November 21, 2009 at 7:39 pm

“Thanks, Mira; this is useful.
Cohen is an impressive writer, and much of what he says in Chapter 3 of the book you cite is bang on the mark. I agree 100% with the particular quotation from Cohen that you have given above. Those of us who are anti-Zionists need to ensure that we are 100% serious and active in our anti-anti-semitism. Anti-semitism fuels the ‘rebound’ (among those oppressed by that anti-semitism) into Zionism. Unless we can extirpate or at least combat/reduce anti-semitism, it is fairly certain that Zionism will continue to have wide appeal. So there is a strong onus on all of us who are not Zionists to be committed anti-anti-semites.”

Update 6: Whilst Dr. Read has managed to post on the ‘Scandal’ over hacked climate-science emails at UEA: Don’t believe the hype, he hasn’t addressed in any significant way those questions put to him at Engage/Greens Engage. I don’t think Dr. Read understand the severity of this issue, and why he must quickly deal with it.

Update 7: A few days in, and still Dr. Read hasn’t commented on his blog, or comprehensively addressed many of the points raised over at Engage. All in all rather unsatisfactory. Still a couple of other Greens quickly came out, saw the issue and acknowledge the racism, which is hopeful, shame that a Green parliamentary candidate can’t go that far. I’ll try to return to this issue shortly.

David Irving’s Email.

The rather pathetic figure of David Irving has suffered another setback, his e-mail has been hacked.

The contents may be found on wikileaks, slackbastard has a good post on the matter.

Also see the One People’s Project.

If that doesn’t make you smile I don’t know what will

Update 1: [Thanks to entdinglichung for this wonderful piece from SPLC] Neo-fascists fall out, or how Irving upset his Stormfront groupie, read more at SPLC’s blog.

Khazars, The Far Right And Dubious History.

I didn’t want to post for a while, but after reading a truly appalling post at Socialist Unity blog by Ger Francis, I felt I had to comment.

The body of the Francis’ article is about a meeting held by George Galloway in Birmingham, but as I am not terribly interested in him or his views I wasn’t too concerned with that. Rather I was interested in the references within the post and in the comments box to the new book by Shlomo Sand, The Invention of the Jewish People.

Part of Sand’s work retreads a well-trodden path from Arthur Koestler, to any number of dubious Far Right web sites, that push the notion that “Jews aren’t really Jews, they are Khazars”.

Why Sand, as a historian of French history, decided to venture into the complex and contested area of Jewish history I can’t say, perhaps it was for the fame? The money or even notoriety? Whatever reason, it is unimportant and I shall leave it to academics in that field to critique his work.

Anita Shapira has reviewed his book [PDF download] for the Journal of Israeli History and Israel Bartal is highly critical. Simon Schama reviewed it in the FT.

I am more concerned with this very nasty line of reasoning, from an antifascist point of view and where it leads, to the delegitimization of Jews.

I think anyone remotely familiar with the limited range of thoughts and debates found on neo-Nazi and Far Right web sites will recognise that particular “Khazar” argument and understand why it is pushed. I won’t provide any links to those neo-fascist web sites, but readers can find them on Google by using the keywords: Khazars Jews white power or David Duke khazers.

The Far Right is populated by Jew haters and such like, they need, for the sake of their own beliefs, to delegitimize Jews, to denigrate them, to eradicate their very existence, politically, historically, socially, and physically. That is why Holocaust denial is so important to them, it is a form of racial incitement against Jews, and in their on-line web activities that means the Far Right manufacture, use fake quotations and dubious historical sources, and above all push the myth of the Khazars.

All of this is not coincidental, the Far Right view Jews as the ultimate enemy and any opportunity to disparage them is used, so conscious anti-racists and antifascists should be aware of the Far Right’s tactics, and certainly avoid emulating them.

However, as the post at Socialist Unity blog showed a wider problem is evident, which is that many modern political activists in the West seem to erroneously assume that they have to be anti-Israeli or anti-Jew to be pro-Palestinian.

Nothing could be further from the truth, saddling the cause of the Palestinians with the Far Right’s argumentation and method is the quickest way to discredit it.

Moreover, feeble attempts to try and delegitimize Jews, as a people, as a group with a deep sense of history, a bitter history, does not achieve anything. Quite the contrary and it is rather insulting and degrading.

Not only that, but it shows an almost complete ignorance of the Far Right’s methodology and activities, combined with a monumental lack of sensitivity which in the end only fosters anti-Jewish racism.

Copying the Far Right’s arguments is not something that socialists or antiracists should do, or seek to imitate.

I would hope that authors on Socialist Unity blog would take the time to read, and reread, Andy Newman’s guide to David Duke’s racism, and hopefully they would see their own mistakes in this area and avoid them.

Update 1: The CST blog covers many issues on Sand’s work.

Update 2: Thanks to a pointer at Engage I’ve noticed a good comment at the bottom of that thread. I’ll reproduce it here, just in case it gets deleted as Dave Rich’s comment was:

“47. For those involved in Palestinian solidarity in Birmingham, its university has long felt like some weird Zionist outpost”

I did my MPhil at Birmingham University two years ago and have to disagree with this comment. The UoB has a huge Muslim presence and most activism you see on campus is usually anti-Zionist. There’s a Jewish Society and Jewish students, most of whom (not all) are all very supportive of Israel, but that’s democracy for you. The idea that there’s a sort of Jewish conspiracy stifling debate on Israel is too widespread among many on the left, but it doesn’t stand scrutiny. Most progressive media is vocally anti-Israel, and the I/P conflict receives far more attention than any other in the world. If there’s one debate that hasn’t been stifled is precisely this one.

“the feebleness of the Zionist opposition to [the meeting], is further evidence of the growing hegemony of Palestinian solidarity in all corners of the city”

You’ve just shown me that I’m not that wrong, but then, it’s Birmingham, the British city with one of the largest Muslim communities. If the Palestinian cause didn’t gather support there, where else? The problem the Palestinians face is not their lack of support in the west, but among their Arab brethren. They can’t become citizens of most Arab countries, where they live as third class non-citizens, mostly in refugee camps. Black September Massacre perpetrated by the Jordan Army makes the Operation Cast Lead pale in comparison. So does the constant raids Palestinians suffer under in the refugee camps of Lebanon. The list is huge. Until the Arab leaders stop using the Palestinian people as a pawns in their power games, the Palestinians have a serious problem.

“To those who believed that the Israeli state was the natural and just creation for a Jewish people exiled from their homeland”

Personally, I think that’s irrelevant. I see Israel as the result of a nationalist struggle for self-determination of a people who, tired of being persecuted in Europe, decided that they’d be safer somewhere else. European Jews first started buying land in Palestine and establishing the kibbutzim as socialist experiences. But they were not the only Jews living there. Jerusalem or Hebron have a long history of Jewish population. The territory was under the jurisdiction of the Sultan of Turkey and later Britain. When decolonization took place you already had an important Jewish population in Palestine. Could things have been solved otherwise? Yes they could, but all the parties involved refused to do so: all, Jews, British AND Arabs.

“He reminded the audience that instead of the Zionists following some historic mission to Palestine, they considered Uganda, Scheyelles, and Patagonia as possible locations for a Jewish state”

Yes, that was Theodor Herzl looking for alternatives to emigrate. But people who point this out do it as if sending all the Jews to Uganda would have not created any injustice. Those places were populated too. The problem is that Jews were tired of being pogromed in Europe, and as the Pilgrims of the Mayflower, they decided it was better to try to go somewhere else. The Sultan of Turkey had welcomed them in 1492 after they were expelled from Spain. It’s normal that they thought about a territory that was then under Turkish jurisdiction and which has strong connections to Jewish history (yes, I think that the Bible is all bollocks, but so is Al-Quran, so if you’re going to deny the Jews their claims to Palestine, you should do so with Muslims. There’s no trace of Muhammad ever being outside the Arabian Peninsula, unless you believed that horses fly).

“Israel ‘is just another European settle state, similar to apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia’”

This is dishonest. Israel has 20% of non-Jewish citizens and their rights are in general respected. There’s discrimination, but there’re also Arabs in the Knesset, the Supreme Court, the Army, the diplomatic service, etc. Within the borders of Israel, you can’t define it as an apartheid state. The WB is something different, but I don’t regard the WB as Israel. Officially, Israel doesn’t either, and they apply Jordanian law over there. The example George was looking for is Texas, which got its independence 100 years before Israel. A lot of US citizens migrated to Texas, then under Mexican jurisdiction, and then decided to split from Mexico. They were independent for a year and after a war, they decided to join the US. A bloody episode, but all Texans are US citizens, even those of Mexican descent who are born there or naturalise themselves as US citizens.

Besides, what’s wrong with settlers states? My country of birth (Argentina) is a settler state. The US, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, are settler states. Algeria is an Arab settler state in most of its territory (and the Ber Ber are not very happy about it). Morocco is a similar case to the south of Marrakesh. Settlers are the Arabs and Turks who live in Kurdistan and the Chinese Han who live beyond the two rivers. The problem is whether those settler states grant equal rights to their citizens (none of the examples I gave do). In my view Israel does within their borders, but not in the occupied territories, which is the reason why I think they should abandon them or declare the Palestinian citizens of Israel.

“Is it any wonder, George asked the audience, that more suicide bombers come from the living hell that is Jenin refugee camp”

No, it’s no wonder, but it’s sickening that anyone would rationalize suicide bombing. As I wrote somewhere else, suicide bombing is not the natural result of oppression, but a tactic chosen by psychopaths who have nothing by contempt for their ranks and files and who wouldn’t do it themselves. The Kurds are much more oppressed than the Palestinians. So are the Sharawis. Repression in El Salvador would make the Gaza look like a picnic (OK, OK, I’m trying to make a point here, not to denigrate Palestinian suffering, but rationalizing suicide bombing is a step too far) … None of those people ever did suicide bombing. Their leaders are socialists and secular, and unlike other men in robes, they care for their people.

http://juampylewis.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/suicide-bombing/

“Oslo had been a disaster for the Palestinians”

Really? Before Oslo the Palestinians didn’t have any representation or authorities of their own. The IDF occupied the whole of the territory and the Likud party believed strongly in Greater Israel. Things are more nuanced today, and the IDF has abandoned most of Palestinian cities and great parts of B areas (not all unfortunately). There’s a lot of work to be done and I wish they retreated to the Green Line, but to say that after Oslo the Palestinians have not achieved anything can only be justified from a maximalist point of view. Fair enough, and I’ve no problems with people who define themselves as maximalists, but they should say so. Because most of the times, maximalism is lethal… and people know it.

“The only solution was now a single state”

A pity most Israelis and most Palestinians don’t agree with George.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/22/most-israelis-palestinian_n_189596.html

“George Galloway is simply the most eloquent advocate of the Palestinian cause in the English speaking world”

If that’s the best the English speaking left can do… I’m disappointed.

Sorry for the long post. I hope it stirs some debate at least. For the record. I’m Argentinean. I’m a socialist and I’ve been a member of the Left since I’m 14 (more than twenty years now). I’m not a Zionist troll and post this with respect and critical spirit, in the belief that you can only strengthen your position if you allow opposite views to be discussed. My experience since I moved to Europe six years ago is that discussing the I/P conflict in the left is very difficult without people resorting to name calling. I find that self-defeating, and that’s not what I want for the left.

Comment by Juan — 15 November, 2009 @ 12:08 am”

Feck Off Friends of David Irving.

Every now and again, normally after I have posted something on David Irving my blog gets a boost, an unwelcome leap in posters.

These posters, like Michael Santomauro, are either neo-Nazis, Hitler lovers or their mates, and wrongly they assume that they should be allowed to spout their racialist filth all and every where. They never trouble to read my comment policy or understand the fact that I positively loath these Jew hating fascist scum.

So just in case, Michael Santomauro, did not get my message before, I’ll make it clearer:

Feck off friends of David Irving, you are not welcome here.

New Yorkers Against David Irving.

You’ve got to like em!

New Yorkers Against David Irving have managed to block part of his speaking tour in New York City, Infoshop news has more:

“Irving was scheduled to speak on November 14th at the Catholic Kolping Society at 165 East 88th Street. Along with several concerned citizens and citizen’s groups, New Yorkers Against David Irving made calls to the venue, explaining who David Irving is and why he was hiding behind a fictitious name in order to reserve space at their facility. Further, they demanded that the event be canceled.

New Yorkers Against David Irving firmly believes that Holocaust revisionists and deniers and neo-Nazi sympathizers have no place in NYC – or anywhere else for that matter! We will always take action to ensure our city stays clean from the likes of David Irving and other fascist scum.”

(H/T: Entdinglichung )

Update 1: New Jersey Residents Against David Irving (NJ-RADI) managed to do the same, great!

Update 2: A few neo-nazis want to gloat about Irving in the comments box, I would refer them to my post.

Hezbollah – Unbelievable.

Read more at Coatesy’s.

French Racist Fined.

AFP reports:

PARIS — French judges ordered a far-right black comedian to pay 20,000 euros (30,000 dollars) Tuesday over an anti-Semitic stunt during a stage show in which he invited a notorious Holocaust denier onto stage.

The Paris court fined Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, a 43-year-old French stand up, 10,000 euros for his “public anti-Semitic insults” and told him to pay a further 10,000 in damages and legal fees to organisations that sued him.

He was prosecuted after he invited Robert Faurisson, an academic who has been convicted of Holocaust denial, onto stage during a Paris comedy show to receive a satirical award from an actor dressed as a Jewish deportee.

The comic admitted at the hearing that the show had been a “comedy bomb attack” but defended his right to free expression. Anti-racism and Jewish defence organisations welcomed the verdict.

Dieudonne, a former anti-racism campaigner whose father was Cameroonian, often courts controversy and this year tried to enter politics by standing for the European parliament as head of an “anti-Zionist” party.

In September 2007, Dieudonne was fined after he accused Jews of exploiting “memorial pornography” and attacked a “Zionist lobby which cultivates the idea of their unique suffering … and has declared war on the black world.”

Two months later he was back in court and was fined 5,000 euros for having compared Jews to “slave-traders”.

He remains under investigation over a video circulating on the Internet in which he appears to attack a “yid Zionist lobby” led by “racist liars”.

For June’s European election, Dieudonne and Alain Soral, a former member of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s National Front, formed a party to argue that the world’s ills are caused by Zionist Jews and their Anglo-Saxon allies.

Officials expressed fears that the comedian’s campaign might stir communal tensions in France’s notoriously combustible city suburbs, but the party won only 1.3 percent of votes in the Paris region and had little impact.”

Update 1: Talking of racists, more details on James von Brunn’s connections to bits of the military establishment.

Debating Anti-Jewism Racism.

As anti-Jewish racism seeps into the public discourse via the British liberal establishment, it is apparent why those with a fixation or animosity towards Israelis or Jews are largely impervious to reason as a poster at Engage relates her experiences:

“Israelinurse Says: October 25, 2009 at 9:20 am

Yesterday’s event at the Bolton Octagon was, of course, predictably depressing. The actual format of the event did not and could not promote real debate because of its structure whereby the Director called upon people to speak and most simply recited pre-prepared statements slamming Israel. We endured all the usual slogans (ethnic cleansing, massacre etc.) and were treated to quite a few downright lies including the bizarre claim from Richard Kuper (JFJFP) that no rockets were fired into Israel in the months prior to Cast Lead.

I found it particularly revealing that Dr Brian Iddon MP (Bolton SE, Lab) repeatedly tripped himself up by saying ‘Jews’ instead of ‘Israelis’.

As one lady said to me during the interval, the Miller play which should have been staged at this event is ‘The Crucible’; not ‘All My Sons’.

A particularly significant moment for me personally was when, in the interval just after I had ‘outed’ myself as an Israeli, I suddenly found that the stairs and corridors leading to the lobby emptied magically before me as various audience members pressed themselves against the walls as though they were afraid of any type of contact. Far from being curious at the chance to meet a real Israeli, these people seemed terrified that something, anything, might upset their world view.

In short, this was an entirely self-indulgent event on the part of the assorted PSC supporters, ‘AsAJews’, anarchists and Quakers present. Nobody had come to listen, nobody had come to bridge gaps. Their aim was twofold; firstly to outdo each other as regards which shocking ‘fact’ about Israel they could publicly reveal, and secondly to obtain reassurance for their world view and the comfort of being part of a group which they perceive as being righteous.

I cannot say that I was surprised; most of my dealings with the PSC have been of this nature. The event did, however, strengthen my growing belief that Britain is becoming increasingly irrelevant as a place for open and democratic debate. What a pity that this particular section of the theatrical community is co-operating with the attempts of organisations such as the PSC to stifle any views which do not conform to their monotone perceptions. In a place such as Bolton, this would seem to me to be particularly unproductive.

The event also strengthened my view that Britain no longer deserves its Jewish community and that the only real answer to this despicable phenomenon is aliyah. “

[My emphasis]

Readers will remember The Crucible, Miller’s tale of a witch hunt.

Hamas And Women.

Over at Flesh is Grass, Hamas’s ban on women driving.

Update:

Adam Holland points out Alison Weir’s conspicuous racism:

“Alison Weir has had ample opportunity to reconsider her promotion of medieval anti-Semitic myths — myths which have been used to justify massacre and oppression — yet she has chosen to reiterate them and to cite new sources in support of them. Rather than thanking her critics for pointing out her initial error in judgment, she has attacked them as motivated by a desire to suppress the facts. Not correcting an error of the magnitude of promoting the blood libel compounds the original error and calls Weir’s good faith as a reporter into question. Her imputing the motives of those who point out her error calls into question whether she’s interested in the truth concerning this matter at all.”

Losing Sight Of The Dividing Line.

Thanks to Engage for pointing out a post on the CST blog, which makes a comparison between the type of coverage given to the Holocaust denying, Ahmadinejad.

No one in the West, and particularly Guardian readers with access to the Internet, should have any illusions about Ahmadinejad, it seems that barely a month goes by when he is either fiddling elections or denying the Holocaust, as he did recently on the annual Al Quds Day as RTE reports:

“Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the Holocaust was a ‘myth’, reiterating comments that sparked outrage around the world.

‘The very existence of this regime is an insult to the dignity of the people,’ the hardliner said as he addressed the annual Quds Day rally in Tehran referring to Israel.

‘They (Western powers) launched the myth of the Holocaust. They lied, they put on a show and then they support the Jews.’

‘If as you claim the Holocaust is true, why can a study not be allowed?’ the Iranian president said to chants of ‘Death to Israel’ from the crowd gathered for the annual display of solidarity with the Palestinians.

‘The pretext for establishing the Zionist regime is a lie… a lie which relies on an unreliable claim, a mythical claim, and the occupation of Palestine has nothing to do with the Holocaust,’ he added.

Similar comments made by Mr Ahmadinejad shortly after his first election as president in 2005 also sparked an international outcry. “

So no one should be in any doubt concerning Ahmadinejad’s blatant Holocaust denial, except those at the Guardian, as Mark Gardner points out:

“Now of course the Guardian would never mean it like that – well, not like Ahmadinejad means it anyway. And of course the Guardian would neither threaten another Holocaust, nor deny the last one.

Nevertheless, the Guardian as an institution – and as a consequence much of its constituency – has clearly allowed its hostility against Israel to erode both its understanding of antisemitism; and its vigilance against imagery that evokes deeply rooted antisemitic stereotypes.

This is not so much a conscious decision, or some covert antisemitic conspiracy: it is simply what happens when, over time, basically decent people lose sight of the dividing line between criticism and hatred, and between scathing political comment and racist abuse. There are, of course, exceptions to the rule at both the Guardian and throughout the wider Left, but they are swimming against the tide.”

Update 1: Not forgetting that even Juan Cole finally admits Ahmadinejad is articulating antisemitism, a welcome acknowledgment, but about 4 years too late as Adam Holland ably dissects.

Eric Handles The TUC.

Over at the Guardian, Eric Lee and Benny Weinthal have a typically combative article on the recent boycott gesture at the TUC.

Comic Bigotry

Anti-Jewish bigotry is a live and well on the comic circuit, over in County Laois, Tommy Tiernan got started, the Irish Independent has more:

“There are some things we can always take for granted — the weather in Ireland will be horrible, Irish politicians will turn even the most ardent democrat into a raving anarchist and Tommy Tiernan, who stopped being funny a long time ago, will offend a bunch of people.

And, since Ken Sweeney’s story in the Sunday Tribune about Tiernan’s undeniably anti-Semitic diatribe at the Electric Picnic, he has managed to offend an entire race.

Responding to a question from the audience about accusations of anti-Semitism, the increasingly unhinged comic went off on a rant that would go down quite well with those who think the Nazis have been treated badly by history.

According to Tiernan: “These Jews, these f*cking c***s come up to me, Christ-killing bastards. F*cking six million? I would have got 10 or 12 million out of that, no problem. F*ck them. Two at a time, they would have gone. Hold hands, get in there. Leave us your teeth and your glasses.” “

Weir, Shamir And Naked Anti-Jewish Racism at CounterPunch.

Just when you thought that the Offal libel was largely confined to a greedy and unprincipled journalist in Sweden, it got worse.

Counterpunch, that valiant “anti-imperialist” magazine is pushing it too.

Alison Weir has decided to regurgitate the Offal libel with the aid of the notorious racist Israel Shamir, read more at Adam Holland.

One of Weir’s references refuted.

The BBC, License Fee and Racism.

Apparently Lord Reith set high standards at the BBC, from wearing peculiar evening dress whilst delivering the news on the radio to more recently a diversity of news coverage, which is said to be the envy of many national broadcasting services.

The BBC has been renowned for producing intelligent, provocative and questioning documentaries.

Part of its remit was educational, to improve the minds of its listeners and later on interviews.

So it is all the more shocking that bits of the BBC empire are used by racists to push their propaganda.

It is a fairly common practice as members of the Far Right and neo-Nazis use modern technology to disseminate their views, and part of that, is posting on message forum such as 5Live.

This is a sample:

“Message 4 – posted by Brandon (U11763530) , Yesterday
//This is good news – it sends a message that inciting hatred by spreading lies//

No-one knows how many Jews died in the Holocaust.Sticking rigidly to a figure of six million is the lie.”

…

“Message 12 – posted by Brandon (U11763530) , Yesterday
//If you insist an exact figure which is wrong then you are lying.//

“Not true.

It’s only a lie if I KNOW the figure is wrong.”

Well we know the figure for Jewish deaths is not exactly six million so it’s a lie to say it is.”

…

“Message 24 – posted by Brandon (U11763530) , Yesterday
//In which countries does the law require people to agree that precisely 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust?//

If you go under you’re in serious bother in quite a few countries.From my recollection the number has gone from 3 million-odd to anything up to 12 million.Some have even suggested counting the unborn children that the Holocaust victims would have had if they had not been killed. “

…

“Message 27 – posted by Brandon (U11763530) , Yesterday
//No but when you make idiotic statements it just gives others on here more ammunition. //

You write your posts and I’ll write mine.If you want to appease the Islamophobes on here that’s your business.I just tell the truth.On this topic there is considerable doubt that the number of Jewish holocaust victims was actually as high as six million.Incidentally the Holocaust would be of no interest to Muslims but for the fact that it led to the creation of Israel.”

…

“Message 79 – posted by Brandon (U11763530) , 14 Hours Ago
//Brandon you yourself said that you had heard estimates ranging from 3-12 million.//

We don’t have Holocaust denial laws in the UK.Nor do the Americans.

//Have any of the people who made those estimates been prosecuted?//

I dunno.There haven’t been that many prosecutions in total.What number did David Irving come up with?
“

I think the tone and nature of Brandon’s views are clear.

The BBC is complicit in this articulation of anti-Jewish racism, not because it does it itself, but rather it does little to curb it. Their in-house rules say:

“We reserve the right to fail messages which

* Are considered likely to disrupt, provoke, attack or offend others
* Are racist, sexist, homophobic, sexually explicit, abusive or otherwise objectionable
* Contain swear words or other language likely to offend
* Break the law or condone or encourage unlawful activity. This includes breach of copyright, defamation and contempt of court.
* Advertise products or services for profit or gain
* Are seen to impersonate someone else
* Include contact details such as phone numbers, postal or email addresses
* Are written in anything other than English – Welsh and Gaelic may be used where marked
* Contain links to other websites which break our Editorial Guidelines
* Describe or encourage activities which could endanger the safety or well-being of others
* Are considered to be ‘spam’, that is posts containing the same. or similar, message posted multiple times
* Are considered to be off-topic for the particular message board”

As Burke once argued “It is necessary only for the good man to do nothing for evil to triumph”

Time for the BBC to act, or be reminded of its inaction when faced with the rise of anti-Jewish racism and Holocaust denial.

(H/T: Arfur)