Anti-Atzmon Zionist Campaign

NOVANEWS

The following is an email sent by Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi to selected ‘revolutionary’ chosen members within the UK ‘anti Zionist’ network.

Dear xxx

Countering racism, fighting Zionism

A potent Zionist weapon in undermining the Palestinian cause is the

accusation of anti-Semitism. While the pro-Palestinian cause is

overwhelmingly anti-racist and does not tolerate anti-Semitism, there

have been some signs recently that individuals promoting views that

can only be viewed as anti-Semitic have been gaining an audience

within the solidarity movement.

As just one example, a number of activists were present at a meeting

in London on May 3 (http://goo.gl/sdRoz) at which they applauded a

platform speaker explaining his view that “Jewishness is the real

problem.” “Jewishness”, he said, was “a tendency towards segregation”

and a form of “supremacist ideology fuelled by chosenness”. He

attributed to “Jewish Marxists . . . a very strange form of national

socialism”.

We are organizing a meeting to discuss this developing situation, and

to arrive we hope at an agreed strategy for countering it.

There is a strange symmetry. Zionists equate Judaism and being Jewish

with their own racist political philosophy. It is embodied in the

State of Israel as ‘ the state of the Jews ‘. They allege that

anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism. Any Jew who does not agree is a

‘self-hater’. Likewise racists and religious extremists also equate

Zionism with Judaism and being Jewish, and use the atrocities being

committed on behalf of the Zionist project as a stick with which to

beat Jews, regardless of their views about Israel.

The equation Jew  =  Zionist is a lie promoted by the state of Israel

to boost its international support and so weaken the Palestinian

cause. For supporters of Palestine to blame ‘Jewishness’ (rather than

Western colonialism) for the oppression of Palestinians is a

potentially damaging diversion from the real argument. Any significant

spread of this viewpoint would give some credibility to the Zionists’

allegations of anti-Semitism in the Palestine solidarity movement, and

so divide and discredit it.

Proponents of such ideas pose as friends of Palestine while attacking

and condemning Jews within the movement and those who work with them.

Behind such views lies a sinister, far-right dimension exposed, for

example, in these links: http://goo.gl/PGruW

http://goo.gl/huOml

Those who equate Zionism with Jewishness do not belong in the

movement. Their political home is elsewhere — among fellow racists.

In order to ensure that this is better understood among the whole

community of activists and sympathizers with the Palestinian cause, we

propose to produce a briefing document examining and exposing these

destructive, anti-Semitic arguments.

The purpose of this message is to invite you and/or a representative

of your organisation to join us at a meeting to discuss the content of

such a document and how it could best be used. Please reply to the

sender. This invitation is not intended for wider circulation.

The meeting is proposed for Saturday 18/6 at 3pm. Venue is Lucas Arms,

245a Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1

http://www.allinlondon.co.uk/clubs_bars/venue-1583.php

In solidarity,

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi