{"id":176411,"date":"2018-09-17T06:34:48","date_gmt":"2018-09-17T06:34:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=176411"},"modified":"2018-09-19T04:19:52","modified_gmt":"2018-09-19T04:19:52","slug":"labour-antisemitism-row-was-created-by-israel-to-distract-from-atrocities-trade-union-boss-suggests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=176411","title":{"rendered":"Labour antisemitism row was created by Israel to distract from &#8216;atrocities&#8217;, trade union boss suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"<div align=\"center\">\n<h1>Benjamin Kentish &#8212; The Independent Sept 14, 2018<\/h1>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ignVnfRwPa4?rel=0\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The leader of one of Britain\u2019s main trade unions has suggested that <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/Israel\">Israel<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0created the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/antisemitism\">antisemitism<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0row\u00a0that has engulfed <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/labour\">Labour<\/a><\/strong><\/span> over the summer.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><a style=\"color: #ccffff; text-decoration: underline;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/mark-serwotka\">Mark Serwotka<\/a><\/strong><\/span>, who leads the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS)\u00a0and is a staunch supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, told a fringe event at the Trades Union Congress conference that the Jewish state could have \u201ccreated a story that does not exist\u201d in order to distract attention from \u201catrocities\u201d he said it has committed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">His comments were condemned by antisemitism campaigners, who said Mr Serwotka should resign over the \u201cdespicable\u201d claims.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">The comments risk reigniting the row over claims of anti-Jewish abuse in Labour, which has died down in recent days after the party\u2019s ruling executive bowed to pressure to adopt an internationally recognised definition of antisemitism.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Speaking at an event organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Mr Sertwoka said he \u201cdeplored\u201d antisemitism but claimed accusations against Mr Corbyn were the result of \u201csomething sinister going on\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">He told the event in Manchester: \u201cI think it is unfortunate that the <a style=\"color: #ccffff;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/LabourParty\">Labour Party<\/a> allowed a lot of this to drag on in a way that actually did not help anybody.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cIn a year when Donald Trump has moved the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, in a year when dozens of Palestinians including children were gunned down \u2013 unarmed innocent civilians \u2013 by the Israeli military, in a year when the Americans are cutting off aid &#8230; isn\u2019t it a vile world when, instead of being on the front foot, denouncing these atrocities, demanding an independent and sovereign state for the Palestinian people, we have had a summer of asking ourselves whether leading Labour movement people are in any way antisemitic?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">He added: \u201cI\u2019m not a conspiracy theorist, but I\u2019ll tell you what \u2013 one of the best forms of trying to hide from the atrocities that you are committing is to go on the offensive and actually create a story that does not exist for people on this platform, the trade union movement or,\u00a0I have to say, for the leader of the Labour Party.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Mr Corbyn has previously called Mr Serwotka his \u201cfriend\u201d. The firebrand union leader was expelled by Labour in the 1990s for his membership of a left-wing group and banned from voting in the 2015 leadership contest because the party said he did not \u201cshare its aims and values\u201d. He was allowed to rejoin after Mr Corbyn became leader.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Mr Serwotka told trade union members in Manchester there had been \u201cthe most systematic attempt to shut down all those advocating justice for the Palestinians in a way that should trouble all those who want to expose injustices\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">He added: \u201cAnd we fast-forward to this year, and the dominating headline has not been the actions of the Israeli state; it is whether we as a movement have any form of antisemitism in our attitude to Palestinians.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">Euan Philipps, a spokesperson for Labour Against Antisemitism, said: \u201cMark Serwotka\u2019s speech is a stark illustration of how deeply embedded antisemitism is within the Labour movement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cTo intimate that the Israeli government is somehow responsible for the antisemitism crisis that has torn across the Labour Party this summer is a baseless lie.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">He added: \u201cIt callously dismisses the serious and legitimate concerns of the Jewish community, while also drawing on antisemitic tropes (including dual loyalty and conspiracy theory) to draw attention from what is a recognised issue of discrimination against Jews across the political left.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ccffff;\">\u201cThe suggestion that there is a malevolent power manipulating British politics is as absurd as it is offensive.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/news\/uk\/politics\/labour-antisemitism-israel-corbyn-mark-serwotka-tuc-trade-union-pcs-a8535986.html\">Continues &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trade unionist says that claims of &#8220;anti-Semitism&#8221; in the Labour Party are being used to distract attention from Israeli crimes <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":176413,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-176411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Israel_Anti-Semitism_Zionism_and_US-UK_allies"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=176411"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176441,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/176411\/revisions\/176441"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/176413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=176411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=176411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=176411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}