Anti-Jewish double standards

Letter in the Independent.

Moving letter, bags. Shame about so many of the comments. Who are these people?

Prejudiced twats is what they are; I don't know about the who part.

I would like to know what Stephen Spencer Ryde meant exactly, when he said that in Bradford he was told he was not even permitted to enter the city.
Of course no right-thinking person would condone anti-semitism, but this particular example seems a little hard to take at face value.

I expect it was hard to take in his face too, whether the person saying it had any right to say it (they didn't) or not, and even if SSR took no notice of the stricture. What matters is the reason such things are being said. It is scapegoating pure and simple, i.e. wrong.

I think the banning from Bradford is one of George Galloway's publicity stunts - still vile but would hardly prevent anyone entering the city.

Yes I think you are right Tresco
What a vile man George Galloway is.
However Bags I think SSR would have made his point better by criticising George Galloway personally, rather than making an imprecise allusion which somehow seems to imply that all the citizens of Bradford, or even just one if them, want Jews to be banned from their city.
If I lived in Bradford I would have felt quite affronted by SSR's letter.

And Galloway called for Bradford to be an Israeli-free zone. SSR is not Israeli.

That of course does not excuse Galloway's behaviour, but it does point to the inaccuracy of SSR's statement.

Some letters of reason:

www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/15/gaza-propaganda-machines

Thanks When.

Thanks for pointing that out, janea. However, the crux of Sacks' argument still stands: antisemitism is on the increase in Britain and we need to be alert to it and deal with it effectively.

Great posts Niggly. I visited Israel a few years ago and found the people to be warm and friendly and very family orientated. I was shocked by the strong security measures when entering and leaving the country (even searching a 4 month old baby) and it made me realise how they have had to fight to protect themselves over the years. Whilst their response may be disproportionate it is Hammas who keep breaking the ceasefire bringing more misery to their own people.

As Seasider says, it helps to see things in perspective if you've visited Israel.
The first time I went there, 1983, I arrived at Haifa bus station and there was a bomb alert in the adjoining shopping Mall. A young lass, couldn't have been more than 18, a soldier, cleared the place quickly. She was well armed.
Another time, 2002, I had just left the Machaneh Yehudah, when a huge bomb went off killing and maiming many people.
They are on constant alert still for such things.

edit - the Market bomb that I was near to was in 1997, not 2002.

Bags I agree with you, but we should guard against all forms of intolerance in our society.
It is not just religious and racial intolerance, but some sections of the media seem intent on whipping up hatred of any group of people who are different, whether they are inhabitants of sink estates or they have been to famous public schools.

We seem to be a much less tolerant society than we used to be, and the press, and social media where people can leave anonymous comments that they wouldn't dare to make out loud, are much to blame IMHO.

Are Jewish people the only people in the world who have been the subject of racism and genocide? As Sacks acknowledges himself, during the Holocaust Roma people, physically and mentally disabled people, mentally ill people, homosexuals, Jehovah's witnesses, etc., etc., - an estimated 5-8 million - were also exterminated, and women born of black/white couples were sterilised.

The Palestinian people have been forcibly (and deliberately) dispossessed of their land, and this process continues, despite it already having been established that Israel's actions are against international law. Hamas rockets are a response not just to the illegal seizure of land and resources but also to the unequal treatment under the law of Palestinians and the terrible conditions under which people in Gaza have to live. For instance, water is allocated in the occupied territories by the Israeli authorities. Jewish settlers are allocated 5 times the amount per head as are Palestinians.

Sacks says that there is a new anti-Semitism, based not just on hatred of their religion and race but also on hatred of the Jewish nation state - and that these two elements have now combined to create not just criticism of Israel but demonization of it.

There are people who are racist and who jump on a bandwagon in order to forward their racist agenda. But to suggest that everyone who criticises Israel is also party to an intrinsic hatred of Jewish people is, I think, a cheap shot. If I criticize the laws and conduct of a country such as Saudi Arabia (which I do), does that mean I am also party to an Arab-hating agenda? Even Jewish people who criticise Israel are being labelled "self hating Jews" - a tactic which suggests they are psychologically damaged and thus unable to think rationally.

Another account www.express.co.uk/comment/expresscomment/499875/Andrew-Percy-on-the-war-in-Gaza

Perhaps when those "ordinary Israelis" asked Andrew Percy "What would you do?" he could have referred them to criticisms of Israel that he himself raises in his article:

"Where is the political leadership for peace with the Palestinians? Is enough being done to prevent civilian deaths in Gaza? Was Israel right to so swiftly reject the Palestinian unity government? And of course when will the Israeli government bow to international pressure and cease the settlement expansion programmes?"

But instead of raising these issues, Andrew Percy comes home and writes an article which follows the usual script - that dropping massive bombs on a highly populated area is "defensive", rather than a reaction to the inhumane, illegal and oppressive treatment of the Palestinians which the "international community" has been doing as lot of hand wringing about but seems unable or unwilling to prevent.