Shalmiss Here is a Jewish professor who answers your point.
www.facebook.com/Progressive-Politics-229826284375617/?_tn_=kCH-R&eid=ARD
I have noticed that all the people who agree with the smears are giving generalised opinions and people who are challenging them are posting facts or more detailed opinions that never result in direct responses.
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The Jewish voice. The BBC’s coverage of antisemitism charges against the Labour Party has been both unbalanced and uncritical
(129 Posts)Jews, antisemitism and Labour – a letter to the BBC
Fri 6 Dec 2019
5th December 2019
To Tony Hall, Director General of the BBC
cc: Fran Unsworth and Tracey Henry
URGENT – “Is the BBC Antisemitic?”
We need to register with you our deep concern that, once again, and in the closing stages of an acrimonious election campaign, the BBC’s coverage of antisemitism charges against the Labour Party has been both unbalanced and uncritical. Your reporting today of the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM)’s repetition of its flimsily-based charges against the Party that it used to support falls disastrously short of the Corporation’s own formal standards of accuracy and balance.
This represents what we can only call a flagrant breach, and of all times during a general election campaign, of the BBC’s legal commitment to due impartiality and fairness.
Over recent months, and with no remission during the election campaign, coverage of allegations of Labour antisemitism has featured repeatedly in the BBC News, and often as the lead item. In news programmes the allegations have been reported as quasi-factual, with no indication that they are fiercely contested. In more discursive formats such as the Today programme or Newsnight, presenters have consistently adopted a negative, attacking stance towards anyone who questions the basis of the allegations. In complete contrast, those making the allegations, usually based on hearsay rather than personal experience, are supplied with leading questions and softball follow-up.
Jews are as diverse as any other substantial group in society. Yet people whose representative status is highly doubtful are routinely presented by the BBC as ‘representatives of the Jewish community’. Surely you can ensure that your broadcasting staff know the facts and convey them appropriately. The Board of Deputies, for example, has no supervised electoral process – and in any case its synagogue-based membership covers no more than one third of the UK’s Jewish population. Secular Jews make up at least 50% of British Jews and have no voice through the Board of Deputies.
In particular the voices of the large numbers of Jews who are Party members, who know how atypical the quite rare examples of antisemitic behaviour in the party are, and who are enthusiastic supporters of a Corbyn-led Labour government have been almost entirely ignored. The BBC has allowed itself to be used as a megaphone for deeply contested charges.
The BBC’s Guidelines state that when a partisan political position is put forward, an opposing one, if it exists, should be broadcast too. The Labour Party does have many Jews who support it and who are prepared to speak out, notably in the organisation Jewish Voice for Labour. Our many requests to be able to present our experience and our perspective are routinely ignored, and in the rare exceptions have never been given equal weighting with the negative voices.
The BBC’s coverage of the JLM’s release of its evidence to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission’s inquiry (into any discrimination in Labour’s processes for handling complaints of antisemitism) is a prime example of the BBC’s systematic imbalance. This deliberately-timed attempted destabilisation of the Labour Party’s position by JLM has appeared in virtually every main news bulletin today, including live coverage – uncontested – of the JLM news conference on BBC News Channel.
The evidence that Jewish Voice for Labour gave to the EHRC inquiry was made public at the time and is publicly available on our web-site. This evidence is directly relevant to your news item but was not even mentioned in today’s extended BBC coverage. It seems that the BBC is treating us as the ‘wrong sort of Jew’.
All Jews are not the same. Asserting that they are is an aspect of antisemitism. The BBC should be ashamed of its record in openness to the multiple voices of British jewry.
By behaving in the way that it has (and today’s JLM coverage is only the latest example) the BBC has, constructively, been contributing to an assiduously promoted anti-Labour agenda.
We look forward to immediate corrective action.
This letter will be published on our website.
Sincerely,
Leah Levane and Jenny Manson, co-chairs JVL
www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/statement/jews-antisemitism-and-labour-a-letter-to-the-bbc/?fbclid=IwAR2bbSO7bduF2zsmKI_Ok27_0d5kKQ16CTVo9kiAZAQuG34ek4L1AAHnoP8
shelmiss please answer my question, I really am interested in knowing what you family fear from a Corbyn Government? Only I have wracked my brains and can’t think what a Labour Government will do that threatens the U.K. Jewish population.
shelmiss what is it that is frightening your family if labour get in?
I’m really not going to get into it as I don’t want each and every point I make to be attacked, I’ve seen this on practically each and every thread regarding politics etc on this site.
I just wanted to point out that not every Jew is happy with Labour. I’ve not met one yet.
Shelmiss Who has attacked you? You can report personal abuse to GN but I can't see anyone who has done anything other than try to understand your point of view and to give you an alternative one.
People want to be able to say 'I hate Corbyn' and get 50 responses agreeing. Then they start a new thread saying 'everyone over on that other thread was mean'.
No - facts are mean. No one here has been.
People often don't meet people with different views to their own group but you will find many online.
What do you think of the professor's comments?
No-one has attacked me Jaycee5 and I didn’t say I had been attacked. I’ve just seen it happen too often to others on this site if they share different views and opinions.
Jaycee Thank you for being the voice of reason about this. As I mentioned, I'm not Jewish and I'm unlikely to vote for the Labour Party, so I'm not taking sides, but the whole thing puzzles me.
There seem to be so many unanswered questions. If anti-semiticism really is so entrenched in the Labour Party, why has it only come to light since Corbyn became leader. I expect there are people with anti-Semitic views, but I find it difficult to believe that they suddenly appeared in 2015.
As you say, people seem reluctant to come up with specific examples, so it's really difficult to come to a balanced view. There also seems to be confusion about anti-semiticism as a form of racism and valid criticism of the Israeli government.
I think most people recognise that anti-semiticism has been around for centuries and that it certainly still exists, so I'm not being totally naïve. I'm not denying it exists, but I'm still puzzled about why people claim that it's more endemic in the Labour Party than anywhere else.
shelmiss I have no intention of attacking you whatsoever??
But I am very concerned to know what it is that is making your family so frightened?
I am a Labour Party supporter, but I do have a moral compass. If I felt that anyone has reason to be fearful of the Labour Party, I would resign my membership and withdraw my support.
shelmiss, I'd also be really interested (in a genuine and compassionate way, NOT a points scoring, political way. honestly) what you and your family are scared of happening with a Labour government?
I think any left-wing, liberal-type would be completely open to listening and trying to effect change based on genuine fears. I'd like believe so anyway.
growstuff As the Jewish author Michael Rosen has said
"Commentators who say they are combatting 'antisemitism in the Labour Party' and are not combatting antisemitism in the Tory Party, are in fact just combatting the Labour Party."
This is part of a longer article on his facebook page.
Excuse me if I am being really simple-minded.
I don't mind if you accuse me of that.
Surely anti-Semitism and racism and for that matter sexism is an ongoing concern always, in every organisation and society.
We, as responsible citizens can't and should not stop questioning policy and attitudes on this.
And the Tories likewise. And all of us
painting
shelmiss I am so sorry you don’t feel able to reply to my request. My problem is that without an explanation of your fear what am I to conclude ?
At the moment an assertion that an extended family of Jewish folk is very fearful of a Labour Government and what will happen to them. That is a very serious charge indeed and one which if you can provide me a reason that is both rational and believable it will be sufficient for me to cease my support of the Labour Party immediately.
In the absence of this explanation, what am I to conclude?
Shelmiss is Jewish. The comments she makes mirror the comments I've heard from my Jewish friends.
If we were discussing racism or oppression of any other group, I feel fairly certain that comments from members of that group would be accepted, rather than demands made to explain their fears.
iam64 you say that if we were discussing racism or oppression of any group, we should accept their fears without asking for an explanation of those fears, rather than demanding an explanation of those fears.
How can that be? Apart from the pejorative “demanding” which I shall put to one side, If someone says “I am fearful of x because I am a minority” surely you would not be doing right by that person if you simply accepted their fear without asking why they were fearful and there was something that could/should be done.
I simply cannot follow your logic.
That doesn't surprise me at all Whitewave.
Doesn’t surprise me either.
What do you mean iam
Help me out here iam64 I am genuinely puzzled and if I am wrong in some way I would very much appreciate you explaining what you mean that you are not surprised at me not understanding your logic.
You can’t throw a comment like that out there and leave it hanging.
I am absolutely ready to accepted without reserve if I am wrong in my posts.
What’s wrong with posters on this subject? Can’t they see from all they hear and read, that many Jewish people are alarmed at the prospect of a Corbyn led government.
In the few years since he has led the party, some of those within have sensed that they have free rein to be anti-semitic
And the LP have now been swamped with the £3 members, the hard left and militant types, that Kinnock had previously got rid of.
If Shelmiss is one of the many who feel worried, then I don’t blame her for refusing to get into debate about it on here, I have seen how these anti-semitic threads ‘turn’ on posters if they dare to say anything about the LP.
Fingers and toes crossed that Corbyn will be resigning on Friday.
Well what on Earth am I to make of those posts?
iam64 I always thought so much better of you. I was confident that after that personal remark made to me that you would at least have the grace to explain what you meant.
I have never in the whole of my life done anything but to defend minority interests and yet your stinging post seems to suggest otherwise
All I ask is what you meant but you clearly don’t feel willing or able to do so.
I am so sorry
But you don't you see that without specific reasons, it's anecdotal and can't be remedied?
Anybody could, in theory, say they were frightened of anything, in order to smear somebody.
iam64 if you prefer PM me
Iam64 Shelmiss' fears aren't shared by Jewish friends I have. We just don't know what these fears are. What am I supposed to make of that?
Well, that was a storm in a teacup wasn’t it? Lots of unexplained innuendo.
Oh well .
iam64 read the link perhaps that will help.
skwawkbox.org/2019/12/09/exclusive-union-of-orthodox-hebrew-congregations-head-leader-of-35000-jewish-citizens-endorses-corbyn/
You really don’t get it do you WWM2 
growstuff Mon 09-Dec-19 21:49:21
Iam64 Shelmiss' fears aren't shared by Jewish friends I have. We just don't know what these fears are. What am I supposed to make of that?
Exactly this. Vague threat and terror. NO actual explanation about the actual fears.
Now, if I asked one of my Muslim students what they were afraid of, they could tell me, probably using BJ's comments as evidence. Insults about her headscarf, jeers about being a bomber, told to go back where she came from (despite being born here).
If I asked my Hindu student, she'd tell me about the last racial insult/physical assault she suffered on the school bus.
If you asked an Afro Caribbean boy in London, he tell you. He feared for his LIFE on the streets, because black kids, boys especially are in danger.
Yet NO ONE on here who expresses / has friends who express fear, can name the things they're scared of.
Surely not scaremongering? Because for a people who have been oppressed for a millennia, that would be awful, if it was just for an election win.
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