Tory Racism

I'll leave this here, as well.

Tories probe candidates over anti-Semitism claims

www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50700874

Racism is racism.

So it is Annie so why don't we see you speaking out against Islamaphobia in the Conservative party (and other far-right parties), or the "hostile environment" created by the Conservatives while in government or the Conservative Immigration Act 2016.

It wouldn't matter if all the LP members were angels going round wearing halos you would find something - not cleaning his halos perhaps - tfor you to use to pour your usual vitriol over him. And yet, and yet, nothing on any other form of race hatred or religiophobia. The hypocrisy is patently obvious.

GGMK3 - same question to Annie- and others.

And there is a fundamental question here- and perhaps some will find it very difficult to answer ... and the thought process say a lot about it

why is antisemitism so abhorrent

and

Islamophobia, somehow, not so much?

Very good point, jura2. Don't see the rampant defenders of white Jews on here defending brown Muslims.

perhaps more than just 'colour'

jura2 interesting isn't it. I think it's partly because we all carry a collective guilt, partly because before WW2 many were anti-semitic (interestingly it was the Labour Party who led the fight against this-Cable Street), and because of the holocaus,t which some actually knew about at the time. Islamaphobia was rampant in the 15 and 16th century but not really in living memory and so comes further down the list.

I would really recommend listening to the broadcast I mentioned on the The Jewish voice thread.

This is the first time I have heard someone with true gravitas speaking out against what the Chief Rabbi and, more in his case, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said and didn't say and when they chose to say it. I can't believe we have seen so little challenge to this "racism against one group is worse than racism against another" we are hearing.

None of it should be tolerated but it is - by the right of Judaism, politics and old media.

I believe that both Antisemitism and Islamaphobia are condemned equally among just minded people in Britain. However, the right wing dominated National Press has used antisemitism as a weapon to beat the Labour Party with, therefore making it appear that Antisemitism is more prevalent and widely condemned.

The problem is, I believe, with Chief Rabbi getting involved in the way he has, that should the election be a close result, the extremes of either left or right may play that up as being a key aspect in the ballot.

In a nation that is already politically badly split, there is undoubtedly some very dangerous ground being trodden in this election.

Agreed.

BTW, antisemitism is tragically not new and happened over time in many parts of the world. We visited Pitigliano in Southern Tuscany last year, for instance. The guide explained:

''the Jews and Christians of Pitigliano had led a peaceful coexistence. In the 16th century, Count Niccolo Orsini IV, a member of the feudal Orsini family, ruled Pitigliano, an independent fief whose inhabitants were mainly peasants. Although he was Catholic, he thought Jews, mostly bankers and artisans, could help revitalize Pitigliano’s lagging economy. So, while Jews in places like Umbria and Lazio were imprisoned or exiled, in Pitigliano they worked as moneylenders, carpenters, cobblers and tailors.
Continue reading the main story

That good will changed somewhat after the Medici family, which was appointed by the Pope, came into power. In 1622, the Jews in Pitigliano were confined to a ghetto; men were required to wear red hats, and women red badges on their sleeves. Still, the relationship between Jews and non-Jews was friendly; in 1773, the liberal Catholic Grand Duke of Tuscany, Pietro Leopoldo, officially recognized the Jews of Pitigliano, which meant they could come and go as they wished. In 1799 the ghetto was desegregated, and by 1850 there were about 400 Jews in town, roughly 10 percent of the population. But 11 years later that population began to shrink when the Jews of a unified Italy were granted equal rights and allowed to move freely about the country. Many left for Florence, Rome and elsewhere''

If you want an excelent novel about how Jews were treated in Portugal read The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon by Richard Zimler it brilliantly details what life was like for Jews during the persecution.

Thanks, 15C too?.

Patel is the instigator of this unpleasant “othering”

t.co/7QzKr28Fl6?amp=1