Jackie Walker's questionable allies

Submitted by cathy n on 7 August, 2017 - 3:39 Author: Dale Street

“Anti-Semitism is a crime. Anti-Zionism is a duty” read the banner in front of the stage at Jackie Walker’s performance of her one-person show “The Lynching” at the Edinburgh Fringe in early August.

Walker is currently facing Labour Party disciplinary charges over allegations of antisemitism. She describes her play as “the one-woman show about a real-life witch-hunt: an attempt to destroy Jeremy Corbyn and an entire political movement.”

According to the play’s publicity, the play tells you “what they wouldn’t let Jackie Walker tell you.” Who “they” are is not defined. Nor is there any explanation of why “they” are letting Walker tell you something in a play which “they” do not let her tell you in any other way.

Or maybe that’s the power of the performing arts?

The play is part of an ongoing campaign by Walker, according to which the allegations of anti-semitism raised against her are totally unfounded and are really an attempt (presumably by “them”) to silence critics of Israel (and destroy Jeremy Corbyn, and destroy Momentum).

Walker rejects the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-semitism. She prefers David Schneider’s definition. Unfortunately, the same David Schneider, applying the same definition, has concluded that her statements “betray anti-semitic prejudice”. Maybe Schneider is also one of “them”?

The banner draped in front of the stage on which Walker performed her play is the banner of the Scottish Palestine Campaign (SPSC), which also organised a speaking tour of Scotland for Walker in March.

In the week preceding Walker’s performance the SPSC had been a news item in its own right, following the publication of “Jew Hate and Holocaust Denial in Scotland” by Jewish Human Rights Watch.

The report’s author, David Collier, had researched the personal social media accounts of Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) members and activists. The bulk of the 160-page report consists of screengrabs of some of the antisemitic material which he encountered:

Holocaust denial and Holocaust revisionism; the antisemitic trope of Israel as a behind-the-scenes global superpower; other traditional antisemitic tropes (rich Jews, greedy Jews, cunning Jews, etc.).

Collier makes the point that he deliberately ignored equations of Israel with Nazi Germany, denunciations of Israel for committing genocide, and accusations of Nazi-Zionist collaboration prior to the creation of Israel.

Any attempt to excuse the social media posts highlighted by Collier as ‘legitimate criticism of Israel’ therefore fails at the first hurdle. The posts are not about Israel. They are straightforward antisemitism:

“The Real Holocaust of World War Two: The Genocide of 15 Million+ Germans. … Holocaust Against Jews is a Total Lie – Proof. … International Red Cross Report Confirms the Holocaust of Six Million Jews Is a Hoax. … Not ‘Death Camps’ but Work Camps”.

“It is mostly they (Jews) who push for race mixing and miscegenation, knowing full well that it would eventually lead to those of white European descent being minorities in their own countries and the eventual extermination of white European DNA.”

“ISIS Leader ‘Al-Baghdadi’ is Jewish Mossad Agent. … (The Paris attack) had every single hallmark of a Mossad false flag operation. … The Real Reason Why Princess Diana Was Assassinated: Princess Diana was assassinated by Mossad because … …”

“What do both these men (Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi) have in common? They refused to accept American dollars for oil and their central banks were not owned by the Rothschild family.”

“I suggest you investigate the role of the elite in the creation, funding and propagation of Bolshevism and Communism, both Jewish led and funded movements.”

“The problem here [for the West] is Bashar Assad. He still refuses to open the door to Jewish greed, i.e. Rothschild Central Bank and all the Zionist corporations of the Jewish Lobby, therefore must be replaced by an obedient puppet as in Iraq, Libya, Egypt, etc.”

“Jewish Bolshevik mass murderer Genrikh Yagoda was responsible for between 7 and 10 million deaths. The fact that you’ve never heard of him is exactly why the Jews should not have total control of the media.”

And so on and so forth for another 140 pages.

The SPSC statement issued in response to the publication of the report does not condemn the antisemitism uncovered by the report. Instead, it condemns the report itself and its author.

The SPSC is “not inclined to take seriously the so-called ‘research’ of a pro-Israel blogger.” The report is “only the latest attempt to undermine and criminalise the Palestine solidarity movement.” The SPSC “stands by its record as an anti-racist organisation.”

According to an earlier SPSC statement, Collier was “a supporter of Israel” (undoubtedly true – but so what?). His report was “highly unscientific”. And his analysis was “deceptive” because of his “conflation of anti-Zionism with antisemitism”.

The statement also emphasised that the posts reproduced in the report had appeared on personal Facebook pages, not on the SPSC Facebook page itself. This is true – but no answer to the (proven) charge that SPSC members and activists propagate antisemitism.

The report also makes an obvious mockery of the slogan on the SPSC banner: the SPSC’s statements are silent on the crime of antisemitism within its own ranks.

Although it is Jackie Walker’s own business, she really is not doing herself any favours in collaborating with the SPSC and flying the flag (or at least the banner) for the SPSC.

Her defence rests on the claim that she can tell the difference between real antisemitism and bogus politically motivated charges of antisemitism (designed to gag critics of Israel, and destroy Jeremy Corbyn and Momentum).

But if that is the case, she should surely be able to see through the SPSC.

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