Zionist rabble attempt to disrupt meeting of Palestine Solidarity Campaign
myob | 21.10.2004 22:22 | Anti-racism | Repression
A meeting was held in Manchester this evening to discuss the case for sanctions against Israel. The speakers were Gerald Kaufman MP, Richard Kuper of Jews for Justice for Palestinians and Carol Reagan of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
The excellent contributions by the three speakers were supposed to be followed by a panel discussion. Alas, the organisers had not reckoned with the presence of a bunch of part-sinister part-shabby Zionists, who sought to disrupt the panel discussion even before it began.
Pretty much like the state they love so much (yet, interestingly, don’t choose to live in), these rabid lowlifes ignored all rules of decorum and decency, and flooded the hall with their bile, spitting the whole canon of Zionist doublespeak at both the panel, and all those who sought to restore a little dignity to proceedings (dignity being a bit of a problem for the Zionists).
In conclusion, these sad cases actually did us all a favour. They allowed the speakers to make their points quite eloquently, before advertising for the entire hall what kind of a grotesque mindset the oppressed Palestinians are up against. As Richard Kuper poignantly stated, breaking up public meetings was a favoured tool of the Nazis on their own sorry rise to power. The parallel could hardly have been more apt.
The excellent contributions by the three speakers were supposed to be followed by a panel discussion. Alas, the organisers had not reckoned with the presence of a bunch of part-sinister part-shabby Zionists, who sought to disrupt the panel discussion even before it began.
Pretty much like the state they love so much (yet, interestingly, don’t choose to live in), these rabid lowlifes ignored all rules of decorum and decency, and flooded the hall with their bile, spitting the whole canon of Zionist doublespeak at both the panel, and all those who sought to restore a little dignity to proceedings (dignity being a bit of a problem for the Zionists).
In conclusion, these sad cases actually did us all a favour. They allowed the speakers to make their points quite eloquently, before advertising for the entire hall what kind of a grotesque mindset the oppressed Palestinians are up against. As Richard Kuper poignantly stated, breaking up public meetings was a favoured tool of the Nazis on their own sorry rise to power. The parallel could hardly have been more apt.
myob
Comments
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this is all too common
22.10.2004 00:16
if you can't argue your corner with other progreesive people, get out of the ring.
lets hope that is the last of them–although i think not
richieP
pot kettle black
22.10.2004 13:36
should it matter how they dress?
> Pretty much like the state they love so much (yet, interestingly, don’t choose to live
> in), these rabid lowlifes ignored all rules of decorum and decency, and flooded
> the hall with their bile
"rabid lowlifes" - sounds like bile to me too! If there was a fascist meeting going on, you'd "ignore all rules of decorum and decency", because the meeting itself you might think was ignoring decency in it's very existence.
You can't shout down people just for taking direct action like you or I might, or how they dress!
> breaking up public meetings was a favoured tool of the Nazis on their own sorry
> rise to power. The parallel could hardly have been more apt.
Hmm. Enough of trite and useless parallels, please.
Breaking up fascist public meetings was a favoured tool of the antifascists in this country after the Second World War, to stop their rise to power in the UK. From my understanding in Germany in the 30s, the Nazis actually used mostly democratic means to rise to power. According to a friend from a family most of whom didn't survive the Holocaust, Hitler said it was because opposition to the Nazis did not use confrontational strategies that it failed to stop his rise.
Jewish ISMer & antifascist
breaking up meetings
22.10.2004 15:47
The disruption is much more effective the way they describe it - don't wait for the Q+A
bobby
Freedom of Speech
22.10.2004 16:45
It seems that for you it is...
You may agree with them or not, but everyone is entitled to expose thei oppinions
Mary
Zionist infiltrators?
22.10.2004 18:18
manc lad
more than that
23.10.2004 00:09
And the author of this report's effective suggestion that Jews should go to Israel if they like it so much is ludicrous, perhaps you should fuck off to Palestine see how much you like living up Arafat's arse there, or maybe to Syria to see the wonders of Arab socialist resistance to US imperialism, or to your beloved Cuba (those suggestions are in fact perhaps bad examples, because they apply to quite a large extent to people like you). Oh and its tinged with anti-semitism also.
I think its perfectly understandable that Jews, or "Zionists" (you are unclear on whether these evil Zionists are Jews or concerned anti-fascist anti-racist gentiles such as myself), should get angry about your extremist anti-Israel platforms, especially when you continually use inflammatory and derogatory rhetoric - "Zionist rabble", "Nazis", etc.
Oh and the Nazi allegation is blatantly anti-semitic by the way. Why is it that ISRAEL, the JEWISH state, is always compared to the Holocaust and Nazisism? This is nothing new by the way, British officials in 1948, somewhat anti-semitic ones and very anti-Israel ones, made similar ludicrous and anti-semitic comparisons to the Nazis. Why is China not continually attacked as a Nazi state? Russia? Egypt? The PA? Sudan? Morocco? Morocco has illegally occupied Western Sahara since 1975, refuses to negotiate over its status (has continually delayed the referendum that was agreed), and has setttled double the number of Moroccans than Israel has settled Jews.
Oh and holding anti-Jewish meetings was perhaps the most favourite 'tactic' of the Nazis...
j
Respone to some of the above
23.10.2004 19:47
Let's take the first point. Two-thirds of the panel were Jewish, so how can my defending their right to speak be "anti-semitic". As Richard Kuper pointed out, Sharon and co use fears of antisemitism (while simultaneously fanning its flames) as a tool to frighten Jews into leaving their homelands for Israel. Their dream is of a world purified of Jews, of herding the entire dispora into a mono-ethnic Israel - shorn of its non-Jewish inhabitants (transfer, as it is "eupemistically" referred to). This, essentially, is antisemitism in action. So sorry if you can't handle this truth.
And the second point: to desccribe these people as anti-fascists, and to compare them to the courageous people who stand up against fascism and intolerance in this country, is a pure absurdity. The rabble who broke up Thurday's meeting have very much in common with people like the BNP, NF and their verminous ilk. Whether these people are Jewish, christian or just plain barmy, they have the same hatred of people who don't fit in with their narrow world view. Also, they call Jews who don't agree with them "self-haters" - exactly the term used by Nazi Germans to put down their opponents. I have been on numerous anti-fascist marches and actions, and I can't reacall seeing any of our cuddly but sartorially inept friends from Thursday night there. Wonder why.
Also, one poster's historically-challenged view of Hitler's rise to power is as laughable as it is obscene. Any school child can tell you that Hitler's bully boys were engaged by a whole plethora of anti-fascists (communists, socialists, Jewish groups, Edelweiss pirates) right from the start. Unfortunately, they won the streetfights, and - more importantly - had corporate power amd the establishment behind them. So do us all a big favour: go and read a little history, instead of regaling us with your ignorance.
myob
some corrections
24.10.2004 22:12
However, 'cos I take issue here with some of what j writes, doesn't mean I condone her/his other attacks on "people like you". Some of the other stuff, however stands - myope's original parallelling the "Zionist rabble"'s tactics with the Nazis is at best unhelpful (why do you insist on using it, you should ask yourself). Good question about other nation's not being similarly labelled.
I of course do not think that the people who came to disrupt the meeting were anti-fascists or should be compared to them - by your (myope) focussing on that, you miss considering some of my points (though I do agree with much of what you say). I said earlier "mostly democratic means" - that of course, from the history books I have read, does not take into account the early street fights etc, but I was (perhaps simplistically) talking of later on, and the German State's (& mass of the population's) responses to the NSDAP (Nazi party) - it was the politicians' 'democratic' response's to the rise of the NSDAP that gave them actual political power in the end (& the establishment and corporate support you talk of).
Jewish ISMer & antifascist
You deserved it
25.10.2004 10:01
Secondly we listed without interpution to the panel of self hating Jews.
Thirdly interuptions came only when the questions were censored.
You cannot say you believe in free speech and to be a forum for an alternative view and then seek to shut up anyone who disagrees with you.
So grow up.
Shabby - I think not
Oh, please....
25.10.2004 23:34
1) So you put on your Sunday best to come along and heckle Mr Kaufman did you? And I didn't even notice. You must be so hurt....
2) "The panel of self-hating Jews". Eigentor (own-goal!) you racist shitforbrains. Even more so when we consider the following: Gerald Kaufman's contribution implicitly endorsed every Israeli PM bar Sharon - he even had a good word or three for Bibi Metanyahu (for fuck's sake). By deeming this "self-hating", you provide us with a pretty clear indication of the twilight demimonde that you and your fellow swamplife inhabit.
3) The interruptions only came at the end. That was your mistake, bonzo. Had you attempted to disrupt the meeting at the start, you might at least have gleaned a little moral integrity (and an early exit).
Finally, I don't see what gives you of all people the right to tell me to grow up. Morally, intellectually and ethically, you are stunted beyond redemption.
myob
Hardline Zionists getting more active
26.10.2004 15:18
I hear there is likely to be another coach-load of extremists due to come-up from London to hound the M&S Picket "off the streets of Manchester".
I for one will be going down to show that we will not be intimidated by their tactica and the vile nonsense they shout - hope others will be willing to show solidarity with the people of Palestine and opposition to the apologists for Israel's present brutality.
They must not be allowed to behave like Israeli soldiers here in Manchester!
John
Too true
29.10.2004 18:18
The protestors (probably a safer term than "zionists" or whatever) certainly went beyond exercising their legitimate right to express a dissident opinion. I for one (and I doubt I was the only one) was physically jostled by a couple of these people on the way out. When I reacted, one of them asked whether I was looking for a fight. They were looking for aggro. With the police outside to protect them, they didn't have a great deal to lose either.
Instead of allowing myself to be provoked, I attempted to get one of these guys to have a civislied conversation. Waste of time. All he could do was rant and rave. "You're a Jew hater - why do you pick on Israel?" etc etc.
What is most startling here is that the purpose of the meeting was hardly extreme. I can safely say that virtually nobody present would like to see Israel "wiped from the map". The vast majority of people present would subscribe to the two-state solution, of Israel and Palestine living peacefully side-by-side. So why all the venom? Why the verbal and physical intimidation?
Answers much appreciated...
David
syharrisonb@aol.com
02.07.2006 11:28
thank you.
Simon
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