For those not in the know, Jon hates my “death-wish” petition at tinyurl.com/israelihra. My action in launching it has resulted in these anti-Semitism allegations against me, to which I’ve responded with these answers. I have kept the NEC updated throughout…
From: Jon Lansman <jonlansman@me.com>
Sent: 14 October 2018 21:30
To: Peter Gregson <postmaster@roseburn32.plus.com>; jennie formby <jennie.formby@labour.org.uk>
Cc: legal_queries@labour.org.uk; complaints@Labour.org.uk; w.nichols@unison.co.uk; press@unison.co.uk; enquiries@tssa.org.uk; leader@labour.org.uk; team@tom-watson.com; Michael.Wheeler@usdaw.org.uk; executive.council@unitetheunion.org; equality@unitetheunion.org; trickettj@parliament.uk; rebecca.longbailey.mp@parliament.uk; kate.osamor.mp@parliament.uk; Richard.Leonard.msp@parliament.scot; Alun.Davies@assembly.wales; richard@richardcorbett.org.uk; vazk@parliament.uk; k.birch@unison.co.uk; jim.kennedy@unitetheunion.org; pauline.mccarthy@premierfoods.co.uk; researchenquiries@usdaw.org.uk; Paddy.Lillis@usdaw.org.uk; abrown@cwu.org; sarah.owen@gmb.org.uk; cath.speight@gmb.org.uk; Ian.Murray@fbu.org.uk; info@aslef.org.uk; joanne.cairns@usdaw.org.uk; james.asser@yahoo.co.uk; yasminedar.labour@gmail.com; racheljgarnham@gmail.com; claudia.webbe@gmail.com; darren.williams.nec@gmail.com; willsman@talk21.com; nick.forbes@newcastle.gov.uk; alice.clarke-perry@islington.gov.uk; george.howarth.mp@parliament.uk; margaret.beckett.mp@parliament.uk; shabana.mahmood.mp@parliament.uk; nickbrownmp@parliament.uk; john.cryer.mp@parliament.uk; hudaelmiNEC@gmail.com; ahendersonlab@gmail.com; navendu.labour@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Jon Lansman and the IHRA – a democratic deficit?
Dear Peter,
Since you persist in writing to me, I shall answer after all and you may be pleased to hear that it will mean that I will have to recuse myself from any discussion of any disputes panel case that involves you, since, in answering you, I shall have to explain that in my opinion the opinions you express are antisemitic at least in part because you clearly hold Jews as Jews responsible for the actions of Israel. You are also in my view guilty of action that is grossly prejudicial to the interests of the party. *
Before responding to the points you’ve made, however, let me apologise for ever having asked you for your vote. I do not want your vote or the vote of anyone who would repeatedly say the things you have said.
In your email to me of 28 September, you said: “I appreciate that the Labour Party felt the Jews to be an oppressed minority back in the mists of time when Zionism was deemed a cause worthy of support. But the actions of a state founded on the ethnic cleansing of 700,000 Arabs out of Palestine into the makeshift bomb-riddled townships they occupy today, denied access to energy, medicine and rights to trade has well and truly taken any kind of moral cause out of the Zionist creed. It stands for the very opposite of social justice.”
This clearly holds Jews, i.e. all Jews as Jews, responsible for the actions of Israel.
I also think that boldly declaring Israel to be a racist endeavour and challenging the NEC to expel him alongside others who signed a petition he launched may not be antisemitic but it is a deliberatively provocative act which is most certainly prejudicial to the interests of the party and I therefore urge the General Secretary to take the appropriate action against you. **
Jon Lansman
07710 541410
Jon sent this email not just to me, but to all 39 members of the NEC, including our Leader and his Deputy. He also sent it to our General Secretary (Jennie Formby) and our Complaints Team (Head: Sophie Goodyear). Here is the reply I immediately sent back (cc all):
Dear Jon,
I am so confused. My best friends are Jews. I went out with a rabid Zionist for months from a horribly wealthy North London family and we remain good friends to this day. My problem is with Netanyahu lovers and Nakba-deniers, not Jews, you silly chap.
You see, anti-Zionism is not the same as anti-Semitism. Just ask my pal Rabbi Beck from Stamford Hill in North London. He helped me give out flyers at Conference promoting my petition. He is part of a very special group of Orthodox Jews called the Neturei Karta. They believe Israel an aberration that should not exist. I certainly do not agree with him on that one.
So, having got that off my chest, I am so pleased that you are OK about my continuing to include you in my round-robins.
And while I have your attention, will you chip in a fiver to this GoFundMe site towards my legal costs? Have a read of what I say there, to understand what I am actually about. It’s at tinyurl.com/legalihra
Shalom
Pete Gregson
Later, I had some more thoughts. The asterisks above relate to my comments below:
* Well, the Jews who run Israel are responsible for the actions of Israel. But other Jews? Do I hold folk like Tony Greenstein and the Neturei Karta responsible too? Clearly not. Jon Lansman, maybe – but he spent years in a kibbutz there, so he’s bound to be partial. But his logic here is quite barmy. It’s like saying I’d noted Trump and his chums are white and they run the US. Therefore did I say that all whites are responsible for the actions of the US? If I did, I better shoot myself now.
** Jon is referring to my petition at tinyurl.com/israelihra and tells me that saying Israel is a racist endeavour may not be antisemitic, after all. So that means all mu CLP’s allegations against me that I am probably an anti-Semite are probably unfounded. Thanks Jon – that’s my “Get out of Jail Free” card.
But is my petition “most certainly prejudicial to the interests of the party”? I think the opposite. If we can rid ourselves of this pernicious IHRA policy that Jon brought in, that says exposing Israel’s apartheid makes you anti-Semitic, then we will have done something very much in the interests of the Party – because removing it will guarantee us freedom of speech on Israel and the power to fight racism. Its removal will strengthen Labours’ foundations, which are built on the principles of equality and social justice.
If our General Secretary is going to take appropriate action, it should be against Mr Lansman – not me.
If you are as worried as I about the way Momentum is going, please sign this petition “Democratise Momentum” which seeks to hold Lansman and Momentum’s National Co-ordinating Group to account.
Petition-signer Bronagh Wilson of Northern Ireland had this to say of Mr Lansman, after reading his email:
“..And, far from you bringing the LP into disrepute, it is he and his fellow Zionists (both Jews and non Jews) who have egregiously brought the LP into disrepute by continuing to promote the absurd lie that Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters are inveterate anti-Semites. A lie that could be easily disproven, should they choose to do so, by the weight of the available evidence.
I always say that you don’t have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, you don’t even have to like Jews to be a Zionist, the only criteria you need to embrace that ideology is to be 1) a racist and 2) a pathological liar. Criteria which Lansman appears to exemplify in spades.
Remember when he ludicrously wanted to stand against Jennie Formby for the GS post, stating that “he wanted to open up the contest for women” (wtf)? Can you imagine what he would have done if he had got his hands on that position? What would have been left of the Party, once all the “anti-Semites” had been purged, would have been sistered up with Likud in double quick time! Strange isn’t it that it’s only those on the left of the Party who have been accused of “anti-Semitism (including of course numerous Jews)? Surely, it cannot be possible, if anti-Semitism is really as prevalent as they claim, that no one at all from the right wing evinces the slightest hint of such racism. Not just strange but literally incredible.
This man is not now of the left, if ever he was. We all know that Engels was a factory owning capitalist but he was very much an exception to the rule. It’s not, therefore, impossible, for a multi millionaire property dealer to be an earnest socialist but it is highly unlikely. And should be regarded as suspect unless they unambiguously demonstrate that their commitment is genuine. Lansman repeatedly fails to do so and I think his actual agenda has become more and more transparent. If he was genuinely concerned to promote socialism then he should have the humility and good grace to step aside for the greater good. A socialist enterprise should never be used as a vehicle for the self promotion of any individual. And as for his view that support for JVL would alienate the “Jewish Community” (in reality he means that right wing racist portion of the “Jewish Community”), are we going to start trying to win over EDL supporters by eschewing our anti-racist principles?
This man is a menace and the sooner he is exposed, for what he really is, the better.”