An East London horror story

War on Want is a respected UK charity which works to combat poverty and promote human rights around the world. Pluto Press is a respected left-wing publishing house which to its everlasting credit is the publisher of my second book. So when the two come together to host an event on the subject of Israel, naturally one should only expect the best.
And yet the event I attended last night in East London’s Toynbee Hall was — as a friend predicted — a horror story.


War on Want was promoting the launch of a new book on Israeli Apartheid and the event opened with a Q & A between author Ben White and War on Want’s Executive Director John Hilary.
White went to great pains at the outset to explain that he was not saying that Israel was just like South Africa. Not at all. What he was saying was that there is an internationally recognized definition of the crime of apartheid, as he put it, and when you read that, you see that there can be an Israeli version which is different from the South African one.
He actually read from a section of the book and dug out some obscure definition of apartheid from the UN to prove his point.
Of course if you believe that Israel is not really all that much like South Africa, but you choose to label it as apartheid, but then qualify that as White did, it smells of dishonesty.
It’s a bit like calling Israel fascist because in some League of Nations document from the 1930s there’s a definition of fascism which would include both Mussolini’s Italy and the present-day Jewish state (there isn’t).
When you call your book “Israeli Apartheid” you are inviting people to assume that you mean what you say — and audience members last night clarified this by quoting from Desmond Tutu’s idiotic assertion that the treatment of Palestinians is in fact worse that apartheid.
After about an hour, the floor was opened up to the audience and the first speaker as well as about half the others was critical. It was immediately pointed out that War on Want had banned Jonathan Hoffman, the vice president of the Zionist Federation, from attending. John Hilary defended that decision, saying that the organization had no problem with debate and discussion, but that Hoffman had disrupted several other recent meetings.
Earlier, I had noticed several officers of the Metropolitan Police present and overheard a conversation between them and War on Want staffers in which Hoffman’s name came up.
Hoffman himself stood outside the building, quietly and peacefully handing out a flyer refuting the case made by White in his book.
In my experience on the Left, you don’t normally call the police except in the most extreme circumstances, and to be honest, a short middle-aged Jewish man handing out flyers hardly constituted the kind of threat that would have motivated me to dial 999.
I was one of the last speakers called from audience and to be honest, I was nervous. It probably came out in my voice.
I said that I had the greatest respect for War on Want and the work it does around the world — and I do. But then I added that I was troubled by what was said — and not said — this evening.
Both speakers, Hilary and White, spoke passionately about the suffering of the Palestinians. I reminded the audience of the powerful images that stayed in our minds after hearing the accounts of Israeli soldiers shooting out the windows of a school, or of an ageing Palestinian man whose only dream was to spend one last night in his family home.
But there was not one word of sympathy or understanding for the Jewish victims of this tragedy which has gone on for far too long.
When one of the speakers from the floor pointed out that the separation fence had dramatically reduced the number of terrorist incidents inside Israel, White responded — I pointed out — with a kind of “yeah, whatever”.
I turned to face the two speakers and said to them, when you show empathy for one side, but none for the other, when you feel nothing at all for the Jews and their suffering, there is a word for that.
I began to sit down. White asked “What’s the word?”
But he knew the answer.
The one-sided, dishonest account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict presented by Ben White and War on Want stinks of anti-Semitism.
They will of course deny that they are anti-Semites.
Some of their best friends are Jews.
Two Jews stood up during the discussion — the only two who made an issue of being Jews — and represented themselves as coming from tiny grouplets with names like “Jews Against Zionism” or something like that.
I’m sure that War on Want has no problem with Jews like that.
But when you grieve over the suffering — the genuine suffering, I might add — of the Palestinians, but feel nothing in your heart for the suffering of the Jews; when every mention of the Israelis is entirely negative, portraying them as monsters — you are not longer a critic and instead have become a bigot.
Hilary and White both tried to answer my remarks. White found a section of his book where he acknowledged that the Jews and Palestinians would someday have to find a way to live together. But Hilary made a point that instead of refuting my argument reinforced it.
I had pointed out that if you really wanted to influence Israeli opinion, to open up Israelis to the suffering of the Palestinians, this was not the way to do it.
Hilary then told us how during a recent visit to the region, War on Want’s Israeli partners had told them that there was no way to change Israeli public opinion. They pointed out that 94% of Israelis supported the attack on Gaza earlier this year. Only external pressure would work.
In other words, the Israeli state is doing monstrous things, the Israeli army is committing war crimes left and right, and the Israeli public is behind all this.
So when Israeli soldiers do all the horrible things War on Want describes, they are representing the Israeli people, who cheer them on.
There was no mention of terrorism, of suicide bombers, of the Holocaust, of Jewish refugees, of centuries of anti-Semitism — none of this exists, or is worthy of note.
All that there is — is the Palestinians and their suffering.
Most of those in the audience who came to criticize and to speak out were somewhat too strident for my tastes. (Yes, I was one of the more respectful and courteous critics. Hard to believe, I know.)
I would not have tried to shout down the speakers, nor interrupt, nor heckle. As I told someone afterwards, that’s the sort of thing we do at meetings of the BNP. War on Want is not the BNP.
But as I think back over what was said, and not said, I begin to wonder if the approach of people like Hoffman and those who did their best to disrupt the meeting last night isn’t in fact the correct one.
Maybe it’s time to take off the kid gloves and take on these liars and hypocrites, calling them what they are — anti-Semites.

15 Comments on "An East London horror story"

  1. Jonathan Hoffman | 10/07/2009 at 10:30 |

    Thank you Eric. And thanks to you and the others whom let the sunshine in last night. The police were rightly furious to have been called out. I estimate the cost to the taxpayer of the false callout to be a four figure sum. Just in order that these muppets can say “we had to call the police, look at how disruptive they are”. Shame on War on Want and shame on Ben White.

  2. zkharya | 10/07/2009 at 10:42 |

    “I turned to face the two speakers and said to them, when you show empathy for one side, but none for the other, when you feel nothing at all for the Jews and their suffering, there is a word for that.
    I began to sit down. White asked “What’s the word?”
    But he knew the answer.”
    The answer surely is “hypocrisy”. And when it discriminates against Jews negatively, one could argue that it then constitutes a kind of antisemitism. Easy for me to say who wasn’t there but, perhaps, you should have been more specific.
    But, otherwise, a good point.

  3. Just for the sake of accuracy War on Want didn’t call the police. They attended at the request of toynbee hall based on threats to the venue.

  4. Jon, concerns about Ben White stretch back a long way (I first covered his writing in which he claimed to understand antisemitism in September 2008).
    I’d invite you to read this post and consider some of the objections people have to Ben White’s public writings:
    http://seismicshock.wordpress.com/2009/05/23/bill-and-ben/
    We should never descend into a zero-sum game of Israel vs Palestine.
    If our criticisms of Israel/Palestine are underlined, supported by, or driven by racism, then what’s the point of getting involved?

  5. “calling them what they are — anti-Semites.”
    I don’t see how any of the above implies anti-Semitism. It seems to me that you are one of those guilty of making this accusation one which is taken less seriously.
    “There was no mention of terrorism, of suicide bombers, of the Holocaust, of Jewish refugees, of centuries of anti-Semitism — none of this exists, or is worthy of note.
    All that there is — is the Palestinians and their suffering.”
    It may not be all, but would you dispute the argument that at the moment the vast majority of suffering is on the Palestinian side, co-incidentally the side with far more scarce resources, existing under the power of another?
    I say this as someone who regards themselves as technically Zionist.

  6. Miller I do believe that you can sympathise with both sides: most of the Israeli public understands the suffering of the Gaza public, under the cruel regime of Hamas.
    Perhaps you should read Khaled Abu Toameh’s accounts of what actually happens in the PA.
    Israel is the stronger side admittedly and it is the side that sincerely wants peace and an end to the current situation.

  7. I agree that the people and opinions you describe smell distinctly of antisemitism, and I don’t think that they’re a tiny minority on the left.
    However, I don’t agree that heckling or disrupting should ever be a method employed by the left, whether against the BNP or these people.

  8. Raphael | 10/07/2009 at 16:05 |

    Good piece. Antisemetism in the left is often misnamed or denied- but it’s there and I’ve had first hand experience of it on many an occassion. The oddest thing is that people based outside of Israel/Palestine are often much more inclined towards delusional notions of Jews having “magical evil” powers… was told by someone only two weeks ago that … Read Moreall Jews- yes *all*- control the world. Should also add that I have encountered some very serious efforts to combat anitsemetism… and important to bear in mind that not all conversations about Israel have underlying themes of Jew-hatred. (re: apartheid… yup, agreed not a useful analogy…different history, different context… but there are some deeply troubling aspects to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinian community)

  9. michael | 10/07/2009 at 17:59 |

    Did White say anything about the poverty in Israel? 20% of kids live under the poverty line. (A) If he did not, he raises the question if is true agenda is curing poverty or elsewhere. (B) By his logic, is poverty in Israel caused by the war Hamas et al have let loose against Israel?

  10. Dr. Erich H. Loewy | 14/07/2009 at 00:38 |

    These horror stories are repetative. I am one who escaped from Hitlerite Austria in late 1938 USA. Jews were being slaughtered (including most of my family), lives were being shattered, people died for what they could not help being and terror reigned everywhere. It is really the first time (even as an 11 year old) that I found a situation in which the danger to the world was obvious and in which there may has been guilt on both sides (I have yet to discover it)but most certainly the black and white hats were entirely dissociable.I have experienced similar things in the US–some over, most covert.
    I am very unhappy when I see armed Israelis mistreating Arabs (for what they are. not because of what they did). I am not one of these diaspora Jews to whom onle one issue exists and that is Israel. Unfortunately we have become a state and like all states we fall into the trap of nationalism and egocentricity. I very much empathize with the Palestinians who have been treated as a convenient football.
    Jews–if we are to become that which made us great on the Diaspora. Things like primary loyalty to the state in which we have been a part for hundreds of years; things like true justice and hope that we can survive being a nation not primarily dedicated to self-interest but to social justice.
    Dr. Erich H. Loewy
    Prof. & F’dg Chair, Bioethics (Emeritus)#
    U of CA, Davis
    ehloewy@ucdavis.edu

  11. Berel Dov Lerner | 14/07/2009 at 07:27 |

    As an Israeli, for me the most interesting part of this item is: “Hilary then told us how during a recent visit to the region, War on Want’s Israeli partners had told them that there was no way to change Israeli public opinion. They pointed out that 94% of Israelis supported the attack on Gaza earlier this year. Only external pressure would work.”
    In other words, it is another case of the far Left in Israel abandoning democratic politics. They cannot convince their fellow citizens (who actually know something about conditions on the ground) to adopt their views, so they try to convince outsiders (who are less likely to have been “confused” by factual knowledge) to interfere with the policies of Israel’s democratically elected governments.

  12. avivit caspi | 16/07/2009 at 02:04 |

    thank you Eric!

  13. I haven’t seen your Pluto-published book; no doubt I should; no doubt it is very good. But otherwise Pluto can hardly be called respectable. I think that they have published most if not all of Chomsky and Chomskyian resentments against Israel & the Jewish people .. If memory serves, they also published the notorious anti-Semitism of Israel Shahak.
    best regards
    Werner
    http://www.fringegroups.com/

  14. David Tsal | 20/07/2009 at 08:15 |

    To Dr. Erich H. Loewy:
    Professor, cry me a river.
    The fact that you are a professor speaks clearly against you. Almost the entire academia (except for a few brave individuals who dare to buck the trend) has drowned in the morass of “Kick the kike.” All the justifications about “plight of Palestinians,” etc. are just that – justifications.
    Don’t tell me you are Jewish. Jews too can join in the mass frenzy to kick the innocent. Especially today, when every such Jew has become a valuable asset for those who shout: “We’re not antisemitic. There are Jews among us.”

  15. David Tsal | 20/07/2009 at 09:00 |

    Eric Lee: “War on Want is a respected UK charity which works to combat poverty and promote human rights around the world. Pluto Press is a respected left-wing publishing house which to its everlasting credit is the publisher of my second book.”
    So perhaps they are not that good. Not good at all.
    Eric Lee: “When one of the speakers from the floor pointed out that the separation fence had dramatically reduced the number of terrorist incidents inside Israel, White responded — I pointed out — with a kind of ‘yeah, whatever.'”
    This “yeah, whatever” speaks volumes. It says that while Palestinians and others are human beings, Jews are still seen as kind of scum, who are not human but worse than lice, and to whom most basic human rights do not apply. Not even the basic right to live. Let us be clear: this is what “yeah, whatever” means.
    Eric Lee: “I began to sit down. White asked ‘What’s the word?’
    But he knew the answer.
    The one-sided, dishonest account of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict presented by Ben White and War on Want stinks of anti-Semitism.”
    Sorry, Eric, but by now the word “anti-Semitism” has no power. It has been taken over by Jew-haters, who have remade it into any criticism of any Semite, Arab first of all. It is not a flaming sword it use to be, it’s not even a toothpick. I don’t use it any more, I just say “Jew-hatred.” (in German “judenhass”, which was the word until Wilhelm Marr substituted it with his “antisemitismus”.)
    Call Ben White, Hilary and those like him bigots, prejudiced, Jew-haters, racists. Don’t call them antisemites. It will only make them laugh.
    But the end story is that you can call them what you want, you can argue till you are hoarse, interrupt, heckle, whistle, organize rallies and marches, and things will still little-by-little slide downwards into the repetition of the Nazi days.
    So what can be done?
    I will not give the answer. You have to find it on your own. Seek outside the boxes. But hurry up, or the boxes will turn into your coffins.
    And let one thing be clear: I don’t give a damn for the rights of Palestinians. Not until the world starts seeing us Jews as human beings. Not until then.

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