The Guardian has now published a riposte to the ghastly rant by David Clark on its pages earlier this month in which he branded accusations of anti-Jewish hatred on the left as ‘poisonous intellectual thuggery’. Today John Mann, chairman of the all party parliamentary group against antisemitism, says robustly that this is rubbish:
It is clear from evidence presented to the inquiry that anti-semitism has not gone away and that its nature is now more varied. Traditional anti-semitism still exists, with fascist leaflets as crude as in the 1930s distributed on the streets of the UK. Attacks on Jews continue...What other community has to spend over £5m annually defending itself because its places of worship, schools and community buildings have been seen as legitimate targets worldwide?...
One aspect that is particularly frightening and unacceptable is the insipid growth of anti-semitism on the left under the cloak of anti-Zionism. Clark is clear that dismissing anti-Israel sentiment and anti-Zionism as antisemitism 'cheapens the term'. However, he does not draw a line beyond which legitimate debate becomes illegitimate, and where hostile becomes offensive. It is a crucial line to draw if language itself is not to become an actor rather than a descriptor.
The imagery and some of the language is familiar. A cabal of Jewish conspirators, well funded, close to or in power, working to their own agenda. It is not just the MP Tam Dalyell who expressed such thoughts, others have done so in private and, increasingly, in public… Clark claims that Dalyell was ‘deservedly condemned’; but what was particularly worrying was that a wider group ignored his comments - as they did with Ken Livingstone, the infamous New Statesman front page, the AUT academic boycott, and others. The trend is unambiguous. Where once there was a clear line between acceptable political argument and unacceptable behaviour or language in relation to anti-semitism, that line has become blurred.
When I commissioned this inquiry, one MP commented with surprise: ‘I didn't realise you were Jewish.’ Neither did I.
Welcome to honorary membership of the world Jewish conspiracy.
