"Jews aren’t an ethnicity and modern antisemitism is a myth’’ — What happened when I went to an event by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Bristol
Last night in my home of Bristol I went to a an event entitled ‘’Is criticising Israel antisemitic’’ held by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, they were hosting Tony Greenstein, an activist who had been suspended from the Labour party for calling people ‘zionist rats’.
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The event started with a man wearing a fabric white poppy on his blazer introducing us to the event and to Greenstein, he talked about the turn against Palestine activism. He talked about the zionist agenda, how zionists secretly control the media and have brainwashed us all to support Israel.
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His central point was that Zionism, and he didn’t specify how he was defining ‘Zionism’, was a form of antisemetism. All Zionism is, for the uninformed, is the belief that Jews should have a national home where they can practice their right to self-determination. But he believed that it was a form of antisemetism, because it assumes that Jews are an ethnicity, in the same way that antisemitism does.
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A young man carrying a few magazines spoke next, he actually had things to say related to the ‘’Is criticising Israel antisemitic’’ question the event was based around. He said the left should be careful not to rehash old antisemitic tropes or to claim that Israel is uniquely illegitimate as a state, moreso than any other state. The room laughed at him. Greenstein asked him if he came from a rival activist organisation, apparently ‘out of curiosity’, he was, the room laughed at him again. They also laughed at him for supporting the two-state solution, according to Greenstein and others the two-state solution is just another Zionist ploy. I wondered what they would rather instead. Greenstein re-iterated that unlike every other country in the world, Israel is uniquely illegitimate and has no legal right to exist.
A somewhat sombre moment came when a very old looking man came up and simply asked what actual proof they had of Zionists influencing the media, a woman came up and said that when she worked at ITV they got letters from the government offering guidance on what to broadcast. Paraphrasing: ‘’If this is what ITV gets, imagine what the BBC gets, where do you think they get these notes? they get them from them’’, pointing upwards as if to imply something. The room clapped, I didn’t know what they meant by ‘them’ but the rest of the rest of the room seemed to, I dreaded to think.
As the evening processed the discussion turned more towards the Labour party civil war between Jeremy Corbyn and the ‘moderates’, Greenstien insisted that the antisemitism furor was simply a ploy both to unseat Corbyn and to silence criticism of the state of Israel. ‘’Antisemitism is not a problem in the left, it is a lie created by Zionists, and we must never forget it’’.
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Greenstein and few others at the event said that, although they disagree with Islamism, they stand behind Hamas, because they are the biggest resistance against Israel.
much more...
https://medium.com/@Betsulimo/jews-aren-t-an-ethnicity-and-modern-antisemitism-is-a-myth-what-happened-when-i-went-to-an-1a58b1647b44#.z8l104d64 
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