How Tony Greenstein turned me into an anti-Semite

by Roy Bard
Friday, October 19th, 2012

Recently Tony Greenstein had this to say on his blog:
 
Unlike the Zionist movement we expel racists. The Zionist movement takes racists and fascists, people like Glenn Beck, to their bosom. That is the difference.

Elsewhere on the very same blog he outs me as an anti-Semite in large green type:

In January I decided to ask him why I was being called an anti-Semite:

Tony
You’ve publicly declared me to be an anti-semite (http://azvsas.blogspot.com/2011/07/indymedia-uk-three-years-on.html) and yet I am absolutely clear that people of Jewish origin are not a mono-thought clique, and that there is no common position shared by all Jews on any issue whatsoever.
So, what it is that makes me a racist?

Answer came there thus:

FTP,
Yes I probably did declare you were an anti-Semite on the basis of an unqualified support for Gilad Atzmon who certainly generalises about Jews. The context if you will remember was the Hunters of Goliath, which blamed the victims of the holocaust for their own demise equating their ‘unpopularity’ with that of Israel today.
Do you still agree with those positions because that is anti-Semitic? Atzmon not only generalises about a Jewish ideology he subdivides Jews into 3 absurd categories and terms Jewish anti-Zionists (his main target).
Do you also find Israel Shamir an inspiring figure, because he was/is a full blooded anti-Semite and fascist.
Racism is much more than simply people sharing a common belief/ideology. Conspiracy theories are only one aspect of certain forms of and racism.

If you can be arsed the whole interaction can be read here but suffice to say, no evidence of any racist statement or action by me is produced.

A few days after that interaction, he complained to Indymedia that a lie about him had appeared on the newswire, and demanded that it be taken down.

I emailed back

So Mr. Greenstien
Why not remove your claim about me from your blog. The one thayt isn’t hidden (and therefore doesn’t google) but is openly displayed and does google?
ftp

And bingo!

If you accept that your defence of Atzmon three years ago was a mistake then of course I am happy to retract the accusation.

So, all I had to do to stop being an anti-Semite was to denounce Atzmon.

I am used to being smeared by Zionists, but Tony Greenstein insists he is an anti-Zionist. It seems to me that the charge of anti-Zionist Zionist (AZZ) levelled against him by Atzmon is strengthened by his remorseless and relentless campaigns of smearing against anyone who he disagrees with.

I’m pretty thick skinned, and I’m damned if I am going to denounce Atzmon in order to stop being attacked myself. I grew up with censorship, in a country which even saw fit to ban the kid’s book Black Beauty and I have no respect for people who tell me what I can read, or watch or listen to.

I have no interest in being part of any kangaroo court which is set up to stab people in the back. I, and many others, do not believe that Atzmon is a racist, and therefore I am not prepared to denounce him, disavow him, nor any of the other actions that are demanded by some sections of the pro-Palestinian ‘Solidarity’ movement.

But, I do wonder how many people have felt forced into silence to avoid harassment from characters like Greenstein and Gabriel Ash, who have made any kind of rational debate on the issues raised almost impossible.

Knowing Wright from Wrong

It would be great if those who are gleeful at the exclusion of Ann Wright from the Estelle would take a moment to write down what she is guilty of. It appears to be that she refused to denounce Greta Berlin of whom she wrote:

I have known Greta Berlin and have worked with Free Gaza for several years. In neither word or action have either Greta or members of the Free Gaza movement been anti-semitic. They challenge Israeli policies, but that is not anti-semitic.

If the reason is simply her refusal to denounce Greta Berlin, or to lie and say Greta is anti-semitic when Ann believes she is not, then there appears to be no justifiable reason at all for her exclusion.

According to the Zionist site Harry’s Place:

This movement is presently splitting: into the antisemites and those who oppose these specific instances of antisemitism.

In the time I have been around the pro-Palestinian solidarity movement, I have not encountered anybody who holds Jews en-masse responsible for what is happening in Palestine, and neither have I encountered any racism towards Jews.

It is time that there was an open and honest discussion about these allegations of anti-Semitism that are coming from within the movement. But for as long as characters like Tony Greenstein and Ash are abusing the term and smearing activists with whom they disagree, such a discussion is nigh on impossible.

And committed and effective activists will be driven out. Which is a development that Zionists might welcome with open arms, but one which true anti-racists who value liberty and justice should not!

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian
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