More examples of Antisemitism at Left Wing rallies

Not afraid of ruins has blogged about Antisemitism that was encountered at a rally against Asset Sales in Wellington.  (Also covered by Kiwiblog here).

Last Saturday I went to the protest against asset sales organized by Aotearoa Not For Sale. I was marching with my friend Maia, discussing the latest episode of The Good Wife in between chants of ‘hey hey ho ho/John Key has got to go’.

Halfway up Willis St we overheard a guy behind us talking: ‘This is all because John Key is a money-hungry Jew.’ Maia immediately turned around and told him that he was being anti-Semitic and that it wasn’t ok (she’s great like that). The guy explained that she didn’t understand the historical context, that ‘they took over this country with their money’, before finally giving up and telling her ‘you must be Jewish’ (incidentally, she isn’t. Not that it’s relevant’).

By that point I’d already walked away. I was in no mood to hear about how I control the world’s money and am personally responsible for the economic recession.

This wasn’t the first time that anti-Jewish racism has cropped up at Aotearoa Not For Sale events. Last year a guy named Nathan Symington joined an anti-asset sales march in Auckland holding a skateboard with swastikas chalked on it. The same man was later charged with the racist vandalism of the Symonds St Jewish cemetery.

When an Auckland activist noticed that Symington had clicked ‘attending’ on a facebook page for an Aotearoa Not For Sale street party, she commented and asked the organisers to make a clear statement that racism and fascism weren’t welcome at this event. She was ignored and her comment was deleted. (I’m told that at the party itself one of the organisers did make a statement condemning racism. I don’t want to imply that everyone involved in ANFS ignores racism.)

There were similar instances of anti-Jewish racism at Occupy spaces in 2011, and on the facebook pages of several of the Occupy groups as well.

Unfortunately it is becoming more prevalent and open, and the organisers of these rallies are doing less and less about it.  If John Key was not of Jewish ancestry, this same malevolent behaviour would  still exist, except it would probably only be displayed at anti-Israel rallies.  There is a clear commonality between the two, and it is usually just rent-a-crowd attending.

Now what is interesting is that the author of this blog is "Nausea Nissenbaum".  I don't know this person, but his/her twitter bio describes themselves as:

"Born on occupied Palestinian land, living on occupied Māori land."

They are also heavily active in trying to get BDS to New Zealand (a facebook page of 60 or so likes).

I would ask this person - If you are so proudly "Jewish" that you want to stand up against racism, then what are you doing to identify as such?  Can you really just say "I was born a Jew, but I can hate Israel"? 

Where is your empathy with Jews living in Israel?  Where is the empathy with the constant threat of attack?  If it is all "stolen" land, then what about the actual money paid by your ancestors.  Or do you think like BDS and you want a Palestine next to a Palestine.  Two Islamic states side by side.

Really I am not surprised at all that there is antisemitism at these rallies.  What I am surprised about is your naivety about it, and naivety towards the other groups you are involve in.


 

Antisemitism and the Left - The common ground of hatred

This week, Maia from the Hand Mirror wrote a post about Antisemitism invading Left Wing activities.  (Also picked up by Kiwiblog here).

I'm very surprised it's taken so long for someone to notice.  Well actually - this has been written about for a long time, but it has kept continuing.  No doubt it will still continue.

I can't count the about of antisemitic material that is either tolerated, defended or, in some cases actively promoted within the left.  Admittedly it is usually the extreme left.

Conspiracy theories in the Occupy movement?  Yes, I knew about that.  The occupy movement was such a vast disparate group of souls, many who wanted to create invisible enemies to hate and blame.  Of course they were to forget the movement started in Israel (not Wall St!).

I've seen defense of Iranian Holocaust denial seminars, and there has been the acceptance of the most vile genocide calls (all in the name of 'Palestine').  This has been seen by elected Left Wingers like Keith Locke and Bryan Peppergill.

And now, there is surprise - Neo Nazis marching and demonstrating with the Occupy Movement!  If you read my posts this year, you will see that we have neo-nazis Greta Berlin in the BDS movement and the Skull marching on Nakba day.  This should not be a surprise.

We are told they are supposed to be completely different ideologies - and they are.  But there is on thing in common:  Hate.

The extreme left carry so much hate and anger toward anything which could be seen as conservative.  It is a baseless hatred.  They hate the person - or in many cases a phantom.

The extreme right neo nazis carry this same kind of baseless hatred.  (Hamas also promote baseless hatred). 

These groups follow the ideology that the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Maybe this is the wake up call the left need.  I expect (sadly), that I will be documenting similar events for many years to come.

Occupy your Sukkah

Went down to Civic Square in Melbourne to visit the Sukkah.  It was strange, as it was right next to the Occupy Melbourne tent city.  I had a chat to the Chabadniks who were running the Sukkah.  I expected that there would have been some agro - the Occupy brigade had apparently joined the BDS protests at Max Brenners (I took my MB Coffee with me to the Sukkah).

I was surprised and refreshed to hear that the two groups actually got on well and respected each other.  The comment from the Chabadniks was that it was a free country, and they were glad they were exercising their democratic rights.  It got me thinking that perhaps the ideas of equality and fairness and charity being promoted by the Occupy Group weren't so bad.  That said, a lot of the other stuff just made no sense at all (i.e. Wikileaks and whatever other stuff).  I also felt sorry for local shopkeepers having to put up with the noise.  At least the Chabadniks had a permit!