There was another, more particular lesson. Ostensible support for Palestinians may in fact be cover for other ways of oppressing them.
And so it has been with most of those warning of an anti-semitism "crisis" in Labour. Anti-semitism, like all racisms, is to be denounced. But not all denunciations of it are what they seem. And not all professions of support for Palestinians should be taken at face value.
The vilification of Corbyn
Most reasonable observers, especially if they are not Jewish, instinctively recoil from criticising a Jew who is highlighting anti-semitism. It is that insulation from criticism, that protective shield, that encouraged Labour MP Margaret Hodge recently to publicly launch a verbal assault on Corbyn, vilifying him, against all evidence, as an "anti-semite and racist."
It was that same protective shield that led to Labour officials dropping an investigation of Hodge, even though it is surely beyond doubt that her actions brought the party "into disrepute" -- in this case, in a flagrant manner hard to imagine being equalled. This is the same party, remember, that recently expelled Marc Wadsworth, a prominent black anti-racism activist, on precisely those grounds after he accused Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth of colluding with rightwing newspapers to undermine Corbyn.
The Labour party is so hamstrung by fears about anti-semitism, it seems, that it decided that an activist (Wadsworth) denigrating a Labour MP (Smeeth) was more damaging to the party's reputation than a Labour MP (Hodge) vilifying the party's leader (Corbyn). In this twisted set of priorities, a suspicion of possible racism towards a Jewish MP served to justify actual racism against a black party activist.
But the perversion of Labour party values goes much further. Recent events have proven that party officials have decisively prioritised the rights of diehard supporters of Israel among British Jewry to defend Israel at all costs over the right of others, including Jews, to speak out about the continuing brutalization of Palestinians by Israel's occupation regime.
Hodge and the other Labour MPs trumpeting anti-semitism might be entitled to the benefit of the doubt -- that they truly fear anti-semitism is on the rise in the Labour party -- had they not repeatedly indulged in the kind of anti-semitism they themselves have deplored. What do I mean?
When they speak of an anti-semitism "crisis" in the party, these Labour MPs -- and the fervently pro-Israel lobby groups behind them like the Jewish Labour Movement -- intentionally gloss over the fact that many of the prominent activists who have been investigated, suspended or expelled for anti-semitism in recent months -- fuelling the claim of a "crisis" -- are in fact Jewish.
Why are the "Jewish" sensitivities of Margaret Hodge, Ruth Smeeth or Louise Ellman more important than those of Moshe Machover, Tony Greenstein, Cyril Chilson, Jackie Walker or Glyn Secker -- all Labour activists who have found their sensitivities, as Jews opposing the abuse of Palestinians, count for little or nothing among Labour officials? Why must we tiptoe around Hodge because she is Jewish, ignoring her bullygirl tactics to promote her political agenda in defense of Israel, but crack down on Greenstein and Chilson, even though they are Jewish, to silence their voices in defense of the rights of Palestinians?
"Wrong kind of Jews"
The problem runs deeper still. Labour MPs like Hodge, Smeeth, Ellman and John Mann have stoked the anti-semitic predilections of the British media, which has been only too ready to indict "bad Jews" while extolling "good Jews."
That was only too evident earlier this year when Corbyn tried to put out the fire that such Labour MPs had intentionally fueled. He joined Jewdas, a satirical leftwing Jewish group that is critical of Israel, for a Passover meal. He was roundly condemned for the move.
Jewdas were declared by rightwing Jewish establishment organizations like the Board of Deputies and by the British corporate media as the "wrong kind of Jews," or even as not "real" Jews. In the view of the Board and the media, Corbyn was tainted by his association with them.
How are Jewdas the "wrong kind of Jews"? Because they do not reflexively kneel before Israel. Ignore Corbyn for a moment. Did Labour MPs Hodge, Ellman or Smeeth speak out in the defense of fellow Jews under attack over their Jewishness? No, they did not.
If Greenstein and Chilson are being excommunicated as (Jewish) "anti-semites" for their full-throated condemnations of Israel's institutional racism, why are Hodge and Ellman not equally anti-semites for their collusion in the vilification of supposedly "bad" or "phoney" Jews like Jewdas, Greenstein and Chilson?
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