A campaign is growing to defend professor David Miller against attempts to have him suspended from his role at the University of Bristol. Campaigners have planned an act of solidarity in Bristol city centre. And on the evening of 13 March, Labour Campaign for Free Speech (LCFS) is holding a public online meeting in support of Miller. A number of public figures will be speaking out in Miller’s defence at this meeting.
Attempts to censor Miller
The Community Security Trust (CST) launched a campaign to censor Miller two years ago. This was based on allegations of antisemitism in response to his academic work linking Zionism to Islamophobia. In response to the latest allegations – led by Bristol’s JSoc and the Union of Jewish Students – a CST spokesperson said:
CST first complained to Bristol University about Professor David Miller’s promotion of what we consider to be antisemitic conspiracy theories two years ago, following concerns raised with us by Jewish students attending his lectures.
They added:
Despite repeated complaints Bristol University took no significant action and their negligence has led to this latest outrage, in which Miller explicitly targeted Bristol University’s Jewish Society by associating them with an “enemy” – Zionism – that he slanders as Islamophobic and racist and says must be defeated.
They concluded by saying:
This is unconscionable language for any academic to use about students at his own university. It has nothing to do with academic freedom and brings into question whether any students, Jewish or not, should remain under Professor Miller’s duty of care.
Those being anti-Zionist, however, argue that it is not the same as antisemitism, i.e. anti-Jewish prejudice. On the misleading conflation of anti-Zionism and antisemitism, The Canary‘s senior editor Emily Apple, who identifies as Jewish, has said:
Being anti-Zionist is not being antisemitic. Questioning Israel’s aggressive policies, Palestinian deaths, and illegal land occupations does not make anyone antisemitic. Protesting Israeli interests and supporting the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign does not make someone antisemitic. Being Jewish is not being Israeli, and we need to stop conflating the two.
The campaign for academic freedom
Miller’s supporters have launched a campaign to defend him. They’re calling on activists to send letters in defence of free speech to the university’s vice chancellor.
LCFS has organised a public online meeting at 5pm on 13 March to defend Miller, academic freedom, and free speech. Public figures including rapper Lowkey, Palestine-based investigative journalist Jonathan Cook and author Matt Kennard will join the discussion.
Campaigners established LCFS in 2021 to support freedom of speech and publication. A spokesperson for the group said:
Those who seek to get Professor Miller fired from his job won’t stop there. Other academics who are critical of Israel will be targeted and possibly fired. And it won’t take much of this to persuade other academics to stop speaking out against Israel’s policies for fear of losing their careers.
They added:
The campaign against Professor Miller is specifically designed to conflate criticism of Zionism with hatred of Jews. It is also designed to shut down teaching about Islamophobia and the harms posed by Zionism. Professor Miller is a test case – Israel’s lobby in Britain wants to use the widely criticised International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Working Definition of Antisemitism to ban all criticism of the State of Israel, its policies and its ideology. It’s essential that we prevent this.
Growing support
A number of public figures have spoken out in support of Miller.
Film director Ken Loach said:
Universities depend on the freedom within the law to challenge all ideologies and political movements. Professor Miller is renowned and respected for his rigorous analysis and considered judgements. His voice is important. All are free to challenge his opinions but none should advocate their suppression. Everyone who cherishes free speech should stand with David Miller.
Political comedian Alexei Sayle expressed solidarity, saying:
A healthy society is one where people can speak the truth even about uncomfortable subjects. No-one should lose their job for telling the truth. I want to express my support for and solidarity with David Miller.
Moreover, former Labour MP Chris Williamson celebrated Miller’s academic achievements, saying:
David Miller is an esteemed academic who has made an invaluable contribution in highlighting Islamophobia, critiquing Zionist ideology and explaining the interrelationship between state and corporate power.
And Matzpen founder professor Moshe Machover said:
David Miller has been targeted by the British establishment and the Zionist lobby, as part of the ongoing campaign designed to stifle all opposition to the Zionist colonisation project and Israeli settler state. He should be defended by all those who value freedom of speech, and in particular academic freedom.
Campaigners have planned an act of solidarity to take place in Bristol city centre, and the LCFS has invited members of the public to the online meeting in support of Miller.
Two months have now passed since mobs of mostly white people descended on the Capitol in an attempt to overthrow the results of November’s election, but I am still haunted by images of the mob’s racist violence such as the noose that they put on display and the shirt of a white man in the crowd that read, “Camp Auschwitz.”
These details were more than symbolic — they point to historically materialized forms of horrific anti-Black and antisemitic racism that continue to be stoked by white supremacist strains of Christianity.
As we struggle against this violence, we can draw from the deep wellsprings of African American and Jewish prophetic traditions that speak truth to power and counter oppression.
In moments like these I often turn to the work of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who was one of the leading Jewish theologians and prophetic figures of the 20th century. He was also a close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and joined King to march from Selma to Montgomery in March 1965.
Rabbi Heschel’s writings produce a profound love for those who suffer and a profound sense of outrage against those who perpetuate that suffering. At this moment in U.S. history, as we witness the rise of unabashed white supremacy and the proliferation of lies and mistrust, we desperately need to channel the prophetic urgency and clarity of voices like his.
Where are the courageous voices who will call out all forms of religious idolatry that are entwined with profane understandings of Christianity? Is racism anti-theological? In what ways might we continue to hope while in the claws of despair? And where are we headed — into chaos or into community, given such pervasive violence and indifference in the world?
In this engaging interview, Rabbi Heschel’s daughter, Susannah Heschel, speaks in her own powerful voice, and weaves her father’s prophetic courage and wisdom into our conversation. Susannah Heschel is the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor and chair of the Jewish Studies Program at Dartmouth College. She is the author of Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus, The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany, and Jüdischer Islam: Islam und jüdisch-deutsche Selbstbestimmung. A Guggenheim Fellow, she is currently writing a book with Sarah Imhoff, entitled, Jewish Studies and the Woman Question.
George Yancy:One of my favorite quotes from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel is “The prophet’s word is a scream in the night.” For me, it points to his own deep sense of pain felt when others suffer, and the sense of outrage that he felt when it came to our inhumanity toward each other. I wanted to scream as I watched with sorrow and outrage the events unfold at the Capitol. How would you characterize the meaning and importance of your father’s use of “scream” within the context of what we witnessed collectively at the Capitol? There is something sonically visceral expressed in his use of that term.
Susannah Heschel: What does it mean to be a prophet? We conventionally think of prophets as people who foretell the future, but my father’s understanding of the Hebrew prophets of the Bible is entirely different. “What manner of man is the prophet?” he asks. A person of agony, whose “life and soul are at stake in what he says.” Who hears our despair? As you note, my father writes that the prophet’s word is “a scream in the night,” a scream to shatter our indifference. The prophet screams out the horror of human suffering, giving voice to the “silent sigh of human anguish.”
When we watched the horrific video of police murdering George Floyd, we saw his desperation and agony, and we watched a murderer kill him. We saw police bystanders who stood there, utterly indifferent, doing nothing to save this man’s life. We wanted to scream.
White Americans shoulder grave responsibility for that moment. My father writes, “Some are guilty, but all are responsible.” We are not guilty of murder, but we have to assess our responsibility: Are we not bystanders, responsible for the racism that led to the murder of so many Black men, women and children? George Floyd was murdered by the racism that has gone unchecked for centuries, the systemic racism that organizes this country according to principles of white supremacy.
The soil of this country is soaked with the blood of Native Americans we slaughtered and Black Africans we brought to this country to enslave. Slavery left us with a heritage of its sadism in our culture and with the screams of slaves still ringing in our ears. Remember, my father said that, “the blood of the innocent cries forever. Should that blood stop to cry, humanity will cease to exist.” Have we all become indifferent bystanders, unable to hear the scream in the night? Do we not hear the cries of the tortured and murdered? If we are to preserve our own humanity, we must become prophetic witnesses.
As you have shared when you were at Dartmouth College as our Montgomery Fellow, some white Christians in this country left Sunday church services to hunt a Black man, woman or child to torture and then hang in full view of a throng of white onlookers, taking photographs before going home for their Sunday dinner. During World War II, Nazi death camp guards tortured and murdered Jews and then went to church services. How is that even possible? What should we do once we conclude our prayers? Do we leave our houses of worship only to engage in brutality? What kind of worship is it, then?
Our worship services require revision to make clear to congregants why they gather to pray, and that God demands, first and foremost, justice before we even gain the right to stand before God and pray. A life of cruelty cannot be combined with a life of pretended piety: “I hate, I despise your feasts,” God tells us through the prophet Amos, “let justice roll down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Dr. King and my father used similar language and spoke of God not as the “unmoved mover” of Aristotle, but as the “most moved mover” of the Bible, a God of pathos who responds to us. Central to my father’s theology is his assertion that God has passion and is involved in human history, affected by human deeds. This means that God suffers when human beings are hurt, so that when I hurt another person, I injure God. How can a self-proclaimed “religious” person pray on Sunday morning and then torture and murder on Sunday afternoon? This is not prayer; this is not living as a witness to God.
What does it mean to be a witness? My father writes that while the Ten Commandments prohibit images of God, God created human beings in the divine image. We are the only permitted images of God, but what does it mean to be an image of God? To be an image, my father writes, is to be a witness: “God is raging in the prophet’s words.” The prophets are witnesses to God’s passion for justice. Indeed, citing an old Jewish tradition, my father writes, “I am God and you are my witnesses; if you are not my witnesses, then I am not God.”
Your father also wrote that, “The history of interracial relations is a nightmare.” He understood how racism defiles the human soul and disgraces our common humanity. The ugly, dreadful and deadly reality of racism in this country haunts U.S. history and lurks within the fragile struts that maintain our democratic experiment. At the Capitol, I recall seeing a sign or flag that read, “JESUS SAVES.” Deploying that message within the context of the racist and violent attack at the Capitol recalls other moments of vile contradiction within white Christianity, such as times when many white Christians gathered to watch Black bodies being castrated, brutalized and burned. And while this form of racism is not intrinsic to Christianity, many white Europeans committed gruesome crimes in the name of Christianity. Your father’s words characterize racial and religious bigotry in terms of evil, the sheer absence of reverence. How would your father characterize our contemporary nightmare, and what advice would he have for religious leaders as we live through this 21st-century nightmare?
Those self-proclaimed religious leaders who grant sanction to racists, spread lies and intolerance, claim they speak in the name of God, faith and morals; I say my Bible has been taken captive by a fascistic movement masquerading as apocalyptic Christianity. All around this country, we see truth and justice covered with chains, enslaved by selfishness and the lust for power and empire. These are indeed a people who hear and do not understand, see and do not perceive.
To these people, I quote Jeremiah:
They know no bounds in deeds of wickedness; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, the rights of the needy. Shall I not punish them for these things, says the Lord, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this? An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes? (Jeremiah 5:28-31)
How do we find hope in a time of despair? How do we keep the optimism of Isaiah at a time when the words of Jeremiah express our mood of desolation? But we must also ask: How can we abandon poor God to those who reject truth and trample on justice?
Let us remember that in the Bible, the words of God come to us from the prophets, not the priests, and not the kings. We are desperate for prophets in our time, those who will speak clearly to remind us, as my father did, that racism is “unmitigated evil.” My father stated clearly and sharply that we “forfeit the right to worship God” if we continue to uphold a racist society. He called upon all houses of worship to repent and recognize their sins, including their sins of perverting the fundamental teaching of all religious traditions: that God is either the creator of all life or of no life.
Prayer is the home for the soul, my father wrote, but worship must not be reassuring. My father’s friend, Rev. William Sloane Coffin, used to say that prayer must comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. My father wrote that prayer must be subversive, disturb our self-righteousness and complacency. The experience of prayer should be like the experience of hearing the prophets: a rousing call to conscience. The prophets have been mocked for their passionate outrage about injustice, and my father asks, if we mock the prophets as “hysterics,” then “what name should be given to the abysmal indifference to evil which the prophet bewails?” Who are we, the complacent, the bystanders?
I am also deeply intrigued by your father’s integration of God-talk vis-à-vis the ways in which we mistreat, oppress and marginalize others. Your father’s eyes were always focused on human beings, on our past and present mistreatment of other human beings. I see this as his horizontal vision, one that is unafraid to name and call out the social evils that we as human beings create and perpetuate. Yet, what I would call his vertical vision is always operative as well. God is always there, especially manifested in our fellow human beings. Your father writes, “To act in the spirit of religion is to unite what lies apart, to remember that humanity as a whole is God’s beloved child.” What is important to note here is that the term “religion” comes from the Latin religare, which suggests a community bond between human beings and God. Speak to the need for a form of God-talk in our moment, especially given so much religious hypocrisy, where religiosity appears to be tethered to forms of political idolization, where Donald Trump, apparently, can commit no wrong, no harm, no acts of injustice, where he has, for some, become “infallible.”
Perhaps what we need is not talk about God, but greater awareness of the presence of God. The problem my father poses in his books is how we can cultivate in ourselves the ability to sense God’s presence, whether in nature, Torah, other people — and in justice itself. First, we have to realize what we are capable of — a sense of awe and amazement, heightened sensitivity to others, awareness of our own vulnerability.
A Hasidic thinker of the 19th century made a distinction between having a sense of the absence of God’s presence — moments when we lose our ability to recognize that the whole earth is filled with God’s glory — and a sense of the presence of God’s absence, meaning moments when we fall into a pit of despair and sense that there is, perhaps, a place in our world that is vacant, without God.
In these days, some of us feel we are in an abyss of despair, terribly worried about the overwhelming problems we face as a society and a country, unsure of how we can emerge.
We also see people who were driven by a lying president, inciting them to riot, to rage against all norms of proper behavior and thereby fall into an abyss as well, though not of despair but of rebellion, the vacant abyss in which God is absent.
Together we need to raise ourselves from despair and rebellion. In Hasidic tradition, we need help to lift ourselves out of the abyss, to leave behind fear and resentment, and accompany our return to conscience and commandments.
What we must remember, my father always emphasized, is that evil is never the climax of history. Justice will rise up and prevail. Out of despair, let us find hope and inspiration in Dr. King and my father, in their teachings and in their relationship.
For my father, the prophets always held out a vision and a hope: “There is bound to come a renewal of our sense of wonder and radical amazement, a revival of reverence, an emergence of a sense of ultimate embarrassment, and ultimate indebtedness.”
Your father and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. were friends, but also close in terms of theological vision and sociopolitical praxis. Both rejected the evils of racism and economic injustice. Both were concerned about the poor, the orphaned, the despised, the “disposable.” Many want to know where we go from here. So, will it be chaos or community? And how might the voices of these two figures, who stand within the tradition of a theology of social justice, help us in this moment of deep divisiveness, help us to find a way out of so many anti-democratic forces?
Yes, will it be chaos or community? Apocalypse or prophecy?
The political religion of the Nazis was not about religion but fascism masquerading as Christianity. My great concern is that fascistic movements have until now never been halted by political arguments — not by Democrats, Communists, Socialists or Christians. The challenge before us is great, and the temptation to despair is enormous.
Throughout the course of history, political movements have used religion to gain power and have sought to undermine the prophetic tradition. They are movements characterized by terror and a desire for social control and constriction, warning of death and destruction rather than offering hope and redemption. Today we have a Christian Right that swaggers with a promise of salvation for the elect and ignores the here and now of our lives, our desperate need for justice and a beloved community. Rather than care for the Earth and its bounty, they care for money even at the price of utter destruction of the land, poison of our bodies, contempt for our fellow animal creatures.
Such movements are bolstered by a death-glorifying theology. What we see is a white supremacist movement reviving an insidious politics of race. In the Nazi period, some Germans used Christianity to promote racism and antisemitism. When I wrote a book about them, The Aryan Jesus, I learned how frighteningly easy it can be to pervert religion and destroy its moral credibility. Some German bishops and pastors were so enthusiastic about Hitler they called him a “savior.” Shockingly, I have heard American Christians say the same about Trump. In Germany, Hitler’s Christian supporters threw the Old Testament out of the Bible and proclaimed Jesus an Aryan, not a Jew.
Trump has had a similar effect in this country, with rallies that arouse emotional excitement. Some religious leaders — Catholic, Protestant and Jewish — have viewed him as a “savior” figure. In both contexts, Germany and America, the desecration of basic moral decency did not dissuade religious leaders, but brought a thrill of naughty violation of the fundamental propriety and doctrinal discipline of religion and society.
Why are some Jews in America and in Israel Christianizing Zionism and their own moral values with white supremacy? Is Trump more appealing than Judaism? Let me warn them: Smearing themselves with white supremacy will result in the suicidal destruction of Judaism.
Have my fellow Jews forgotten that the central teaching of Judaism is compassion and justice? The ultimate expression of God for the prophets is not wisdom, magnificence, land, glory, nor even love, but rather justice. Zion, Isaiah declares, shall be redeemed by justice, and those who repent, by righteousness. Justice is the tool of God, the manifestation of God, the means of our redemption and the redemption of God from human mendacity.
What has happened to our conscience, to our judgment, to our duty as citizens to say “no” to the subversiveness of our government, which is ruining the values we cherish by carrying out deadly policies? Is America, is democracy, the great rock of ages, to become a temporary moment in history?
How do we emerge from the abyss of despair and lift fellow human beings out of their abyss of rage? How do we become God’s beloved disciple when we feel like God’s suffering servant?
I wish to share a few poignant verses from the Bible:
Who will speak for me, asks God, who will remember the covenant of peace and compassion? Can we abandon despair and find the inner resources to respond like Isaiah, who said, Here I am, send me. (Isaiah 6:8)
And yet in anger, Habakkuk reminds us, we must remember mercy. (3:2)
To live a life of moral grandeur and spiritual audacity is a profound challenge; we must all begin by practicing small acts of courage and truth. David, on his deathbed, tells Solomon: Be strong and of good courage; Fear not, be not dismayed; for the Lord God is with you. God will not fail you nor forsake you until all the work for the service of the Lord is finished. (1 Chronicles 28:20)
This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
Labour members expelled or suspended over antisemitism allegations will have their day in court, a judge has ruled. The decision to take the cases to a full hearing came on Wednesday 24 February after resistance from Keir Starmer’s Labour Party.
Speaking about his victory at the High Court, journalist Sameh Habeeb said:
I joined the Labour Party after I came to the UK as a refugee from Gaza. I thought it shared my values, but the Party has let me down. I’ve been suspended for over two years and have been gagged from responding to constant attacks on my character.
I never wanted to take my own Party to court, but there was no other way to get justice. This legal action has the potential to set a new legal precedent about how Labour treats its members, which would prevent others in my position from being subjected to this gross unfairness.
Co-claimant, Alma Yaniv said:
The Labour Party suspended me nearly two years ago. Since then, I’ve been left in limbo, unable to properly respond to the allegations that have been levelled against me.
Rather than resolving our cases as quickly as possible, it seems to me that the Party is simply trying to cause more unnecessary delays. Labour has treated pro-Palestine members with contempt. At last, with this court process, we have a chance of achieving justice.
The group is known as Labour Activists For Justice and include:
an 80-year-old Jewish woman twice accused of antisemitism by the party, a long-standing Jewish trade unionist and a retired Jewish professor.
According to Swawkbox, the party argued against eight similar cases being taken forward together as one and had wanted a preliminary hearing which the members felt would “have substantially delayed matters and increased costs”.
The complainants reportedly wanted to combine the cases:
in the interests of the most economic and speedy resolution of the case
We can reveal that the Fighting Fund won a major victory against @UKLabour at the High Court this afternoon. The Party suffered a double defeat and the judge awarded costs to our side. This was an important first step in a wider legal battle.
Supporters of the group celebrated the news:
Great news ppl and good luck in the future case I see a lot more litigation heading Labours way from ex-members and others that have been purged unjustly or for spurious reasons that have nothing to do with the Rule Book which Evans and Keith have thrown away Labour is dead
— philip.howard: "Labour must clear house"Ex-Labour (@philiphoward20) February 24, 2021
Skwawkbox said that the new decision was a step forward for those accused:
The victory is a significant boost for those fighting Labour’s assault on member rights and freedom of speech since Keir Starmer took over the leadership.
Others seemed to think it was a signal example of the current leadership style.
I want to highlight the significant work of students to promote free speech, including hosting speakers drawn from a broad political spectrum and facilitating debates about the most controversial issues of the day, such as interpretations of feminism, Islam, and gender identity.
First, the media and political opportunists tried to convince us life-long anti-racist Jeremy Corbyn was Hitler-in-waiting. Now, life-long anti-racist Ken Loach is being attacked by the same witch hunt. But after several years of the fraudulent weaponisation of antisemitism to achieve political objectives, the left is done. You come for one of us, you come for all of us. And that includes Ken.
The anatomy of the witch hunt
The witch hunt has a standard play after it picks a target. First, a person’s social media and public history is combed. Then a fabricated ‘controversy’ is constructed. This is amplified by the press in order to create a sense of panic. And even if the truth is established later, the witch hunt doesn’t care. People distance themselves from the newly blacklisted individual, not wanting to be tainted by association. And an effective opponent to racism, apartheid and inequality is hobbled.
Organs like the Jewish Chronicle seem to exist only to character assassinate the political enemies of Israel and the Conservative party. The litany of libel losses by this rag is testimony to its total lack of veracity. It lost two major libel cases in the last year alone. In October, the JC was forced to pay “substantial” libel damages and publish an apology to Nada al Sanjari, a school teacher and Labour councillor. The JC had claimed she’d launched a vicious and antisemitic protest against Luciana Berger MP. This never happened.
And just months before, in January 2020, theJewish Chronicle apologised to Labour activist Audrey White for libeling her. The JC admitted on its website it had published “allegations about Mrs Audrey White” which were “untrue.”
And the list goes on.
The problem is, as the evidence clearly indicates, there is a pattern here. Baseless accusations from pro-Israel activist groups or political opponents of the left are amplified by the press into a moral panic. The facts may well come out later, and in almost all cases. But the damage has long since been done. And the hostile press never reports these libel losses at anywhere near the volume it reported the allegations.
The whole point is to keep anti-racists on the back foot, unable to take the battle to racists.
The targets of the witch hunt
The objective of the witch hunt is to make it antisemitic to criticise Israel. The bonus for centrists and far right alike here is that many of the toughest critics of Israel are on the left. And so they’ve joined in enthusiastically with the witch hunt out of pure political opportunism. No accusation is considered too hyperbolic, and they can rest assured no establishment journalist will challenge their assertions.
This saw Jeremy Corbyn described as an “existential threat” to British Jews, despite his life-long record of anti-racism. One proponent of the witch hunt even claimed that if Jeremy Corbyn became PM, he would “reopen Auschwitz“. Any journalist of merit would have torn this accusation apart as entirely baseless, opportunistic and offensive. But the establishment press is sorely lacking in journalists of merit. Instead, these ridiculous smears were parroted by one outlet and broadcaster after another until functionally true. The facts were immaterial, it just felt like Corbyn and the left had an antisemitism problem distinct from all other groups. Why? Because that’s how propaganda works.
It takes courage to run against popular sentiment to point out the facts. Not only does it mean facing conflict, but it also marks you out for the witch hunt treatment. It takes a person willing to risk losing their reputation, their job or position, and being turned on by their supposed allies. Many leaders of the movement did not show that courage. But the grassroots did. So the fight was taken to them, with a purge of leftists from the party, and attacks on freedom of the press.
The Canary is itself a target of the witch hunt, and proud to be. Because no dedicated anti-racist would accept the weaponisation of Jewish trauma in service of an apartheid state. We wouldn’t help create a hierarchy of racism which places any group above all others. And we would never back apartheid, or form alliances with people who do. The same cannot be said for a host of supposed left-wing commentators who’ve promoted this witch hunt out of careerism and fear.
And now they’ve come for Ken Loach
For the crime of not playing with the witch hunt, Ken Loach has become a target. As a national treasure, his words matter. And so the need to delegitimise him as an effective critic of apartheid is real. Now he is accused of Holocaust denial. Did he deny the Holocaust? No. Did he advocate for denying the Holocaust? No. They’ve reached back to the 1980s to replay an attempted smear that was cleared up at the time. They’ve just rehashed it like it was new and true. As the award-winning filmmaker said at the time:
In a BBC interview I was asked about a speech I had not heard and of which I knew nothing. My reply has been twisted to suggest that I think it is acceptable to question the reality of the Holocaust. I do not. The Holocaust is as real a historical event as the World War itself and not to be challenged. In Primo Levi’s words: ‘Those who deny Auschwitz would be ready to remake it.’ The first terrible pictures I saw as a nine-year old are ingrained on my memory as they are for all my generation.
Like readers of this paper, I know the history of Holocaust denial, its place in far right politics and the role of people like David Irving. To imply that I would have anything in common with them is contemptible.
Finally, a battle-hardened left is unwilling to play this game again. A massive and organic campaign of support has sprung up. The trending #IStandWithKenLoach hashtag is full of desperate pleas for truth in argument. By all means, we can have robust political disagreements. But to debase yourself by constructing entirely false narratives on such a serious issue is beyond the pale.
As comic John Bishop put it:
I have retweeted a few tweets of support for @KenLoachSixteen. My position is clear- Ken Loach does not have prejudiced bone in his body. He is one of the most honourable men I know and I would stand with him till I could stand no more – then I would kneel. #IStandWithKenLoach
Declassified UK’s Matt Kennard, one of Britain’s leading investigative journalists commented:
Always remember: smearing anyone who sees Palestinians as human beings as “antisemitic” is meant to disincentivise showing solidarity with a people living under a brutal, racist apartheid regime.
In fact, many thousands of people made their support of Ken known. But more broadly, they signalled they have had it with this witch hunt. Lives, careers and political movements have been torn apart by it. So if the witch hunt is coming for Ken, it’s going to have to come through all of us.
There comes a time when passive acceptance of evil is complicity. And weaponising the language of anti-racism to promote racism is evil. Making claims you know to be false, repeatedly, to destroy a progressive political movement is evil. It is the most morally and intellectually dishonest smear campaign of my lifetime, and it will not stop. It will have to be stopped. And that’s exactly what we’re going to do.
A 2019 parliamentary resolution has had a chilling effect on critics of Israeli policy. Now the cultural sector is speaking up
I am just one of many artists who have been affected by a new McCarthyism that has taken hold amid a rising climate of intolerance in Germany. Novelist Kamila Shamsie, poet Kae Tempest, musicians Young Fathers and rapper Talib Kwelli, visual artist Walid Raad and the philosopher Achille Mbembe are among the artists, academics, curators and others who have been caught up in a system of political interrogation, blacklisting and exclusion that is now widespread in Germany thanks to the passing of a 2019 parliamentary resolution. Ultimately this is about targeting critics of Israeli policy towards Palestinians.
Recently, an exhibition of my artwork was cancelled in its early stages because I support the nonviolent, Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The cancellation was never publicly declared, but I understand it to have been the consequence of cultural workers in Germany fearing that they and their institution would be punished for promoting someone labelled as “antisemitic”. This is the work of tyranny: create a situation where people are frightened enough to keep their mouths shut, and self-censorship will do the rest.
Brian Eno is a musician, artist, composer and producer
Every year, on 27th January, the world commemorates Holocaust Memorial Day.
Remembering the horrors of the past is essential in order to ensure we stop such tragic events from repeating themselves.
This date is particularly poignant as it marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, where at least 1.1 people were murdered.
Throughout the Holocaust, Jews, Roma, members of the LGBT+ community, political prisoners, disabled individuals – the “unwanted” of the Nazi regime – were brutally and systematically killed.
Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, where 1.1 million people were murdered.
This horror, as we say every year, is something that we must never ever forget.
And it’s because we must never forget that commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day is so important. By doing so, we can remind ourselves of the dangers and injustice of antisemitism and the tragic yet all too very real reality that antisemitism did not start or end with the Holocaust.
Last year marked 75 years since the liberation of the camp (one of many). And this year sadly, we continue to see the rise in antisemitism globally – across the USA, UK, wider Europe and further afield.
Online abuse, incidents of hate crime in the street – even terrorist attacks on synagogues – are showing us that there is still so much more work that needs to be done to counter such hate.
Antisemitism in Europe today: Growing hate
Antisemitism has grown in recent years across Europe.
Back in 2018, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) conducted the largest survey worldwide on the issue of antisemitism. After concluding their research, the results were far from positive.
The study involved analysing the responses of 16,395 self-identified Jewish people (aged 16 or over) in 12 EU Member States (pre-Brexit!). This included: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom (4,731 samples), as these nations are where 96% of the EU’s estimated Jewish population were living at the time.
The research found that:
9 out of 10 respondents believed that antisemitism had increased in their country in the last five years
85% consider antisemitism to be “a serious problem” – the biggest social or political problem where they live
Antisemitism poses the biggest problem online (89%) – including on social media (compared to: within public spaces 73%, media 71%, political life 70%)
The most common antisemitic statements used on a regular basis included:
“Israelis behave like Nazis towards Palestinians” (51%)
“Jews have too much power” (43%)
“Jews exploit Holocaust victimhood for their own purposes” (80%)
Such antisemitic slurs were found predominantly online (80%), yet also in offline media (56%) and at political events (48%).
The report finally concluded that:
Antisemitism pervades everyday life
Pervasive antisemitism undermines Jews’ feelings of safety and security
Antisemitic harassment is so common that it becomes normalised
Antisemitic discrimination in key areas of life remains invisible
In fact, the Director of FRA Michael O’Flaherty declared:
“The findings make for a sobering read. They underscore that antisemitism remains pervasive across the EU – and has, in many ways, become disturbingly normalised.”
It makes disappointing reading. What’s more, despite the results and the calls for change, we’ve continued to see the rise of antisemitic discourse and hate crime both online and offline.
Then in 2020, in the UK, London mayoral candidate Geeta Sidhu-Robb was suspended after she’d stated: “Don’t vote for a Jew” during a previous political campaign.
Referred to as a “Jewish conspiracy” (either fake or real) and “The Jew Flu”, antisemites also revelled in celebrating Jewish deaths and encouraging others to “spread the ‘Holocough’ to the Jews”.
Sadly, as we can see: antisemitic conspiracy theories, violent attacks and racist tropes continue to poison our communities and harm our Jewish brothers and sisters.
Lighting a candle: Shutting out hate
Light a candle with us this Holocaust Memorial Day.
As we near the end of January 2021 – another yet new year – we must Holocaust Memorial Day and say: “enough is enough”! And that’s why we’re calling on you to join us in lighting a candle and spreading hope and peace.
The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day this year is: Be the light in the darkness. A light in the darkness offers a ray of hope in a world of hate – a chance for change and a critical symbol of solidarity.
So this 27th January (and beyond!), please join us in commemorating the Holocaust and committing to combatting antisemitism:
Join us and light a candle: Share a message of solidarity with the Jewish community by tweeting a photo of your candle with the hashtags #LightTheDarkness #WeRemember and #MuslimsAgainstAntisemitism
Learn more: Find out more about the Holocaust and educate others around you
By Elizabeth Arif-Fear, Trustee (Muslims Against Antisemitism)
Just when we think things couldn’t get any more shocking when it comes to antisemitism, a recent survey came out, with once again disheartening results.
The results revealed some disturbing realities and the need for great change when it comes to antisemitism and young people’s understanding of the Holocaust.
What realities specifically you may ask? Well, a staggering level of Holocaust denial and lack of awareness around the genocide itself.
Through the survey, researchers discovered that:
– Almost half (48%) of those asked believed that the Holocaust was a “myth”, “had been exaggerated” or “weren’t sure”
– 1 out of 8 respondents (12%) didn’t know (or thought they didn’t know) about the Holocaust
It quite frankly beggars belief that such a large percentage of the young people interviewed knew nothing about or actively denied the biggest genocide in history.
And again, what such results show is just how important education on antisemitism and Jewish history is, as well as the need to actively campaign against hate. For whilst this may be over the pond, here in the UK; we’re in exactly the same boat.
Holocaust denial in the UK: A sad reality
The Vernichtungslager (extermination camp) at Auschwitz-Birkenau, Poland.
If that wasn’t enough, it was also revealed that 1 in 12 believe that the scale of the Shoah has been exaggerated.
Not so different from the USA then it seems….
Even more shocking is that just one year after the UK-based poll, we marked the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau and commemorated, as we do annually, the horrors of the Holocaust.
Such stark reminders should stand was a warning and clear message to non-Jews of just how serious antisemitism was and is – and how far hatred can lead.
However, we’re sadly seeing that for some people the Holocaust is seemingly nothing more than an ‘exaggerated myth’ (referred to as the “Holohaux”) – supposedly ‘used by Jews’ to ‘harbour sympathy for Israel’.
Not only is this deeply hurtful and disrespectful to those who sadly died and those who thankfully survived the Holocaust and the subsequent generations, but it’s also incredibly dangerous.
Such behaviour demonises a group of people as ‘liars’, as ‘dishonest’ and ‘disingenuous’. As ‘people who can’t be trusted’ who are ‘malicious’ and essentially ‘not one of us’ (a.k.a. ‘an unwanted other’).
Yes, it’s these racist tropes that have not only hurt Jews psychologically, socially, culturally, financially and politically in day-to-day life for centuries, but also have incited hatred and violence, eventually leading to the Holocaust itself.
75 years on from the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, what we crucially must remember is that when we forget the horrors of the Holocaust, we forget the suffering of an entire people.
We forget how far demonising, negative stereotyping and racist tropes can go. And we forget the need to acknowledge, understand, remember and commit to #NeverAgain truly meaning never again.
In truth: when we let antisemitism fester, we lose sight of the past, the present and the future. And in particular, with so much tension around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we also forget the role of Israel as a safe home for the Jewish people.
For Jewish families and communities here in the UK and worldwide, what this is all translates to is: life for Jewish people becoming harder, social cohesion diminishing and the risk of the horrors of persecution and genocide happening all over again sadly increasing too.
Let’s not be complacent. Such atrocities have taken place since the Holocaust – again and again, in Bosnia, Cambodia and Rwanda in the same very century. Already, members of the British Jewish community have fled the UK to escape the increasing tide of antisemitism.
Antisemitism in the Muslim community: Acknowledging a problem
Antisemitic tweets by a Muslim Twitter user (September 2020).
Given the results of such surveys, we must see the wider picture. It’s crucial that we do not underestimate the significance of Holocaust denial in any context.
For whilst the results of both surveys focus on Holocaust denial itself, they’re not an anomaly. Holocaust denial itself feeds of antisemitic tropes of power and control. And likewise, we’ve seen how these attitudes are part of a wider worrying trend.
Here in the UK – and further afield – we’re not only seeing such shocking levels of Holocaust denial but also increasing levels of antisemitism across the board.
We’re witnessing attacks on our streets and the desecration of Jewish property. And most tragically of all, we’ve also all mourned the tragic loss of lives in Halle (Germany), Pittsburgh (USA) and at the kosher supermarket shooting in Paris in recent years as synagogues and Jewish businesses have been attacked by violent extremists.
Enough is enough. We must tackle antisemitism head-on. And this starts with identifying the source(s).
From both ends of the political spectrum (the Far-Left and the Far-Right), we sadly all know that this has not and does not exclude the Muslim community.
Findings by the Community Security Trust and The Institute for Jewish Policy Research back in 2017 revealed that the prevalence of antisemitism was most worrying among Christians, Muslims, the Far Left and the Far Right – with the behaviour of Muslims particularly prominent in this area:
“…the most concern exists about Muslims and the far-left; it is considerably less pronounced about Christians and the far-right.”
(2017 report)
Within the Muslim community itself, the prominent anti-Zionist journalist Mendi Hassan himself acknowledged the scale of the issue:
“At home British Muslim attitudes are defined not just by denial but by indifference.
Few Muslims or mosques take part in the memorial day. In 2006 a Channel 4 poll found that a quarter of British Muslims didn’t know what the Holocaust was and only one in three believed it had occurred. This is scandalous.”
To be clear, this isn’t just at a grassroots level either…
Now several years on, with the boycott lifted, things have improved. However, not nearly enough.
Just this week, since the recent research poll in the USA come out, I myself witnessed a series of antisemitic tweets from a Muslim man, with no sense of shame or wrongdoing.
Combining Holocaust Denial, blood libel, and anti-Zionism in direct response to both the poll and the joyous news that a Holocaust survivor had won an Olympic gold medal (see images above), the tweeter was not even moved by the accusations of antisemitism that stood against him. No, instead his response was that of a loud and proud antisemite.
The very fact that someone would scream such abuse towards a Holocaust survivor, in the context of raising awareness of the Holocaust and involving what is a very complex geo-political conflict in Israel-Palestine, shows just how bad the problem is and how much work we’ve got to do.
Racist tropes, conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial and misinformation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are not uncommon and as Muslims: we need to change this.
Moving forward: Our commitment to fighting antisemitism
A delegation of imams – led by Sheikh Muhammad al-Issa – with Jewish colleagues on a visit to Auschwitz concentration camp (January 2020).
It’s not easy, but here at MAAS, we’ve taken on the challenge and we’re ready to see it through.
There is a problem of antisemitism in the Muslim community and that’s exactly why MAAS was created. We’re here to call it out, to dispel myths, to educate and to build greater links between the Jewish and Muslim communities – as well as engage with policy and decision-makers.
As Muslims, we can, we must and will fight this vile form of hatred which continues to plague our communities and wider society. From Holocaust denial, to blood libel, to racist tropes – wherever, whenever and in whatever form antisemitism takes, we’re here to fight it.
So, as the Jewish New Year has just started, to our Jewish brothers and sisters, we’d like to wish you a wonderful sweet year ahead.
We’re here loudly and proudly re-affirming our commitment to stand with you in the fight against antisemitism. We will never give up.
And to the antisemites in our community, we have one message: we’ll keep fighting against antisemitism. There is no place to hide. Change is slowly building, dialogue is growing and we aim to see this through.
We urge all Muslims to join us. After all: you’re either part of the problem or part of the solution…
