Daphne Anson: Hey, Jeff Halper! What do you think of this, then?

Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East. (From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Thursday, 26 December 2013

Hey, Jeff Halper! What do you think of this, then?

Those who have seen Richard Millett's latest blogpost, regarding the "Bethlehem Unwrapped" anti-Israel hate fest outside St James's Church, Piccadilly, crossposted on CiF Watch, will have seen a video featuring well-known Israeli dissident Jeff Halper. (The nimble black-clad black-hatted photographer clicking enthusiastically away in the background while Halper speaks is of course the Reverend Stephen Sizer, who's posted the fruits of his labours on his own blog and also on flickr.) (Marvellous article here by Robin Shepherd, incidentally, regarding Yuletide illwill against Israel)

I've no idea whether a certain British anti-Israel activist called Stuart Littlewood was at the event described. But if Jeff Halper catches up with him on his visit to London I trust that Jeff will scold him for yet another of his descents into the dank dark pit of judeophobia.

You see, Jeff Halper wrote the Foreword to Stuart Littlewood's now-out-of-print Israel-demonising Radio Free Palestine. He was presumably unaware when he did so that Littlewood (apparently a 9/11 truther: "We are not amused by indications that the official explanation of 9/11 doesn’t add up") has acquired quite a reputation for antisemitism.

As I've pointed out before, Littlewood is on record as making such foetid statements as this:

"Jews and Judaism survived 1800 years without the land of Israel, and most of today’s Jews, I’m told, have no ancestral links to that land at all. And Jews seem to like it here in the UK. They are allowed to occupy the highest positions and even make our laws. They are not leaving in droves for a squatter home on stolen Palestinian land."

And this, which was apparently picked up by a neo-Nazi British organisation and which at least one Palestine Solidarity Campaign branch linked to on its website:

"The Jewish population in the UK is 280,000 or 0.46 per cent. There are 650 seats in the House of Commons so, as a proportion, Jewish entitlement is only three seats.

With 24 seats they are eight times over-represented. Which means, of course, that other groups must be under-represented, including Muslims.

The UK's Muslim population is 2.4 million or 3.93 per cent. Their proportional entitlement is 25 seats but they have only eight – a serious shortfall. If Muslims were over-represented to the same extent as the Jews (i.e. eight times) they’d have 200 seats.

Jewish over-representation is only part of our problem. An even bigger worry is the huge number of non-Jew Zionists that have stealthily infiltrated every level of political and institutional life.

....Too many pro-Israel MPs speak and act as if they would rather wave the Israeli flag than the Union Jack...."

Recently, Littlewood wrote here regarding an eruv in North London:

'It seems that Jews in England can’t abide their own religious laws any more than their brethren in Israel can cope with international law and humanitarian law. Is this the thin end of a wedge to achieve annexation by the back doorlots of Little Israels in England‘s green and pleasant land? Bushey is already occupied territory, evidently. Whatever next?

....Last I heard, England is a Christian country still. Even David “I’m-a-Zionist” Cameron says so. Do we want microcosms of the state of Israel here?

It smacks of psychological warfare aimed at making non-Jewish communities feel vulnerable and unsafe. Presumably the aerial boundaries will be expanded as the ‘ingathering’ proceeds and uncomfortable non-Jewish residents are driven out. How long before those who complain about this creeping annexation of their neighbourhoods, however “symbolic”, are smeared with the anti-Semitic label?

When I was a boy living in Finchley, the bus route to the West End of London ran through Golders Green. Even in those far-off days it was a standing joke that you needed your passport for the trip. How much worse it must seem today now that Golders Green is pegged out with a demarcation boundary of 5.5 metre poles strung together with fishing line.'

Does Jeff Halper really want to be associated with such a guy?

8 comments:

Nathan of Plaza26 December 2013 at 15:26
Stu Littlewood is weird. What does he think of Muslim no-go zones in parts of GB?
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NormanF27 December 2013 at 03:09
Anti-Zionists detest Jews for being too uppity and they detest Jews for being too grasping!

Either way, Jews can't win! The contraction in Littlewood's views about Jews doesn't seem to bother Jeff Halper in the least. And like the old saying has it, one is judged by the company one keeps.

Like Halper's anti-Zionist friends.
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Anonymous27 December 2013 at 09:25
Sizer mentioned this anti-Israel hatefest in his Xmas sermon. He claimed the security fence 'surrounds' Bethlehem, turning it into a 'ghetto prison'. It does not 'surround' Bethlehem of course. And no mention (of course) of the hundreds of lives saved from would-be suicide bombers. This is pure demonisation of Israel.
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Ian28 December 2013 at 00:54
OT
Lynch is having a cry about missing out on a grant, he blames the Joooz of course.
Academic boycotters don’t want done unto them what they did unto Israelis
Professor Lynch has been in a public battle with the Coalition since May, when then opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop said a Coalition government would ensure “no grants of taxpayers’ funds are provided to individuals or organisations which actively support the BDS campaign”.
Professor Lynch’s support for BDS became headline news last year when he boycotted Israeli academic Dan Avnon, refusing to help the Hebrew University academic with his application for a Sir Zelman Cowen fellowship.
This year Professor Lynch submitted an application to the federally funded ARC for $290,000 to study the work of journalists in South Africa, Nepal, Australia and Britain.
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Confronting antisemitism and Israel hatred28 December 2013 at 04:29
I see that there is a similar demonstration now taking place at a church nearby to St James:

http://edgar1981.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/tear-down-zionist-apartheid-thames.html
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Empress Trudy29 December 2013 at 13:59
By the way if Jesus overturned the money changer tables in the TEMPLE then it means the TEMPLE was there, no? Kind of hard to uninvent that and claim Jesus was whatever they're claiming he may have been.
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