Campaign Against Antisemitism is a

campaign against Palestinians

The UK-based Campaign Against Antisemitism was formed after

massive protests against Israels military offensive in Gaza were
held in London in the summer of 2014.Andy RainEPA
Tony Greenstein-20 March 2017

The Campaign Against Antisemitism is a British propaganda

organization and registered charity that specializes in defaming
Palestine solidarity campaigners. When I launched
a petition calling for the group to be deregistered, it responded in
a hostile manner.
It first tried to persuade the website Change.org to take the
petition down. When that failed, its supporters attacked the
petition in an article published by the Daily Mail, a paper which
once praised Adolf Hitler for having saved Germany from
Israelites of international attachments.
Originality not being its strong point, the Campaign Against
Antisemitism then alleged that I was a notorious anti-Semite.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism was formed in August 2014

during a major Israeli offensive against Gaza. Its purpose was to
paint Palestine solidarity campaigning and opposition to Zionism,
Israels state ideology, as anti-Semitic.

There was massive opposition to the attack on Gaza among the

British public; an estimated 150,000 people took to the streets
of London in one protest. Such was the climate of opinion
that Sayeeda Warsi, then a Foreign Office minister, resigned from
the government, describing its support for Israel as morally
indefensible.

For some time, there had been a constituency within British

Zionists who felt that establishment groups such as the Board of
Deputies of British Jews were not active enough in defending
Israel.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism organized
a demonstration outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London in
late August 2014, which it claimed was 4,500 strong. Its purpose
was to link the protests against the attack on Gaza to anti-
Semitism.
Ephraim Mirvis, Britains chief rabbi, spoke at the event, as did
Vivian Wineman, then president of the Board of Deputies.
Wineman was loudly booed.
Promoting harmony?
If it was true that there was an increase in anti-Semitism as a
result of the attack on Gaza, then the obvious thing to do would
be to emphasize that Britains Jewish community is not
responsible for Israels actions, and that despite its claims, Israel
does not act in the name of all Jews, many of whom strenuously
oppose its policies and actions. The Campaign Against
Antisemitism had no interest in doing so.

One of the campaigns stated objectives is to promote racial

harmony. In practice, its activities are designed to achieve the
exact opposite.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism consistently targets Muslims.

A search of the campaigns archive reveals just two articles that

mention Britains main fascist organizations the British National
Party, the English Defence League and the National Front. Those
groups include Holocaust deniers within their ranks.

By way of contrast, there are some 77 articles attacking Jeremy

Corbyn, the Labour Party leader and a veteran defender of
Palestinian rights.

Meanwhile, 32 articles in the archive attack Shami Chakrabarti, a

civil liberties campaigner and now a prominent Labour politician
serving as shadow attorney general. In a 2016 report,
she concluded that the Labour Party was not overrun by anti-
Semitism, while acknowledging a minority of hateful or
ignorant attitudes and behaviors festering within a sometimes
bitter incivility of discourse.

That conclusion didnt confirm the prejudices of the Campaign

Against Antisemitism.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism reserved special animus

for Gerald Kaufman, a longstanding lawmaker who died recently.
In 2009, he compared the tactics of Israelis then attacking Gaza
to those of the Nazis who killed his grandmother.

No less than 22 articles in the campaigns

archive attack Kaufman. The latest one titled Sir Gerald
Kaufman MPs words have left a rotting stain on our institutions
shows that even death doesnt prevent the Campaign Against
Antisemitism deploying all its dirty tricks.

There is no one the Campaign Against Antisemitism hates as

much as a Jewish opponent of Israel.
Serving the right
The campaign is at the service of the political right wing.

Rebecca Massey, a prominent Labour Party activist in Brighton

and Hove, has been accused of anti-Semitism for tweeting articles
critical of Israel.

Ivor Caplin, a former defense minister who supported the illegal

invasion of Iraq, is among those who have slandered Massey. Her
real offense? She is a Corbyn ally, who has (successfully)
contested an election to be a local party officer.

In its attack on socialists in the Labour Party, the Campaign

Against Antisemitism, as a matter of course, talks about racist
Labour, thus demonstrating that it lacks the political neutrality
expected of a charity.
The Campaign Against Antisemitism is chaired by Gideon Falter,
who is also a board member of the Jewish National Fund UK.
The Jewish National Fund has a long history of supporting ethnic
cleansing in Palestine.

Far from promoting racial harmony, the Campaign Against

Antisemitism has sought to stir up conflict between Muslims and
Jews.
Littered with flaws
Last year it published a report on British Muslim anti-Semitism.
The report included a profile of the kind of person that the
campaign was making allegations against. The profile was highly
racist and offensive; according to the campaign, the typical
Muslim anti-Semite was likely to be a first-generation immigrant
and living in public housing.

If someone had posted a similar portrayal of Jews, the campaign

would have been the first to claim anti-Semitism.

The report alleged that many British Muslims reserve a special

hatred for British Jews.
On every single count, British Muslims were more likely by far
than the general British population to hold deeply anti-Semitic
views, it added.

The conclusions were based on a poll conducted for the TV station

Channel 4. Yet even the Community Security Trust, a staunchly
pro-Israel group, raised doubts about the conclusions to which the
Campaign Against Antisemitism jumped.

In a blog post for the Community Security Trust website, Dave

Rich wrote: This latest poll showed something else that is
interesting, and is not specific to Muslims: that people who
believe anti-Semitic things about Jews rarely think of themselves
as anti-Semitic.

What is perhaps curious, though, is that this is not reflected in a

more basic question that was asked in the same poll about how
favorable or unfavorable Muslims feel towards Jewish people as a
religious group, Rich added. Asked what their feelings were
towards Jews: on a sliding scale from 0-100 where 0 is the least
favorable British Muslims scored 57.1 in their feelings towards
Jews.

This hardly suggests rampant anti-Semitism.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism specializes in distorting

statistics. In its annual anti-Semitism barometer report for 2015,
it claimed that an opinion poll showed that almost half (45
percent) of British adults believe at least one of the anti-Semitic
statements shown to them to be true.
The questions were carefully chosen to elicit the required
answers. As Anshel Pfeffer from the Tel Aviv
newspaper Haaretz observed regarding the statement that Jews
talk about the Holocaust too much in order to gain sympathy
too many Jews are often too quick to bring up the Holocaust in
order to make a point. Holding that opinion doesnt necessarily
make you an anti-Semite.

Another statement was that Jews loyalty to Israel makes them

less loyal to Britain than other British people. Is it surprising that
one in five people believe this given that Jewish anti-Zionists are
regularly accused of being traitors?

Clearly, many Zionists believe that their first loyalty is to Israel.

That was why Israels ministries for foreign affairs and immigrant
absorption distributed a questionnaire to American Jews a few
years ago, asking where their loyalties would lie in the event of a
crisis between the two countries.

Pfeffers conclusion was that the Campaign Against Antisemitism

created its own definition of anti-Semitism, which is more a
reflection of what is impolite to say in public than what is actual
bias against Jews.

Anti-Semitism is hostility to Jews as Jews, not the holding of

ephemeral beliefs.

The Institute for Jewish Policy Research in London has found that
the Campaign Against Antisemitisms barometer report was
littered with flaws and the groups work may even be rather
irresponsible.
The institute has criticized the way that the Campaign Against
Antisemitism has used data collected by the polling agency
YouGov to make the rather sensationalist claim that almost half
of all British adults harbor some sort of anti-Semitic view. YouGov
had been commissioned to undertake the poll by the Campaign
Against Antisemitism.

According to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research, a far more

accurate and honest read of the data would highlight the fact
that between 75 percent and 90 percent of people in Britain
either do not hold anti-Semitic views or have no particular view of
Jews either way, and only about 4 percent to 5 percent of people
can be characterized as clearly anti-Semitic.
Bordering on hysteria
The Campaign Against Antisemitism has claimed that one in four
British Jews had considered leaving the country in the past few
years because of rising anti-Semitism.

Even The Jewish Chronicle an unmistakably pro-Israel

publication poured cold water on that claim. The newspapers
own poll published in 2015 concluded that 88 percent of British
Jews had no intention of emigrating.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism has also claimed that more

than half of all British Jews felt that anti-Semitism echoed that of
the 1930s. Anshel Pfeffer witheringly observed that if the
Campaign Against Antisemitism and most British Jews actually
believe that, then its hard to take anything they say about
contemporary anti-Semitism in their home country seriously.

Pfeffer added that the conclusion showed a disconnect bordering

on hysteria not only are they woefully ignorant of recent Jewish
history but have little concept of what real anti-Semitism is.
Which just about sums up the Campaign Against Antisemitism.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism has claimed, too, that 84

percent of Jews believed boycotts of businesses selling Israeli
products to be intimidation. This finding contrasts sharply with a
rigorously controlled, academic survey on The Attitudes of British
Jews Towards Israel by the sociology department at City,
University of London.

That 2015 survey found that 24 percent of British Jews would

support some sanctions against Israel if they thought it would
encourage Israel to engage in the peace process. A sizeable
minority (34-41 percent) among the young, the highly qualified
academically and those who were not affiliated to a synagogue
were in favor of sanctions under such circumstances, according to
the survey.

The City survey also found that while 59 percent of British Jews
identify themselves as Zionists, nearly a third 31 percent
didnt.

Other findings that have alarmed the Campaign Against

Antisemitism were that 45 percent of Jews felt their family was
threatened by Islamist extremism, 77 percent of Jews have
witnessed anti-Semitism disguised as a political comment about
Israel and 82 percent of respondents said that media bias against
Israel fuels persecution of Jews in Britain.

These were not only replies to loaded questions, but ideas planted
in the heads of people with the goal of obtaining the right
answer. No attempt was made to put a question based on
countervailing assumptions such as Do you agree that criticism
of Israel is not the same as anti-Semitism? The result of such an
approach would have been interesting, but it wasnt on the
agenda of the Campaign Against Antisemitism.

No doubt, the campaign is unconcerned with the criticisms that

have been made of its work. The purpose of its work appears to
be to make Jewish people feel insecure and encourage them to
leave for Israel.
Zionism is founded on the negation of the diaspora the belief
that Jews do not belong in a non-Jewish society. After the killing of
four Jews in a Paris kosher supermarket two years ago, Benjamin
Netanyahu, Israels prime minister, flew to France and told French
Jews to emigrate.

Fighting anti-Semitism has never been part of Zionism.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism has stated that it was formed

to tackle anti-Semitism of both a classical ethno-religious nature
and also a political nature related to Israel. In fact, the campaign
devotes virtually all of its time to the latter and what it calls the
international definition of anti-Semitism.

This definition is virtually identical to a working definition of anti-

Semitism drawn up by the European Unions Monitoring Centre on
Racism and Xenophobia (now the Agency for Fundamental Rights)
in Vienna. The definition was not formally adopted by the EU and
was removed from the website of the agency several years ago.

The definition, previously vanquished, has come back to life.

Originally drawn up in consultation with the pro-Israel lobby, the
definition has now been given a veneer of respectability having
been endorsed with minor amendments by
an intergovernmental body called the International Holocaust
Remembrance Alliance, which consists of 31 countries including
the far right and anti-Semitic Polish and Hungarian governments.
The definition conflates criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.

Not only Britains Prime Minister Theresa May, but Jeremy Corbyn
too has lent his support to this bogus definition of anti-Semitism.

All Britains major political parties are signed up to this definition.

The Campaign Against Antisemitism is one of the beneficiaries.

Our task is clear. Palestine solidarity activists have to build a

campaign against this definition of anti-Semitism, just as
they did with its predecessor.

Tony Greenstein is a founding member of the Palestine Solidarity

Campaign and the author of The Fight Against Fascism in Brighton
and the South Coast.
Posted by Thavam