Guest Post by Mel Gharial
Last Thursday, I decided to return to my South London roots and attend the Labour Against the Witch Hunt meeting at the 336 building in Brixton, hosted by the Caribbean Labour solidarity campaign.
There were only a few people there when I arrived, including Jackie Walker, but thankfully I wasn't recognised and found a seat. However, I must have looked a bit suspicious as a man immediately came over and asked what I was doing there. As I didn't want him asking me about my links to the labour party, I quickly responded by saying that i was meant to be coming with my friend who was ill, but had ended up coming on my own and didn't know too much about it.
The meeting kicked off by talking about the awful Zionists and how they suppress everything and how Mr Corbyn is a life long campaigner for racism and antisemitism.( I was wondering if it was comedy hour, but no!)
They then showed a film which implied that Zionists have now joined forces with the 'far right' and went on to show TR and several other people who they define as 'far right'. I won't go into the film as it can be viewed online, but unsurprisingly it was totally one-sided and showed all my fellow Zionists in a negative light. ( My main concern at this stage was that MY face was next to be shown in the film😟)
Once the film finished, Ms Walker then went on to hold a short question and answers session where she went in to say that the most abused politicians are not Jews, but Dionne Abbot! (Nothing to do with her being a crap MP!🤔)
There was only one person there who stood up for the Jewish community and she brought up the fact of how Jewish people in the labour party are treated, only to be told that she had said enough and an aggressive member of the audience told her to 'shut up'
In fact, every time antisemitism was mentioned, Ms Walker would turn it round to how much abuse she has suffered and still suffers on a daily basis. The man who was chairing the meeting also kept repeating that antisemitism is always being spoken about, but not other forms of racism which are always overlooked and there should also not be a hierarchy when recognising holocaust memorial day.
A member of the JVL(Jewish voice for Labour) then went on to say that Luciana Berger is a liar and how much support he gets from orthodox jews. He also went on to tell the audience that David Collier is being helped by Mossad and that we need to ask questions, this was followed by nods of agreement. Ms Walker then went on to say that all orthodox Jews are anti-Zionist, Corbyn supporters and why are they being silenced.
Again, Ms Walker turned the conversation round to to the lack of people of colour in the labour party because they feel abused and the fact that we are always concentrating on antisemitism.
Finally, I asked why she thinks that antisemitism has risen in the last few years and again she replied that it is just as bad for other minorities.
There were loads of questions I would have liked to have asked but there was no time left.
Someone then passed a hat around to help pay for Ms Walker's expenses. I didn't have any change, but funnily enough I had a shekel in my bag from my last trip to Israel and I couldn't resist! 🤣
There were only a few people there when I arrived, including Jackie Walker, but thankfully I wasn't recognised and found a seat. However, I must have looked a bit suspicious as a man immediately came over and asked what I was doing there. As I didn't want him asking me about my links to the labour party, I quickly responded by saying that i was meant to be coming with my friend who was ill, but had ended up coming on my own and didn't know too much about it.
The meeting kicked off by talking about the awful Zionists and how they suppress everything and how Mr Corbyn is a life long campaigner for racism and antisemitism.( I was wondering if it was comedy hour, but no!)
They then showed a film which implied that Zionists have now joined forces with the 'far right' and went on to show TR and several other people who they define as 'far right'. I won't go into the film as it can be viewed online, but unsurprisingly it was totally one-sided and showed all my fellow Zionists in a negative light. ( My main concern at this stage was that MY face was next to be shown in the film😟)
Once the film finished, Ms Walker then went on to hold a short question and answers session where she went in to say that the most abused politicians are not Jews, but Dionne Abbot! (Nothing to do with her being a crap MP!🤔)
There was only one person there who stood up for the Jewish community and she brought up the fact of how Jewish people in the labour party are treated, only to be told that she had said enough and an aggressive member of the audience told her to 'shut up'
In fact, every time antisemitism was mentioned, Ms Walker would turn it round to how much abuse she has suffered and still suffers on a daily basis. The man who was chairing the meeting also kept repeating that antisemitism is always being spoken about, but not other forms of racism which are always overlooked and there should also not be a hierarchy when recognising holocaust memorial day.
A member of the JVL(Jewish voice for Labour) then went on to say that Luciana Berger is a liar and how much support he gets from orthodox jews. He also went on to tell the audience that David Collier is being helped by Mossad and that we need to ask questions, this was followed by nods of agreement. Ms Walker then went on to say that all orthodox Jews are anti-Zionist, Corbyn supporters and why are they being silenced.
Again, Ms Walker turned the conversation round to to the lack of people of colour in the labour party because they feel abused and the fact that we are always concentrating on antisemitism.
Finally, I asked why she thinks that antisemitism has risen in the last few years and again she replied that it is just as bad for other minorities.
There were loads of questions I would have liked to have asked but there was no time left.
Someone then passed a hat around to help pay for Ms Walker's expenses. I didn't have any change, but funnily enough I had a shekel in my bag from my last trip to Israel and I couldn't resist! 🤣
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