Norman Finkelstein was one of many Jewish people to react in outrage to Labour MP Margaret Hodge’s comparison of receiving a disciplinary letter from the Labour Party to the fear felt by Jewish families fleeing the nazis in the 1930s. The SKWAWKBOX yesterday covered his and other comments, but the ‘EL4C’ tweet in which his video featured was a truncated version of his full response.
That longer response, in which Finkelstein speaks graphically of his own parents’ and family’s experiences in the Warsaw ghetto and death or slave camps is moving, powerful and utterly damning:
Finkelstein accuses Hodge of ‘cheapen[ing] and exploit[ing] the memory of Jewish suffering as you carry on a blackmail and extortion racket against Jeremy Corbyn‘ – and concludes that if Labour’s rules on antisemitism have any force or meaning, Margaret Hodge will be the first to be expelled.
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Here’s Finkelstein on Talk Radio last night on MOATS.
http://www.tikkit.co.uk/post/301_here-it-is-as-if-by-magic-the-full-norman-finkelstein-interview-with-our-profess.html
Thanks for posting Maria,this is well worth listening to.
Thanks for sharing that Maria, Prof. Finkelstein’s one of the heroes we badly need – and so, it seems, is George Galloway.
I regret having allowed the big brother incident to sour my view of him. Even after his eloquent machine gunning of Coleman in the Senate I’ve stuck rigidly to that false view and dismissed him as an irrelevance until now.
I’d apologise if I could and I hope to see him and Ken as Labour MPs again.
On that subject I hope the party’s working hard to choose and hone the abilities of all the replacement candidates we need.
David
On here not so long ago. I called Galloway the best leader we never had and called for his return to the party to eventually replace Corbyn. The Toffee was not amused…but it’s still true.
Thanks for sharing.
The voice of Finkelstein and others who think like him must be heard and heard often. The attempt by the British rightwing establishment and those in the British Jewish community who think like them to undermine Jeremy Corby has come against a fierce backlash against the moral blackmail being used by the right in this regard. The intervention of Netenyahu and the pathetic misappropriation of the suffering of the Jewish people in the Holocaust has shown clearly the real agenda of the British right – and – the Israeli rightwing nationalist party – Likud.
One thing is clear, the onslaught in the UK in the attack against Corbyn has failed and in fact has had quite the opposite effect intended.
Isn’t what Margaret Hodge said anti-semitic in it self? I’m glad she said what she said because a lot of people have realized that the war against Corbyn is becoming obsurd and desperate.
An amazing video from Norman Finkelstein. God bless this man. I cannot begin to even imagine the true horror of what his parents went through. It is the most shameful and sickening example of human depravity. It is utterly vile that anyone should even compare an organisational disciplinary procedure with the right to representation / legal assistance and appeal (and lest we forget with no real punishment) with the treatment of Jewish people by the Nazis.
Thanks for sharing your views with us Norman. You are a courageous and honourable man.
Word!
Wow!
The voice of critica thinking and experience crushes the voice of ignorance and opportunism.
So Hodge is telling more lies!
She said she felt the same fear her father would have felt when he was fleeing Nazi Germany.
//She was born in 1944 in Cairo, Egypt, to Jewish refugee parents[4][5] Hans Oppenheimer (1908–1985), and his wife Lisbeth (née Hollitscher).[4][6] Hans Oppenheimer left Stuttgart in Germany during the 1930s to join his uncle’s metals business based in Cairo and Alexandria, where he met fellow émigrée, Austrian-born Lisbeth Hollitscher. Married in 1936, Hans and Lisbeth went on to have five children: four girls and a boy.//
So when did her father flee nazi Germany?
All British Parliamentarians are required to disclose their interest in foreign countries, including Israel. Does anyone know what Hodge’s interests are in Israel, such as dual citizenship or property interests?
I am pleased this chap has spoken out and am sad that he has been so badly upset anfd offended. Corbyn may have his faults but I do not and have never believed him to to a racist or anti-semite. I am convinced this is a smear campaign orchestrated by Israel. In fact Intifada has researched this and has come to the same conclusion
‘…speaking of bags and suitcases, Dame Hodge, it’s time now to pack your bag, pack your suitcase and get the hell out the Labour Party.’ Very well said. And it is worth repeating to all the right-wing saboteur MP’s: ‘…GET THE HELL OUT OF THE LABOUR PARTY.’
We have the economy to rebuild here, we have BREXIT to deal with, we have the health services to restore to provide good quality care and save lives, we have social services to provide, we have austerity to end and ensure dignified living standards for all, we have infrastructure to rebuild and maintain before we suffer a fatal bridge collapse, we have lack of housing and homelessness to tackle, we have foreign wars to end which have resulted in terrorism here at home, we have peace to help negotiate between the Palestinians and the Israelis, we have a global economy that is so unfair to our fellow human beings in the world to make right…in short, we have a duty to the British people to oppose and put and end to this most terrible government the UK has seen in modern times by selling the Labour Party Manifesto to the people and giving them real hope instead of being distracted by these self-serving individuals with a disgusting sense of entitlement. So we implore them, we beg them: Pack your bags and get the hell out of the Labour Party!
Very well said Stewart960130.
.
I wonder what the likes of Hodge have to say about this on 6/8/2018. The ‘Jewish state’ attacking orthodox Jews peacefully protesting military conscription.
.https://twitter.com/ShehabAgencyEn/status/1030757341476651016
Looks like the Israeli state also differentiates between ‘good Jews’ and ‘bad Jews’. Surely the Jewish state should respect and protect it’s deeply religious community of Jews who keep the foundations and teachings of Judaism alive from generation to generation?
Thanks for the link Maria.
If things continue the way they are, we in the Labour Party will be gagged and dependent upon the likes of Finkelstein and Chomsky speaking from across the Atlantic to express our views.
I just posted, on another topic, a link to this sobering article from Jonathan Cook on what Labour adopting full IHRA means to progressives and repost it here in support of your sound comment.
https://www.jonathan-cook.net/blog/2018-08-16/corbyn-labour-fail-design/
So if Labour do accept the full definition will I be expelled from the party as I have been very vocal on Twitter regarding Palestine? I got purged during the leadership contest for calling the coup traitors. I really do want to know. Thanks
I might add that even if it’s accepted I will not be gagged regarding Israel or Palestine.
Margaret Hodge compares the Labour Party to Nazis & therefore, by implication, all its members are also accused.