Redbridge Momentum and Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) have organised an event for this Thursday titled, ‘Labour, Britain’s Jews and Antisemitism — A Different Perspective‘.
Speakers will include JVL founder member and committee member Murray Glickman, who was active in the area’s Labour Party for many years and rejoined the Labour party when Jeremy Corbyn became leader – and writer/historian David Rosenberg, who is also a member of JVL as well as of the Jewish Socialist Group.
Aware of the potential for disruption by right-wing, pro-Israel hardliners, the event is clear who its target audience is and the organisers have reserved the right to refuse entry.
Unfortunately, this has not prevented the hardliners making plans to attend – and based on their past records, to disrupt – the event.
The ‘Eye on Antisemitism’ group – founded by a lifelong Tory supporter – has tweeted details of the event and the link for registration to a hard-right pro-Israel activist with a well-known track record of disrupting pro-Palestine events:
Not satisfied with that, the same group also set up its own version of the event on Facebook to encourage the likeminded to turn up:
The organisers of the bona fide event have reported a rush of registrations, many of them from known ‘zionist’ activists with a history of disruptive activities, some using known pseudonyms.
Jonathan Hoffman, the disruptive right-winger tagged by ‘Eye on Antisemitism’ in its tweet, was contacted for comment on his intentions but has not responded. The police have indicated they will have a presence at the event.
SKWAWKBOX comment:
Based on their history, the pro-Israel activists who have registered for the event will do their best either to disrupt the event to the extent that it cannot continue, or to portray themselves as victims of abuse. The organisers of the Momentum/JVL event will be entitled to refuse them entry.
Whether the outing of the right-wingers’ planned attendance will alter their actions is a moot point, but now the public is aware in advance of any disruption it will at least be harder to portray any footage or claims as other than what they are.
As Labour members saw last week during Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool, the reality of the behaviour of right-wing activists often runs completely counter to the mainstream media’s claims of supposed ‘left-wing abuse’.
Any SKWAWKBOX readers planning are asked not to rise to any attempts to provoke a reaction.
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