Jonathan Hoffman was convicted for harassment and threatening behaviour toward pro-Palestinian activists; email reveals ugliness behind right-wing supporters of Israel – and response is priceless
A criminal right-wing pro-Israel harasser has crowed over the conviction on majority verdicts of left-wing Jewish activist Tony Greenstein and several Palestine Action colleagues – and revealed the ugliness of the pro-Israel right.
Jonathan Hoffman, who was convicted, along with another right-wing hardliner, for harassment and threatening behaviour after haranguing supporters of Palestinian rights, emailed Greenstein under the subject header ‘Greenslime goes down’, wishing him imprisonment – and apparently wishing him harm in prison:
Hoffman also uses the disgusting ‘JINO’ (Jew in name only) often thrown at Jews who support the rights of Palestinians against the apartheid and abuse of the Israeli regime. The widow of Jason Silver, mentioned by Hoffman in the email, said that Silver had killed himself after several years abusing cocaine and not taking his mental health medication for seven months after ‘recently’ becoming ‘obsessed’ with Israel. Greenstein has accused the pro-Israel right of trying to blame him for Silver’s death.
The same phenomenon was also seen in attacks on author Michael Rosen following the death of Pete Newbon, who had targeted Rosen and his work for abuse to attack Jeremy Corbyn and had received a final warning from his university employer after a string of abusive social media incidents – despite the coroner’s inquest making no connection between Rosen and the death and the obvious fact that Rosen was Newbon’s victim and not vice versa.
Greenstein shared Hoffman’s email on his own website and has written back to Hoffman in some style:
Dear Jonathan,
I don’t think I properly thanked you for the email which you sent me a few days ago. Whilst I have often criticised you for your links and work with fascist and neo-Nazi groups I have neglected the psychological aspects of Zionism, its hatreds and their effect on you. The psychological aspect of Zionism and settler colonial racism is often neglected.
I mentioned in the conclusion to my book Zionism During the Holocaust how I was moved by the description of Raja Shehadeh, when he spoke in Brighton, of the ‘meanness’ of Israelis who, during the Palestinian hunger strike in April 2017, set up a barbecue outside Ofer Prison in order to torment the prisoners.
Your elation at my possible imprisonment for trying to prevent Israeli war crimes is not, of course something new. Zionists have often chanted Hitler was Right against their Jewish opponents. I doubt that many Jewish anti-Zionists haven’t been told at one time or another that it was a pity that Hitler didn’t get us. This in itself gives a true insight into the Zionist mentality of which you are only an extreme example.
I have of course posted your email on my blog in order that others might have a glimpse into the psychology of a Zionist zealot.
Tony Greenstein
Hoffman – convicted for abusive and threatening behaviour – crowing in the most unpleasant terms over the conviction of people who were trying to prevent war crimes. Happily, Greenstein was more than up to the task of responding.
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