I Do Not Consider Myself A Racist, But I Understand Why Some Are
“Understanding” is a weasel word, isn’t it.
What would you think if I were to say:
“I don’t hate black people but I understand why some people do”/
Imagine that I then went on to argue that racism against black people was exacerbated by those who argue that the obsessive focus on the supposed criminality of some black people is motivated by racism.
Suppose that I then claim that black identity politics is the worst form of racism in the world, that states run by black people are the more atriocious than anywhere else in the world, and that it is a media conspiracy and European guilt over racism and slavery that prevents us saying so.
What would you think of me?
White racists often do run arguments just like this. They will frequently deny that they’re racists, and will argue that if only people would listen to them and act on their advice, there wouldn’t be so much racism. It isn’t a new rhetorical technque, but it is a transparent one.
That’s basically Ben White’s line too. He argues:
I do not consider myself an anti-Semite, yet I can also understand why some are. There are, in fact, a number of reasons. One is the state of Israel, its ideology of racial supremacy and its subsequent crimes committed against the Palestinians. It is because Zionists have always sought to equate their colonial project with Judaism that some misguidedly respond to what they see on their televisions with attacks on Jews or Jewish property.
Secondly, and related to the first point, is the widespread bias and subservience to the Israeli cause in the Western media…
I have just provided a by no means comprehensive list of reasons why “I can understand very well that some people are unpleasant towards Jews.” I do not agree with them, but I can understand.
… and so on.
Here’s the point. There is a difference between truly attempting to understand why people are nasty racists, and providing an alibi for racists. Ben White is in the business of providing alibis for racists. His argument is essentially “Zionists have tricked racists into hating Jews, generally”. Poor racists.
No progressive ever makes excuses for racists.
Ben White can only get away with this in a context in which a sizeable proportion of self-described liberal opinion holds that the State of Israel is the most significant source of evil in the world. It is, in fact, the hysterical and hyperbolic response to any Israel-related issue among that section of progressive opinion that is a substantial cause of contemporary antisemitism.
Here’s an example. Ben White has a column up on Liberal Conspiracy, pushing his Israel = South Africa crap. This is, apparently, a good liberal view because, of course, Israel is a pernicious colonial settler state that all right thinking people should oppose.
Here’s another example. The charity War on Want is hosting Ben White on Thursday 9 July at the Conway Hall.
There is a substantial section of the British Left which thinks that it is liberal and progressive to claim that racism is best understood as an “understandable” reaction to whatever it is the target of racism is supposed to be guilty of. You can say this, where Jews are concerned, and nobody will bat an eyelid.
Comments
| 2 July 2009, 12:56 pm |
The son of a Palestinian Christian father and Jewish mother critiques the quality of Ben White’s scholarship:
| 2 July 2009, 1:00 pm |
Ben White again, in History, Myths, and All the News That’s Fit to Print
“It could be argued, therefore, that the comments made by Ahmadinejad in recent months are not anti-Semitic, and instead, throw rhetorical barbs at a subject that is taboo in Western nations, namely, the complex relationship between the Holocaust, anti-Semitism in Europe, Zionism’s beginnings, and continued support for Israel.”
Not a marvellous source, take care:
| 2 July 2009, 1:01 pm |
PS: Seismic Shock has much more on Ben White, http://seismicshock.wordpress.com/?s=ben+white
| 2 July 2009, 1:04 pm |
uppity, you were going for the parallelism of implying “but I can see why some do”?
| 2 July 2009, 1:09 pm |
Thanks Lucy I’ll link to that on Seismic. I wrote on him last month for HP:
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/06/13/bill-and-ben/
Since then, Ben White has tried to post as much as possible on Israel’s guilt. I think he’s not trying to prove Israel’s guilt to the world, so much as trying to prove to himself that his prejudices are OK. If you look at the blog titles he uses, he tries to mimic “hasbara” and “Zionist propaganda” in a “fresh and ironic way” (OK, my words not his).
Here’s a little example:
http://www.benwhite.org.uk/blog/?p=1228
None of his links
| 2 July 2009, 1:13 pm |
From: http://www.benwhite.org.uk/about/
“I am a writer and freelance journalist specialising in Palestine/Israel.”
Given how thoroughly discredited his writing on that topic is, I would hate to think how sloppy he is on his non-specialist subjects!
| 2 July 2009, 1:15 pm |
Also imagine if he started his article on Liberal Conspiracy with:
“I do not consider myself a supporter of South African apartheid, but I can understand those who were; similarly I do not consider myself an antisemite, but I can understand those who are.”
THAT kind of analogy doesn’t help his case at all!
| 2 July 2009, 1:26 pm |
You are absolutely right to posit the counter-factual example. It is racism, and it stains the Left that tolerates this kind of nonsense.
| 2 July 2009, 1:30 pm |
Here’s how he got to spend one of his summers in the West Bank:
http://www.churchillians.net/contact/page/binary/magic/47208/NL04.pdf
“Ben’s travels took him further afield, to Bethlehem, where he spent five weeks teaching conversational and colloquial English to students at the Bethlehem Bible College (right), a 25-year-old institution that offers theological and broader educational opportunities to local Palestinians, both Christian and Muslim. ‘I had been planning the trip for nine months and was immensely fortunate to arrive during a lull in the hostilities. As well as increasing my knowledge of the conflict I have established friendships that make me determined to return next summer.’
Note that he was working alongside those from Bethlehem Bible College.
Has he even been to South Africa?
And look who’s praising his book – none other than Alex Awad of the Bethlehem Bible College:
http://israeliapartheidguide.com/praise/
Alex Awad of the Bethlehem Bible College appeared at this conference alongside Fred Tobin, Stephen Sizer, Zahra Mostafavi, Khalid Meshal & Daud ‘You Sunk My Battleship’ Abdullah:
http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/03/25/some-awkward-questions-for-john-hubers/
| 2 July 2009, 1:33 pm |
I’m not a supporter of the BNP, but I can understand those who are. Many of them have been deprived of their land and livelihoods by incomers from different races, cultures and religions. It is therefore understandable for them to express their displaced anger through race hate…
| 2 July 2009, 1:35 pm |
The reason that much of the left ‘understands’ antisemitism is that they feel it themselves: they share the hatred of Israel, and share the urge to act on it, but know better than to go and break the windows of their local synagogue.
It goes a long way towards explaining why so much of the anti-racist left has shown no interest whatsoever in addressing the rise in antisemitism, other than to rubbish it as a chimera invented to silence criticism of Israel.
| 2 July 2009, 1:46 pm |
Ben White has a column up on Liberal Conspiracy, pushing his Israel = South Africa crap.
well, that article specifically critiques the idea that the two are the same but fuck it, that would only involve reading the damn thing as opposed to simply linking to it and slandering the bloke…
it’s no wonder you are so opposed to laws restricting libel and slander since this ‘lucy lips’ (david toube’s ‘controversial’ internet alter ego) seems unable to go a day without slandering someone in a boneheaded and almost entirely unsubstantiated manner.
this is poor writing even by HP Sauce standards.
| 2 July 2009, 2:01 pm |
Numbnuts
You’re the one with the comprehension problem. Yes, Ben White does argue that – despite all the presumed similarities – Israeli “apartheid” is not the same as South Africa’s.
He argues that it is worse.
Perhaps the main difference, however, is that whereas in South Africa, the white minority depended on the economic exploitation of the black population, Israel has always preferred to simply ‘disappear’ the Palestinians (their use by Israel as a cheap labour pool is more of a fallback position). In that sense, Israeli apartheid has been worse for the native ‘other’ than in the case of South Africa.
So, here we have a man who writes on liberal websites, give talks hosted by progressive charities, argues that racism against Jews (although he doesn’t agree with it) is understandable, and that Ahmadinejad is merely playing with taboos but is no antisemite.
At the same time, he claims that Israel’s battle with a political movement which openly promises the annihilation of both Jews and the destruction of the state in which they live, and its replacement with a theocracy, is far worse than South African apartheid.
In other words – White is a cunt, and so are you.
| 2 July 2009, 2:03 pm |
Ben White writes:
“Perhaps the main difference, however, is that whereas in South Africa, the white minority depended on the economic exploitation of the black population, Israel has always preferred to simply ‘disappear’ the Palestinians (their use by Israel as a cheap labour pool is more of a fallback position). In that sense, Israeli apartheid has been worse for the native ‘other’ than in the case of South Africa.”
So maybe Ben White does admit that the two things aren’t exactly the same, but he nevertheless does compare the two throughout the article. His point is not that Israel isn’t apartheid, it’s that it’s a different form of apartheid to South Africa – sometimes better, sometimes worse, but mostly different.
And, to add to his collection of faulty analogies (so far he’s clocked up: Israel/South Africa, Palestinians/native Americans, Holocaust denial/anti-imperialism), there’s a subtle comparison between Israel and Latin American dictatorships such as Pinochet’s Chile, as White claims that Israel ‘disappears’ Palestinians, which isn’t the case:
http://www.desaparecidos.org/chile/eng.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forced_disappearance
Perhaps this is all just sloppy language, but then again, accurate language is supposed to be Ben White’s job, n’est-ce pas?
| 2 July 2009, 2:08 pm |
Comparing Israel and South Africa in this way is as big an insult to black South Africans as it is to Israel, lumping them in as it does with genocidal terrorists.
| 2 July 2009, 2:09 pm |
Interesting contribution where Ken Bates loses a libel case against Melvyn Levi http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Ruling-in-Bates-libel-case.5422933.jp
The judge ruled that after Bates called Levi a “shyster”, and Levi responded “This is the sort of language a Nazi would use” that Levi did not imply that Bates was an antisemite (a counter claim).
Didn’t Bates have a run-in with Sir Alan Sugar when he was at Spurs and then with Spurs in general which I believe has always been in Jewish ownership in modern times. That does NOT mean Bates is an antisemite, remember that.
| 2 July 2009, 2:46 pm |
Who is Judge Sir Charles Gray?
Now, I do not consider myself as someone whose comments about the Golani Brigade merit pruning, but I can understand why some are.
| 2 July 2009, 2:54 pm |
Nobody could say they were innocent …
All those slags dancing around
| 2 July 2009, 3:11 pm |
Who is Judge Sir Charles Gray? Ans: The judge in the Irving trial.
| 2 July 2009, 3:19 pm |
So, LL, people who believe ‘that states run by black people are the more atriocious than anywhere else in the world’ are inevitably racists are they? (BTW love your spelling!).
You’d better send your tailor around to the guys running Transparency International and get them kitted out in KKK attire then-
http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi/2008
By my racist reckoning thats 7 black run states in the bottom 10.
| 2 July 2009, 3:22 pm |
I love the position of many on the left. They will freely admit that there has been rampant anti-semitism. For two thousand years. Now of course they refuse to acknowledge that any anti-semistism exists. It is only anti-zionism.
So, this begs the question. Where did all those anti-semites go.
Stan
| 2 July 2009, 4:31 pm |
The new slogan of the left,
“Dead Jews good, live Jews bad”
(mind you even here it is not quite true. It was only toward the lat minuted before nazism succeeded in destroying Weimar that the left took antisemitism seriously. Indeed, til then, they shared with them many of the images of “Jewish capital”).
As to BW’s bs……………..
Maybe BW and others support Brown’s gesture about “Local housing for local people”. After all, Brown appears to “understand” white racists and is responding to that “understanding”.
Similarly, White “understands” antisemitism and demands that Jews “respond” to that understanding by doing what the racists demand.
I remember the good ol days when to be antiracist meant that in seeking to analyse the cause of racism you
1. challenged the fundamental premise of racism , often be loooking at the nature of social and political relations, thereby, disabling the argument that racism has anything to to with the actual characterisitcs and empirical existence of the target of that racism.
2. Having done so, far from understanding blending into justifying racism, opppose it fully and without question, rather than leaving at the door of the abused group.
But, of course, that takes time, effort and intelligence.
BW evidently lacks all three.
| 2 July 2009, 4:37 pm |
ANother example of the internal contradictions of the antisemite.
First Jew-haters in the making, “respond to what they see on their televisions”
But, wait, is TV not a media and which White characterises as
“widespread bias and subservience to the Israeli cause in the Western media…”
So, how can antisemites “respond” to something that’s not there in the first place.
One of these (actually both, but be that as it may) are, logically, false.
But, as we know, logic and antisemitism are rarely talking partners.
| 2 July 2009, 4:42 pm |
Maybe it’s the heat. But who is Ben White and why is War on Want “hosting” him at Conway Hall?
| 2 July 2009, 5:08 pm |
‘I remember the good ol days when to be antiracist meant that in seeking to analyse the cause of racism you
1. challenged the fundamental premise of racism , often be loooking at the nature of social and political relations, thereby, disabling the argument that racism has anything to to with the actual characterisitcs and empirical existence of the target of that racism.
2. Having done so, far from understanding blending into justifying racism, opppose it fully and without question, rather than leaving at the door of the abused group.’
Translation- In the good ol days, and the present day for that matter, being a committed ‘anti racist’ requires immersing yourself in doublethink, wearing rose tinted spectacles, and wilfully ignoring inconvenient facts.
| 2 July 2009, 6:37 pm |
Lucy, excellent post, and many good comments with interesting links. The one provided by David Zeidan is truly a must read, because it turns out that BennyBoy thought he had the qualifications to review a book about Jihad — and Zeidan shows that for anyone with real qualifications, BenWhite made a complete fool of himself. Indeed, it becomes quickly obvious that BenWhite’s only qualification was his ideology which requires to downplay jihadism and to dismiss any religious motivation for jihadism… — after all, the existence of the “Zionist supremacist Apartheid entity” is enough of a reason to “understand” jihadism, isn’t it??????
So that’s actually quite similar to the piece modernity links to, where BenWhite* downplays Ahmadinejad’s threats against Israel and his Holocaust denial.
*modernity, how do you know that BenWhite is the author?
| 2 July 2009, 7:27 pm |
Petra MB – the original article is here:
http://www.benwhite.org.uk/2006/01/10/history-myths-and-all-the-news-thats-fit-to-print/
(since been deleted)
Anthony Julius first picked up on this article in January 2008:
Which might explain why Ben White himself is so cynical about Anthony Julius’ observations about antisemitism:
| 2 July 2009, 7:33 pm |
Ben White:
“Comparisons between the Israeli government and the Nazis is unwise and unsound, since the Israelis have not (at the time of going to press) exterminated in a systematic fashion an enormous percentage of the Palestinians. Cold-blooded killings, beatings, house demolitions, vandalism, occupation, military assaults, and two historical pushes at ethnic cleansing–yes. Full fledged genocide–no.”
….so Israeli’s systematic “extermination” is like the Nazis but just a smaller percentage of genocide, but not “full-fledged.”
…and under the cover of a peculiar attempt at humor (”at the time of going to press” ) nevertheless equates Israeli potential for Nazi -like genocide and extermination, while claiming to deny he is making the equation.
| 2 July 2009, 7:45 pm |
Mrs Ben, I wouldn’t say Ben White is a disgusting person who, after graduating with English Literature from Oxbridge, left the parental home at the vicarage to live in Sao Paolo from which he writes endless polemics, sourced from the Internet, against Israel. But I understand why some people do.
I would say, however, that War on Want is a borderline antisemitic organization which, amongst other japes, publishes Xmas cards with a pregnant Mary being assaulted by IDF soldiers.
| 2 July 2009, 8:16 pm |
SeismicShock, thanks for that. I also checked out your excellent blog.
It’s quite interesting that the piece on Ahmadinejad was deleted, because it wasn’t really any more embarrassing than the Counterpunch piece on his “understanding” for antisemitism; indeed, the Ahmadinejad piece is like an application of his understanding for antisemitism.
| 2 July 2009, 8:20 pm |
Does nobody, but absolutely nobody, on the far left have the intelligence that is required to understand that it’s the Jews who are the equivalent of the Native Americans, dispossessed from their ancient land but struggling to regain it?
White doesn’t, but then we do know that he is not the sharpest knife in the box. Ditto Rosen. Ditto plenty of others. But surely there must be ten righteous people in the city? Five? One?!
| 2 July 2009, 8:46 pm |
“Does nobody, but absolutely nobody, on the far left have the intelligence that is required to understand that it’s the Jews who are the equivalent of the Native Americans, dispossessed from their ancient land but struggling to regain it?”
Well, I have.
Meanwhile, how about “I don’t believe it is right to go shooting Arabs en masse, but I understand why Baruch Goldstein did”
“I don’t consider myself a genocidal mass murderer, but I understand why the Nazis were”
I don’t consider myself a racist either, but I understand why some are. Because they’re scumbags.
| 2 July 2009, 9:03 pm |
Mark,
I’ll keep it simple for you.
Once upon a time, antiracists argued that it was wrong to pick up on particular groups for things that originated elsewhere (i.e. in the economic, political, social situation) but which, for the racists, appeared to come from the Jews or whoever. So, they would challenge people who thought that, say, antisemitism was a consequence of what Jews or the Jews actually do or did.
Today, Ben White thinks that antisemitism is an “understandable” (direct) result of what Jews do. In other words, he blames the Jews for the hatred that antisemites have toward Jews. This is a bad and wrong thing, because antiracists used to defend people against racism rather than say it was “their” fault.
I hope this makes it clearer for you and does not call forth the anti-intellectualism squark of “doublethink” that is such a product of today’s failing education; a failing that you express in every word you wrote.
Do have a nice day.
| 2 July 2009, 10:12 pm |
Cipriano, I am glad you are. But why bring up Goldstein? There are vile people in every nation.
| 2 July 2009, 10:59 pm |
Who is Judge Sir Charles Gray?
Charles Gray was the best Blofeld in the best Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever. The next best is a matter of opinion, but I always liked Donald Pleasance in You Only Live Twice. But Gray was marvellous, incredibly camp and totally heartless, everything you want in a Blofeld.
Since this thread is about James Bond films, I have a theory that the quality of the film is directly proportional to the quality of the song; hence Dr No had the ok Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, and was therefore inferior to Goldfinger. Thunderball was poor, but On Her Majesty’s Secret Service underrated. Live and Let Die, The Man With the Golden Gun and The Spy who Love Me excellent, but Octopussy (All Time High by Rita Coolidge) dire. Slight improvement with A View to a Kill, but since then nothing worth mentioning until Casino Royale. More threads like this please.
| 3 July 2009, 12:02 am |
Charles Gray was the best Blofeld in the best Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever.
Heretic.
The Spy Who Loved Me is the best Bond Film.
| 3 July 2009, 12:55 am |
“The Spy Who Loved Me is the best Bond Film.”
It has nothing to do with the book apart from a sentence where Bond says he had previously been on a mission in which scientists had betrayed secrets about western nuclear submarines.
The entire novel of TSWLM is told in the first person of a nineteen year old Canadian Catholic girl who has a job in a camping site in the Adirondacks, which location the story never leaves.
But the sets and special effects of TSWLM are pretty darn good for the seventies.
Carl Jurgens was a good villain, as was Donald Sutherland in You Only Live Twice.
Blofeld never fully appears for From Russian with Love or Thunderball, but I think his voice is best for these: Hungarian (Jewish?) actor Erich Pohlman.
I also think Max Von Sydow is good in Never Say Never Again (whatever you think of the film, which I think is ok, actually).
The best Connery Bond film? I think Thunderball, actually, as do most voters: the most plausible plot for a start, and a wonderful appearance of a grand British aircraft, the mighty Vulcan.
Roger Moore? No question: Live and let Die, despite its echoes of Blaxploitation. Yaphet Kotto (another Yiddischer) is brilliant as Kananga (again not forgetting the generalizing about “negroes” in the original novel). Also check out Kotto’s Idi Amin in Raid on Entebbe. And the fantastic song by Wings.
And Jane Seymour as Solitaire: oh mama, wowsers, hubba hubba.
| 3 July 2009, 12:56 am |
But Charles Gray was good in DAF. Camp and sinister.
| 3 July 2009, 12:59 am |
“Charles Gray was the best Blofeld in the best Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever.”
It’s ok up to the crap climax, I think: a rubbishy set on an oil rig, and ridiculously implausible laser satellite. As for that escape submarine, what a joke.
Jill St John is horny as f***, no doubt.
| 3 July 2009, 1:39 am |
Agree with you on DAF, its an atrocious film with a horrible climax. Watched MwtGG last night….excellent first part, then loses it a bit. Watched LaLD a few days before…I had forgotten how stripped down it was compared to later Moore films. Due to watch Moonraker next, and am looking forward to it.
Strangely enough, I do rate FYEO…a proto-Casino Royale really. It has the best theme song of all Bonds however (along with LALD)
| 3 July 2009, 2:21 am |
Sheena Easton, beautiful little Scots lady with a beautiful big voice. Not a bad little film, and Topol, of course.
Moonraker. Very, very silly, and practically nothing to do with the novel. But a magnificent score by John Barry and there are some truly majestic moments, such as the space shuttle launch sequence (pre- the real shuttle), ascent into space and journey to Drax’s space station.
Barry’s score when the station appears from darkness is pretty awesome, I think.
And a very sexy latin samba disco rhythm theme song sung by Bassy. There is a nice little four note theme that echoes that of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Also, the scene at the end, Bond and Holly Goodhead (Lois Chiles: perhaps the most beautiful Bond girl ever) in Moonraker Six disappearing into the sun rise in low earth orbit: incredibly romantic, actually.
Re. TSWLM film, I forgot, Nobody does it Better, sung by the beautiful Carley Simon, one of the best Bond songs, if not the best.
| 3 July 2009, 8:47 am |
Best film with best song and certainly the best actor by a country mile: The Living Daylights. Plus best supporting actors. Plus best aerial sequences by far, even though the continuity is dire in some respects.
| 3 July 2009, 9:16 am |
Aha’s song is good, but not the best, I think. If we are going to include eighties male pop bands, then Duran Duran’s is better, though A View to Kill is fairly dire all told. Can’t agree re. aeriel sequences in TLD, though the Hercules’ jeep parachute drop is good, as well as parachute escape from a falling jeep in Gilbraltar at the beginning. Having said that, the fight off the back of the C-130 is a real stunt. So, I’d put it second after Moonraker.
Moonraker and the “parachuteless” jump and fight is the best aeriel stunt. Though the high altitude dive descent is good in Tomorrow Never Dies. Mini-jet sequence in Octopussy is fun, as are the jet gliders in Die Another Day. Also the mini-dog fight twixt C-47 and Tucano is surprisingly good old skool.
For its day, Vulcan hijack in Thunderball is pretty neat, though B-1B effects in Never Say Never Again are better. Also B-17 US coastguard rescue at the end of Thunderball is funny and real.
There never has been a US Air Force or RAF assault on the baddies’ base, apart from those Huges Defender helicopters on that wretched oil rig in DAF and, technically, that better US Air Force space shuttle’s on Drax’s space station in Moonraker (Broccoli’s bid for the “Star Wars” market).
Also that terrible false aeriel stunt at the beginning of Golden Eye (though radio control Mig 29 sequence over Severnaya was excellent).
| 3 July 2009, 9:19 am |
Though agree Timothy Dalton is the best actor up to Daniel Craig, perhaps, who I’d put equal.
| 3 July 2009, 9:20 am |
Unless we include David Niven.
| 3 July 2009, 9:21 am |
Dalton doesn’t come over as a real killer, which is what Flemming’s Bond is. Craig is more believable on that score.
| 3 July 2009, 9:22 am |
* Also the mini-dog fight twixt C-47 and Tucano is surprisingly good old skool IN A QUANTUM OF SOLACE.
| 3 July 2009, 2:22 pm |
Niven didn’t play it straight, though, but for laughs.
| 3 July 2009, 3:59 pm |
So what, exactly, is Ben White’s connection with War on Want?
| 3 July 2009, 4:05 pm |
To answer my own question, I googled War on Want and Palestine and found the following article in the Jewish Chronicle in May 2007:
“Charities planning to take part in next month’s pro-Palestinian rally in London, marking the 40th anniversary of the Six-Day War, have been warned to abide by regulations set out by the Charity Commission.
“At least nine major charities are expected to take part in the demonstration on June 9, which the organisers claim will attract tens of thousands of participants. They include Friends of the Earth, War on Want, Medical Aid for Palestinians and Interpal.
“A spokesman for the commission said it had received messages of concern that by supporting the Enough Coalition rally, the groups may be breaking the rules preventing charities from becoming political bodies.
“We contacted all the charities involved, reminding them of the factors they should consider when becoming involved with this sort of initiative,” said a spokesman.
“The watchdog had reminded them of its guidance on campaigning and political activities.
“According to the Commission’s regulations, charities are allowed to take part in demonstrations or political campaigning designed to further their philanthropic aims.
“But it adds: “An organisation set up for a purpose… of advocating or opposing a change in the law or public policy in this country or abroad, or supporting a political party, cannot be a charity.”
| 3 July 2009, 4:09 pm |
And again in May 2008 (this time from the Scottish Palestinian Solidarity Campaign’s website):
“The British NGO War on Want has been warned by the Charity Commission for deviating from its mission in a pro-Palestinian campaign.
“In the last few years, War on Want, a London-based charity focused on “fighting global poverty,” has campaigned to remove the West Bank security barrier; called for sanctions against Israel and the annulment of the Jewish state’s trade deal with European Union, the EU-Israel Association Agreement; and accused Israel of carrying out a “campaign of apartheid.”
“The registered charity also blames Israel for the poverty in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and calls for a boycott of organizations that “profit from the occupation.”
“Following a number of complaints to the commission, including one from Teresa Villiers, the Conservative Party’s shadow secretary of state for transport, alleging the charity was abusing its status with highly politicized campaigns that demonize Israel, the regulatory body said it had reminded War on Want about its obligations as a registered charity.
“The Charity Commission has taken these concerns very seriously and we have addressed these issues with the trustees of War on Want,” the commission wrote to a London-based lawyer who had complained about the pro-Palestinian campaign.
“The commission said it had received assurances from the NGO’s trustees that they would review their strategy and not violate their remit as a charity.
“We have reminded the trustees that a charity may only engage in campaigning and political activity which is directly related to its charitable purposes.
“In addition, the Charity Commission has gained written assurances from the trustees that they will review their strategy on a political campaigning and consult with us before pursuing further controversial campaigns, in order to ensure that they do not exceed the restrictions on political activity by charities,” the letter read.
“The Charity Commission also promised to continue to monitor War on Want’s work.”
Mmmm
| 3 July 2009, 4:20 pm |
But then WoW director John Hilary, who will be discussing Ben Whites new book on Palestine with him at the meeting, has as they say, form.
In August 2008, WoW director John Hilary described a recent investigation by the Charity Commission, as “part of an ongoing strategy by an organised pro-Israel lobby and the Jewish press”. Interviewed in Third Sector magazine, he accused “he accused “ill-meaning journalists” of deliberately misrepresenting the investigation, and cites “abusive calls from Zionists”.
There is a long piece on the WoW website which lays all the blame for the troubles of the Palestinian people at the door of the isreali “occupation” of Gaza. (http://www.waronwant.org/campaigns/fighting-occupation-in-palestine) . No mention of Hamas violence or corruption or any of Hamas’s violent campaign against its fellow citizens which split off Gaza from the West Bank.
| 3 July 2009, 5:55 pm |
very good post. thanks. Nice and to the point.
| 13 July 2009, 12:48 pm |
The obsession over Israel and the Jews would not be nearly as intense if it weren’t highly profitable. So-called “missionaries” can make a splendid living by repeating the politically correct bromides that everyone wants to hear, travelling in style back and forth from the Holy Land. There are those who want to convert them, those who want to bash them but whatever the case, it means big bucks.
Cabbagejuice has an introduction to missionary politics:
http://cabbagejuice.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/missionary-racket-in-the-holy-land/
| 22 July 2009, 10:24 pm |
The best way to look at is this: Be racist as much as possible.
However direct this racsim against one particular race, The Dirty Stinking Scumbag Human Race. For all the good in the world, evil always prevails and we’re all to blame. This will probably take flack but will just prove my point. This is because somone will waste their life with more negative criticism instead of saying something positive… it’s just the human condition
I don’t personally think that Ben White is a closet Neo-Nazi who deserves to get the shit kicked out of him for inspiring and enabling racism.