Antisemitism is
widespread in the world, along with many other hatreds and
discriminations based on religious beliefs, race, ethnicity, social
class, gender, sexual orientation and physical and mental abilities.
No surprise, then, that antisemitism exists in the British Labour
Party. Hatreds and discriminations are potent political tools, used
widely by opposing political groupings.
To bait fish
withal: if it will feed nothing else,
it will feed my
revenge.
In a world where
powerful states base themselves directly and indirectly on belief in
gods, the manner of making critical comments about such states is
compromised by the possibility of criticising the beliefs and the
people who hold them.
The spectrum of
theocratic and near-theocratic states is wide, running from the
United States of America, where the head of state, the President,
closes public pronouncements with 'God Bless America', to Saudi
Arabia, where monarchs, great allies of the USA, oversee a despotic
regime, consistent with their preferred form of Islam, which, like
all religions, is comprised of many variations. The state of Israel
privileges Judaism. Pakistan and Iran privilege Islam. The head of
state of the United Kingdom, the monarch, must be a member of a
particular Christian church. Could Putin and Kim Il-Jong be seen as
privileging secularism into a form of 'god on earth', in Russia and
North Korea, with leaders having access to nuclear capabilities?
The recent upheavals
in the British Labour Party surrounding allegations of antisemitism
show the potency of that manifestation of hatred and discrimination as
a political tool. Particular orientations, in relation to responses
to the circumstances of the Palestinian people, mean that criticism
of the actions of the state of Israel are often on the lips of
members of that political party.
That there is
antisemitism in the British Labour Party is without doubt the case.
That opponents of the party, and the current party leader, might use
this as a stick with which to beat them is also no doubt the case.
Ken Livingstone's mini-marathon of media recordings that launched the
recent row says as much about the febrile nature of allegations of
antisemitism as it does about the man (Drink taken? Loose cannon?
Mouth almighty? Egotist? Celebrity ex-politician?) or the party's
opponents (The Murdoch press? The Tories?) and their
ability to use antisemitism as a political tool.
How do you make
critical statements or express critical opinions about the state of
Israel or the current regime there? With very great difficulty and
with maximum sensitivity, that in making such criticisms you are
challenging power orthodoxies based on huge international support for
the state of Israel by the United States of America.
If
you prick us, do we not bleed?
if
you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us,
do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge?
Even Shakespeare may
be flummoxed. Any number of categories of people could be put into
his great speech from The Merchant of Venice.
I
am a Jew/Muslim. Hath
not
a Jew/Muslim eyes? hath not a Jew/Muslim hands, organs,
dimensions,
senses, affections, passions?
That the Middle East
is the hub of these matters is no surprise. Three of the world's
great trades have hubs there: weaponry, oil, digital security. Three
of the world's great monotheistic religions have hubs there: Judaism,
Islam and Christianity. There are problems with all states in the
region, problems that are actual in themselves and also as proxies
for problems across the world as experienced and promoted by the
Great Powers.
The approach to
criticisms then needs to be infused with a quality of mercy;
something only found in the heart, where mercy should season justice,
yet it is this very justice, as an ideal and as a lived experience,
which is most contested.
Is it overly
pessimistic to suggest that villainy is the order of the day and the
basis of all human activity?
The
villainy you
teach
me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
will better the
instruction.
When mercy seasons
justice, might there be some possibility of criticism begin heard and
acted upon? But then again are not 'mercy' and 'justice' political
tools, often aggressively used as such?
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