Jackie Walker is a life-long political activist who has been fighting racism her entire life. However, very recently, she along with many others on the left have been accused of anti-Semitism for voicing their opinions on Israel.
The current Labour leadership, the Corbyn revolution, is the greatest challenge to the establishment this country has seen for some time. Jeremy Corbyn has opposed racism and oppression all his life; but this didn’t safeguard him against charges of anti-Semitism.
Attempts to smear Corbyn started as soon as he became a leadership candidate. The media twisted every statement to paint Corbyn as an anti-Semite. And the right-wing of the Labour Party joined in for their own political purposes.
Until May of this year I was known, or in truth barely known, as a lifelong anti-racist, an activist, trainer, teacher, writer and vice Chair of Momentum, the group that wants to support Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party.
As a young woman I was active in the anti-Apartheid and boycott movements against apartheid South Africa. It was a logical progression to become a supporter of Palestinian rights and of the movement to boycott Israeli products.
I do not believe in the destruction of the Israeli state. But neither do I believe that any state should base its law, decide who can buy land etc., according to what your religion is or who your ancestors were, which is what happens in present-day Israel. So why have I been suspended from the Labour Party (twice)?
Last year a group called the Israel Advocacy Movement hacked my private Facebook account, took this information and chopped it into sections and then gave it to the Jewish Chronicle (a British newspaper that supports Zionism). The Chronicle reported me to the Labour Party, who then suspended me for being a racist — to be specific, an anti-Semite. The rest of the media followed their lead.
I was investigated, nothing was found. But that didn’t stop the witch-hunt. I have many supporters, but since May there has been an unremitting campaign against me.
Just to make it clear — there are no hierarchies where racism is concerned — all racism is abhorrent. But while there may be no hierarchies of racism, there appears to be a very well policed hierarchy of what kind of racism concerns the British media and establishment. You should ask, why is that happening?
The Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement on his Facebook page this year, compared the boycott movement to a ‘new Holocaust’; a ‘strategic threat’. That means as boycott activists we are up there alongside Iran’s nuclear weapons and Hamas. Yes, that’s me. The Israeli government allocated millions to undermine the activists (like me) by whatever means.
There are anti-Semites out there. There are racists out there. But this recent smear of anti-Semetism has been used to bully and silence, to harass and libel not just individuals … but an entire movement, especially the part of the Labour movement that has been the most active and committed to opposing all forms of racism wherever it occurs.
If you want to find out more, I suggest watching the following documentaries — particularly numbers 2 and 3.
Episode 1: The Battle for Britain’s Youth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceCOhdgRBoc&feature=youtu.be
Episode 2: The Training Session
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vuk1EhkEctE
Episode 3: The Anti-Semitic Trope
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3dn-VV3czc
Episode 4: The Takedown
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pddH2sfNKNY
