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*Thread* Thanks to the determination of independent councillor Dany Louise, Hastings council has adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism by 27 votes against one abstention.
The abstention is no surprise - it's Leah Levane. 1/11 https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/hastings-council-adopts-full-ihra-definition-after-long-running-battle-with-labour-group-1.507830
The abstention is no surprise - it's Leah Levane. 1/11 https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/hastings-council-adopts-full-ihra-definition-after-long-running-battle-with-labour-group-1.507830
Levane is co-chair of "Jewish Voice for Labour", a group dedicated to protecting antisemites in the party and attacking their opponents. In fact, this is what attracted her to Labour in 2015 after an absence stretching all the way back to the miners' strike of the 1980s. 2/11
It's in the open. Here she takes Corbyn’s side squarely, claiming the party had been “vilified as rife with anti-semitism” when the numbers were “tiny”. Antisemitism was ”also being used as a weapon by more right-wing parts of the Labour Party”. 3/11 https://hastingsonlinetimes.co.uk/hot-topics/politics/leah-levane-speaks-a-labour-councillors-ideas-for-hastings
Or see this letter, where she laments the "vituperative campaign against Jackie Walker". She did this *after* Walker was expelled from Labour in one of the highest profile antisemitism cases. 4/11 https://www.theguardian.com/news/2019/apr/03/the-expulsion-of-jackie-walker-from-the-labour-party
Tony Greenstein is an even more notorious figure in the crisis. So was Levane prepared to share a platform with him at an Israel hatred event in 2019, a year *after* he was expelled from Labour? Of course she was. 5/11 https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/infamous-anti-israel-activist-tony-greenstein-called-jewish-state-hitler-s-bastard-offspring-1.486314
At the event, Greenstein called Israel “Hitler’s bastard offspring because the ideology, the ideology that permeates Israel, Jewish racial supremacy, originated in the fascist states of Europe”.
Did Levane take her distance from Greenstein? No, she recommended him. 6/11
Did Levane take her distance from Greenstein? No, she recommended him. 6/11
When she was asked by an audience member about “the parallels of Zionism and fascism”, Levane said “I’m not an expert. Tony however is, go see Tony he knows a lot more than I do.” 7/11
Keep in mind that "Jewish Voice for Labour" is beyond the pale even for Momentum founder Jon Lansman. In 2019, he said that the group is "part of the problem and not part of the solution to antisemitism in the Labour Party". 8/11 https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/lansman-launches-attack-on-jewish-voice-for-labour-1.485690
Moreover, “too many of its members self-define as 'Jews' only to attack other Jews” and “neither the vast majority of individual members of JVL nor the organisation itself can really be said to be part of the Jewish community”. 9/11
For more Hastings Labour horrors, turn to Dany Louise's blog. Note how deep the ugly Israel obsession is, and how little it does for Hastings. 10/11
https://danylouise.wordpress.com/2019/11/25/antisemitism-in-hastings-labour/
https://danylouise.wordpress.com/2019/11/25/antisemitism-in-hastings-labour/
Hastings deserves better. And if Labour wants to move on from one of the darkest periods of its history, it must leave Leah Levane and "Jewish Voice for Labour" behind.
Hey, they could always team up with that lovable Labour tearaway Chris Williamson. 11/11
Hey, they could always team up with that lovable Labour tearaway Chris Williamson. 11/11
