Waterstones cancel the book launch

https://azvsas.blogspot.com/2019/11/book-review-for-book-zionists-tried-to.html

Book Review for the Book The Zionists Tried to Ban - Bad News for Labour UCL Backs Off Speech Restrictions at the Book Launch for  The Responsibility of Intellectuals   Reflections by Noam Chomsky and othe...

AS you may recall, this book by 5 distinguished academics – Greg Philo, Mike Berry, Justin Schlosberg, Antony Lerman and David Miller – was due to have its book launch in Brighton on September 23^rd during the Labour Party conference.

However a barrage of abuse from the Zionists and the normal accusations of ‘anti-Semitism’, ‘baiting the Jewish community’ (trans. disagreeing with Zionists) led Waterstones to cancel the book launch at the last minute.  Their Head Office took the decision to overrule the local store. The pretext was a lack of professional organisation. James Daunt, their CEO, who I spoke to during this affair, insisted that this was the only reason but it was so obviously not true that he has subsequently admitted that the cancellation was a mistake.  Waterstone’s have promised to reschedule the book launch which we await with baited breath.

What this demonstrates, along with the attempt by University College London to impose restrictions on the October 29^th book launch for The Responsibility of Intellectuals – Reflections by Noam Chomsky and other intellectuals is that freedom of speech is under attack by the Zionist lobby and its neo-liberal friends in this country. 

Professor Chris Knight, one of the authors, wrote to me two weeks before to say that the 5 restrictions below were being placed on the launch by UCL authorities.  I responded by saying that they must refuse to comply.  If necessary the book launch must take place on the steps of UCL.  The McCarthyites must be forced to back down.

I’m pleased to say that Chris and others took my advice and faced with the ensuing embarrassment the university authorities backed down.  You only have to look at the five restrictions to see how unacceptable they are.  Once again we see how the Labour Party ‘anti-Semitism’ smear campaign has spread outwards.  Here are the 5 restrictions that UCL were forced to abandon:

1.     Suggestions (overt or implied) that Jews as a group or particular sections of the British Jewish community invent, exaggerate or “weaponise” incidents of antisemitism for political or other benefit

2.     Suggestions (overt or implied) that Jews as a group or particular sections of the British Jewish community exploit or exaggerate the Holocaust for political or other benefit

3.     Use (overt or implied) of “dual loyalty” tropes relating to Jews as a group or particular sections of the British Jewish community and the State of Israel – for example that they are “controlled” by Israel or are working on behalf of Israel to the detriment of Britain

4.     Suggestions (overt or implied) that antisemitism is a less toxic form of racism than any other and/or that Jews are less vulnerable to discrimination than other minority groups

5.     Repetition (overt or implied) of antisemitic tropes relating to Jews and money and/or Jewish financial involvement in historical events or injustices – for example that Jews financed wars, slavery, etc

All 5 are contentious:

1.       The idea that Jews (they mean Zionists) don’t weaponise anti-Semitism is laughable.   That is all the Board of Deputies and groups like the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism do!  If you want proof you only need look as far as the front page story in the Jewish Chronicle this week which states that: 

“The vast majority of British Jews consider Jeremy Corbyn to be an antisemite. In the most recent poll, last month, the figure was 87 per cent.”