Ken Loach forced out of charity competition following Zionist lobbying!

Film Director Ken Loach

The 83-year-old film director Ken Loach, has been forced to withdraw as a judge in the 2020 School Competition run by the anti-racism charity 'Show Racism the Red Card'(SRtRC).

At the beginning of February the charity announced that Ken Loach and the former children's laureate Michael Rosen were to judge this year's competition which involves thousands of schoolchildren from various schools, producing poetry, drama and films, and other creative work, on combatting racism. The Chief Executive of the Charity and its trustees, said that both Loach and Rosen, were ideally qualified to choose the competition winners.

Rosen and Loach were then subjected to a torrent of abuse and an aggressive campaign - both on-line and in print - making allegations of baseless anti-Semitism, particularly directed at Ken Loach, who for decades through the medium of film, has consistently campaigned to expose inhumanity, inequality, and injustice, in films like 'Cathy Come Home' (1966), and 'Kes' (1969), and more recently, 'I Daniel Blake' (2016).

Among those who demanded the removal of Ken Loach as a competition judge, was the 'Board of Deputies of British Jews'. But during discussions between Loach and SRtRC, it became evident that the charity had been the subject of an aggressive campaign to persuade trade unions, government departments, football clubs, and politicians, to cease funding and supporting the charity and its work. It is understood that behind the scenes pressure threatened to wreck not only the competition and the charity's existence, but the reputation of Ken Loach. It is also alleged that members of the charity's staff were insulted and threatened along with members of Loach's family who were subjected to personal abuse on-line.

More than 200 eminent public figures, including Eric Cantona, Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Mark Rylance, the film director, Mike Leigh, and Steve Coogan, have come out publicly in support of Loach. Steve Coogan said:

"His entire career has been to shine a light on the plight of the dispossessed and the disenfranchised. His films give a voice to the voiceless...Ken Loach's legacy will remain long after his critics have gone."

The allegations made against Ken Loach, stem from his support for pro-Palestinian Labour party members who have been accused of anti-Semitism and are directly linked to the attempt to redefine anti-Semitism and conflate it with any criticism of Zionism and Israel's treatment of the Palestinian people, as the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, seeks to do.

For decades, Loach has been seen as something of an hate figure for Zionists and a thorn in their side. In 1987, the play 'Perdition', written by Jim Allen and directed by Ken Loach, which dealt with the alleged collaboration between the Zionist movement in Hungry and the Nazi's, was cancelled on the day before the first preview performance at London's Royal Court Theatre, following outside pressure on the theatre to cancel all performances of the play. Loach told a newspaper that he "hadn't tangled with the Zionist lobby before" and "what is amazing is the strength and organisation and power of the lobby."