by Chris Draper
WHEN “North-West Friends of Israel” (NWFOI) and other assorted Zionists tried to provoke a city-wide boycott of an “Interfaith Conference for Palestine” they got more than they bargained for when their bigoted and abusive behaviour was exposed and denounced by Chester community leader Roderick Heather MBE.
The
free entry, open-to-all conference was due to begin at St Columba’s
Church, Chester on 1st November 2019 but forty-eight hours
before it convened a wolfpack spearheaded by NWFOI and led by Anthony
Dennison and Raphi Bloom, bombarded Chester’s numerous church halls
and community venues with telephone calls, emails and social media
messaging all warning them not to host this conclave of
“Anti-Semites, Holocaust Deniers and Hate-Speakers”.
Unfortunately for the bigots after they succeeded in bullying the
Bishop of Shrewsbury into cancelling the church booking the
Conference found an ideal alternative at Hoole Community Centre where
the Chairman of the Trustees, Roderick Heather courageously withstood
a barrage of intimidatory NWFOI communications.
Unlike
the local Labour MP Chris Matheson who ignorantly obliged local
reporters with prejudiced and ill-informed comments of the “We
don’t want holocaust deniers in our town” type, Roderick
Heather actually took the trouble to attend the conference as an
observer and judge for himself whether this was indeed an
anti-semitic event or rather, a free, open-minded conference which
included criticism of Israeli State policy.
After
spending a day at the Conference, Mr Heather informed those attending
that he was very impressed by the content of speeches, quality of
discussion and conduct of the meeting and assured everyone present
that they would always be welcome to return to the Hoole Centre. This
contrasted with his conclusions about the behaviour of the NWFOI and
to them he addressed the following message;
“Your
intervention (and the various other coordinated extreme ones we
received today) did nothing to help foster good community relations
here in Chester or to improve the understanding and sympathy for the
Jewish cause nationally in the UK. The ill-informed and bigoted
telephone and social media campaign that we have witnessed today is a
disgrace. It was unfounded and unnecessary and has done your cause
much harm. Be aware that I am ensuring that as many people as
possible (locally and nationally) are made aware of the vitriolic,
verbal bullying we have been subjected to today.”
Roderick
Heather MBE
Chairman
Hoole Community Trust
The
North’s Zionist lobby is demonstrably determined to intimidate
anyone who sticks their head above the parapet and criticises Israel.
The tactic is to conflate criticism of Israel with anti-semitism.
Jews who criticise Israel (like those who attended the Chester
conference) are branded “self-hating Jews” and dismissed.
Archbishop Tutu describes Israel as an apartheid state but merely to
agree with him is sufficient grounds for anyone to be expelled from
the Labour Party. Free speech is a precious commodity that’s found
a friend in Mr Heather and sinister enemies in NWFOI. Perhaps Mr
Dennison, Mr Bloom, Mr Matheson or the Bishop of Shrewsbury would
care to reply and offer a justification for their appalling behaviour
but I rather think not for they evidently fear quiet, honest, open,
reasoned debate.
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