Francis Clark-Lowes’ Appeal Speech to PSC
by Gilad Atzmon
Saturday, January 21st, 2012
Introduction by Gilad Atzmon: Francis Clark-Lowes, an academic, former Chair of the National PSC and former chairman of the Brighton branch for Palestinian Solidarity, appealed today to the PSC AGM against his recent expulsion from the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign.
Clark-Lowes has been maintaining, for a while. that the opposition to the Jewish State and Zionism, should attempt to grasp the true nature of the Jewish State and Jewish ideology. Being a leading UK Palestinian solidarity activist, Clark-Lowes has challenged the notion of the ‘primacy of Jewish suffering’. This was apparently enough for the PSC’s Executive Committee to expel him last year on the ground of ‘anti Semitism’.
Earlier today, Clark-Lowes’ appeal to the PCS AGM was rejected.
I tend to believe that the PSC’s Executive Committee has lost its way. In the last year it repeatedly bowed to Zionist pressure groups. Together with some Jewish anti Zionist bodies, it expelled and marginalised some of UK’s leading activists and thinkers. At a certain stage, it was even applauded by the notorious Zionist Jewish Chronicle.
Instead of being an umbrella organisation that encourages open debate and pluralism on issues to do with Palestine and the conflict, the PSC’s central body has become a narrow-minded political indoctrinating instrument, engaged primarily with the fight against anti Semitism. This is very tragic indeed, but at least it is all in the open.
The PSC’s Executive Committee should be reminded that political battles come to an end, but ideas, spirit and truth remain.
Read Francis Clark-Lowes beautiful words and judge for yourself.
Appeal Speech to PSC AGM Delegates, 21st January 2012
by Francis Clark-Lowes
So, here I stand before you, ex-Chair of PSC, founder and ex-Chair of Brighton & Hove PSC, accused of being a racist, an anti-Semite, a Nazi sympathiser, a capitulator to Zionism, a pre-judger of Jews, an ‘upper-class fascist twit,’ a ‘Holocaust’ denier.
I’ve stopped defending myself against such descriptions, and have even, paradoxically, embraced them at times. How else do you challenge the simplistic mindset from which they arise?
From my background in German-Jewish Studies, I have come to believe that a major contributor to that mindset is a story of innate Gentile hatred of Jews, and consequent perennial Jewish suffering.
Zionism was consciously constructed on the foundation of this same unlikely story, and therefore required its maintenance and protection.
The carefully nurtured and moulded ‘Holocaust’ narrative has done a good deal of that job since the Second World War. But more fundamental is the prohibition on all discussion of Jews which does not accord with their own collective view of themselves – that is of a uniquely talented and uniquely suffering people. Hence the extraordinary move to ban any questioning of the ‘Holocaust’ narrative at this AGM.
Of course there are Jews who challenge elements of Jewish ideology. But these exceptions don’t invalidate, in principle, generalisations about Jews. That would be like saying you mustn’t describe dogs as quadrupeds because some of that species have lost a leg.
Put simply, the idea that Gentiles have an anti-Semitic gene, the story of Jewish suffering, the ‘Holocaust’ myth, Zionism, Jewish chauvinism, and anti-racist rhetoric have combined into an ideology which, because it is virtually unsinkable in its own terms, is immensely powerful. Breach one compartment of the vessel, and bulkheads protect the others to ensure the ship stays afloat.
Consequently, whatever we may say, no ambitious Western leader will be foolish enough to propose effective action against Israel, let alone to criticise the concept of Zionism. To do so is to risk being accused of anti-Semitism and enabling (quotes) ‘another Holocaust’. That’s a career stopper!
I am taken to task for capitulating to the Zionist narrative. Instead I should join forces with anti-racists to eliminate prejudice and thereby prove the Zionist story false. But what Zionist, let alone any intelligent person, is going to accept that generalisation, a crucial function of the brain, can be extinguished?
With all the difficulties there may be in defining groups and their cultures, and in estimating their power, without doing so we cannot make sense of the world. For a group to exist it must make itself recognisable, to its members and to others, and if a group can be recognised, then it can also be judged – positively, neutrally or negatively.
PSC’s acquiescence in the tendency to regard dislike of groups a cardinal sin is weakening ‘our,’ or should I already be saying ‘your’, organisation. Campaigning organisations turn to in-fighting when the force they seek to overcome appears insuperable. ‘If you can’t beat them, blame your comrades,’ seems to be the thought.
But the key to resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict lies in our hands. Instead of cowering in fear at the use Zionists might make of what we say, and desperately scouring every word uttered on this subject to root out supposed anti-Semitism, we should be challenging Jewish ideology. Anything less does the Israelis’ work for them and exposes the Palestinians to yet more grinding oppression.
I understand your reluctance to agree with me, but I am still prepared to work within PSC. All I ask is that you respect my right to free thought and speech. Readmit me, and you will have taken a step towards creating a more effective broad-based organisation.
Posted by Gilad Atzmon
on January 21, 2012. Filed under Palestine.
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13 Responses to Francis Clark-Lowes’ Appeal Speech to PSC
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Edithann
January 21, 2012 at 6:45 pm
Does anyone know the premise of Judaism?
Our small world is influenced by a Jewish philosophy that insists on being kept secret.
The bulwark of ‘anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial’ is used as means of control. It’s now time this control be investigated and particularly investigated by non Jews. Anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial is the Jewish ‘sledgehammer’ that controls and influences many, too many lives, from political systems, to big and international businesses all the way down to the common man on the street..
Francis Clark-Lowes:
” we should be challenging Jewish ideology”.
The premise of Judaism as a religion and ideology must be opened to the world for serious study. The study must ‘not’ be limited to Jews it must be studied by all non-Jews.
The tenets of the Torah/Talmud, with all it’s voluminous interpretations and reinterpretations must be critically examined in depth and it’s scholarly findings published to the world.
There are very few books on the topic, such as THE WANDERING WHO?, by Gilad Atzmon and books by Israel Shahak, all under serious threat as you can imagine..
We are all living on a shrinking planet, and must know who is living long side.
Are Jews/Zionists/Israeli’s working to extinguish anti-Semitism or encouraging it?
Edithann
Jonathon Blakeley
January 21, 2012 at 7:40 pm
Well said, indeed being critical of anything Jewish has become a massive Taboo. Thereby censoring open and free debate. This has also fueled fear and mistrust of Jews to their detriment. Which aslo ironically justifies their fear of Gentiles.
Being an “anti-semite or holocaust denier” or even a flirter with holocaust denial are the new labels for being a WITCH. Controlling people though words they try to control the group mind with their media influence and their toxic sound bytes.
In answer to your excellent question…
~ probably both. As the PSC/CST/LFI/CFI LDFI; when taken together as a whole, …both.
PeaceMonger
January 22, 2012 at 1:03 am
Can we please have a little more information about the deliberations and vote at the PSC AGM?
somoe
January 22, 2012 at 11:00 am
Are any real Palestinian issues ever debated or discussed in as much depth as ‘rooting out anti-semites and holocaust deniers’ at the PSC AGMs?
One has to wonder at the point of being associated with an organisation that seems to have drifted so far off track.
What is being done to improve the lot of the palestinians being so ruthlessly oppressed in their occupied homeland? How are donated funds being used to support their interests and those of diaspora palestinians? Can one examine the books to answer these questions?
Francis Clarke-Lowes is absolutely correct in that the jewish ideology is at the heart of the issue and much of what is wrong with our world today – and if we fail to scrutinise and recognise how arguments and world leaders are being manipulated, we will not rise to the challenge facing all freedom and truth loving people of the world.
Tony Greenstein
January 22, 2012 at 2:41 pm
Peacemonger see
http://azvsas.blogspot.com/2012/01/psc-agm-crushing-defeat-for-gilad.html
Zarina Bhatia
January 22, 2012 at 8:23 pm
This is the first time I can see members of PSC looking fat themselves in the mirror, I mean those of Jewish background. I hope they feel guilty of aborting the aims of PSC and quietly quit. I did for totally different reasons as I feel deceived by all the subscriptions and donations I gave to this organisation thinking they were serving the interest of displaced and humiliated Palestinians. i should have know better, decades ago!
Andi
January 29, 2012 at 8:38 am
With all these silly websites, such a great page keeps my itnrneet hope alive.
Jonathon Blakeley
January 22, 2012 at 8:31 pm
~ Zarina Bhatia
Indeed it is travesty and I really feel they are breaking basic guidelines as laid down by the charity commission.
Anthony Lawson
January 23, 2012 at 6:09 am
I have long thought that the voluble defensiveness which so many people show towards the utterly misleading and misused accusations of anti-Semitism and Holocaust Denial & Revisionism are exactly what Zionists are aiming at. It deflects our energies away from the reality of what has been going on in Palestine ever since (and probably long before) the declaration of the Jewish/Zionist state of Israel.
It also deflects us from assessing the effect that the Jewish Declaration of Economic War on Germany, in 1933, had on the following period of almost world-wide suffering up until the end of WW II. I am not just talking about Jewish suffering, I am talking about the suffering of the almost 60 million people who died as well as those who were severely injured, and of their relatives and descendants; those Chosen as well as Un-Chosen human beings who were drawn into a war for which International Jewry and nascent Zionism must accept, at least, some of the blame.
The response to the way that non-Jews and non-Zionists react to the spurious anti-Semitic and Denial accusations, along with the others that go with them, can be summed up as:
“Any attack against Zionism or Israel’s policies towards the Palestinians or its neighbours amounts to an attack on our religion and sacred beliefs.” etc. etc.
… and should be countered with something like:
“The Judaic claim to be God’s Chosen People is abhorrent to all those who wish for peace and harmony in the world. It should be equally abhorrent to Christian Zionists who embrace it by showing their support for Israel and its inhumane, Apartheid policies which amount to an attempt to ethnically cleanse a large area of the Middle East so that Israel can do as it pleases in the space that it requires.”
All other arguments are like discussing the weather, because there can be no doubt that, despite constant disclaimers, it is manifestly clear that Zionists do think of themselves as being superior to all other human beings, which is not only indefensible but utterly stupid and can only lead to a clash of ideologies the outcome of which will be of benefit to no one, and which will leave those Zionists who survive wondering who they can blame for what they instigated by their total disregard for the sensibilities and ambitions of anyone, other than themselves.
Jeff Blankfort
January 23, 2012 at 7:02 am
I am all too familiar with the mentality that has led to Francis Clark-Lowes being expelled from the Palestinine Solidarity Committee, having seen various versions of the same in the four decades I have worked on this issue in the US.
A charter member of the Nov. 29th Committee for Palestine in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 80s, which morphed into the Palestine Solidarity Committee, I observed how well-meaning Jewish Marxists and Trotskyists, were unable or unwilling to recognize how their tribal membership was influencing their decisions and, in turn, those of the Palestinians who looked to them for guidance.
If one is looking for any single factor to explain the utter failure of the movement in this country to impact US policy or broaden the scope of solidarity with the Palestinians and opposition to Israel, that is it.
A single example will suffice. In the 80s, the Nicaraguan Solidarity movement mounted a national campaign to get the US government not to send $15 million to the Contras, an amount which was close to what the US was providing to Israel (on average) on a daily basis. That campaign succeeded which led to the Iran-Contra scandal.
Yet despite the billions of dollars in aid, arms and loan guarantees that the US had provided Israel there has not been to this day a national campaign to stop that aid.
BDS is fine but it is not the same and thus far in the US it has not been universally embraced. What we have been left with for the past two decades is the useless slogan, “End the Occupation!,” which not only most Americans would not have a clue as to what it meant if they heard it, but it fails to account for the fact that it is not occupation that is the problem for Palestinians but dispossession and annexation of their land.
In 2003 I wrote about the problem in an article entitled “The Israel Lobby and the Left: Uneasy Questions” which those interested can find here: http://www.leftcurve.org/LC27WebPages/IsraelLobby.html
Jay Knott
February 3, 2012 at 3:37 am
What’s needed is a Palestine solidarity campaign which doesn’t give in to Zionist pressure.
Lorie
January 28, 2012 at 4:43 am
Super blog post, I am viewing back regularly to search for improvements.
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