Press release by Labour Against Zionist Islamophobic Racism (LAZIR)

The Labour Party is set to expel yet another member for voicing opposition to Zionist racism and Israeli apartheid.

Pete Gregson, Chair of Labour Against Zionist Islamophobic Racism (LAZIR) and party activist of some 40 years standing, has since 1October 2018 been subject to an investigation by the Labour Disputes Team. He responded to the first tranche of 19 questions which he believed were fair – he had been given two weeks to respond. You can view the questions, and Gregson’s answers, in the document below.

However, on 24 July Gregson received a second tranche. This time the questions were vicious, slanted and accusatory. His answers would be put before Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC). He responded within the time frame given but has complained about the Disputes Team’s attitude. The following has been sent to the Labour Leader’s Office, all 39 members of the party’s NEC and its Complaints Team. The submission to the Disputes Team is in the embedded document at the end.

I write to complain about the 50 questions that were put to me a week ago by the [Labour Party] Disputes Team, demanding an answer within 7 days. They seek confidentiality, but the Legal and Governance Unit, of which they form part, breaches confidentiality whenever it suits. My suspension from the party was broadcast to the Jewish News a week before I knew of it.

There are big problems with the Disputes Team. The [BBC] Panorama programme that slated Labour about bogus anti-Semitism did not reveal the most important problem: that we are still riddled with fifth-columnists at HQ.

These people, clearly from the JLM [Jewish Labour Movement], do not favour a Labour government under Corbyn and are doing their best to expel leftie Labour activists like me. They support apartheid in Israel; they have not a care about how much their questioning reflects a bias; not once do they acknowledge Israel’s racist nature. By siding with that racist colony so enthusiastically, they betray the most appalling Islamophobia.

They cannot comprehend how much they undermine Labour’s commitment to social justice. They undermine our ability to combat racism. They are utterly in breach of the rulebook. In short, one wonders not only why they are in Labour but why they have been recruited into this most sensitive area of Labour investigations, that of anti-Semitism, when they exhibit such flagrant support for the Zionist creed.

I disagree with Corbyn’s statement that the Labour Party must be a home for Zionists. In the same breath, almost, he says we must support the Palestinians also. Yet Zionists are relentlessly expansionist for yet more land from Arabs in the Middle East, in addition to what they have already stolen from Palestine. They will never accommodate the Arabs and give them equality, for by definition their state must be Jewish. That means, to them, that Jews always must rule and all other ethno-religious groups must lose out. Corbyn’s position is therefore contradictory. He cannot support Zionists in Labour, for that means supporting racism and the ubiquitous Islamophobia they peddle.

I hope the complaints team will investigate how many of the Disputes Team are in the JLM and reflect upon the pro-Zionist nature of that body. I hope they see we must replace these racists with non-racists for without such a rational action we shall face many more attacks from within. Our Labour Party can no longer tolerate this bogus anti-Semitism, for it risks promoting real antagonism against Jews.

For every time one challenges a Zionist, they retort that they are a Jew. But that is an insult to proper Jews. As Rabbi Cohen says in my attached statement to the Disputes Team [see document below], 

Judaism is an ancient, ethical, moral, compassionate and religious way of life. Going back, as stated earlier, thousands of years. Whereas Zionism (the movement and concept that begat the State of Israel) is a nationalistic, harsh, inconsiderate, secular and racist way of life, barely 120 years old, a totally new concept. It is totally incompatible with and diametrically unacceptable to Judaism on grounds of religious belief and religious humanitarian grounds.

So, there you have it. These Zionists are incompatible with Judaism. Let’s see the back of them.

Gregson’s response, which runs to 65 pages and which was drafted with some help from LAZIR members, can be viewed and downloaded below.

For more information, contact Pete Gregson, LAZIR Chair, on +44 (0)758 472 2191.