Republished- in Redress – why we need the Tour
www.redressonline.com/2022/10/open-letter-to-gideon-levy-of-israels-haaretz-newspaper-on-the-muslim-jew-tour-beyond-israel/
Dear Mr Levy,
If you could, would you come to hear what the speakers on our Muslin & Jew Tour have to say? We believe that Israel has no right to exist; that Palestine must prevail; that all Israelis must learn to accept they are guests in the land in which you live, who will be given the right to remain as long as they recognise the Palestinians as the rightful inheritors of that territory. (BTW The term “Palestinians” covers all who say they from Palestine- the Muslims, the original Jews and the Christians.)
The Jew on the tour, Rabbi Weiss, you may have heard of, for he is from the USA and is the spokesman for Neturie Karta International. Whilst the Rabbi wants primarily to reach out to the UK’s two million Muslims on this tour, you would be welcome too- we are even inviting the Friends of Israel. All can learn from an understanding of Judaic doctrine, which makes it clear that those who claim to be Jews in Israel are, at best, ex-Jews- for to be Jewish is defined by the OED as one who is a member of the people and cultural community whose traditional religion is Judaism and who come from the ancient Hebrew people of Israel, or, a person who believes in and practises Judaism.
Sadly, neither apply to Israelis.
Zionists claim Judaism confers a religious right to settle in Palestine. But the Torah declares that Jews cannot return to their homeland en masse until the Messiah has come. Jews accept that that has not happened. The Zionist movement, with all its criminal oppression of the Palestinian people, is flagrantly breaching the Torah and not following Judaic doctrine. How, religiously, can they continue to be Jews? For, as you presumably know, truly religious Jews reject Israel.
So- those honest Jews practising Judaism as it accords to the Torah see that Israel is not a Jewish state. The pick-and-mix approach of Israelis to the Torah is, you must agree, laughable. If I, as one who was reared a Catholic, chose to ignore a basic precept of Catholicism, such as attending church every Sunday, then I could claim to be a Catholic no longer- I am then a lapsed Catholic. Why allow those who claim to be Jews the right to ignore the rules that define them, because it suits their claim to a land that the original Jews occupied, but who began converting to Islam in the seventh Century (more here).
And as I’m sure you know, Zionists also claim an ethnic right to settle in Palestine. However, genetically, no more than 2 per cent of those calling themselves Jews in Israel are descended from Israelites- so genetic ancestral claims are questionable too. The Palestinians have near 100% genetic matching; they are not Jews because many converted to Islam in the 7th Century AD; others remained as Christians. The 98% of Israelis who identify as Jews originated outside the Middle East and cannot prove genetic ancestral links to the area. For instance, as I am sure you know, Ashkenazi Jews in Israel are descended from medieval Khazars, a semi-nomadic Turkic people who founded a powerful polyethnic state in the Caucasus and north to the Caspian, Azov and Black seas. This was revealed by Jewish genome work carried out at Johns Hopkins University in the USA; the research work was published by the Oxford University Press in 2012 on behalf of the Society of Molecular Biology and Evolution (more here).
It is not only this message that we seek to proclaim on our tour. For the Muslim on our tour is Dr Azzam Tamimi, chairman and presenter at Al Hiwar TV Channel. Affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, he headed the Institute of Islamic Political Thought until 2008 and has written several books on Middle Eastern/ Islamic politics, including Power-Sharing Islam and Hamas: Unwritten Chapters.
He has stated that the War on Terror launched by the US and its allies in the wake of the Sept 11 attacks is perceived by many in the Islamic world as a war on Islam. He accused President George W. Bush of attempting to stop terrorism through war, political oppression and violations of human rights, saying that this would not work and would instead have the opposite effect.
He states he would never confer legitimacy upon Israel, “a state that is created on land robbed from my father, from my grandfather and from my mother“. He also classifies Zionism as a racist ideology. Nonetheless, he favours talks between Hamas and Israel, believing that co-existence between Palestinians and Israel may be possible. In January 2006, he wrote that if Israel withdrew from territories occupied in 1967, Hamas would end its armed resistance. He has stated that “peace may still be achieved by talking about how to co-exist.” For the long run, Dr Tamimi advocates what he calls a post-apartheid South African solution, in which Israel “is dissolved just like apartheid was, and all people within mandatory Palestine become equal citizens“.
Our message is that under Islam the Jews were safe and so the ex-Jews of Israe; should have nothing to fear if they once again fall under the protection of a Muslim state. There is far more in common between Judaism and Islam than either religion shares with Christianity. We will be at pains to point this out, which is one of the reason why Muslims in the UK are excited by the tour- an opportunity to compare religions; they see it as what it is- our call for action against the UK’s trenchant Islamophobia; we argue that Islam is generally a sophisticated and profoundly peaceful , tolerant and meditative religion- one which accepts all the prophets and holy men of both Judaism and Christianity. Jews in Iran get great protection from the Ayatollah; they enjoy a more peaceful life there than most Israelis could imagine.
I, myself, am the third speaker on the tour. I am an atheist but was reared a Catholic; I have a lifelong interest in religion and despair of the left-wing tendency to dismiss the beliefs which sustain so many of those who share our space on this globe. If I have held your attention this far, you can find out more about me on our webpage about the tour: Muslim & Jew on Tour: Beyond Israel – Campaign Against BOGUS Antisemitism.
From 23rd April next year we shall be touring the UK, visiting every one of our 16 major cities; educating the country that created Israel; your motherland… the country that you Israelis pay greater heed to than any other. I have been campaigning passionately throughout the UK for some four years now and find very few that support Israel. Most care little for its apartheid nature. But our UK Parliament is the exact opposite; the Tory MPs in Westminster are 80% Friends of Israel (FOI); the Labour MPs are 38% FOI- including leader Sir Keir Starmer. Our aim is to get those who represent us in the UK Parliament to begin reflecting the views on Palestine of those who elect them. The mobilisation of our Muslims, who are intrinsically supportive of the Palestinians, is key to this. Whilst the Jews of the UK number about 300,000, the Muslims number over two million. Their lobbying power has, to date, been hidden under a bush. But I live and work in Edinburgh and found the support of my city’s 15,000 Muslims to be effective in helping convince my Council to commence working with Gaza (BTW there are only 700 Jews in Edinburgh, a city of half a million, and they said nothing on the matter). As I am sure you know, Arthur Balfour was a son of our city and to date we have never acknowledged the profound harm that he has caused to the Palestinian people. My 3-year campaign to get Edinburgh to take responsibility for the UK’s greatest colonial disaster has led to our Councillors voting, on the 30th August, to take the first steps to redress this. (Learn more at Edinburgh Council to Explore Support for Gaza – Twin Edinburgh with Gaza (twingaza.com))
We seek to undermine the Zionism that rules the minds of our UK leaders and move to one that sees a single-state solution as being the only way forward. As you and I both know, Israel will never give up one inch of the land it has seized from the Palestinians. Nor will it relinquish its apartheid laws. It can only, therefore, accept the judgement of the world which will ultimately prevail- one which will move to one single state, a Palestine for all its peoples. We have done it in South Africa, we have done it in Northern Ireland. Israel, a state built from European antisemitism, is doomed. We made Israel; we must unmake Israel.
I look forward to hearing your views on our tour. Would you attend, if you could?
Best wishes
Pete Gregson (Chair)
Campaign Against Bogus Antisemitism
Contact: info@bogusantisemitism.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Bogusantisemitism
Patron: Issa Amro (UN Human Rights Defender of the Year in Palestine)
Gideon Levi’s Reply
From: Gidon Levy <levy@haaretz.co.il>
Sent: 05 October 2022 09:10
To: info@bogusantisemitism.org
Subject: RE: UK Muslim & Jew Tour: Beyond Israel
Dear Mr. Gregson, Thank you for inviting me but I will not be able to join, as I don’t identify myself with some of your positions.
Gideon Levy
My Riposte
From: info@bogusantisemitism.org <info@bogusantisemitism.org>
Sent: 05 October 2022 09:15
To: ‘Gidon Levy’ <levy@haaretz.co.il>
Subject: RE: UK Muslim & Jew Tour: Beyond Israel
Dear Mr Levy,
One does not have to agree with other people’s positions in order to listen to them, do they?
As a journalist, I thought you might know that.
Best wishes
Pete Gregson
Then Gideon Said…
From: Gidon Levy <levy@haaretz.co.il>
Sent: 05 October 2022 10:25
To: info@bogusantisemitism.org
Subject: RE: UK Muslim & Jew Tour: Beyond Israel
You are right but it will be impossible for me to come for this to the UK.
Then Pete Said…
From: info@bogusantisemitism.org [mailto:info@bogusantisemitism.org]
Sent: Wednesday, October 5, 2022 12:47 PM
To: Gidon Levy <levy@haaretz.co.il>
Subject: RE: UK Muslim & Jew Tour: Beyond Israel
Might you be interested in covering this matter? So far, the only coverage we’ve had has been in the Jewish Chronicle
Predictably sensational and condemnatory, of course
The JC article even reported a mistruth from Haaretz regarding Rabbi Weiss, claiming he said the numbers exterminated by the Nazis were exaggerated; a sick lie given the Rabbi’s grandparents perished at Auschwitz.
We are taking them to the Independent Press Standards Office for that, given that Associated Press accepted they had made a gross mistake in using Haaretz as a source
Then Gideon Said…
From: Gidon Levy <levy@haaretz.co.il>
Sent: 05 October 2022 10:55
To: info@bogusantisemitism.org
Subject: RE: UK Muslim & Jew Tour: Beyond Israel
I don’t cover events for the news. Try to contact Anshel Pfeffer who lives partly in the UK.
So, we shall pursue Anshel Pfeffer now…
