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1) Da*ly M*ail is mobilising antiblack&antisemitic racism + associated trauma in its’ smears on BLM. How? By smearing Palestine solidarity activism as inherently antisemitic. And raising mine & Yonatan’s action 9yrs ago on an artists’ wall where the Warsaw Ghetto was
1) Da*ly M*ail is mobilising antiblack&antisemitic racism + associated trauma in its’ smears on BLM. How? By smearing Palestine solidarity activism as inherently antisemitic. And raising mine & Yonatan’s action 9yrs ago on an artists’ wall where the Warsaw Ghetto was
2) Yonatan Shapira is an Israeli Jewish BDS activist. He wrote the words ‘Liberate All Ghettos’ in Hebrew on an artists wall – not the memorial – in the area where the ghetto was. But this is constantly attributed to me. Why is he erased? https://www.haaretz.com/1.5144370
3) This original story, launched 2yrs ago by arch smear merchant Andrew Gilligan, was intended to discredit Jeremy Corbyn by association with me – we’re friends - as further ‘evidence’ of his antisemitism and unelectability. It painted the actions as mine alone and antisemitic.
These smear ‘journalists’ have erased the agency and initiative of an Israeli activist because it doesn’t fit their narrative. It’s a great smear story but it isn’t true. And since then it’s been used against @AyoCaesar and @ukblm to undermine Palestine and antiracist organising
The ghetto is memorialised by a plaque a 15min walk from the artists wall which myself and Yonatan wrote our message of collective liberation upon. I want to be clear that we would never write on a memorial.
At the time, a range of Israeli activists stepped up to support and clarify what had happened and who myself and Yonatan are: https://boycottisrael.info/node/357
The action was accountable and included in an art exhibition in the Czech Republic. It was never intended as an attack on Jewish people, as it has been framed, and it did not claim to hold Jewish people accountable for Israeli’s actions towards Palestine. https://www.dox.cz/en/whats-on/middle-east-europe
The Warsaw Ghetto remains is a horrific chapter in history. 'Never Again' is the moto that I've been raised with as a Polish daughter of antifascist WW2 survivor parents. I believe in abolishing all ghettos. Our message was one of liberation including another Ghetto today – Gaza
Nevertheless I accepted my actions caused offence and I took responsibility & I apologised for harm caused https://labourbriefing.org/blog/2018/9/15/axnkvsvpg67mjs4li6iwomx4zn2lo0 Yonatan sees it totally differently – but that’s his story to tell.
I want to draw attention to the dynamics of Krasinski Square which neighboured the Ghetto. In '43 as the uprising raged, a funfair played in the square. Memorialised in Wajda’s ‘A Generation’ which also showed Polish solidarity resistance, these images, this alienation haunts me.
How could people be so desensitised to such genocidal oppression? Why, as this unspeakable dehumanisation was going on towards Jewish people – and not just in Warsaw! Or from the Nazis – was there such as lack of intervention? Never Again means never again everywhere.
The ghetto story keeps being mistold to discredit @ukblm. It is so disingenuous and so harmful to the united antiracist work that BLM is engaged with. It’s a united fight against all oppression, all the time, and shame on the M*il and those who really divide by envoking this.
