Unsure about stopping Loach from speaking as, bar the most extreme, not generally in favour of this kind of ban but still a net postitive IMO - attracting attention to the unrepentant nonsense about Jews that has poured out of his mouth for, oh, 30-40 yrs. https://twitter.com/oxfordjsoc/status/1358755272983015424?s=19

But obviously different ballgame when it's one of the most revered figures on the left, Corbyn royalty. Jews who protest about his lifelong addiction to Holocaust revisionism are cast as lying malcontents in their role as persecutors.

Antisemitism: the cry of the oppressed.

I mean, if you think he should still speak, make the case - taking into account everything he's said and done that is the reason for the Jewish protest. Not even bothering; writing it off as feeble lies just demonstrates what people really think about Jews and their concerns.

Loach. A man who's made some great films but also done so much to mainstream the form of Holocaust revisionism that twists history to put Jews in the frame for their own genocide because Israel or something.
I find outright Holocaust denial less troubling. https://twitter.com/daverich1/status/989795888515166215?s=19

Chanced upon 2 or 3 total deniers in my time but worse was severing contacts with people who suddenly found the desire to go cherry-picking through the most tragic part of Jewish history to unearth sinners, even by dissemblement, to prove something about Zionists, a la Ken & Ken.

Cuts far deeper than the batshit Holocaust denier estranged from mainstream politics, for me anyway.

Also good to see this sort of action at Oxford because, after the last few years, a lot of Jewish people clearly aren't going to stand for it anymore. Good.

NB: bit more to add to Dave's thread: he's not only defended all the big-hitters suspended from Labour for matters related to antisemitism - Williamson, Livingstone (obvs) Walker, even GREENSTEIN, he's also a *sponsor* of the horrendous Labour Against The Witchunt (LAW) group.

LAW are the most extreme faction on this issue attached to Labour. Loach speaks at their meetings, downplaying antisemitism, defending & speaking with people like Greenstein. An offender so extreme he recently lost a libel case objecting to being called a "notorious antisemite."

He defended the Warsaw Ghetto graffiti 'cos, y'know, painting Free Palestine on what is a mass Jewish grave, filled before Israel even existed, is all the rage these days I hear.

His accommodation and defence of people accused of antisemitism reached a farcical stage by the -

- end of Corbyn's tenure. One suspended member and GMB shop steward, Pete Gregson, was so committed to antisemitic conspiracism and general Jew-bothering, he set up his own org called LIZAR! Labour Against Zionist Islamophobic Racism.

He made videos and leaflets.

He had been suspended for a string of antisemitic posts inc saying the Holocaust was "exaggerated" and made a video pleading his case. For his trouble he got a phone call from "God" AKA Ken Loach saying good job with a bit of directorial input for good measure.

The endorsement was eventually rescinded because Gregson had actually been meeting with the fash. So its good to know where Loach draws the line, the actual jackboots. Nice one. #IStandWithKenLoach https://twitter.com/CST_UK/status/1231877002497527808?s=19

But remember kids, to people like this (and there are so so many of them) if you hear a Jewish person, or anyone else, raise any of the above concerns it's because they want to hurt Palestinians and love poverty.

And this why I still find this part of the left utterly terrifying

ENDS/ Crazy thought: there is a universe where it's possible to enjoy and admire the films he's made, I do, and still oppose his appalling views on antisemitism and Jewish history.

The two things are not mutually exclusive.