Britain decriminalizes antisemitic violence

[Mediocrates]

It's just that simple.

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/07/britain-decriminalizes-vigilantism.html

In a mind-blowing verdict (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/30/activists-arms-factory-acquitted), a British jury acquitted people who admitted that they purposefully caused damage to an arms factory - because, they said, the arms were being used by Israel:

Five activists who caused £180,000 damage to an arms factory were acquitted after they argued they were seeking to prevent Israeli war crimes.

The five were jubilant after a jury found them not guilty of conspiring to cause criminal damage to the factory on the outskirts of Brighton.

The five admitted they had broken in and sabotaged the factory, but argued they were legally justified in doing so.

They believed that EDO MBM, the firm that owns the factory, was breaking export regulations by manufacturing and selling to the Israelis military equipment which would be used in the occupied territories. They wanted to slow down the manufacture of these components, and impede what they believed were war crimes being committed by Israel against the Palestinians.

They are the latest group of peace and climate-change activists to successfully use the "lawful excuse" defence – committing an offence to prevent a more serious crime – as a tactic in their campaigns.

They had decided to act last January after three weeks of Israeli military manoeuvres against Gaza in which many Palestinians were killed.

In his summing up, Judge George Bathurst-Norman suggested to the jury that "you may well think that hell on earth would not be an understatement of what the Gazans suffered in that time".

The judge highlighted the testimony by Caroline Lucas, the Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, that "all democratic paths had been exhausted" before the activists embarked on their action.Meaning that the judge pretty much told the jury to acquit them. Unbelievable.

Hove crown court heard the activists had broken into the factory in the night. They had video-taped interviews beforehand outlining their intention to cause damage and, in the words of prosecutor Stephen Shay, "smash-up" the factory.

These statements were posted on the Indymedia website shortly after they were arrested.Apparently, according to British law, Israel has no right to defend itself from Qassam rockets. Period.

I guess that synagogue bombings can be defended next, because Jews provide material and emotional support for Israel which does all of these war crimes. Then they can go after Melanie Philips.

It turns out that the judge was born in Arab Jaffa (http://azvsas.blogspot.com/2010/07/magnificent-victory-for-decommissioners.html), and was brought out of retirement to hear this case, as a jubilant anti-Zionist notes. Which would explain his directing the jury as to what their verdict should be.

[Reffo]

Good luck to them ... that's exactly what happened when the PLO first started airline hijackings. They first started hijacking Israeli planes El Al. Israel quickly managed to put a stop to it by installing Air marshals and improving the security arrangements of all El Al planes.

Initially, Britain behaved exactly the same way as this so called British judge behaves now. On one occasion, when Israeli air marshals killed some Arab hijackers and captured another (a woman by the name of Leila Khaled), the Brits in their "wisdom" chose to release her after the El Al plane landed in Heathrow ... The rest is history. The Arabs got the message and started hijacking non Israeli airlines as well. That's exactly what happened with Arab terrorism, it started against Israel first and since then ...

The actions of this "British" judge will have repercussions too, just wait and see ...

[Mil]

Fun stuff. Euros are a bunch of racists. Always were.

[Mediocrates]

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/33742/two-more-brighton-activists-cleared-factory-damage

[GratefulFred]

My contributions to the falling of the British Empire...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HtHeUwvrxdM

[Mediocrates]

He wants them to get a medal.

http://thejc.com/news/uk-news/34718/judge-brighton-anti-israel-raider-should-get-medal

The judge in the trial of seven activists acquitted of damaging an arms factory suggested that their leader should be awarded the George Cross for his campaign.

The seven were cleared after they successfully claimed they had acted to prevent Israeli "war crimes" when the broke into the Brighton factory on January 17, 2009.

Hailed a great victory by pro-Palestinian activists, the seven from "Smash EDO" were acquitted of causing £180,000 worth of damage to the EDO MBM factory in Brighton - which denied ever having supplied Israel with arms equipment.

In his summing-up speech, in which he attacked both Israel and the United States, Judge George Bathurst-Norman told the Hove Crown Court jury: "You may well think that hell on earth would not be an understatement of what the Gazans suffered at that time."

This case may have disturbing implications

He also said of group leader Christopher Osmond that "The jury may feel his efforts investigating the company merit the George Cross."

Mr Osmond, 30, Elijah Smith, 43, Robert Nicholls, 52, Tom Woodhead, 25, Harvey Tadman, 44, Ornella Saibene, 50, Simon Levin, 35, from Bristol, Brighton and London were all acquitted last week. The verdict was welcomed by Caroline Lucas, Green Party MP for Brighton Pavillion.

Tony Greenstein, a veteran pro-Palestinian Jewish campaigner in the city, said: "The judge gave a summing up so favourable that some supporters were worried that the jury might react to what they perceived as an attempt to bounce them into a not guilty verdict. We need not have worried."

A court observer, who asked not to be identified, told the JC: "Israel's actions were not the point of the trial - all that mattered was that the protesters genuinely believed in what they were fighting against."
Jewish lawyers and jurists said it was unorthodox for judges to air their political allegiances in court.

London solicitor Jonathan Lux, Board Member of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists, said: "This case appears to have disturbing implications and thought will need to be given to what the wider consequences are."

Barrister Oliver Mishcon said: "Judges must be careful about showing support for political causes."

But Professor Graham Zellick QC, the former chair of Leo Baeck College, said the judge was entitled to express his opinion. He said: "It is not what the law, strictly applied, should lead to; but some would argue that it is one of the virtues of the jury system that the strict law can be moderated."

Israeli ambassador Ron Prosor sharply criticised the judge's comments. He said: "This is not a great era for the British justice system. I assume that Sderot's children, who have lived under thousands of missiles for years, will be able to enlighten the judge as to the meaning of 'hell on earth.'"
Jon Benjamin, Chief Executive of the Board of Deputies, said: "The acquittal was clearly a result of the skewed narrative around Cast Lead, the judge's comments and the appearance of the local MP, who is known for her anti-Israel bias." The ZF also released a statement calling for the government to censure Judge Bathurst-Norman.

The defence argued that criminal damage is excusable if the damage occurs while trying to prevent greater damage to other properties - in this case, homes in Gaza. But Stephen Shay, prosecuting, argued that the factory was so small that even if it had been supplying Israel, it would have made no difference to the war in Gaza.


Freedom is dead in the UK and you may as well start picking out what kind of yellow star you'll have to wear. It's over, over there.

[Mediocrates]

See also the possible costs of Jew baiting

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/the-hidden-costs-of-jew-baiting-in-england/

London is an amazing place, full of vitality, intensity, foreign tourists and residents, a patchwork of pluralism. Talk to the average person, and nothing seems amiss: this cab driver, having driven in London for 40 years, sees no significant change in the neighborhoods he travels through; this financier sees no signs of intimidation; this shopper, this tavern-hopper, this man on the bus, lives in an interesting and relatively normal world. A superficial walk through the [Regent’s] park gives the distinct sense of normality.

But talk to the Jews, and you get a different story. The International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists held a conference here this week. The topic: Democratic and Legal Norms in an Age of Terror (http://www.intjewishlawyers.org/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=97&Itemid=55). Panels discussed everything from the Goldstone Report, to the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, to “universal jurisdiction” (lawfare against Israelis brought in foreign courts). Here, in the Khalili Lecture Theatre of the SOAS (School for Oriental and African Studies), Jewish lawyers discussed a grim reality whose only public appearance on an everyday basis is the drumbeat of calumny that a boisterous elite — NGOs, journalists, academics — rain down on Israel.

Perhaps the most startling of the sessions concerned the BDS movement. Jonathan Rynhold, from the BESA Center at Bar Ilan, and Anthony Julius, author of Trials of the Diaspora: A History of Anti-Semitism in England (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trials-Diaspora-History-Anti-Semitism-England/dp/0199297053), both presented a picture of British anti-Zionist activity whose intellectual and moral foundations were profoundly irrational, a dogmatic will to stigmatize and destroy Israel that responded to no argument about proportion (what about other places?) or reason (you make no moral demands of the Palestinians).
And behind that lies a much weightier volume of negative feeling, a kind of unthinking animosity that expressed itself in its most banal form when a woman explained to Julius: “We all know why the Jews are hated: you marry among yourselves and live in ghettos like Golders Green and Vienna [sic].” In so doing, she put her finger on the most widespread subtext for hostility to Jews – “they think they’re the chosen people (http://books.google.co.il/books?id=QmyjieP5mFsC&pg=PA25&lpg=PA25&dq=notion+of+chosen+people+source+of+anti-semitism&source=bl&ots=BcF291gmgd&sig=LufCGmqUQjuqmCOgyu8pcu1NdJM&hl=en&ei=F0QzTMTQHM-cOJbs2ZkC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CCwQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q&f=false).”

Daniel Eilon, an English barrister, explained to me one of the mechanisms. It isn’t real anti-Semitism. In fact, most of the stuff that comes out against Israel is intellectually hopeless — phony narratives based on fantasy “facts.” This is really just good old-fashioned Jew-baiting. It’s saying things in all righteous innocence that you know will hurt the Jews to whom you address the criticism. The problem for the Brits (and the Europeans in general), he pointed out, is that historically, there’s never been a particularly high price to pay for Jew-baiting. Now there is.

What my friend referred to with this last remark is lucidly analyzed by Robin Shepherd in his recent book, A State Beyond the Pale: Europe’s Problem with Israel (http://www.amazon.com/State-Beyond-Pale-Europes-Problem/dp/0297856642). The elephant in the room, of course, is radical Islam — the people who interpret being “chosen” by Allah as a charter to dominate the world and submit everyone, willingly or not, to Islam. They’re the people no one dares bait; and they’re the folks who take full advantage of every deference to press for more. Daily aggressions (http://theopinionator.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/05/bolton-man-left-with-68-stitches-in-his-face-after-muslim-gang-attack.html) from violent gangs constantly expand the territories where the Queen’s writ does not run. In tempo with the retreat of British law and enforcement, Sharia advances (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196165/Britain-85-sharia-courts-The-astonishing-spread-Islamic-justice-closed-doors.html) from internal community affairs (explicitly on the model of Jewish religious courts) towards the policing of community boundaries and claims on the state for special treatment. The British — like so many other Western nations –mainstream the extremists and marginalize the moderates (http://rubinreports.blogspot.com/2010/07/mainstreaming-extremists-marginalizing.html). As Nick Cohen put it: “The world faces a psychotic movement and won’t admit it to themselves.”

A documentary filmmaker reveals a double assault on freedom of speech: on the one hand, everyone is terrified of peers calling them Islamophobes; and on the other, anyone who does something negative on Islam puts his or her life in danger. When I respond animatedly to her point, she looks around nervously and signals for me to lower my voice. How often did my British informants tell me in hushed tones about being intimidated!

News agencies send their journalists to special courses in self-defense for how to deal with hostile situations (http://www.ebu.ch/CMSimages/en/How%20to%20stay%20alive_BROADCASTMar06_tcm6-43573.pdf). How much of this responds to the pervasive dangers of doing journalism in Muslim countries, and how often does it come up in those areas where the Queen’s writ does not run? One such journalist who works for the BBC reports that when a mob turns ugly, they are told to stand back to back, palms open, pointing down and out — a posture of non-threat, but also one of subjection.

And of course, the best protection is positive coverage. Most of the time, “but we’re from the BBC” works to allay Muslim hostility: it’s code for “we’re on your side (http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2007/05/16/revealing-remarks-about-bbc-in-gaza/).” But for some crowds, even that’s not enough.

The result of this pervasive intimidation that comes from both peers and enemies is a body politic that feels no pain. Like a victim of CIP (congenital insensitivity to pain), the British public receives only vague hints of the assaults on its body (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/oct/22/ukcrime.race). A widespread omerta operates in the mainstream news media, guaranteeing that many, if not most aggressions go unreported, or in a code — Asian street gangs (http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/content/towerhamlets/advertiser/news/story.aspx?brand=ELAOnline&category=news&tBrand=northlondon24&tCategory=newsela&itemid=WeED27%20Aug%202008%2019%3A27%3A57%3A040) — that only those looking for clues will notice. Aggregator sites online offer deeply disturbing collections of news items (http://theopinionator.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/05/bolton-man-left-with-68-stitches-in-his-face-after-muslim-gang-attack.html).

As a result, Brits look away while their Muslim communities are taken over by fascist zealots who enforce dress and behavior codes, who silence dissent, and who mobilize a resentful youth with violent hatreds. For these men, infidels are by definition guilty (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maHSOB2RFm4&feature=related), deserving rape and lethal assault, as part of Allah’s justice. Douglas Murray’s study of twenty-seven Muslims, targeted by zealots (http://www.socialcohesion.co.uk/files/1231525439_1.pdf), reveals the workings of a community hijacked by thugs.

[Mediocrates]

The trials and tribulations of Afshan Azad (http://pajamasmedia.com/phyllischesler/2010/07/05/potential-honor-killing-victim-wants-charges-dropped-against-brother-father/?singlepage=true), the Bengali Muslim-born actress in the Harry Potter films, beaten and threatened with death by her family, illustrate the depth of the community pressures. Her brothers’ failures to bring her to heel (or kill her) endanger their lives: “We are going to get trouble from the community now. It is bad news for our safety, her safety. My younger brother is going to get harassed at college. All our family is going to be harassed by the community because of this.” The tribal community rules, even in college.

So while a large and growing population falls under the grip (http://www.socialcohesion.co.uk/files/1229624550_1.pdf) of a Mafioso culture with an imperialist ideology of world conquest, the British look away. The “prestigious” London School of Economics disinvited Douglas Murray from speaking (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Murray_%28author%29#.27Banned.27_from_the_ LSE.3F), lest his presence provoke violence. Paralyzed by an inability to discuss the problem, they become a train-wreck in slow motion. The lavish expenses that the government has paid out to immigrant families, which has at once increased their numbers and stilled their rage, is now run out. Budget cuts of up to 40% across the board (http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/uk-ministers-told-they-face-budget-cuts-of-up-to-40-20100704-zvxb.html) will only exacerbate the frictions, and if the government pours money into appeasing the Muslims, they will alienate the British working class losing their benefits.

Which brings us back to Jew-baiting. As Shepherd explains in his chapter on Islam in Europe, this is a European-wide phenomenon that is directly related to the fear of criticizing Muslims. Anti-Zionism is the key extremist discourse by which jihadis radicalize communities and mobilize warriors for Allah’s armies. The disturbing figures (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article682599.ece) for how many British Muslims support terror, think Muslims did not commit either 9-11 or 7-7, think the law should punish people who insult Islam, and think that apostates from Islam should die should not be read the way we read political polls in the West. These minorities are the dominant voices in their communities, if only because they use their terror tactics against fellow Muslims far more readily than against outsiders.

So while their enemies advance, the British elites are like deer in the headlights, incapable of speaking up for even their own principles of free speech and tolerance. Intimidated into silence about Muslims, somehow, they find their voice in denouncing the “real” genocidal evil empire: Israel. Thus some wax eloquent, like the Methodists with their thinly-disguised, resentful supersessionism (http://www.robinshepherdonline.com/the-banality-of-methodist-evil-my-op-ed-in-the-jerusalem-post/); and others wax violent, like the anti-Zionist vandals (http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3914014,00.html), who damaged hundreds of thousands of pounds of property and got off scott free to the cheers of a Green MP (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/02/brighton-mp-support-gaza-campaigners).

Of course, every sin these brave ideologues accuse Israel of committing is done a thousand-fold by the very people who generate their demonizing narrative — the radical Muslims. It is these zealots who interpret their chosenness as a warrant to rape and massacre, to dominate and humiliate (http://www.islam-watch.org/AyeshaAhmed/London-Imam-Attempt-to-Carry-Out-Sunna.htm) infidels. They are the toxic communitarians who believe in their side right or wrong, to the death — not the Jews, who can’t stop publicly beating their breasts about all their sins. Indeed, one of the mysterious factors in this madness is the role played by Jewish anti-Zionists, who, in Julius’ memorable phrase, are “proud to be ashamed to be Jewish.”

Instead of taking note of such sobering perspectives, Western anti-Zionists shy away from the dangerous and painful but legitimate and necessary criticism of Muslim radicals. They prefer the easy, cost-free baiting of any Jew proud enough to feel that his or her own people deserve a state. Instead of turning to the Muslims and saying “why can’t you express a fraction of the self-criticism of the Zionists?” they prefer to repeat the most toxic accusations against the Jews and claim: “I’m not saying anything that Jews haven’t said.”

They are the true Islamophobes — afraid to criticize Islam, eager to join in its chorus of hatred.
And in this act of demission before the Islamist challenge, British opinion makers and shapers also submit to their own bullies, their own zealots who push the Jew-baiting beyond the weekend sport of the salons, into the professional arena of anti-Zionist activism. When the founders of Hamas in 1988 penned their genocidal charter that explicitly targeted all infidels, little did they suspect that within twenty years, those infidels would chant “We are Hamas!” in the streets of London (http://adloyada.typepad.com/adloyada/2009/01/we-are-all-hamas-the-real-voice-of-its-messenger-in-london.html). Who could hope for a more useful infidel (http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2010/06/08/from-useful-idiot-to-useful-infidel-meditations-on-the-folly-of-21st-century-%E2%80%9Cintellectuals%E2%80%9D/) than that?
In the European past, Jew-baiting may have seemed relatively cost-free. After all, humiliate a Jew and the worst he’ll do is hector you. Sure, sometimes the sport got out of hand, and killing Jews en masse, or forcing them to convert, or kicking them out may have deeply damaged the economy and empowered repressive forces, like the Inquisition, to go after other religious dissidents. But who really noticed?
Today, however, the situation has changed dramatically because Europe doesn’t just run the risk of internal failure, but getting vanquished by an implacable and merciless foe. By failing to denounce toxic Muslim communitarianism and instead adopting its shrill discourse of demonization about Jews, Brits feed the monster that devours them. If it continues apace, if the British do not make Muslim civility towards Jews the shibboleth of assimilation to a free and democratic culture, they risk losing that civil polity entirely. As always with real anti-Semites, the Jews are only their first target.

Can Britain wake up in time? And if and when it does, can it swallow the painful price of giving up its addiction to Jew-baiting? Or will it be, as some close observers think, the first country in Europe to succumb to Islamism? Walking through the delightful streets of London, watching a brilliant performance of Henry IV Part II at the reconstituted Globe Theatre, passing by a multi-cultural mass of dancers by the embankment at night, viewing the vibrant energy of the city, one has little clue to the problem.

Or is watching this joyful celebration akin to seeing a fat man with a serious cholesterol problem dine on his deep-fried fish-and-chips and wash down those tasty truffles of moral Schadenfreude that so grieve the Jews and comfort the resentful?

Richard Landes is a Professor of History at Boston University. He blogs at The Augean Stables (http://www.theaugeanstables.com/), and maintains The Second Draft (http://www.seconddraft.org/) as an archival site for all matters pertaining to Pallywood and al Durah. The Second Draft has recently been reorganized and relaunched with new features.

[Antimarxist]

Fun stuff. Euros are a bunch of racists. Always were.

And American society isn't??! You haven't heard of segregation, the Klan or the Nation of Islam then? Sure there's racism in Europe, and Britain too. The main difference is that in Britain it's implicit rather than overt, and it takes place in official surroundings with an air of legality. Universities, for example :D

[Mediocrates]

http://cifwatch.com/2010/07/14/the-judge-who-thought-he-was-defence-counsel/

Some ten days ago I wrote here (http://cifwatch.com/2010/07/03/uk-judge-takes-delegitimisation-of-israel-to-new-depths/) about the acquittal in the UK of seven defendants who admitted to causing £187,000 of criminal damage at the EDO MBM armaments factory in January 2009, at the time of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza. The factory was exporting military equipment to Israel. Until today I did not have the 87 page transcript of Judge Bathurst-Norman’s summing-up in the case (Lewes Crown Court, 28/29 June 2010). Remember that these are his comments to the Jury, prior to their deliberation in the Jury room which acquitted all seven defendants.

Earlier, many people suspected that the Judge’s comments were biased and this transcript proves the case conclusively. On the evidence of his summing-up, Bathurst-Norman was a member of the defence’s legal team, rather than the Judge.


See also:

http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/07/british-judge-who-hates-israel-redux.html


Now, Jonathan Hoffman at CiFWatch (http://cifwatch.com/2010/07/14/the-judge-who-thought-he-was-defence-counsel/#comments)went through the 87-page transcript of the judge's comments/instructions to the jury before deliberations. Here are some examples of what the judge said:




..Now you may be wondering what on earth has the actions of the Israeli air force to do with this country. The short answer is that if the Israeli Air Force was committing crimes in the way that the agreed evidence outlines in the unlawful killing of Palestinians in Gaza and in the unlawful causing of damage to property in Gaza, then under the War Crimes Act and other legislation any member of the Israeli Air Force who set foot in this country and who acted in that way would be liable to arrest and prosecution, as is anyone within this country who knowingly helps the Israeli Air Force to commit such war crimes.

...Democracy would not exist unless there were reporters and members of the public who were prepared to stand up for what they believe to be right, and sometimes, as in the case of the suffragettes, even to go to prison for their beliefs. As Edmund Burke says: “For injustice to flourish, all that is needed is for good men to do nothing.” Indeed, people like Mr Osmond [Christopher Osmond, the leader of the seven who admitted causing £187,000 of damage to the EDO factory] who put themselves in harm’s way to protect others may, in fact – there may be much to be admired about people like that. Perhaps if he had done it in this country in the last war he would probably have received a George Medal.

... He [Osmond] knew of the Philadelphi corridor, the corridor made around the boundaries of Gaza by the illegal demolition of Palestinian homes by the Israeli army, during which Rachel Corrie, one of the International Solidarity Volunteers bravely stood in front of a bulldozer which was being driven by an Israeli soldier and was effectively murdered when he drove the bulldozer over her in 2003.Read his whole analysis (http://cifwatch.com/2010/07/14/the-judge-who-thought-he-was-defence-counsel/#comments). It proves a simply appalling use of a judge's position to twist justice and to preach hate and lies. This is perversion.

[Mediocrates]

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/35706/call-re-trial-after-shocking-summing

The full transcript has been revealed for the first time of a judge's summing-up in the trial of seven anti-Israel activists acquitted of damaging an arms factory.
Judge George Bathurst-Norman had told the jury at Lewes Crown Court that the group's leader should be awarded the George Cross for his campaign.
The group were cleared last month of causing £180,000 of damage to the EDO MBM factory in Brighton after they claimed they had acted "to prevent Israeli war crimes".
The company denied ever supplying Israel with arms equipment.
In his summing-up speech, Judge Bathurst-Norman told the jury: "It may be as you went through what I can only describe as horrific scenes, scenes of devastation to civilian population, scenes which one would rather have hoped to have disappeared with the Nazi regimes of the last war, you may have felt anger and been absolutely appalled by them, but you must put that emotion aside."
He said Christopher Osmond, who had led the "Smash EDO" group, should be rewarded for his efforts: "People like Mr Osmond, who put themselves in harm's way to protect others… there may be much to be admired about people like that. Perhaps if he had done it in this country in the last war he would probably have received a George Medal."
Judge Bathurst-Norman also criticised the British and US governments, telling jurors: "You must put aside any feelings of being thoroughly ashamed of our government, of the American government and the United Nations and the EU in doing nothing about what was happening."
Jonathan Hoffman, vice-chair of the Zionist Federation, obtained the full 87-page transcript.
He said: "Judge Bathurst-Norman behaved more like the defence counsel than the neutral officer of the court that he was supposed to be. The role of a judge – far from advancing his own political agenda – is to clarify points of law to the lay members of the jury.
"Bathurst-Norman's comments reveal that he has an extreme anti-Israel agenda."
Mr Hoffman said the case should be declared a mis-trial and retried under a new judge. He encouraged supporters of Israel to complain to the Office for Judicial Complaints and to write to Justice Minister Ken Clarke.

[Mediocrates]

Now the Judge may face charges:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1297219/Judge-faces-anti-semitism-probe-speech-attacking-Israel-helps-free-arms-factory-protesters.html

http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archive/2010/07/british-judge-faces-anti-semitism-probe/index.shtml

[Reffo]

This begs the following two questions:

Even in the event that they find that the judge behaved with bias (is that likely in the UK?), what can they do to a retired judge? And what difference will that make to the judgment?
Even more importantly, as one of the reference articles asks; Who is the party responsible for recalling this judge specifically for this case and will that party be held accountable for that decision?

[Mediocrates]

Judicial misconduct doesn't die with leaving the bench.

[Reffo]

And what are the usual consequences of judicial misconduct? I am asking because I genuinely don't know ...

[Mediocrates]

Oh I don't either. I suppose there's some relevant punishment and/or a mistrial.

[Mediocrates]

Another case where vandalism is sanctioned:

http://richardmillett.wordpress.com/2010/08/10/anti-ahava-activists-cleared-of-all-charges/

[Bluesnout]

There is a hatred for Israel within the British establishment and it is not suprising that a British judge has acted in such a manner as the courts are under the control of their political masters. The Israeli people have been demonized by the British Media for decades and that has had an effect on the thinking of many British citizens but there are still a number who are not just so easily deceived. The British establishment has warmly embraced Islamic fascists who will indeed prove to be a disaster for Britain and they will in due course reap what they have sown. The Mad Mullah's and their brainwashed followers will terrorise the British people when they think the time is right and when they get a dose of reality they might be more sympathetic to the plight of the Israeli people who have endured so much down through the years :rolleyes:

[Bluesnout]

They have also helped Roman Catholic bomber-priests to escape justice despite the fact they committed atrocities against innocent and helpless British civilians :rolleyes:

Claudy bombing conspiracy


Claudy bombing: Church and state colluded to free 'Provo bomber priest'

By David McKittrick

Wednesday, 25 August 2010


http://i36.tinypic.com/9ky25z.jpg
Father James Chesney



It was on the last day of the worst month of the worst year of the Troubles that three IRA bombs exploded in the village of Claudy, Co Londonderry.

The carnage was terrible: nine people, including a little girl, were killed, bringing the overall death toll in Northern Ireland for July 1972 alone to almost one hundred. To many, it looked as if the conflict would escalate out of all control.


Yesterday an official report confirmed that the police, the British government and Catholic Church conspired to protect the prime suspect: a Catholic priest. But it also revealed the profound moral and political dilemma which faced all those involved: the arrest of a Catholic clergyman would likely have inflamed an already dire political and security situation, but the failure to apprehend him risked hampering the search for justice for those who were killed.


Within days of the attacks, there was strong intelligence that one of the bombers was Fr James Chesney, the local republican quartermaster and "director of operations." William Whitelaw, then the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, decided in consultation with the Archbishop of Armagh, Cardinal William Conway, that the priest should not be arrested but instead discreetly transferred across the border into the Republic.


The present Secretary of State, Owen Paterson, said yesterday he was profoundly sorry Fr Chesney "was not properly investigated for his suspected involvement in this hideous crime, and that the victims and their families have been denied justice". But he added: "I recognise of course that all those involved in combating terrorism at the time were making decisions in exceptionally difficult circumstances and under extreme pressure."


The Bishop of Derry, Seamus Hegarty said yesterday he was "shocked and ashamed" that a priest would have been associated with the bomb attack, though the church insisted it had not been party to a cover-up.


The Police Ombudsman, Al Hutchinson, reported he had found no evidence of criminal intent by anyone in the government or the church, but added that he had unearthed collusion. He said the decision not to pursue the priest was "wrong and contrary to a fundamental duty of police to investigate those suspected of criminality".

Mr Whitelaw and Cardinal Conway are both dead but the Ombudsman recovered material from their files and diaries. While their exact thought processes remain unknown, the signs are they quickly agreed that Fr Chesney should be transferred.


There were many ecclesiastical precedents for moving priests – as has been seen in its reactions to various child-abuse scandals. In addition, in the months before Claudy, loyalists had begun to kill Catholics in large numbers. The emergence of an active IRA priest could quite possibly have encouraged them to kill clergy.


From the government's point of view, the idea a priest was an active terrorist would have made far more difficult its attempts to persuade Catholics and Protestants to co-operate in a new partnership government. Furthermore, the arrest of a priest could have caused uproar, since many Catholics would have found it impossible to believe he could be a bomber.


A sense of the tensions of the time was given in the memoirs of the then Prime Minister, Edward Heath, when he wrote: "I feared that we might for the first time be on the threshold of complete anarchy."


The Cardinal seems to have been persuaded by a file shown to him by Mr Whitelaw which referred to Fr Chesney's involvement in Claudy and other acts of terrorism. According to an official document, the Cardinal said "that he knew the priest was a very bad man". In his diary, the Cardinal described the meeting as a "rather disturbing tête-ÃÂ-tête". He also reported that in interviews with churchmen, Fr Chesney had strenuously denied any involvement in the IRA. Some state documentation showed that some individual police officers pushed for him to be arrested, even at the cost of causing a major stir.


One Special Branch detective inspector wrote in a memo: "We would need to be prepared to face unprecedented pressure. Having regard to what this man has done, I myself would be prepared to meet this challenge head-on." When the Northern Ireland Office wrote to the then Chief Constable, Sir Graham Shillington, saying it was proposed to shift Fr Chesney to Donegal, he went along with the idea, noting: "Seen. I would prefer transfer to Tipperary." By this he meant he would prefer Fr Chesney to be moved further away from Northern Ireland than Donegal, which is on the border.


Relatives of those killed were unimpressed by yesterday's report. Mark Eakin, who was blown off his feet in the blast that killed his eight-year-old sister, Kathryn, said he wanted an apology from the Government.


"An apology, yes, but... I would like to see somebody brought to justice for this," Mr Eakin said. "The families need to know how far up the conspiracy went." Mr Eakin, a Protestant, added: "I just feel so sorry for some of the Catholic people. I feel they've been let down by their church."


FORGOTTEN ATROCITY OF THE TROUBLES

The triple car bomb attack that ripped the heart out of the quiet rural village of Claudy has been described as one of the forgotten atrocities of the Northern Ireland Troubles.

Launched on the same day 12,000 British troops entered republican no-go areas in Belfast and Londonderry in a bid to regain control, the outrage was not even the lead item on some news bulletins.

As the military operation dubbed Motorman continued 11 miles away in Londonderry's bogside, the first device exploded without warning outside McElhinney's shop and bar on Main Street.

Police believe the bombers attempted to telephone a warning from nearby Dungiven but the lines were down as the result of past bomb damage to the phone exchange.

They then told Dungiven shop owners that three bombs were planted in the village, but the proprietors were also unable to contact the authorities due to the line problems.

One shop owner rushed to Dungiven police station with the warning but it was too late.

Minutes after the first bomb went off, killing three and fatally wounding three others, police officers discovered a second device in a van beside the post office.

They frantically evacuated people towards the Beaufort Hotel, but little did they know that a third bomb had been concealed in another van outside the hotel.

Soon after the second bomb detonated, the third exploded, killing three more.

The IRA denied responsibility for the murders, with the leadership claiming an internal "court of inquiry" indicated that its local unit did not carry it out.

But this account was long doubted, with many believing the republicans were unwilling to own up to an operation they viewed as botched due to the phone warnings not going through.

Rumours soon circulated that young curate Father Jim Chesney was involved. A flamboyant character, he was already suspected of being an IRA sympathiser.

Moved to another parish in Donegal, he died of cancer in 1980 having never been questioned by police.

At the Claudy bomb inquest, a coroner described the outrage as "sheer, unadulterated, cold, calculated, fiendish murder". Later poet James Simmons described the moment of the attack in his work, Claudy.

"An explosion too loud for your eardrums to bear, and young children squealing like pigs in the square, and all faces chalk-white and streaked with bright red, and the glass and the dust and the terrible dead."

BOMBED GOING ABOUT THEIR BUSINESS

Nine people were killed in the Claudy bombings. Young and old, five Roman Catholics and four Protestants - the attack did not discriminate.

Patrick Connolly, 15, Catholic. The teenager died in hospital over a week after being caught up in the first blast outside McElhinney's pub and shop.

Kathryn Eakin, 9, Protestant. The young girl was cleaning the windows of the family's grocery shop on Main Street when the first bomb exploded.

Arthur Hone, 38, Catholic. The married father of two died a fortnight after the bombing. Two of his uncles - both priests - conducted a requiem mass at the insurance salesman's funeral.

Joseph McCloskey, 39, Catholic. The factory worker died instantly when the first bomb detonated.

Elizabeth McElhinney, 59, Catholic. The owner of the pub and shop where the first car bomb went off was serving petrol from the shop's pump when she was killed.

James McClelland, 65, Protestant. The street cleaner was killed by the third and final bomb contained in a mini van.

Rose McLaughlin, 52, Catholic. The mother of eight and cafe owner died in hospital four days after the outrage.

David Miller, 60, Protestant. The street cleaner was killed by the third blast.

William Temple, 16, Protestant. The milkman's helper from nearby Donemana in Co Tyrone was on his round in the village when the bombs went off.


Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/claudy-bombing-church-and-state-colluded-to-free-provo-bomber-priest-14922607.html#ixzz0xeVAwnmV

[Bluesnout]

It seems that the Vatican hates the Israelis and the Ulster Protestants and that they have managed to date to hide the sordid details of the mass-murders of both our people's in the archives at Rome :rolleyes:


Claudy bombing


Ombudsman failed to quiz Vatican on alleged IRA priest

Thursday, 26 August 2010


The Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman failed to ask the Vatican or the papal nuncio if they knew of a priest's involvement in the Provisional IRA.

Ombudsman Al Hutchinson did not question church leaders on whether the late Fr James Chesney was responsible for the murder of nine persons in the 1972 bombings at Claudy in Co Londonderry.

"This was outside Mr Hutchinson's remit," the spokesman told the Irish Independent last night.

"Mr Hutchinson's terms of reference were to ascertain if there was collusion involving the British government, the Royal Ulster Constabulary and the Catholic Church in not arresting Fr Chesney on suspicion of murder."

The spokesman confirmed there had been full co-operation from Cardinal Sean Brady and other members of the hierarchy in regard to the information sought by the police ombudsman.

The report found that Cardinal William Conway, the then Primate of All Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh, was involved in a decision to transfer Fr Chesney from a parish in the Derry diocese to Malin Head in Co Donegal.

However, it is reported that the truth as to Fr Chesney's membership of the IRA and involvement in the Claudy bombings lies in the secret vaults of the Vatican archives.

This information relates to confidential reports sent to the Holy See's Secretary of State by the late Nuncio, Archbishop Gaetano Alibrandi, who was known to be staunchly in support of the republican movement.

It has also been learnt that in 1994 Archbishop Alibrandi, then in retirement in his native Sicily after serving 20 years in Ireland, completed a detailed memoir of his time here in Ireland.

But diplomatic sources have said that Archbishop Alibrandi was summoned to Rome where his manuscript was confiscated and lodged in the Vatican archives unpublished.



Read more: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/ne...#ixzz0xjPqkN4K

[Bluesnout]

Provo Priest's Secret Victims


http://i52.tinypic.com/2q8sgev.gif
Murderous Fr Chesney Linked To More Killings

Ciaran McGuigan



Claudy bomb priest, Fr James Chesney, may have had a role in up to 24 murders during two bloody years running the IRA in south Derry. A former cop claims the cleric, dubbed the Devil's Disciple for his role in the deadly bombing was exposed, plotted or supplied the weapons used in more violent killings.

A retired detective who hunted IRA gangs in the early 1970's, told The News Of The World, 'He ran wild in south Derry, a lot of murder and mayhem was down to him. Officers in Special Branch in Coleraine wanted him arrested. The reports went in but nothing was done'.

Special Branch briefing documents show that Chesney was believed to have had a hand in 'MOST bombings' and murders in Co Derry throughout 1972'.

He also believed to have been involved planning a bomb attack on a power station that spectacularly backfired.

Three young IRA men, John Bateson and Lee Martin, both 18, and James Sheridan, 19, blew themselves up transporting a bomb through Magherafelt in October 1971.

Five months later, the Derry brigade of the IRA, headed then by now Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, bombed the Limavady RUC barracks and also killed two motorists.

Although the attack wasn't carried out by Chesney's unit, our source, who helped jail a Scottish teenager for the atrocity, says the priest would've been informed of the mission.

His men were also believed to have been involved in planning the bomb that was set off in the main street of Ballymoney, Co Antrim, just two weeks later.

That blast started a blaze in pensioner Elizabeth McAuley's flat, killing the 64 year-old who was unable to escape the flames.

Three soldiers caught in a double landmine attack near Dungiven in June 1972 were the next to die at the hands of Chesney's murder gang.

Lance Corporal David Moon, Private Christopher Stevenson and Sergeant Stuart Reid all died in the wreckage of their landrover as they drove along a road about 10 miles outside of Claudy.

It was a month later that the IRA unit led by Chesney himself drove three car bombs into Claudy and slaughtered another nine people - Catholics and Protestants - including a nine year-old girl.

After the public backlash to the indiscriminate attack, Chesney's unit ditched their lethal bombing campaign and turned to supplying weapons.

Three off-duty UDR men Samuel Porter, 30, George Hamilton, 28, and James Hood, 48, were gunned down in separate incidents in Feeny, Claudy and Maghera three months before Chesney abandoned the parochial house in Bellaghy, Co Derry, and skipped across the border to Donegal.

Each of them was shot with weapons supplied by quartermaster Chesney.

The British Secretary of State Willie Whitelaw was by now putting pressure on the Catholic church to take Chesney in hand.

But police intelligence reports continued to link Chesney to later terror attacks in Derry.

Official church records describe Chesney as being 'off' between November 1972 and December 1972, when he was sent to the furtherest outpost of the church in Donegal, remote Malin Head.

During this time it's thought he was moving between counties Derry and Donegal.

Six months before he was formally transferred to Donegal in December 1973 his gang set off two bombs in the centre of Coleraine, slaughtering six pensioners who were out shopping in Railway street.

The first of the two bombs - which killed all the victims - went off without any warning.

An 18 year-old man was later jailed for life for murder and a 20 year-old man jailed for eight years for the attack.

A detective involved in that probe said, 'People were caught, and people were made accountable. But not Chesney. These explosions wouldn't have happened without him knowing, it was around his area, and it was carried out by his men. He was the one sending out young fellas to kill innocent people. That he was never brought to justice is a disgrace. But that wasn't down to the police officers working hard on the ground. All the evidence we had on Chesney was doccumented and reported to headquarters'

Chesnsy died from cancer in 1980, aged 46. He was buried near Draperstown, Co Derry.

[Bluesnout]

IRA link to PLO examined in hunt for deadly sniper

By Sean Rayment

Published: 12:01AM GMT 10 Mar 2002

BRITISH security officials are looking into suspicions that a crack sniper who killed 10 Israeli soldiers and civilians on the West Bank a week ago might be an IRA gunman.

Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, has asked European and American security agencies if they can help to identify the killer, who shot dead seven soldiers and three civilians in 25 minutes using 25 bullets from a bolt-action rifle.

The sniper was hidden in trees on a hill overlooking an army checkpoint near the Jewish settlement of Ofra. When he fled, he left behind his weapon, which is standard IRA practice.

The attack last Sunday shocked the Israeli Defence Force. Mossad believes that the sniper could be an IRA agent or special forces-trained contract killer.

The Sunday Telegraph understands that British security officials have been checking whether any known IRA members capable of carrying out the shootings or training others to do so have gone abroad in recent weeks.

One security official said: "To be able to get 10 kills in 25 minutes using 25 rounds without being spotted means this guy is good. He could be a former member of the IRA; he could be a former member of a special forces unit. He is clearly well trained."

The IRA is known to have links with the Palestine Liberation Organisation and other Middle East armed groups, and at least one member of the IRA's army council is known to speak Arabic. The security official added: "Many IRA men and women have been trained in camps in the Middle East and north Africa."

Training and tactical exchanges between the IRA and other terrorist groups is not unusual. Last year, four alleged IRA members were arrested in Columbia and charged with terrorist offences after allegedly training members of the Revolutionary Forces of Columbia (Farc) guerrillas.

Last October, a European security conference in France concluded that new links had been created and old ones regenerated between the IRA, Basque separatists and Farc.

British security forces are well aware of the IRA's sniping skills. During the 1990s, nine soldiers and policemen were murdered by snipers in South Armagh.

[Mediocrates]

I had heard that before. Arafat had some connections in the IRA and they trained each other as far back as the mid 70's. I tend to think that an IRA sniper was British Army trained though.

[Kenneth]

The rumour that the sniper was Irish and in the IRA started in the British press. There's no evidence to support this rumour in reality. The actual weapon used in the attacks cannot even be confirmed.

The attack last Sunday shocked the Israeli Defence Force. Mossad believes that the sniper could be an IRA agent or special forces-trained contract killer.
"[o]r special forces-trained contract killer".

Whose special forces does he mean?

Israeli, British, First Earth Battalion?

[Bluesnout]

Historian: British secret agents carried out bomb attacks against Jewish emigrant ships after WWII

21 September 2010

The British intelligence service MI6 used bombs and covert tactics to try to thwart the settlement of Palestine by Jewish refugees in the aftermath of World War II, according to a new book by Keith Jeffery on the history of MI6 during the first part of the 20th century. Jeffery, a historian from Northern Ireland, notes that his book was "published with the permission of the Secret Intelligence Service and the Controller of Her Majesty's Stationery Office." According to the author, the British undertook the effort – dubbed Operation Embarrass – in order to curry favor with oil-rich Arab states upset over the Jewish migration to the Middle East. MI6 planted explosives to disable ships before they could transport Jewish men, women and children from Europe to Palestine, which was at the time under British control. London, following pressure from wartime Arab allies, adopted a policy of strictly limiting Jewish migration to the region. In addition to the direct physical sabotage, the British launched a disinformation and propaganda campaign to impede the settlement.

Operation Embarrass was launched with spies, traveling under the guise of yachtsmen, planting bombs on five ships docked in Italian ports in the summer of 1947 and early 1948. One ship was destroyed, two damaged; the explosives were discovered on the other two ships before they were detonated. British authorities were able to escape responsibility because the Italian investigators ruled out the idea of British-sponsored attacks on the ships. Instead, the Italians believed the likely culprits were Arabs using British-made explosives.

According to Jeffery, "the primary consideration" of the mission was that no proof could ever be established of the involvement of the government in London. In the event they were caught, British agents were under orders to claim that they had been recruited in New York by anti-Communist businessmen working "mainly in the oil and aircraft industries."

The British left Palestine when Israel declared independence in 1948.

[Mediocrates]

http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/38520/operation-embarrass-you-bet-britains-secret-war-jews

[Bluesnout]

British Boycott Campaign

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

The BBC has influenced generations of well meaning citizens to despise Israel.

Feeling impotent, they organise their outrage and demand action. Something must be done. Boycotts must be voted for. Trade Unions, student unions, self-hating Jews, Methodists and socialist workers all agree. Israel must be punished.

A rabble of pro Palestinian activists gather every fortnight outside Ahava, an Israeli based company trading in London. They believe disrupting this shop and the surrounding businesses will somehow help the Poor Palestinians.

Musicians who plan gigs in Israel are pressured to cancel. (Some do, some don’t)

The Methodist church recently passed a resolution to boycott goods that emanate from “illegal settlements.”

A Methodist preacher and former M.P. David Hallam is to sue the Methodist church for breaching EU laws against racism because he believes their boycott shows that they are prejudiced against the Jewish state.

The BBC hasn’t reported this yet, but if the Methodists make a big enough fuss about it they might. Methodists have already started blogging about it, and predictably most of them are outraged equally by the plight of the Palestinians and the expense of the the litigation, calling Mr. Hallam a megalomanic and such. One of the recommended links on a pro-boycotter’s website is to an article on settlements in the rabidly anti-Zionist Guardian. I hold the Guardian/BBC responsible for this misguided groundswell that is gripping the UK.

These ill-thought out postures are more about hate for Israel than love for Palestinians. If any of these BBC influenced organisations were to rigourously carry out their ill-conceived boycotts, there would be serious impediments to computing, phone technology, medicine, longevity, science, national security, technology and much more. There’s nothing like cutting off one’s nose.

Boycotts are only relevant if the target needs your patronage more than you need whatever you’re boycotting. That’s how it works. We'll all be plunged into pre-technology days. Oh well.

'We' may not care if we cut all cultural, academic and scientific ties with Israel, but I’m pretty sure China would be delighted to fill any vacuum.

Posted by sue at 13:25 Links to this post 24 comments
Labels: anti Israel