Andy Burnham has ruled out a coalition deal with the Greens over the party’s recently-passed conference motion on Zionism, calling it “antisemitic”.

Burnham said: “It is wrong. It is antisemitic. This side of the House will have nothing to do with it”, adding that “we cannot support a partnership with a party that holds the position that has recently been adopted”.

How, pray tell, is it antisemitic?

The more I hear people say that it is, the more I am convinced that the motion is actually correct. Calling things antisemitic that are not antisemitic is the most common move of the Israel shill to poison the well.

If his criticism were simply that it's too broad, solutionizing for another country or not great policy that would be one thing. I could take that as legitimate criticism. Calling it anti-semitic just discredits his opinion.

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[–] 16 points 1 day ago (6 children)

The word "antisemitic" has been weaponised and worn out to the point of meaningless now.

The Greens are the only mainstream political party in Britain speaking out against an ongoing genocide. As such there is literally no other party I can bring myself to vote for.

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  • [+] -8 points 22 hours ago (5 children)

    "Islamophobia" is also at that point.

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  • [–] 2 points 21 hours ago (4 children)
  • [–] -4 points 17 hours ago (3 children)

    It's a word now synonymous with racism. Critiquing a murderous religion is now comparable to brown people bad.

    There wasn't even a word for it in Arabic until recent. It's an abberation used for nefarious purposes, resulting in attempts at blasphemy laws.

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  • [–] [S] 23 points 1 day ago

    From The Independent:

    While Mr Polanski had wanted the controversial motion to be amended, he has pushed back against claims that it was antisemitic.

    Earlier this week he posted on social media: “As a British Jew, I'm deeply concerned about the cynical blurring of Zionism & Judaism. Whatever our political differences, Jewish people must never face prejudice or discrimination. So after the Labour government apologised over Gaza: why are they still arming Israel?”

    I agree with him on this one, personally.

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  • [–] 19 points 1 day ago

    I have my own reservations about the motion, but it isn't really antisemitic. I think calling something "antisemitic" is simply used as a shortcut to discredit anything they don't like related to Israel and Judaism. There's never any reason given for something like this being antisemitic, it "just is".

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  • What a bell-end.

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