One of the hardest things on Social Media is to gain traction and get a message to spread even moderately viral. In recent blogs I have tried to draw the distinction between Hate Crime and antisemitism. If only I could attached a message to the common cold?
Up and down the country, in every nook and crannie of political life in the UK, Europe and indeed the world the term antisemitism is being misused. The word has been successfully weaponised to the extent that the only people comfortable using the word are Jewish people or more appropriately, Zionists and their followers and proponents.
I am very clear in my mind about the definition of Hate Crime and the qualification as appropriate of antisemitism. However, a new weaponised term has lunged on to the political scene like a ‘fart in a space suit’. You absolutely hate it but there doesn’t seem to be anything you can do about it. I am referring of course to the term the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance [ IHRA} or rather the definition. [click here to read the history of IHRA].
Kier Starmer as Director General of the UK Crown Prosecution Service [CPS] produce the legal definition of Hate Crime for Judicial Guidance. That definition was succinct, precise and very readable.
The CPS or their judicial forerunners also produced a definition of murder. The distinguished between other forms of killing but they did not produce a catalogue of all the ways a person could murder. They left that for the fictional crime writers who wrote libraries full of books detailing all the different ways to commit murder. In law and in simple terms if a person deliberately and in full cognition of their act, murders another human that is murder.
The Judiciary does not demand that every Court in the land accepts every definition of every murder ever committed and narrated by authors of fictional novels. In fact I have just trashed the whole argument for an IHRA definition of Hate Crime predicated on antisemitism.
Why, for the love of Jesus, have political parties bent their knee to Israel and allowed them to append their varies laws on Hate Crime specifically focused on antisemitism. What grip does Israel have on these parties and where is the legal oversight that allows an action that was probably treasonous not so long ago.
I wrote to Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon ad nausea asking them to withstand the pressure from Israel and simply explain they know what Hate Crime is and we will punish any offender brought before the Court regardless of the determinant, whether it be Islamophobia, antisemitism, homophobia, ethnicity, sexual orientation or fear of spiders.
Now that a significant proportion of political parties and institutions have capitulated we must ask ourselves how can we right gross skewing of the law in favour of one group.
Actually, it really is quite simple. If my neighbour paints their house purple outside because they want to be different and that pisses off the neighbourhood we can all collaborate and paint our house purple; that simple.
Why should Israel be allowed to expand on the obvious in a manner that polarises the law in their favour. Indeed, why? So here’s the deal.
There are many minority groups suffering from prejudice that exacerbates a crime committed against them, that is a Hate Crime. In the interest and indeed demands of fairness each of these groups must define the manner in which this presents itself. Included in the minority groups would be:
- people of colour,
- members of the LBGTQ community,
- Muslins and other religious groups, the immigrant community especially Asians but not exclusively,
- members of other faith groups but also including Catholics and atheists and the secular community,
- disabled groups, people with mental health issues or other impairments and people of low intellect
- People with learning difficulties, and other mental health issues such as anorexia, bulimia, ADHD, PTSD, OCD and autism
- People with visual issues such as obesity, short or extremely high stature, hair loss or other visual challenges.
This is a snap shot of people who form minority groups and who suffer various forms of abuse that man manifest itself in a criminal act. Each and any and every one of this groups may be subject to Hare Crime.
Representatives of these groups should document the prejudice; the bullying, the anxiety and persecution they experience.
Each groups should reasonable expect the same acceptance of the prejudice they experience with the same institutions and political parties and the Jewish community that IHRA definition associates with in relation to a crime against the person or their property.
Failure to accept the full definition of these Hate Crimes is tantamount to accepting the expression of superiority and bias in favour of Jewish groups and individuals and expressed by these people who have demanded acceptance of the IHRA qualification associated with Hate Crime. This in itself must be considered a Hate Crime and should never be tolerated in a fair society.