Group says Jew-hate 'contravenes our fundamental belief that all people are equal and precious' - but has a history of accommodating controversial speakers
I wished I had kept the tweet where a Labour Party member listed the threats the Holiday Inn staff received after their management agreed to rent a room to Chris Williamson for a talk. Members of the staff got emails threatening violence, and eventually two men turned up at the hotel who threatened the management. After this, they cancelled the event saying that they were concerned for the safety of their staff.
I was once a Quaker so I was saddened when I heard they had cancelled an event that Chris Williamson had booked as I know the Quakers are very sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. I was also concerned that they may have fallen for the 'Antisemitism in the Labour Party' myth.
This is from the Jewish Chronicle.
Chris Williamson, the suspended Labour MP, held a rally in a Brighton park last week after three city centre venues pulled out of hosting him.
The third, the local Friends’ Meeting House, run by the Brighton Quakers, accepted the booking after a hotel and a community centre both cancelled.
It has also been claimed by pro-Williamson journalist Greg Hadfield that the Quakers group cancelled out of concerns for “the safety of Mr Williamson, venue staff and the building”, rather than due to opposition to the speaker.
But in an email to a member of the public, Jane Dawson, Quakers in Britain’s head of external communications, wrote: “Brighton [Friends’ Meeting House] were forced to cancel the event due to threats of violence.”
Jackie Walker, who has since been expelled from Labour for “prejudicial and grossly detrimental” comments against Jews, spoke at the venue in 2016 and 2017 about “false allegations of antisemitism” and a supposed witch-hunt against figures on the left of the party
The Brighton Friends’ Meeting House was also the venue where, during a fringe event for the 2017 Labour conference, Miko Peled, an Israeli-American activist, infamously suggested the Holocaust was up for historical debate.
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The Jewish Chronicle, while saying 'Jackie Walker, who has since been expelled from Labour for “prejudicial and grossly detrimental” comments against Jews' --- Omits to say that Jackie Walker is Jewish. Kind of a major omission. :-)
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