Hi Signer, So far 7 folk have written to the NEC about LFoI and JLM, yet there are 400 of us - will you write? You can do this simply by clicking here ; embellish the email it generates if you so wish. Be sure to add your name - and if possible, your Party membership number - or CLP. The more of us that do write in, the greater the chance the NEC will need to act.

For my part, I have written as below:

Our General Secretary - A Contradiction in Terms

Dear NEC member,

I write because I am now being investigated for anti-Semitism at the same time as my complaint against the Labour Friends of Israel (LFoI) and the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) has been dismissed.

Let me explain. Not having received even an acknowledgement to my complaint that LFoI and JLM had brought the Labour Party into disrepute, I wrote to request one.

By return, on the 2nd Oct, I received this email from the Labour Party Complaints Administrator, saying she’d concluded “that the matter you describe does not amount to a breach of the Labour Party rules and will therefore not be investigated further by the party.”

So Labour Friends of Israel and the Jewish Labour Movement can openly support a racist regime, bring Labour to its knees by declaring the Party “institutionally anti-Semitic”, ensure claims of anti-Semitism are broadcast against the Party Leader, push for a witch-hunt against any that decry Israel as a racist endeavour, and of whom I have provided televised proof of working work through the Israeli Embassy in order to wreck Labour’s chances of winning not just the next general election, but any election.. and Ms Robinson concludes there is no case to answer.

The day before, I had received this Notice of Investigation from the Acting Head of Disputes, Nareser Osei, telling me that I was being investigated on allegations of anti-Semitism for a post on social media. [It was actually an update I’d sent to those supporting my petition]

Ms Formby suggests my update of the 14th Sept “Free speech in Labour at risk; Petition goes to Conference” is anti-Semitic and would bring Labour into disrepute.

So, what’s in it? First, I reference John McDonnell telling Jewish News that Labour now considers it “anti-Semitic to oppose a Jewish state”. I say this pretty frightening, coming from the Shadow Chancellor and Chair of the Labour Representation Committee.

I go onto explain that, “in a chilling foretelling of how freedom of speech in Labour about Israel might be stamped on” Ms Formby is calling upon Facebook admins to inform her of any posts in their Labour and Corbyn pages that might be deemed anti-Semitic - and since your decision of 4th Sept that includes an awful lot of Party members, who dare to consider Zionism to be a racist creed. I go onto mention Labour Against the Witch hunt ‘s open letter to Ms Formby where these same admins tell her they will not comply; there are now 650 signers.

Finally I give a puff to my Mondoweiss article: "Why let Netanyahu write the Labour rulebook?"

I am now being called upon to prove to Ms Formby that the post and petition is not hostile to Jews and that none might take offence. Does it meet the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, she asks? She suggests my sentiments are directly contradictory to Labour Party values and is looking to silence me on this by asking if I am going to share content of this nature again.

As you may tell by reading this letter, I would rather burn in the flames of hell than desist, so Ms Formby’s attempts to muzzle me only energise me more.

So anyway,  the General Secretary, the Acting Head of Disputes and the Complaints Officer have got together and decided that my complaint against the LFoI and the JLM had no merit, at the same time as they decided that I was probably evil enough to warrant an investigation myself. So it is I, not the JLM nor LFoI, who has acted in a way that she considers grossly detrimental to the Party.

I feel like I have drifted into an Orwellian world where everything is upside down. An organisation seeking a mandate to rule the country, attempts to self-destruct by pardoning those who would seek to keep its elected leader from office and to expel (or at least muzzle) thousands of his supporters. By doing so, the organisation ensures that those agencies so keen to topple Corbyn can continue their machinations with Israel’s racist Government - and get a chance to do it all again at the next election (whether it be local or general). That same organisation then sets about rooting out those who might seek to keep it to its founding belief in social justice and equality of opportunity for all.

For there is no equality in Israel – either of opportunity or birth – and the NEC is having its name used to crush those who would seek to declaim that country’s racist oppression of any who aren’t Jewish, manifested by ethnic cleansing, profound inequality, over 50 racist laws and a denial of national voting rights.

Israel was founded and flourishes on racism. Incredibly, the Party now protects those who support the country in its racist endeavour and challenges those who seek to keep the Party true to its aims and values.

Chris Williamson MP, speaking at the LAW conference fringe meeting did, according to the Times of Israel, compare accusations of anti-Semitism in the party to “McCarthyism.” He invoked George Orwell’s “1984,” according to social media reports, where “good is bad, black is white and we have the Ministry of Truth and all the rest of it.” So, it’s not just me that thinks Labour is going all 1984-ish, with the General Secretary acting as “Big Brother”.

When our General Secretary of the Labour Party, wrote to those Facebook admins she began to set an internal policeman in every one of our 550,000 members. Her action calls to mind Bentham's Panopticon : although it is physically impossible for the single watchman to observe all the inmates' cells at once, the fact that the inmates cannot know when they are being watched means that they are motivated to act as though they are being watched at all times. Thus, they are effectively compelled to regulate their own behaviour. In this case, to stop saying Israel is racist.

Her drive is working, of course. Most Labour members are fearful of considering my petition in signing up to a statement that was perfectly acceptable to the NEC as recently as August. The FB group "Labour Against Anti-Semitism", is waiting in the wings. It is proud of having tried to shop 1,200 Labour Party members to Ms Formby for "anti-Semitism" (ie criticism of Israel). Yet, some of us show no fear. In regards to my petition to you to abandon the full IHRA, we are now 400 members speaking as one.

By committing itself to the full IHRA, Labour is tearing up the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Articles 18–21 on freedom of expression, as our class action defence explains. Should Ms Formby move against us all, Labour’s legal bills stand to soar – staff time, expenses - £5,000 a case? Multiply that 400 times to see £2M spent dealing with a manufactured anti-Semitism “problem” and that much less cash to spend on campaign materials. How many bake sales and fundraising dinners to secure but one expulsion? Lawyers will have a field day and Labour’s reputation will be in tatters; no Palestinian campaigner goes down without a fight (as Colin Monehen observed at Conference). How will Labourists and trade unionists (such as I – I’m a shop steward) feel about footing this bill for Netanyahu?

To say nothing of the bad press and exodus of members who see Israel as a racist state. You will never see Government if you pursue this course of action. Each expulsion will put wind in the sails of the Friends of Israel as they declaim “Look – Labour really does have an anti-Semitism problem, these expulsions prove it”.

Your wish for an easy life from the BBC and the Guardian will create a witch hunt in Labour far bigger than what’s been seen to date. This will be an operation that would have delighted the Stassi. If the NEC wants to stamp out anti-Semitism in Labour they should deal with the Friends of Israel first, as this article by Jewish left-wing anti-Zionist writer Robert Cohen “The Jewish establishment’s ‘War Against Corbyn’ risks bringing real antisemitism to Britain” explains. Then read this post, from Jewish Voice for Labour, about JLM’s sister body, headed “The Israeli Labor Party and the Zionist Union – friends of ours?” 

I beg the NEC to reflect upon what is happening here. I ask they get a grip on this contradiction in terms, before they become the laughing stock of the world. Please resurrect my complaint against LFoI and JLM.

Yours faithfully,

 Pete Gregson, Edinburgh, Membership number L1156630