PRESS RELEASE In a first for the UK, a shop steward is to be expelled  for anti-Semitism under the new IHRA definition. Pete Gregson, the only GMB shop steward for 24,000 NHS Lothian staff is being disciplined for declaring Israel to be a racist endeavour. It arises from his petition to Labour NEC which can be found at tinyurl.com/israelihra and which has been signed by over 1,000 Labour Party members.

The GMB had received a complaint, which GMB sources identify as coming from Rhea Wolfson, a self-declared Zionist high in the Jewish Labour Movement. Wolfson also sat on the Labour NEC when Gregson was objecting to their affiliate status with the Labour Party. It seems to have been this action that led to Wolfson, a GMB Organiser, seeking to get Gregson expelled. Under the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, which Wolfson argued for at Labour’s NEC, anyone declaring Israel a racist endeavour is deemed an anti-Semite.

Gregson was issued with the decision by the GMB through a letter over the Xmas period after a GMB hearing on 19th Dec – which a Rabbi attended to declare Gregson innocent of anti-Semitic charges. The hearing did not take Rabbi Ahron Cohen as a witness, even though the elderly man had travelled from Manchester to Glasgow especially. The Rabbi’s speech can be viewed here.

Gregson is taking legal advice and will appeal to the GMB Central Executive Council in London for the decision to be overturned. He values the union and wants to remain a shop steward within it. He has instructed Glasgow solicitors Legal Spark on this matter and is taking their legal advice.
He is fundraising for his legal costs and asking for donations at tinyurl.com/legalihra from those who want to help.

PETE GREGSON STATEMENT
“The GMB are expelling me for anti-Semitism. According to the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism at  tinyurl.com/ihradef I am a Jew-hater. What I actually said was that Israel was a racist endeavour. I also said that Israel tends to exaggerate the importance of the Holocaust for its own political ends. For the record, I am a Holocaust educator; I have studied it at length; I want everyone to know about it; I studied it in Berlin just last summer. However, Israel has a tendency as a nation state to ignore the other factors involved in the persecution of Jews. And the irony is that Israel now persecutes the minorities, especially the Arabs, living within its borders. Most especially in Gaza. And so the racism that Jews suffered during the war is now practised by many Israeli Jews themselves. The Israeli State backs this – there are 60 laws saying Jews have greater rights and in July that approach was incorporated into Israel’s basic law with the “Nation State” law. But it’s wrong to transplant one Holocaust for another.
The Israelis have been working since 2004 to redefine anti-Semitism so that they can stop the BDS movement; they know their apartheid system is at risk. So now anyone who calls it out as such in the UK is an anti-Semite and will be expelled from whatever body they are in or are employed by for telling the truth about Israel. Because most bodies in the UK have adopted the IHRA.
Netanyahu appears to have re-written the GMB rule book, along with everyone else’s.”

-ends-

Editor’s notes:

See GMB decision letter to expel Gregson here
A full account of the GMB hearing of 19th Dec can be found here