“Now that the RLB-Maxine Peake situation has come to the attention of the wider public, I'd like to offer an explanation of how this conspiracy theory started & grew.
The answer stems back to a US-based organisation calling itself "Jewish Voice for Peace".
"Jewish Voice for Peace" in the US, like "Jewish Voice for Labour" in the UK, are a group of people on the fringes of the Jewish community who see it as their job to downplay & dismiss certain types of antisemitism; JVL from Labour members, JVP from the "anti-Israel" brigade.
A couple of years ago, JVP launched a new campaign called "Deadly Exchange".
Its aim was to basically say *police brutality in America? That's Israel's fault*
This is from Deadly Exchange website, which is run by JVP.
Have some US police received training from Israel? Yes. Just as they've received training from many other countries around the world. Different law enforcement agencies from different countries share techniques & info. This isn't new
But JVP was implying something more
JVP was implying that all the injustices in US law enforcement - from ICE to the FBI to police brutality - it was all because of Israeli training.
All of it. There was no context of other countries being involved. A *special partnership* to bring misery to America.
Fast forward to now, in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the widespread outrage against the continued racism against African Americans.
JVP did something very, very strange.
They issued a statement, both on the JVP website & the Deadly Exchange website.
Here it is on the JVP website.
It's worth reading in full. Here's part 1.
Here's part 2.
It's a staggering admission.
*You know how we implied this terrible thing was all Israel's fault? Well, erm, it's a bit more complicated than that. Make sure you put it in context (The context we've ALWAYS failed to give you) or you might end up sounding antisemitic!*
JVP NEVER previously provided this context. They produced a 57 page report blaming only Israel. Nowhere in that report did it say, for example - "oh, well actually the US does this sort of thing with a bunch of countries, so focusing on Israel might give the wrong idea."
And now that people are blaming Israel for the actions of every single officer in the US (tens of thousands versus what, the few hundred who've been to Israel). JVP's response is to slowly back away & hope people don't notice this antisemitic behaviour is DUE. TO. THEM.
I'll leave it there. Thanks for listening.
Zei Gezunt (be well) in these challenging times.”-Daniel Sugerman
