Ken Loach, whose oeuvre as a film director includes the masterful Kes and the cringe-making Land and Freedom, believes that antisemitism is “understandable.”
According to The Parliament:
British film director Ken Loach says that a rise in anti-Semitism in Europe since the Gaza crisis is “not surprising and understandable”.
He was responding to a report earlier this week by the Vienna-based agency for fundamental rights (FRA) which said cases of anti-Semitism had risen across Europe since last December.
The agency, which collected information from 19 EU members, said rises in anti-Semitism, ranging from vandalism to physical attacks, were a serious concern…
But, speaking in Brussels on Wednesday, Loach said, “If there has been a rise I am not surprised. In fact, it is perfectly understandable because Israel feeds feelings of anti-Semitism.”
Loach, famous for films like Kes, Cathy Come Home and Riff Raff, stressed that “no-one can condone violence”.
But the director, who has spoken out against Israel in the past, branded the report as a “red herring” designed to “distract attention” from Israel’s recent military actions.
This is a wonderful example of what David Hirsh refers to as the “Livingstone Formulation.”
Let’s be clear. What we have here is a Marxist film director, a professed internationalist, saying that if a Jew is beaten to a pulp, Israel is to blame - and that those who dare complain about it are engaged in the well-worn Zionist tactic of changing the subject.
This is the same logic which blames Al Qaeda for assaults on Muslims or the Victoria’s Secret catalog for rape. It is idiocy and it is dangerous. And if Loach and those like him think we’re just going to take it lying down, they are even more stupid than I thought.
(Via Mira, Rosie Bell and Bob.)
“This is the same logic which blames Al Qaeda for assaults on Muslims or the Victoria’s Secret catalog for rape. It is idiocy and it is dangerous. And if Loach and those like him think we’re just going to take it lying down, they are even more stupid than I thought.”
Loach’s comments were nothing less than a call to violent attacks on Jews. I hope that any victim of antisemitic violence in Europe sues him for instigating violence against Jews. I would compare his comments to the way antisemites like Pound in the 30’s used to excuse violence against Jews by blaming Jewish bankers for the economic miseries of “the people”
In any case, Ken Loach and other like minded Marxist antisemites are stupid because by their logic no person and no government should be blamed for red baiting. In fact it’s the Marxist themselves who are to blame for anti communists from Franco to Pinochet since Marxists governments all over the world had killed millions of people.
Ken Loach is being more than disingenuous here which is plain wicked as a behaviour.
On the one hand he states there is nothing to look at (ie The anti-semitism) and 2. that Jews need to earn not to be subject to antisemitism.
In a way he is saying it’s almost as if they deserve it (antisemitism) in a backhanded way.
Then he caps it with “I don’t condone violence” which is sloppy brain speak for go kick ‘em they deserve it.
So what that he’s a director they can be wankers like the rest of us, in my view though Loach is being wicked against a whole people group.
This is the same logic which blames Al Qaeda for assaults on Muslims
I had to read this twice because Al Quaeda does in fact assault Muslims. I recall reading that something like two out of three Muslim deaths in Iraq was caused by the so called resistance.
I know you meant assaults by non Muslim bigots but that isn’t precisely clear.
Anon - good point - thanks.
According to Ken Loach logic, women are the cause of rape and deserve it not to mention the punishment of being stoned to death for insulting and bringing shame unto the family. This is a common practice in much of the Muslim world. Loach and all of England deserve the Islamic Sharia State that is soon coming to your local neighborhood in Great Britain not to mention France.
Islamophobia is “understandable” after the 7/7/05 bus and underground bombing.
Loach is the tip of the iceberg of “progressive” racists in the UK.
So if Ken Loach get beaten up he can attribute it to the effects of Commmunism on Europe…? It would be an opportunity for him to show his “understanding’ of the far-reaching effects of oppressive regimes, into the fourth or fifth generation…
What are you talking about?
First of all what does him being a marxist have anything to do with what he said. His marxist beliefs have nothing to do with his statement. You are just trying to put him in a bad light before we even hear his statement.
Second of all I think you are completely misunderstanding what is meant by understandable. He is not saying that antisemitism justified, right, or condonable. No he is saying it is comprehensible, that one can see you this may be happening. Yes, in fact sexually provocative situations may cause incidents of sexual assault. Muslim attacks on America cause anti-Islamic sentiments. These things are understandable, but by no means justified or condonable. That is all Loach is saying.
He doesn’t think it is right to hate jews, but just that he can see (understand) how there could be a rise in people hating jews.