Cllr Brian Coleman says an 'anti-semitic' campaign is being run against Veolia over the Pinkham Way waste site

11:30am Wednesday 13th April 2011 in News Photograph of the Author By Alex Hayes

Councillor Brian Coleman Councillor Brian Coleman

A LEADING Tory councillor last night accused some residents of leading an anti-Semitic campaign against a group tendering for a huge waste contract at a controversial site.

Councillor Brian Coleman said some protesters had been running an “anti-Zionist” campaign against Veolia over their bidding for contracts for the Pinkham Way site on the fringes of Barnet, Haringey and Enfield.

The cabinet member for the environment was responding to a question from a fellow Tory member which asked if he condemned an “anti-Israel campaign” being run against the firm.

Cllr Coleman said: “There has been a nasty, unpleasant, organised campaign against Veolia and their possible participation in the NLWA procurement process “I believe this has been motivated by anti-Zionist sentiments by some residents of the borough which in my book amounts to anti-Semitism.”

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Comments(8)

GRG says...
11:45am Wed 13 Apr 11

Oh please Mr. Coleman, surely anti-zionism is NOT the same thing as anti-Semitism.

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godwin39 says...
7:08pm Wed 13 Apr 11

We can safely confine anything that Brian says to the trash bin. He is a perfect example of "rent a quote".
Was'nt he the one who boasted that the electorate would be overjoyed if he and his cronies took massive pay rises on their election to office. Did he also not humiliate and ridicule the Public in the gallery when the Budget vote was passed?
Did he also not spend tens of thousands of pounds of Rate Payers money on taxi fares etc.?

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HarryF says...
6:06pm Thu 14 Apr 11

Apologies re lack of focus on Veolia issue, but bravo, Mr Coleman. For too long the fallacy has been promoted by haters, who wish to deny the Jewish people self-determination in their own land, that they are somehow not being racist by being anti-Zionist. Well, the truth is that singling Jews out as not being worthy of having their own nation, in what has clearly been their homeland for thousands of years, is certainly racism (sometimes rather clumsily known as anti-semitism).

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Mohamed-Zain Dada says...
11:10am Tue 19 Apr 11

@HarryF
"When Arthur Balfour (sponsor of the 1905 Aliens Act to restrict Jewish immigration to the UK), wanted the government to commit itself to a Jewish homeland in Palestine, his declaration was delayed - not by anti-semites but by leading figures in the British Jewish community. They included a Jewish member of the cabinet who called Balfour's pro-Zionism anti-semitic in result".

I'm curious Harry, you seem to forget the self determination of the Palestinian people, the Nakba of 1948 and ethnic cleansing of an entire peoples.

An Anti-Zionist view is most certainly NOT an anti-Semitic view.


http://www.guardian.
co.uk/world/2003/dec
/03/comment

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Adamant says...
10:30am Wed 20 Apr 11

Just because some people are claiming that this company is operating in disputed land makes it Anti-Semitic? I think this Anti-Antisemitism card is very overplayed sometimes? Maybe Coleman is just seeking brownie points from the Jewish community?

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LABATIE says...
8:22pm Fri 22 Apr 11

This man plainly has a personality disorder. After the demonstration on 12th April, I wrote to the Mayor. I pointed out a) that I had not the remotest clue what Coleman was talking about in his weird outburst and b) that I had sung for a rewarding 12 years at Hendon Reform Synagogue and would be happy to discuss his accusation of anti-Zionism with Coleman and that the mayor shd feel free to pass on my e-mail.

So far I have heard nothing and do not expect to do so. Discussion does seem an ingredient of this dangerous clown's version of democracy.

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LABATIE says...
8:30pm Fri 22 Apr 11

Apologies

The last para should have read as follows:
Discussion does NOT seem an ingredient of this dangerous clown's version of democracy

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Bonnie Prince Charlie says...
2:57pm Tue 28 Feb 12

When discussing what happened in 1947/8, people seem to forget that the area under the British Mandate (previously part of the Ottoman Empire) was divided into two. 80% of this region was handed over to the 'Palestinians' who did not exist as a cohesive people with a government and all the trappings associated with a sovereign country. The other 20% was given as a homeland to the Jews who had prepared for this eventuality and had a putative government etc in place. The new state of Israel was surrounded on 3 sides by this new Palestinian state. However the Arab countries which bordered the new Palestinian state found this unacceptable and decided to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. In order to attack Israel they had to cross this new Palestinian state since none of these countries had a border with Israel. And when they were beaten back, each of these countries - Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Transjordan - simply annexed the land awarded to the Palestinians and kept it: and the new Palestinian state vanished at birth. They are the ones to blame for the Naquba. They are the people who stole the land from the Palestinians.

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