We need to talk about John Mann
TetleysTLDR summary
John Mann was on Radio 4 claiming Jews are being blamed for Israel’s actions, which is antisemitic. Well, that’s exactly the toxic conflation people like Mann and the Board of Deputies have been pushing for years to shut down criticism of Israel. Now it’s backfired. By his own logic, criticising Israel, including chants like “**** the IDF,” is not antisemitic. It’s political protest: and the muppet has finally admitted it. Meanwhile, the BBC once again platformed this nonsense unchallenged, treating the Board of Deputies as the voice of all British Jews, when in reality, they’re a pro-Israel lobbying outfit that doesn’t speak for everyone. Jews aren’t the Borg, and it’s time the media stopped pretending they are.
Checkmate, Mann. You played yourself.
I see the Israel lobby are tying themselves in knots again. Did anyone catch weapons-grade melt John Mann dribbling on Radio 4 this morning about antisemitism?'
According to him, a report just issued by the Board of Deputies of British Jews states Jews are being accosted in the workplace and blamed for the actions of the Israeli state. Given his track record this could just as well be filed in the bin marked things John Mann said that never happened. Because he has form.
It's exactly the same playbook that is always used. This latest 'commission' chaired by John Mann (a man with a long record of claiming things that never materialise) is not an independent inquiry. It’s a political manoeuvre, a rhetorical device, intended to do three things:
- Conflate Jews with Israel in the public imagination,
- Smear protest and criticism of Israeli war crimes as dangerous or antisemitic,
- Reinforce the BoD’s status as the sole voice of British Jewry, when in reality they’re just a well-funded Zionist lobbying outfit.
The report claims antisemitism is being 'normalised' across society, particularly in institutions like the NHS, education, arts, and policing, but as usual it provides no serious empirical evidence, just anecdotal 'feelings' and hand-wringing. It’s yet another example of the BoD co-opting legitimate Jewish fears to delegitimise any public solidarity with Palestine, particularly in light of Israel’s continued atrocities in Gaza.
Of course this isn't about defending Jewish people, it's about shielding Israel and silencing criticism. It follows the same patter we saw in the Corbyn years:
- Take legitimate concerns about Israel's behaviour (e.g. bombing hospitals, occupying land, abducting children),
- Reframe criticism as antisemitism,
- Use the BoD, CAA, and other compliant figures like Mann or Mordaunt to build a moral panic,
- Get the BBC to report it uncritically, never once mentioning the BoD’s Zionist agenda, or the diversity of views among British Jews.
The Witchfinder Genocidal and Coronation Karen fronting another work of fiction by the BoDs
So back to John Mann. He has form on bullshitting unchallenged:
The “90-year-old Jewish GP” letter (2016)
Mann claimed on Facebook that he received an abusive letter from a 90-year‑old Jewish GP, but then publicly insisted it was probably written by a 'hard‑left activist' from Momentum. Tony Greenstein, a Jewish anti‑Zionist, countered that he had proof both the GP and an activist authored it, accusing Mann of dismissing valid concerns by attributing them to activists.
So Mann shifted focus from the substance of the complaint to an unverified claim about the sender's identity, undermining the victim instead of addressing their concerns.
hansard.parliament.uk+15thejc.com+15michaelrosenblog.blogspot.com+15.
The Tories and “Cultural Marxism” slur (2023)
Critics accused the Jewish Chronicle and Mann of downplaying the Conservative Party’s use of the antisemitic 'cultural Marxism' trope. One Reddit commentator summarised: “John Mann MP, accusations of antisemitism … could not be backed up, because there was no anti‑Semitism. Accusations of anti‑Semitism that are false and made for naked political ends … like the boy who cried wolf you actually help legitimise antisemitism.”
Promises to investigate “far-left sites” that never materialised (late 2019)
Mann announced he would be launching an inquiry into left‑wing sites like The Canary for allegedly fuelling antisemitism, but no such investigation ever took place. Critics shouted this was a false threat used to smear progressive outlets
Promising investigations that never happen fuels distrust especially when the same mechanism is used repeatedly to taint critics.
This is naked misuse of antisemitism: Both the 'Cultural Marxism' and far-left site examples illustrate how claims of antisemitism can be deployed strategically to silence or discredit political opponents rather than tackle genuine bigotry.
These examples show a pattern: Mann positions himself as the champion against antisemitism, yet in some cases fabricates or deflects to protect political interests, using the charge of antisemitism as a weapon rather than a tool of truth. That kind of behaviour doesn’t protect Jews, it undermines real struggles against hate.
And you know what? If that’s happening, if Jews are being challenged in the workplace about the actions of Israel: it is antisemitic and rightly should be challenged. Absolutely no argument there. We've always said that conflating Jews with Israel is dangerous, discriminatory, and wrong.
But there’s an irony. The very people who’ve spent the last decade blurring that line, Mann, the Board of Deputies, the CAA, the entire Westminster chorus of Hasbara parrots, are now squealing because they claim that conflation is causing harm to the very people they claimed to defend. Like we always said it would.
Let’s go back, shall we? To 2016. When these same people launched a co-ordinated smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn. Not because he was antisemitic, but because he dared to criticise Israeli apartheid and call for justice for Palestinians. They deliberately fused Jewish identity with the Israeli state in the public consciousness, so that any criticism of Israel, no matter how legitimate, how evidence-based, how rooted in international law could be branded as 'antisemitic'. They even rewrote the rulebook. Remember the IHRA 'definition' of antisemitism? A political document highjacked and masquerading as a hate crime framework, rushed through councils and institutions under pressure from the very same figures now claiming to be victims of the confusion and conflation they themselves engineered. It included the infamous line that calling Israel a racist state might be antisemitic. Might? since 2019 Israel’s own laws say it’s a Jewish ethno-national state! If that’s not racism, what is?
And now, years later, John Mann finally admits, clearly by accident, that blaming Jews for Israel’s crimes is wrong because they’re not the same thing. Cheers for catching up, John. It's taken you long enough. Some of us have been shouting this for decades, often while being called antisemites by the likes of you.
So let’s hold him to it, shall we? By Mann’s own logic: and he is the Government’s so-called antisemitism adviser - Israel and Jewish people are distinct. Therefore, criticising the Israeli state, its military, its genocidal war in Gaza, or its violent occupation of Palestinian land, is not an attack on Jews.
Which brings us to Bob Vylan. That chant you know the one “**** the IDF.” It’s raw, it’s political, blunt and a protest. It is a direct condemnation of a military force that has flattened hospitals, killed tens of thousands of civilians, and now stands accused of war crimes and genocide by international courts. It is not antisemitic, and thanks to John Mann, we now have official confirmation. You can’t have it both ways, mate.
You don’t get to tell us that Israel and Jews are the same thing when it suits your smear campaigns, then cry foul when that dangerous logic becomes counter-productive to Jewish people. The responsibility lies squarely at the feet of you and every person and organisation that has run with this bullshit.
And while we’re at it, let’s talk about the Board of Deputies. Every time the BBC covers this issue, they frame the BoD as the 'representative body of British Jews' as if we’re some sort of religious hive mind. Newsflash: we are not the Borg. The BoD does not represent all British Jews, they represent a very specific political position: hardline, Zionist, and welded to the interests of the Israeli state. They are, in practice, a root-and-branch pro-Israel advocacy group with a history of platforming settler-apologists and lobbying against Palestinian solidarity. But does the BBC ever tell the audience that? Do they mention that the BoD have repeatedly attacked Jewish anti-Zionists, silenced Jewish dissent, and tried to get Jewish organisations like Jewish Voice for Labour shut down? Do they explain that many Jews, religious and secular, left-wing and apolitical, want nothing to do with the BoD or their agenda? Of course not. Because framing the BoD as 'the Jewish community' makes things easier for the narrative. It turns criticism of Israel into criticism of Jews by default. It flattens out dissent and manufactures consent for apartheid. It’s dishonest, it’s dangerous, and it’s been happening for years with the BBC’s full complicity.
And here’s the damage they’ve done, not just politically, but socially and morally. By cynically conflating Judaism with Israel, these people have made ordinary Jews more vulnerable, not less. They’ve given antisemites cover by reinforcing the very stereotype they claim to fight that all Jews are somehow responsible for what Israel does. That’s not just irresponsible, it’s unforgivable. They’ve created a climate where many British Jews, especially anti-Zionists, leftists, and those who care about Palestinian human rights, feel alienated from their own institutions, hounded out of public life, or branded as 'self-hating', whatever the fuck that means
Furthermore they’ve poisoned the well so completely that real antisemitism, actual threats, actual violence, actual hate is harder to identify, harder to isolate, and harder to challenge. And in the process, they’ve devalued the term itself. Antisemitism no longer means what it should, thanks to the weaponisation of the word by the BoD, Mann, and the rest of the Hasbara army.
Antisemitism has been diluted to the point of absurdity, trotted out every time someone mentions Gaza, BDS, or Zionism. That’s not defending Jews: that’s burning the credibility of one of the most vital anti-racist struggles of the 20th century on the altar of Israeli exceptionalism. So let’s run this through one more time for the hard of thinking:
- Criticising Israel ≠ hating Jews.
- Condemning the IDF ≠ antisemitism.
- Saying “**** the IDF” = a political protest, not a hate crime.
- Using antisemitism as a political shield to deflect from Israeli war crimes = morally bankrupt.
- Presenting the Board of Deputies as the voice of British Jews = journalistic malpractice.
- Deliberately conflating Judaism and Zionism = dangerous, dishonest, and damaging to Jews themselves.
Checkmate, Mann. You’ve tripped over your own propaganda. And the BBC, as always, handed you the microphone unchallenged. Well this time you've strung yourself up by the cable. Slow hand clap
And in the words of Peter Falk, himself a progressive anti-Zionist Jew, just one more thing. Now that you've conceded that British Jews and Israel are not the same thing, how about all the people who were hounded out of the Labour Party over bullshit claims of antisemitism precisely because you said that criticism of Israel was antisemitic. If you had any shame within you, you'd be going around the country knocking on each of their doors and asking for forgiveness for the harm you and all those other bastards have caused. Fuck you John.
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