Reported to the regulator
In Solicitors Behaving Badly news…
The Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal (SDT) yesterday upheld allegations that a solicitor published antisemitic and offensive posts on social media and also abused Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) staff.
The conduct of Farrukh Najeeb Husain was reported to the regulator by leading law firm Bevan Brittan, where he was working as a self-employed consultant to deliver on a particular client mandate in spring 2021. Some of the key tweets were directed at Simon Myerson KC, a Jewish barrister, and Hugo Rifkind, a Jewish journalist at The Times.
And they are eye-watering.
In its rule 12 statement – setting out its case to the tribunal – the SRA alleged that, as well as being “plainly inappropriate, offensive, pejorative, puerile and derogatory”, some of the tweets aimed at Mr Myerson could be considered to be antisemitic as well. Mr Husain frequently used the word ‘Zionist’ as a synonym or substitute for ‘Jew’, it said, while he used words used by the Nazis, such as ‘Untermensch’ and ‘Lebensraum’.
“The use of these terms associated with Nazism would have upsetting associations for Jews (not just Zionists) and were of course terms or principles/policies used towards Jews (not just Zionists) by the Nazis when perpetrating the Holocaust,” the SRA said. “If the respondent was seeking to make a comparison to seek to demonstrate that Israel was treating Palestinians in the same way that the Nazis had historically treated Jews, it is reasonable to infer that the use of comparisons so closely associated with historic antisemitic violence was deliberate in order to offend the recipients (including Mr Myerson KC) not only as Zionists (as claimed to be by the respondent) but also as Jews.”
Especially given the absence of trains taking Palestinians to extermination camps.
Among the comments aimed at Mr Rifkind were that he was “a Zionist pig supporting theft of Palestine for his Eastern European kin” with other tweets referring to Israel as “ShitRael” and asking if he was “just mentally retarded as a racist?”
That’s why I say breathtaking.
The CAA said that, during cross-examination, Mr Husain described Mr Myerson as “a fascist” and also attacked Mr Silverman. The SRA accused Mr Husain of publishing tweets on other subjects that made “offensive or pejorative comments relating to others’ race and religion, making sexually explicit comments, using language intended to shock”.
Further, Mr Husain sent the SRA’s investigating officer “offensive emails when he was displeased with the course of the SRA’s investigation”, such as one saying: “You are a Zionist apologist and fascist like ur organisation – look forward to the McCarthyite show trial.” He suggested that the officer was “a Sikh Punjabi” who was “angry about comments made on twitter by me about the Sikh national hero Ranjit Singh as a rapist of Muslim women”.
Lordeee. It sounds as if he’s out of work; maybe he can get Trump to hire him as a speechwriter.
In the case of Gazans, they are already there.
That’s disgusting.
I do not think it is necessary to compare present-day Gaza to a concentration camp to recognise that horrors are taking place there: a huge number of innocent people, a large proportion of them children, have already been killed by bombs, artillery, snipers, illness and injuries that cannot under present conditions be treated, and increasingly starvation. Much of Gaza has been flattened to rubble, there is very little food, and the Israeli army has defied international humanitarian law by attacking hospitals.
All this and more can be gathered from the frequent reports by Al Jazeera. The Guardian has also covered the conflict regularly.
And no, I am not an anti-semite. Some of the people closest to me are of Jewish heritage.
No, Ophelia. Holms is right.
I have never understood this American obsession with defending Israel and all its heinous acts since 1948.
If you don’t see the parallels with the Shoa, get out a map of Palestine in 1945, then compare it to the maps of 1975, 1995, and 2015.
Read Plan Dalet. Read the stories of Palestinians deported during an-Nakbah. Listen to the Israeli politicians and religious leaders who vow they will not be satisfied until Israel extends from the river to the sea, and that every Palestinian, or in their words, Arab, has been driven from Israel. Some of them even use the phrase “final solution” in regards to Palestine and its people.
Take a look at the happenings in The Occupied Territories of The West Bank and how Palestinians are being evicted from their homes by newly arrived EuroJews. Any resistance is met by armed force from other “Settlers” or the IDF.
The International Court of Justice accepted that Israel’s actions amount to genocide. Of course, we all know that Americans reject the findings of any international body they don’t control.
The deliberate, targeted destruction of civilian infrastructure in the little that remains of Gaza is a war crime.
And then, we have this
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli-senior-official-tells-soldiers-looting-gaza-homes-impermissible
Are these the actions of soldiers defending their homes, or of a conquering army determined to leave nothing behind for people to rebuild their lives?
There is no doubt that Israel under Netanyahu and Likud is no better than Putin’s Russia, Hitler’s Germany, or the British East India Company. All are a blight on humanity.
And don’t anyone dare come back at me about October 7. This war began 75 years ago and Palestinians have surely suffered enough by now. It is time to end the Israeli experiment and hand the land back to Palestinians.
NightCrow @ 3 – the comparison was to an extermination camp, not a concentration camp.
Rev David Brindley @ 4
Oh, Holms is right. Ok then. Good argument.
As for “this American obsession with defending Israel and all its heinous acts since 1948” – I haven’t done that, or come close to doing that. I’ve never defended Netanyahu, and I have criticized him. I don’t do more of it because I don’t follow the subject closely enough. I haven’t said everything Israel is doing in Gaza is just great.
And don’t start with “No, Ophelia. Holms is right.” and end with “And don’t anyone dare come back at me about October 7.”
Oh and I overlooked this charming remark: “Of course, we all know that Americans reject the findings of any international body they don’t control.” Guilty as charged! I’ve never cited any international human rights organizations on any subject! Well spotted, and so polite.
Rev David Brindley @ #4
I suspect that some of it is to do with the hold that apocalyptic Christian beliefs have over quite a large part of the US population.
That’s a lot of voters.
The “end times” are the period of upheavals and wonders that are supposed to precede the Second Coming of Jesus. I was taught this stuff as a child, back in the fifties and sixties, in a ‘fundamentalist’ Christian family in England. The establishment of the state of Israel was then very recent. My parents and their friends were very excited about it. The return of the Jews to Israel, the ‘Promised Land’, after a period of exile, is prophesied by Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, so for ‘Bible-believing’ Christians it was an event that had to happen before Jesus could return to earth. ‘We are living in the End Times’ was something I heard said many times, always with fervour.
You can call the Israelis murderous shitbags without invoking the Holocaust; people only do that because they’re Jews, and that makes it antisemitic. The apartheid stuff only gets said because of its emotional valence but the Nazi comparisons are straight up antisemitic.
@ 8 – Yes let’s pretend Rev was asking a serious question about those pesky stupid Americans as opposed to bashing me.
Ophelia, you are very touchy on this subject.
I did not specify you were opposed to international tribunals, but America is well known for ignoring or refusing to participate especially when it comes to Americans being held to account for actions outside the USA. Compare that with how viciously the US is pursuing Julian Assange.
However, if hurt feelings are what it takes to get others to recognise how disastrous the imposition of Israel has been for Palestinians, then I will continue.
Just for a moment imagine being a Palestinian teenager and watching this video that is, without a doubt, calling for genocide.
https://twitter.com/Lowkey0nline/status/1760372482983567558
The listing of terrible things said by people on one side of a debate as a way of attacking that side is a common technique.
You don’t believe a man can become a woman by asserting he is one? Here’s a vile statement by a violent bigot who shares your opinion.
You want Israel to stop the horror in Gaza? Here’s a vile statement by a violent bigot who shares your opinion.
This blog has a lot of posts showing the flaws in using this as an argument.
It’s easy enough to search the internet for nasty opinions and actions on any side of a debate. Demonstrating that one side has more of the nastiness is slightly more persuasive, but I don’t think that has been done in this case, and anyway it’s not – as the lawyers might say – dispositive.
Mr Brindley this is my blog and I would like you to stop insulting me. I’m not “very touchy” on this subject; I’m touchy when patronizing men patronize me. I didn’t say anything about hurt feelings. And no you will not continue if I decide you won’t. Make your case but stop sniping at me.
The hell with it. The comments aren’t even about the post, except for Gordon Campbell’s.