The Witch Hunt may now have taken its heaviest possible price

by Martin Odoni

Pauline Hammerton, a long-term Labour activist from Hulme in Manchester, was fast-track-expelled from the party on the 4th of February for supposed ‘anti-Semitism’ – in reality, just for her support for the Palestinian people, who are being slowly crushed by Zionist occupation.

Pauline was found dead just seven days later. She had been left distraught by her expulsion, and although the cause-of-death has not yet been confirmed, the suspicion is that she suffered a haemorrhage brought on by the shock.

I had met Pauline a few times at demos and other meetings, and so, although I did not know her well, her death has come as a shock, to me personally, and to other activists across the north-west. Her dedication to justice was tremendous, and the callous mistreatment she received from a party that she had given so much to must have been the bitterest blow imaginable.

The deceitfulness and irresponsibility of the witch-hunt against scarcely-existent anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, carried out by Anglo-Zionist fanatics both outside and within that party, have badly damaged the lives of many innocent people. But now they appear to have taken the heaviest possible toll of all – an innocent life.

I do not expect the consciences of smear merchants like Margaret Hodge, Luciana Berger, Wes Streeting, David Collier, Zvi Solomons, Jonathan Hoffman, Ian Austin, and others of their ilk, to be tweaked in the slightest by this. Like all fanatics, they do not have consciences, no interest in right or wrong, only a blind hunger for power for the movement into which they have buried their individuality. They will probably relish the knowledge of their ability to destroy lives. At best, they will say, “Well, we’re very sorry to hear that this has happened, but…” before offering a nauseatingly dishonest list of reasons why this proves that people should not condemn Israel.

The Zionist lobby in the UK has always been amoral, indifferent to human lives, and only interested in ethics when they can be used as a weapon against opponents. But this marks the point at which the smear campaign has crossed the line. Their irresponsible aggression against innocent people to advance their failed ideology has now become a life-and-death matter in Britain, as it has long been in Palestine.

The question is, how do the rest of us respond?

Pauline Hammerton, rest in peace.

Correction: This article had previously indicated that Pauline was expelled on the 7th February. In fact, her letter of expulsion was sent on the 4th of February, and the 7th was apparently the date she opened it.