Here is the reality of a day out for me as an #ActuallyAutistic person (usual caveat, we are all different):
1) even in low light I can barely open my eyes without my sunglasses on. In bright sunlight even my sunglasses don’t help. I cannot ask the sun to disappear. 2) I get on the tube & the environmental noise is so extreme for me that I need noise-cancelling headphones. That’s before we take into account chatting / announcements / other noise sources, plus strong smells, motion sickness & crowds. I can’t make these things go away either.

I watched this with tears in my eyes. I am exhausted from today. I hope I don’t need to explain the plethora of antisemitic tropes & conspiracy theories veiled in euphemism here. I don’t even have the energy for anger anymore, I’m just so deeply sad and tired.

https://twitter.com/theredroar/status/1044613595752005634

The bit that makes my insides go cold is the cheers and applause in the room, the cheers for that horrifyingly antisemitic Al Jazeera “documentary”, the cheers for her attacking the fears of the Jewish community. This is so dangerous.

I’m seeing a lot of tweets about ‘calls to arms’ type speeches at the Jewish labour rally to stay in Labour & it all makes perfect sense if what you care about more than anything is the Labour Party & the principle of fighting for the name. I get the ‘racists wont kick me out of my party’ mentality, but the problem is racists have taken over the party. And there may be an imminent general election. And if they win, Corbyn will be prime minister. So what will they do then? Knock on doors for him?

So we are now in a position where antisemitism is endorsed & endemic on the right & the left, where those pointing it out are demonised, dehumanised & accused of being part of some sinister conspiracy, & most ordinary people don’t care. History tells us what happens next. Being Jewish has always been a background rumble for me. A nice, but not front & centre, part of the mosaic of who I am. I’ve always felt English first & foremost. Now I feel othered in my own country. I have never felt so unwelcome.

Over the last few days, some Jewish organisations & activists have responded to the Warsaw Ghetto graffiti in ways I have found troubling 1/ The statements have gone along the lines of (paraphrasing) ‘we get how upset you are about Israel & we agree, but this isn’t the way to go about it’. 2/

So many times in my life as an Israeli-born Jew, I’ve wanted to join in protests for Palestinian statehood. But as someone who wants two peaceful states side by side, I have felt there is no place for me in mainstream movements unless I also want Israel wiped off the map. 1/ I am appalled by Netenyahu’s government. I am horror struck that Jewish statehood continues to come at such a devastating cost. But I also recognise that the cry for Jewish statehood arose from hundreds of years of persecution, culminating in mass extinction. 2/

Going to do a little thread on what it’s like to be on the autistic spectrum. Will add to it from time to time, mostly myth debunking, stuff you might not know & how to help / interact with autistic people in your life. #ActuallyAutistic Did you know that a lot of autistic people have problems processing sensory input? Even leaving the house can be totally overwhelming as we are less tolerant of bright lights, strong smells, loud noises (or multiple noise sources), textures, motion etc. #ActuallyAutistic

There’s no other way to put it at this stage: to Labour friends urging to stay & fight, putting out strongly worded tweets but making it clear there’s no red line for them, that racism against Jews isn’t a resignation issue, you hurt me and many others. We are hurt. We matter enough to muster some outrage and some fighting talk but not for real concrete action that will undermine the leadership causing this terrible decline of standards in behaviour towards your Jewish friends.

Thread: if Corbyn ever agrees to a serious sit-down interview, here are some questions I would like him to be asked about antisemitism & for the interviewer to not let each one rest until there’s a satisfactory answer or it’s clear there isn’t one. Why did you feel so strongly about defending a mural you hadn’t properly looked at? What did you believe the controversy around the mural was when you commented in support of it?

Let me tell you about antisemitism in the Labour Party. At university I was in the Labour students society and did some casual work for our local MP. I won’t say which uni / MP because I do believe he himself is one of the good guys, but I had the most appalling experience. Full disclosure, this was 2008, long before Corbyn, but I believe it’s indicative of the more unpleasant elements of the far left that Corbyn’s leadership has brought into the mainstream.