Last week, the British author J.K. Rowling found herself accused of anti-Semitism on the grounds that, in the movies based on her Harry Potter books, the goblins who run the magical bank have hooked noses. Dismissing this claim against Rowling, Stephen Pollard suggests that many of her critics are in fact motivated by her vocal objections to certain radical ideas about transsexuality, which have made her the target of much invective:
In truth, the only interesting part of this mini-saga is what it tells us about those jumping on the bandwagon. First, some context: during the years of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of Labor, the British Jewish community felt under threat in a way that it hadn’t for generations. . . . The brutal reality was that relatively few figures in public life considered it worth the hassle. One who did, repeatedly, was J.K. Rowling. She spoke out on Twitter, and most notably when she wrote a parody of Labor under Corbyn referring to his issues with the British Jewish community. For most British Jews she is a heroine.
Strikingly, if you look at the identities of those who are now using her supposed antisemitism to attack Ms. Rowling, you will struggle to find a single one who said or did anything in support of British Jews when we most needed it. Worse, many are the very people who cultishly supported Jeremy Corbyn as Labor leader. Far from being allies against anti-Jewish racism, many of them are the issue.
This latest assault on J.K. Rowling has nothing to do with any concerns about anti-Semitism. The only enemies of the Jewish people in this story are those who concoct fake allegations of Jew hate in order to smear a warrior against racism.
Read more on UnHerd: https://unherd.com/thepost/jk-rowling-is-no-antisemite/