Lewisham councillor accuses Tidemill protest group of anti-Semitism

In a series of tweets, Cllr James Rathbone accused “some” of the Tidemill protestors in the public gallery of “jeering” and yelling “smears” and “liar” while he made a motion to adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism at a full council meeting.

He asked the group to apologise for “heckling and jeering” during the motion, which came at the end of the 30-minute public question time.

But Tidemill protestors, along with other campaign groups present at the meeting, dispute his version of events.

Campaigner Anne Caron-Delion said the group did shout during the meeting “but it wasn’t during that motion.”

She said the campaign group were “furious” before attending the meeting, which was held the same day contractors began felling trees and demolishing the Tidemill garden with bulldozers.

“None of us are anti-Semitic and when we did shout it was in relation to issues we campaigned on,” she said.

She also refuted anyone in the campaign yelled “smears” or “liar” during the motion.

“It seems to me the desire is to discredit groups of local people,” she added.

Fellow meeting attendee Cheryl McLeod of Catford Against Social Cleansing said the Tidemill campaigners were not yelling during the motion.

“It definitely wasn’t the Tidemill people. Other people in the gallery were saying ‘African and Caribbean people are suffering.’

“They [Tidemill protestors] never said anything [during the motion], they never got involved.

“One of the campaigners was in tears in regards to how Tidemill’s been treated.”

Alice Corble, from the Save Lewisham Libraries campaign, was also at the meeting.

She said the “groans” made while Cllr Rathbone was introducing the motion could be argued as being insensitive.

“[But] People who were vocalising at that point actually weren’t Tidemill protestors,” she said.

“They said ‘what about African and Caribbean people suffering?'”

“There was a bit of huffing,” she added.

She said the format of council meetings “encourages people to boo and hiss, especially when all other forms of democratic involvement have failed.”

Cllr Rathbone said he was “very pleased to hear that it was not the official Tidemill campaign, but only some of their supporters, who engaged in heckling and jeering during a debate on anti-Semitism.

“I can only hope that the Tidemill campaign will be careful to distance themselves from such people in the future,” he added.

Lewisham’s 30-minute public question time limit has caused frustrations at council meetings.

The public gallery was kicked out during public question time for heckling at a full council meeting in November, with chairwoman Cllr Jacq Paschoud  announcing “I am standing up and when I stand up I understand everybody sits down and shuts up.”