I see one blog is still up in which the blogger accusers her in complicity in a genocidal campaign by Israel against the Palestinians which may or may not be related to this. It is an extraordinary claim and couched in extreme language which certainly seems to go beyond mere political argument.
I can well understand why she didn’t rise to the bait. Replying to the kinds of accusations thrown at her, in the vitriolic manner in which this was done, would be to shift the focus of an election campaign onto something else entirely, and as it so often does, bring the more virulent politics of the tribe.
Let’s not forget that as recent as 2003, red swastikas were daubed onto the outside walls of Tabor Synagogue in St Brelade, and while the incident has not been repeated, there's still anti-semitisim around. In fact a more general xenophobic racism, stoked by Brexit, has been rising not just in the UK but also in Jersey.
This is what that the blog said:
"Gardiner is a former employee of the Israeli Ministry of Education in the occupied city of Jerusalem. Any leftist worth their salt should know that the entire Israeli state apparatus is a settler-colonial death machine which works tirelessly to systematically enslave, oppress and ultimately expel or exterminate the Palestinian people, and the Ministry of Education is no different.... Anyone who thought it was remotely acceptable to even engage with an organization and a government which engages in this kind of blatantly genocidal policy is deserving of far more than simply not receiving your vote. I'd advise anyone who even pretends to care about human rights and cultural preservation to refuse to touch her with a ten-foot pole."
A correspondent notes that not only is this abusive, it is also potentially criminal:
“There is not one shred of evidence by which you could claim that Inna is, was, has been party to or supports Israeli government policy, or in being a government employee that infers she was. “
“Had he made the comments prior to Inna's declaration to stand for Deputy it may well have been ignored. However in the context of an election it becomes more than a matter of racial abuse but may possibly stray into an offence under Article 62 (1)(b)(c) of PUBLIC ELECTIONS (JERSEY) LAW 2002 which states:”
“A person shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level 3 on the standard scale if, with intent to obtain a vote for himself or herself, or for any other person, at a public election, or an abstention from voting at a public election,
(b) the person publishes a false statement about a person who is a candidate at the election knowing the statement to be untrue; or
(c) assaults or threatens any person.”
“Sadly anti-semitism is very much alive no matter how comments are dressed up or academic argument made to deny it exists.”
Inna has told Bailiwick Express that since she went public on allegations of racists abuse, she had been inundated with so many emails from islanders “describing racist abuse in Jersey” that she “didn’t have time to reply to all of them”.
“I have had online comments - these email describe [the abuse that] people experienced at their work places, social circles and also between children at schools. It means it's a much wider issue and we need to speak about it. I believe in our community, we need to care for everybody. Who does it need to realise how wrong it is? I don't want to prosecute them because of their ignorance. For me, highlighting this issue is important, so everyone understands exactly what is and isn't acceptable in our society.”
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