Did The Media Lie About Labour Anti-Semitism? It Was A Scam wasn’t it?
It Was A Scam wasn’t it?
To some apparently saying #ItWasAScam is ‘denying the issue’ and is in itself a form of anti-semitism… but saying #ItWasAScam is not ‘denying the issue’ it is simply explaining why it became an issue. #ItWasAScam does not mean there was no anti-semitism, just that the issue was grossly extended and hugely embellished by a smear campaign. Surely, people wish to know the whole picture?
The media frenzy, the collective moral panic to support Jewish people against a rising wave of anti-semitism was real and Jewish people had every right to be scared and concerned by this. However, my assertion is the threat to Jewish people from the left was effectively a mirage, it was an illusion created by a fog and frenzy formed from twisted tales and anecdotes, crafted by a hostile media that tried to pin all the attention on ‘the left’ aligning to the ongoing skewering of ‘the evil Jeremy Corbyn’, the Czech Spy, The Loony Lefty, The Crazy Marrow Grower, The Utopian Dreamer, The Europe Hater was now also leader of a gang of Jew hating anti-semites and himself (according to Margaret Hodge) ‘a fucking anti-semite’. The anti-racist was now the most racist man in the UK.
This, of course, is absurd. My article looks at how genuine anti-Semitism ‘hatred of Jews’ (from a far right Neo Nazi group) was used repeatedly to embellish, enhance and exaggerate accusations against Labour.
We have been led to believe by the media reports, that pervaded our daily consciousness for 5 long years that anti-semitism in the UK suddenly worsened; and apparently took a turn for the worse in September 2015, about the time of Jeremy Corbyn becoming leader of the Labour party.
Again, this is of course absurd.
The trial sentencing of Joshua Bonehill-Paine, for anti-Semitism (ironically a former Conservative councillor candidate), against Luciana Berger took place on 8th December 2016. The court notes of Bonehill-Paine’s sentencing can be found online. Here…
Here the court case references aspects of the vile antisemitism from one of Bonehill-Paine’s accomplices, here a vile anti-semite called Garron Helm from 2014, where he said “Hitler was right”. The notes go on to describe how Helm also ‘doctored the picture of Luciana Berger and placed a Nazi yellow star on her forehead. Garron Helm was thankfully charged and convicted and jailed for antisemitism for this in October 2014.
The Judicial Court Notes go on to describe Bonehill-Paine’s racist abuse where he used images of a “body of a rat”, this demonstrate the disgusting antisemitism Luciana Berger received from these men.
So it’s clear Luciana Berger DID receive the most horrific anti-semitic abuse from 2014 through to 2015 and this extended to 2,500 SMS phone-messages with similar abuse many coming from neo-Nazis in the USA affiliated to Helm and Bonehill-Paine.
SO WHERE’S THE SCAM? They wouldn’t would they? They surely wouldn’t try to suggest that this anti-semitism had anything to do with accusations against Labour. Well actually… they did and here is how they did it…
The court notes above show the words used in this heinous campaign…
- “Body of a rat”
- “Hitler was right”
- “Star of David on forehead”
- “Filthy J** B****”
Now let me show you a number of articles written about Labour, even a year or more after these court cases.
So April 2018 — The Guardian ran this story written by journalist Helen Lewis. You can see that she intentionally added details of the right wing trials (I have detailed above), the lack of context here was aimed to blame Corbyn for this right wing antisemitism and aimed to scare Jewish people.
Sure, Helen Lewis mentions ‘3 men jailed’ but her article conveniently avoids who these individuals are (not a single reference) and the paragraph is sandwiched with referral to ‘Corbyn’ and ‘his supporters’.
The ‘mural’ by itself doesn’t quite cut the mustard so the journalist and her editor embellished, sexed up the accusation. Nothing convinces the public that people are Jew haters better than using actual references to Jew hatred, even though the targets [Labour supporters] were not Jew haters.
Then again in April 2019, the Guardian did it again. This time it was actress Tracy Ann Oberman writing an opinion piece; can you see that TAO references the 2014 RIGHT WING antisemitism to exaggerate her point.
Just to explain further, TAO started this article “That changes in September 2015” [referring to the date Jeremy Corbyn became leader], however she uses the same trick as Helen Lewis. She weaves the neo-Nazi antisemitism into a paragraph about that followed ‘Labour Party Members’.
Yet again, nothing convinces the public of Jew hatred more than actual examples of Jew hatred. The trick had worked a few times and nobody had been sued, these are clever lies, deceitfully woven narratives that mislead and misrepresent… but nothing that can stand up in court as a lie.
April 2019 The election was imminent and Corbyn’s Labour had been closing the gap slightly on Boris Johnson. After the surprise surge of the 2017 election, the establishment weren’t going to take any risks. As many sources as possible must repeat the message… Labour is anti-semitic and HATES JEWS. Who better to reinforce this narrative than Ayesha Hazarika, comedienne (apparently) often seen as a sidekick double act to Matt Forde (another not funny, ex comedian) on various shows.
On one occasion Ayesha overplayed her hand (she’s really not that bright) you’ve seen the detail above. Listen to what Ayesha did here… this was well over 4 years after Luciana Berger had received this abuse; but Ayesha wants you to think it was ‘in the last few years’ again to frame the Corbyn era.
It irrefutably was a scam and I stress again that this doesn’t mean that some Labour members did wrong, but there really wasn’t any more incident of ‘Jew hate’ than any other part or in fact the public at large. In fact it is has been repeatably proven that voters of other political parties believe more ‘antisemitic tropes’ than Labour members.
Exaggeration continued, this time the powerful medium of ‘comedy’ and satire helped to reinforce the (so called) evidence of the serious issues presented in the Guardian. For example David Baddiel claimed that 29% (3.75 MILLION!) Corbyn voters are antisemitic. Only 0.06% (that is just 6 in every 10,000) of Labour members were investigated for comments and the main EHRC headlines refer to just 2 cases. If that’s not overstatement then what is? Anti semitism claims were mostly a smear campaign. #ItWasAScam
The EHRC report was actually a bit of a damp squib, they found very little evidence and the same enemies that had lied and spun (as I have proven above) tried their damnedest to exaggerate the outcome. This article is written by a proper journalist; it really is excellent. So I’ll stop my own waffle and leave it to the professionals.
“The [EHRC] report itself is underwhelming and comes nowhere close to substantiating the media hype. There is a striking discrepancy between the facts it presents and the way it interprets such evidence”
