Guest Post by Jeff Samuels
Photo: By DAVID HOLT
Those of you who are active on social media will, like me, have repeatedly encountered the mantra "where is the evidence that Corbyn is antisemitic?". Finding myself answering this ludicrous challenge for the umpteenth time I decided to collate that which I know into a single 'indictment'. Here I share it in the hope that others find it useful.
I do not pretend that this list is comprehensive by any means. It is a work in progress and I would very much welcome any additional material that I may have inadvertently omitted or about which I am unaware. It should also be noted that the list below is restricted to events prior to September 2015 when Corbyn was thrust from back bench obscurity to Labour leader.
I have been following Jeremy Corbyn's career for more than 35 years. He first came to my attention in the early 1980s for 3 reasons:
a) He was a member of the editorial board of London Labour Briefing at the time of the Lebanon War in 1982 (see point 1. below).
b) His first act on being elected to Parliament in 1983 was to refuse to share a room with the also newly elected Tony Blair.
c) In the division lobby soon after his entry to Parliament he was punched by fellow Labour MP, Robert Kilroy-Silk.
What always struck me, apart from the sheer mediocrity of the man, was how far removed he was from what I understood to be the values of the Labour Party. Leaving aside the not insignificant and repellent cheer-leading for the IRA, the evidence of the man's antisemitism seemed clear and unmistakable. His apparent discomfort with mainstream jewry contrasted sharply with his seeming at ease with those who hate and indeed seek to kill us.
So, as the left war cry goes, what is the evidence?
1. Commissioned and published a cartoon grotesquely showing Menachem Begin in SS uniform (swastika replaced by magen david) standing over a pile of corpses under the caption "The Final Solution".
2. A long term supporter of and contributor to Deir Yassin Remembered, founded by one Paul Eisen, an unambiguous holocaust denier. There is clear evidence to refute Corbyn's assertion before the Home Affairs Select Committee that once he learned of Eisen's real character he ceased all involvement.
3. Invited Raed Salah to the House of Commons for tea. Apparently he deserved it because he is an "honoured citizen who represents his people extremely well". Salah is a convicted blood libeller. According to him Jews (nb not Zionists or Israelis but jews) kill non Jewish children and use their blood to bake matza. Now where have I heard that before!?
4. Intervened in the Church of England Synod's disciplinary proceedings against the Rev Steven Sizer who had inter alia asserted that 9/11 was a Mossad operation. According to Corbyn Sizer's principled stand was what was causing him to be victimised for "daring to stand up to the Zionist lobby" and that he was "not remotely antisemitic".
5. On one of his appearances on the Iranian government funded Press TV Corbyn himself mooted that in relation to an Islamist attack on Egypt he could "see the hand of Israel". Needless to say he did not substantiate that claim with a shred of evidence; just a knee jerk antisemitic conspiracy theory.
6. Also on Press TV described men guilty of the murder of Jews as "brothers" about whom he expressed concern for their welfare.
7. Referred to both Hezbollah and Hamas as "friends", the latter being apparently dedicated to "long term peace and political and social justice". As in 1. above this was in the context of another invitation for tea. According to Corbyn there could be no more appropriate use of Commons' facilities. In addition, in the same speech, he suggested that to label them as terrorist organisations was an "historic mistake" and indeed he has consistently campaigned for them to be removed from the list of proscribed organisations.
8. In a recently unearthed article written in 2009 at the time of the first Gaza conflict Corbyn asserted that the BBC was subject to "incredibly high" levels of influence by the Israeli government and that US foreign policy was dictated and controlled by Israel.
9. Laying of a wreath in honour of the masterminds of the Black September massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at Munich in 1972.
10. Back home he added his name to a campaign to end Holocaust Memorial Day as currently constituted, criticising its emphasis on what has been described as the "Jewish holocaust" to the detriment of "all other holocausts".
11. As if to reinforce 10. above he facilitated an event in Parliament designed to equate the Holocaust with the situation in Gaza.
12. "Despite having lived here most if not all of their lives they don't understand English irony".
13. Objected to the removal of a patently antisemitic mural by Mear. One expressing his sympathy with the artist while failing to address or even notice the hooked nose bankers at a table resting on the backs of the world's poor.
14. Member of the Palestine Live Facebook group riddled with holocaust denial and inversion, Rothschild conspiracy theories etc
15. Long term patron of PSC despite it being a cesspit of 14. above.
16. Wrote a 3500 word foreword to a reprint of Hobson's imperialism gushing in its fulsome praise. Not a word about the appalling antisemitism underpinning the theory endorsed by Corbyn. The title of one chapter "Economic Parasites" was not enough to attract the attention or the ire of this self professed lifelong anti-racist and militant opponent of antisemitism.
Whenever I have countered the "where's the evidence?" nonsense with some or all of the foregoing I have been met with abuse, single line dismissals or no response. Not once has anyone been able to refute any of the particulars.
Were this an actual indictment one would be advising Corbyn that the case against him was overwhelming.
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