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Israel admits infiltration. Where are apologies/resignations for #antisemitism smears?

Rumours of infiltration and interference in the workings of the Labour party by the Israelis have long been rumoured – rumours that were rarely spoken aloud because of the likely pavlovian response.

Now, thanks to undercover work by Aljazeera, the Israelis themselves have admitted:

  • to working to ‘take down’ MPs they considered troublesome or unfriendly to their interests
  • that they don’t want Corbyn to be Labour leader
  • to setting up groups within the Labour party to further their interests
  • to ‘helping’ those groups achieve their ends

Now consider the facts that:

  • the group ‘Labour Friends of Israel’ (LFI), specifically mentioned in the undercover recordings, supported antisemitism smears against the Labour party. Many smears specifically blamed Jeremy Corbyn for the supposed increase in antisemitism
  • LFI and other Jewish groups shamefully attacked Shami Chakrabarti after her investigation did not support the smears
  • the Jewish Labour MP who ‘fled in tears’ from the Chakrabarti report press conference did so over comments that were not antisemitic or aimed at Jewish people
  • the same Labour MP has been funded by LFI and used to work for a pro-Israel campaign group, BICOM (and was also considered a ‘strictly protected’ source by US Intelligence)
  • many of the most vehemently anti-Corbyn faction are closely associated with LFI. Michael Dugher, who writes for right-wing rags against Corbyn, Gloria de Piero, who infamously appealed to Sun readers to join the party to defeat Corbyn (both pictured below with Ruth Smeeth and Tom Watson on an LFI junket), are listed on the LFI website as officers.
    Gloominaries such as Ian Austin, Jess Phillips, Chris Leslie, Chuka Umunna, Conor McGinn, Wes Streeting, Margaret Hodge, John Spellar, John Woodcock and others are ‘supporters’
    Deputy leader Tom Watson is not only a supporter but keynote speaker at LFI’s 2016 ‘annual lunch’ and praised LFi for being ‘fearless in its support for the state of Israel’
  • LFI supporter Tom Watson appointed LFI supporter and former vice-Chair Michael Dugher to head a ‘fake news inquiry’ that is plainly an attack on pro-Corbyn independent media
  • At least one of the two Labour MPs on the Commons Home Affairs Committee (CHAC) – Umunna – is an LFI supporter, while the other is Jewish but not listed as a supporter. David Burrowes on the CHAC is an officer of Conservative Friends of Israel, a group to which at least 80% of Tory MPs below, so it’s highly likely that all of the other 5 Tories on the CHAC are supporters
  • The CHAC issued statements smearing Labour as having an antisemitism problem on the basis of a CHAC report, even though the end of their own report unequivocally concludes that it does not

The Israeli ambassador to the UK has issued an apology and the government says that makes it ‘case closed’. This is self-evidently not so.

The Labour leadership and some senior Tories are calling for a full government inquiry. Given the government’s readiness to accept ‘oops, sorry’ from the Israeli embassy as enough for ‘case closed’, they shouldn’t hold their breath.

However, that does not prevent Labour having its own inquiry into these goings-on and the following actions should ensue:

  • The Labour members of the CHAC should be instructed to hand in their resignations from that committee immediately
  • Labour Friends of Israel should be disbanded/proscribed immediately
  • Tom Watson and Michael Dugher at the very least should be immediately suspended pending investigation
  • any MPs found to have colluded with/worked for the Israelis to discredit the Labour party or its leadership should be required to resign not just the whip but their seats immediately.

What’s more, as a glance at the LFI officers/supporters list shows, membership of LFI and membership of anti-Corbyn right-wing ‘party within a party’ Progress are almost contiguous. The SKWAWKBOX has been calling for the proscription of Progress for a long time and this should be done at the same time.

Enough is enough – and we’ve put up with more than enough.

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Documents:
lfi-parliamentary-supporters-labour-friends-of-israel
about-conservative-friends-of-israel-cfoi-_-conservative-frien
deputy-leader-tom-watson-mps-speech-to-lfi-annual-lunch-2016-l

22 comments

  1. The Ella Rose the director of the Jewish Labour Movement was an officer at the Israeli embassy in London.

    Ella Rose worked at the embassy as public affairs officer between September 2015 and August 2016, when she joined JLM as its first director.
    Press reports in July announcing Rose’s appointment did not disclose the Israeli embassy link, mentioning only her previous position as president of the Union of Jewish Students.

    Although a dormant organization for many years, the JLM in February last year rose to prominence not long after it appointed as its new chair Jeremy Newmark, a well-known Israel lobbyist. It was soon being actively promoted by Progress, the well-funded “moderate” Labour organization which is closely associated with the legacy of former leader Tony Blair.
    JLM has been active in supporting the false narrative that Labour has become a cesspit of anti-Semitism under the leadership of left-winger and long-time advocate for Palestinian rights Jeremy Corbyn.

    1. How do we enforce this the Right of the LP appear to be teflon coated

  2. It seems important to acknowledge which of the MPs are also Friends of Palestine and the Middle East. Presumably one needs to monitor the work of both groups.

    1. Since there’s no Palestinian embassy officer who’s admitted tampering with political parties, it’s not the same situation – but some seem to think even FPME a potential front for the Israeli operation. I don’t know enough about that to comment, Michael.

  3. Three members of Liverpool Riverside CLP have had false allegations of antisemitism hanging over them since April 2016. Several mainstream (Tory) papers covered it. One fourty year veteran of the party had their name published in the national newspapers. One of the accused is Jewish. All three are advocates of the Palestinian struggle. No formal disciplinary action has been taken in respect of these allegations. It is alleged that the media source was an anti-Corbyn local councillor close to the MP.

    The local party exec voted to take the allegations to the CLP, but did not, despite being continually urged to do so. Nick Small who made the original complaint to the CLP, in tweets and in the national press, told two other members at a later date that he did not think they were antisemites.

    Shortly before conference the CLP voted 115 to 37 for Corbyn causing much embarrassment to the MP and those that control the CLP (an exec conveniently overstaying their term as a result of the AGM being suspended to this day). The MP and majority of the exec openly supported Smith and were anti-Corbyn.

    Interestingly. These allegations resurfaced (with new ones added to the list) with even greater intensity just after the Labour Party conference took place in the Riverside constituency. The Israeli Ambassador, Masot, LFI, JLM and the chicken coup MPs all at the same conference only a short time earlier. The constituency MP, a former chairperson of the JLM and Vice Chair of the LFI was on national television during that conference calling for the suspension of her constituency party. The only proof she had was an anonymous and badly written document that alleged ‘infiltration’ and had been obtained from the Guido Fawkes Tory blog. Guido are on record as saying they didn’t write it. So who wrote it?

    A party investigation is now taking place into ordinary members of the CLP, adding bigotry and uncomradely behaviour to the list of smears. No suspensions or formal charges have been made The investigation findings will be delivered to the NEC disputes panel who will make a decision on next steps in the next few weeks. After the purge of members before the leadership election, left leaning members believe, that despite counter complaints, the report findings will be skewed in favour of the anti-Corbyn faction of the local party

    Yet here we have media silence relating to a national security scandal and no action from the Labour Party, except for Emily Thornberry’s (so far ignored) call for a government investigation.

    Proportionate respect for democracy here or same old disregard for the ‘little people’?

    To be continued……

  4. Remember that Naz Shah, censured for her supposed anti-Israel FB posting ( a repost from a Jewish satirical comedian) was on the CHAC too.

  5. Racism is racism, we need to stop pretending that there is a special class of racism called anti-semitism. The Holocaust was a horrific genocidal act but black slavery was a vile racist act as well, and there have been other such vile crimes. Criticising Israel is not anti semitic. Just as Guantanamo Bay recruits for ISIS et all so Israeli treatment of Palestinian Christians, Muslims and others recruits for such groups. What is needed is less interference and more actual help for all groups so that there can be an agreed and fair solution.

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