Labour Party members ‘obsessed’ with Israel under Corbyn
JEREMY CORBYN’S leadership of the Labour Party has “radicalised” some members so they are now publicly attacking Israel and Jews, a report says.
A dossier submitted to an official inquiry reveals how a series of Labour members became “obsessed” with Israel after Mr Corbyn’s election.
In one case, a party member who made no public Facebook comments about Israel before the leadership campaign is now posting more than 300 times per year on the issue, including a claim that “Zionists … bankrolled Hitler … all for one goal [,] Israel.”
One user who has since shared a post referring to Dame Margaret Hodge, the Jewish Labour MP, as a “Rothschild Zionist millionaire”, said that she had been posting content relating to Israel “since I heard Jeremy Corbyn speak of the atrocities [in Gaza]”.
The 200-page dossier also shows how “hard-core anti-Semites” joined Labour as a result of Mr Corbyn’s election in September 2015 and that there has since been a sharp rise in the use of “Zionist” – often used as a term of abuse – on Labour discussion groups.
The report was compiled by David Collier, an investigator who in March 2018 revealed posts by Mr Corbyn in Palestine Live, a Facebook group containing anti-Semitic messages.
The report, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, was submitted to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is investigating allegations of antiSemitism within Labour. Mr Corbyn has faced repeated calls for stronger action to tackle anti-Semitism.
Mr Collier’s research, which involved a trawl of thousands of social media accounts and Facebook groups, documents cases of Labour members “who did not publicly display antiSemitic ideology until they became infected within the Labour Party mechanisms”. They include a member whose public Facebook posts contained no mention of Israel or Gaza until 2015. He also called Jon Lansman, the leader of Momentum who has spoken out against anti-Semitism, a “Zionist agent”.
Another party member only made one public post about Israel before 2015. By September 2016, she had posted two videos. In June 2017 she said: “Zionism & Rothschild & Israel & Netenyahu [sic] and that meddling Queen whose Prussian family created Israel and Saudi Arabia need to be kept out of British politics.”
In a third case Mr Collier showed how a self-described Labour member, who displayed no visible interest in Israel before 2015, now constantly posts about the country and “Zionists”.
“In the year of Corbyn’s election, she made two [public posts about Israel]. In the following year, 22. By 2018, [she] was posting more on Israel than anything else, reaching over 300 in a year.”
Mr Collier concludes: “The election of Jeremy Corbyn established the toxic environment which enabled the growth of rampant anti-Zionist hostility and inevitably anti-Semitism.”
He also found a “clear pattern” supporting the “general assumption” that “Labour was invaded by extremists when Jeremy Corbyn became leader”.
One individual posted in April 2015 about “Zionists controlling the Tory party”, before joining Labour shortly after Mr Corbyn’s election.
Another stated in August 2015 that Mr Corbyn had “persuaded me to rejoin Labour”. He had previously said: “Zionism has a measure of hate just as pernicious as Isis. The only difference is who controls the media?”
A Labour source said: “These claims aren’t borne out by the facts. Around half of the complaints the party was dealing with in early 2016 predated Jeremy Corbyn becoming leader and complaints about anti-Semitism relate to 0.1 per cent of party members.” A spokesman said “one anti-Semite” in the party was “one too many”.
Janet Daley: Page 16