JEW-HATE ‘SCAM’ TRENDS ON SOCIAL MEDIA

NEWS of the expulsion of Ken Loach from Labour last weekend helped trigger a social media trend in which Jeremy Corbyn-supporting Twitter users claimed that the Labour antisemitism crisis was part of a ‘gigantic fraud’ and a ‘scam’.

The left-wing users deployed hashtag ‘#ItWasAScam’ to suggest that the Jew-hate allegations in the party were cooked up to smear left-wing politicians.

The trend was described as “a celebration and exposé of the antisemitism smearing industry” by Brighton-based writer Simon Maginn, who has admitted he has been investigated by the Labour Party over antisemitism allegations.

He called for Labour supporters to, “stop talking about ‘antisemitism’ and start talking about fraud. Cold, deliberate, intentional fraud, on a gigantic scale”.

Prominent leftwing accounts used the tag to echo Mr Loach’s claim in the wake of his expulsion from Labour that “there is indeed a witch-hunt”.

Former Momentum vice-chair Jackie Walker, herself expelled from Labour after she questioned Holocaust Memorial Day for commemorating only Jewish victims, retweeted an account using the divisive hashtag and referred to the party’s antisemitism scandal as “one s. [sic] of the greatest mass political frauds”.

She said: “[Antisemitism] exists for sure and of course it is a problem, but the overstating of it, and the priority given has destroyed much progress towards a more equal society.”

Tweeting under #ItWasAScam tag, anonymous account ‘WikiJewSoc’ said: “If Jeremy Corbyn really was an antisemite, why do they have to fabricate quotes and redefine antisemitism to ‘prove’ it?”