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1/ I often use this case as an example of how serious or endemic the problem of antisemitism is in Labour and the wider left. This statement went round pro-Corbyn FB groups after the #EnoughisEnough Jewish anti-racism demo. It is a statement of antisemitism. 
2/ It was widely condemned (after it made the press) including by @johnmcdonnellMP and @owenjones84. It was endorsed well over 2000 times before it was finally pulled by the author, who is now standing as a Labour candidate in the local elections.
3/ It's worth dwelling on this: the statement is almost a perfect distillation of contemporary left antisemitism; it refers to the Jewish protesters (of which I was one) as a "very powerful special interest group, mobilising it's immense strength against you." The few vs the many
4/ Antisemites always see Jews as diabolically powerful, it's never about what Jews really think or feel. Whether it be manipulating world events, controlling the press, causing wars or even deicide - it's always uniquely evil and powerful. As the statement itself says "immense."
5/ The protesters could never be a small vulnerable racialized minority group exercising it's right to protest at racism against them for the first time since WWII.
6/ The statement even makes full use of the Jews in the media trope. But not just the trope that Jews have "disproportionate influence" in the media.
"This group can employ the full might of the BBC" to do their bidding.
Might as well be in The Protocols of Zion.
"This group can employ the full might of the BBC" to do their bidding.
Might as well be in The Protocols of Zion.
7/ Many people on the left think this way. I've had umpteen conversations where people defend this statement. In the language of contemporary antisemitism they grasp for the "Israel lobby" to explain away words which exactly replicate slanders against Jews going back 2000 years.
8/ Even the last line makes it abundantly clear, for even those with very little knowledge of antisemitism, what this statement is:
"Despite their history and influence."
And it doesn't register. With thousands of people in Labour. Imagine that?
"Despite their history and influence."
And it doesn't register. With thousands of people in Labour. Imagine that?
9/ The person who wrote it apologised. She didn't realise it was full of antisemitic tropes. She didn't realise because, like thousands of other people in and around the Labour Party, they have completely bought into an antisemitic view of Jews.
10/ It's why this narrative is denialism. The "0.1% of members." The reduction of a cultural & institutional problem to a decimal point; which doesn't include antisemitic statements endorsed by over 2000 Labour activists whose author is now standing for office. That doesn't count
ENDS/ And the author isn't alone. Just like last year (three Holocaust deniers standing for Labour) there has already a raft of suspensions for candidates.
Including in Torbay: where nearly 20% of candidates have now been suspended for antisemitism.
Including in Torbay: where nearly 20% of candidates have now been suspended for antisemitism.
