The depiction of Richard Sharp in today's @guardian cartoon falls squarely into an antisemitic tradition of depicting Jews with outsized, grotesque features, often in conjunction with money and power. It's appalling. Here's why 🧵 First, the face. Here's how the Nazis did it. And how the Soviet Union did it. And modern-day Jew-haters. Antisemites have often imagined Jews as ugly and physically repulsive, focusing specifically on these features.

How online Jew-hate works: a short tale involving the @tiktok_uk 'For You' column, a bunch of nazi videos, and my 16 y.o. son (spoiler: he's fine, and he gave me permission to do this) 🧵 My son spends most of his life scrolling through funny football videos on TikTok. A couple of weeks ago he got a shock: in amongst the videos of Messi & Ronaldo was this antisemitic meme.

Anatomy of a troll: Who would send me a reply like this?🧵 It's a familiar meme in far left anti-Israel circles - I've been sent it dozens of times - and the stuff about "Zionist supremacy" using antisemitism to silence "justified criticism" suggests that direction. But let's dig deeper and see what we find...

Time to update this thread, because some of the people who spent years ignoring, denying and equivocating over the overwhelming evidence of antisemitism in the Labour Party, are doing the same with the evidence of atrocities in Ukraine, and it's disgusting.

https://twitter.com/daverich1/status/1497920936963723266

It comes from a political mindset, not an objective search for truth. Cherry-pick your evidence, 'other side' everything, we're only asking questions, etc etc. Some of them practiced their lines in Syria when most people weren't paying attention.

First they came for the Jews? Well we've been complaining about the contemptible politics of the so-called anti-imperialist (but actually just oppose America on everything) Left for *decades* and now here we are 🧵 You know, the part of the left that said America brought 9/11 on themselves. That published Osama bin Laden on the opinion pages of the Guardian. That made excuses for the Taliban.

Emma Watson's post isn't, in and of itself, antisemitic. It may be simplistic, ignorant, one-sided, and many other things, but it isn't antisemitic and expressing solidarity with Palestinians doesn't, in and of itself, make Emma Watson an antisemite.

https://twitter.com/dannydanon/status/1477988070398038021

Here's a different way of responding from a different Israeli diplomat (but with a similar line in Harry Potter-themed puns) that tries to engage with some of the arguments. It's a much better way, whether you agree with Gilad Erdan's points or not

https://twitter.com/giladerdan1/status/1478029491805077505

The second @BristolUni QC’s report into David Miller has been leaked. It exonerates Miller just like the first one did: nothing he said was antisemitic. How did they reach this conclusion? They used the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-wins… 🧵👇 The QC was “asked to take into account” the IHRA definition of antisemitism, but devotes several pages of the report to criticism of IHRA by Tomlinson, Sedley, Feldman & Stern. Only one opinion supporting IHRA is given, even though it is backed by most Jewish orgs in this country

David Miller, whose academic methodology is to identify funders of research he deems to be Islamophobic and then cherry-pick evidence about them to build a guilt-by-association case, was himself funded by the UK state & the EU. What if we apply his methodology here? E.g. Victor Orban is an EU head of state and has said loads of antisemitic things in the past. By Miller's logic this arguably calls into question his ability to produce fair & balanced research about Jews, because that's how research funding works apparently 🤷🏻‍♂️

THREAD: This week's @JewishChron tells the story of how an anti-fascist informant codenamed 'Arthur', who infiltrated the far right for @CST_UK & Searchlight, identified the London nailbomber as BNP member David Copeland in 1999 thejc.com/news/uk/how-th… 'Arthur' did so much more than this: he spent a decade inside the far right, attending over 400 meetings, rallies and leafleting sessions, and told us all about everyone he met, everything he saw and everything that was being planned.

Conflict rages in Israel and antisemitism rises in the UK. It happens every time with wearying predictability. Here's a thread of top tips for people who want to support Palestinians in a non-antisemitic way: Don't blame British Jews for what the Israeli government does. Don't demand that British Jews condemn the Israeli government. Don't deliberately take your Palestinian flags and banners to wave at Jews. It's antisemitic.

I've spent two weeks waiting to see if any academics will speak out publicly about David Miller's antisemitic conspiracy theories and his targeting of Jewish students. Finally they have spoken... in his defence. This is the list of shame docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI… The letter itself is a masterpiece of euphemism, obfuscation and untruths. Miller was not "approached to provide a statement on Israel-Palestine". He gave a speech at a meeting in which he identified the Jewish Society at his own university as an enemy & a bunch of racists

This thread is impressive in the way it gets so much wrong in so few tweets. There is no contradiction between having good security to protect Jews *and* reaching out to educate, support & build alliances to reduce antisemitism. Neither approach is exclusive to right or left.

https://twitter.com/levvity/status/1362341655945367552

Many Jewish community establishment orgs & leaders spend huge amounts of time & effort supporting other minorities in their struggles. The Board of Deputies' Uyghur campaign. CST's SAFE programme. Support for the Markaz in Golders Green. There are loads of examples over decades.

What responsibility does @guardian have to ensure the letters they publish are accurate? Because today they have published a letter about @TheIHRA definition of antisemitism that includes a straightforward lie. theguardian.com/news/2021/jan/… It is not true that "the majority" of examples in the IHRA definition "do not refer to Jews as such". In fact 9 of the 11 examples refer to Jews. It is simply dishonest to suggest otherwise.

This thread is a ruthless dismemberment of a terrible @ObserverUK article about Covid vaccines in Israel & the Palestinian territories. It's also a case study of when inaccurate anti-Israel commentary *might* be antisemitic according to @TheIHRA definition of antisemitism /1

https://twitter.com/ShMMor/status/1346091232871796738

The most contentious line in @TheIHRA definition is the one that says it "could" be antisemitic to apply to Israel "double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation". Is that what this article is? holocaustremembrance.com/resources/work… /2

There are three reasons why Corbyn's statement today does not change his disgraceful response to the EHRC report: 1. Saying "concerns about antisemitism are neither "exaggerated" nor "overstated"" does not contradict his original claim that "the scale of the problem was also dramatically overstated for political reasons". They are different claims.

The BBC podcast "Intrigue: Mayday" on White Helmets co-founder James Le Mesurier really is interesting. Especially if you have a niche interest in antisemitism, conspiracy theories and the Labour Party /1 bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04… Episode 4 opens with a recording of Holocaust denier Nicholas Kollerstrom giving a speech at the Keep Talking conspiracy group exposed in this @CST_UK & @hopenothate report cst.org.uk/data/file/6/c/… /2

The @EHRC report into antisemitism in the Labour Party is out today. It finds that Labour broke the law by discriminating against Jews. Here are some of the thoroughly depressing and jaw-dropping 'highlights'. Labour is guilty of antisemitic harassment and discrimination against Jews. There was a failure of leadership, processes, training and policies. Crucially, Labour could have dealt with antisemitism in the party but the leadership chose not to.

Andrew Murray's interview is another example of someone from Corbyn's circle suddenly agreeing with everything we complained about over antisemitism in the Labour Party, having ignored or rebuffed our complaints for years

thetimes.co.uk/article/pride-… Treating antisemitism as a second-class form of racism? Assuming Jews can't suffer because they are rich? Listening to fringe JVL cranks rather than the mainstream Jewish community? It's all there. Shame he didn't come out with this when they were in charge

THREAD: Remember that claim that a Corbyn supporter was thrown out of the Labour Party for liking the Foo Fighters? It turns out it wasn't true, and the Labour Party knew it wasn't true but kept telling people it was true anyway. John Ware has the scoop. But who fell for it? It was regularly cited as the prime example of right wingers in Labour HQ abusing their powers to purge the left. The Daily Mail and Guardian reported it as fact.

Tim Llewellyn is complaining that @BAFTA has nominated the excellent Panorama episode on Labour Party antisemitism. Is this the same Tim Llewellyn who once said "the Jewish Lobby is not much fun. They come at you from every direction... they use Jewish connections to get you"? /1

https://twitter.com/mediareformUK/status/1273213722421583882

Llewellyn said this in a meeting at the Frontline Club in 2013 organised by @MiddleEastMnt. You can read about it here cst.org.uk/news/blog/2013…. But what else has Llewellyn said about this terrible Jewish Lobby? /2

The leaked #LabourReport has this paragraph about the different factions in the party, including "John McDonnell's Labour Representation Committee". So what has John McDonnell's Labour Representation Committee had to say about antisemitism in the party? /1 Defend the antisemites! /2