• Why Jihad Watch?
  • About Robert Spencer and Staff Writers
  • FAQ
  • Books
  • Muhammad
  • Islam 101
  • Privacy

Jihad Watch

Exposing the role that Islamic jihad theology and ideology play in the modern global conflicts

Keir Starmer “Washing the Stain of Antisemitism” From the Labour Party

Jun 28, 2020 10:00 am By Hugh Fitzgerald

Keir Starmer, who replaced the odious Jeremy Corbyn as the head of the Labour Party, is determined to “wash the stain of antisemitism” from the Party. His latest act, firing the Labour Party’s shadow eductation secretary, shows he means it.

The story is here.

The UK Labour party’s shadow education secretary was fired on Thursday after she tweeted and praised an interview with a British actress who asserted that Israel was responsible for police brutality against minorities in the US.

A spokesperson for Labour leader Keir Starmer announced the axing of Rebecca Long-Bailey with statement saying, “The article Rebecca shared earlier today contained an antisemitic conspiracy theory.”

“As leader of the Labour party, Keir has been clear that restoring trust with the Jewish community is a number one priority,” the statement added. “Antisemitism takes many different forms and it is important that we all are vigilant against it.”

Long-Bailey tweeted an interview in The Independent with far-left British TV star Maxine Peake, a former communist, who said, “Systemic racism is a global issue. The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.”

This is flatly false. Israeli police – not “secret services” – have taught seminars to American police officers. But nothing was taught about “choke-holds” or “knee-on-neck” tactics. It would have been easy for Long-Bailey to have discovered this; no more than 30 seconds of checking online would have enlightened her. But her mind was made up.

The article also noted that Peake was “supposed to be in Palestine still, liaising with young activists.”

American police were not taught about choke-holds while in Israel. But one wonders if, while “liaising with young activists” in “Palestine,” Maxine Peake learned to make and throw a Molotov cocktail, or ways to assemble an incendiary kite, or how to construct a bomb that could be set off in a pizza parlor, a Passover ceremony, a school classroom.

The Independent itself repudiated Peake’s accusation, writing in a correction, “While it is true that US law enforcement officials have travelled to Israel for training, there has been no suggestion that this training involved the tactics referred to in the article.”

Referring to the interview, Long-Bailey tweeted, “Maxine Peake is an absolute diamond.”

An “absolute diamond”? Not even close. At best, this Palestinian groupie is merely a rhinestone in the rough.

Following criticism, Long-Bailey explained, “I retweeted Maxine Peake’s article because of her significant achievements and because the thrust of her argument is to stay in the Labour party. It wasn’t intended to be an endorsement of all aspects of the article.”

No, of course not. But which parts was she not endorsing? Why doesn’t she tell us straight out? Long-Bailey retweets enthusiastically a comment by former Communist agitator and actress Maxine Peake, that makes various points – such as, don’t quit, but stay and fight, you corbynistas, within the Labour Party – and one of those points is Peake’s claim that American police have learned about choke-holds, and knee-on-neck tactics, from Israelis. That charge is completely false; the Israelis have never taught the American police, nor any other police force, to use such methods. Long-Bailey said her retweeting was not meant to “be an endorsement of all aspects of the article.” Why not, then, leave out those aspects which she claims not to be endorsing, lest the recipients of her retweet get the wrong idea? She still does not say that Peake’s claim about Israelis teaching American police about choke-holds is false; nor does she even say that “I did not mean to endorse what Peake said about Israeli police.” She only says that her retweeting was not “an endorsement of all aspects of the article.” We still don’t know which “aspects” she is not endorsing, and sensible people will see right through this indefensible defense and sly sleight-of-word she provides. Nothing would have been easier than for her to tweet “while I do not agree with Peake’s baseless charge about Israeli police teachings, I nonetheless wanted to share another part of her tweet today….” How difficult would that have been?

After her firing was announced, Long-Bailey tweeted that Starmer’s office had approved the initial “clarification of my retweet,” but she was later told to take it down

“I could not do this in good conscience without the issuing of a press statement of clarification,” she noted. “I had asked to discuss these matters with Keir before agreeing what further action to take, but sadly he had already made his decision.

Keir Starmer made his decision to fire her as the shadow secretary of education because it was clear her “clarification” was completely insufficient. It did not address the only thing that she had been asked to address: does she, or does she not, support Peake’s preposterous conspiracy theory, blaming Israeli police instructors for George Floyd’s death?

“I wished to acknowledge these concerns and duly issued a clarification of my retweet, with the wording agreed in advance by the Labour Party Leader’s Office, but after posting I was subsequently instructed to take both this agreed clarification and my original retweet down.

Keir Starmer had given her a chance to clarify appropriately. She failed to do so. End of story. Starmer has now made clear he is not going to tolerate any longer those who tweet, or in this case retweet, with admiration – “Peake is an absolute diamond!” — an antisemitic charge that manages to blame Israelis for Derek Chauvin’s knee-on-neck in Minneapolis.

Board of Deputies of British Jews President Marie van der Zyl thanked Starmer for “backing his words with actions on antisemitism.”

“After Rebecca Long-Bailey shared a conspiracy theory, we and others gave her the opportunity to retract and apologize,” she said. “To our surprise and dismay, her response was pathetic. Her position as shadow education secretary was therefore untenable.”…

The Muslim Public Affairs Committee, on the other hand, accused Labour of having “prostrated themselves to the Zionist lobby.”

Apparently, the refusal to countenance a remark that blames Jews (Israelis) for the death of George Floyd amounts to “prostrating oneself to the Zionist lobby.”

“Criticism of Israel and its murderous policies are not antisemitic,” it claimed.

Conspiracy theories that blame the Jews for something — when they were in no way involved in the matter – is classic antisemitism.

Under Starmer’s predecessor, Jeremy Corbyn, Labour was plagued by antisemitism scandals, some involving Corbyn himself.

Starmer replaced Corbyn in April, in the aftermath of Labour’s resounding electoral defeat last December.

Just last week, Starmer told representatives of the UK Jewish community, “We are beginning to wash clean the stain of antisemitism from our party.”

Off to a shaky start as Labour leader – he did, after all, appoint Long-Bailey to her position as shadow education secretary, even though her downplaying of antisemitism in the party was an open secret — Keir Starmer has convincingly shown himself to be the anti-Corbyn for whom many in the Labour Party have been waiting. Let’s hope he continues to “wash the stain of antisemitism” from the Labour Party that had been left by Corbyn and his unsavory coterie.

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Skype (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Telegram (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)

Follow me on Facebook

Filed Under: Featured, Hugh Fitzgerald, Leftist/Islamic Alliance, United Kingdom, Useful idiots Tagged With: Keir Starmer, Labour Party, Rebecca Long-Bailey


Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Comments

  1. Hugh Fitzgerald says

    Jun 28, 2020 at 10:06 am

    A companion piece is forthcoming which will discuss the Labour Party’s shadow foreign secretary, Ms. Nandy, who has called for the U.K. to place sanctions on Israel as punishment for any extension of its sovereignty. It is reported that Keir Starmer does not disagree. If that is true, it is most disappointing.

    More on this anon.

    • Peter Clemerson says

      Jun 28, 2020 at 8:08 pm

      I am making a request in response to the post above from Hugh and the one below from Mortimer (Jun 28 2020 at 10.38 am). In an article some weeks ago, Hugh referred to the British Mandate defined borders as having been implicitly accepted by the UN at its formation and thereby became in effect an internationally recognised single territory when fought over in the 1948 war between the Jews, having declared a new state on the day the mandate expired, and the bordering Arab states, determined to deny the Jews this state. Mortimer is in a sense more explicit. The Mandate had expired when the Jews declared their new state. As far as I aware, the British made no attempt to extend the Mandate and vacated the territory on the day it expired, knowing perfectly well that a war would erupt the moment their troops were out of the territory. Nothing any British politician says about the actions of any body or person today can be regarded as a betrayal of the Mandate. The British simply walked away both literally and metaphorically.

      The Request
      What would be important for readers of JW would be quotations from such UN foundation documents which either implicitly or, even better, explicitly, indicated that the UN did indeed recognize the boundaries of the Mandate as the boundaries of a single state, irrespective of who governed it. Such clarification would indicate whether the Arab forces were invading an internationally recognised single territory from their own countries’ territories and also whether the subsequent occupation of the “West Bank” by the Jordanian army was illegal in the sense that it was an act identical in nature to that of those Nazis who had already been executed for Crimes against Peace.

  2. mortimer says

    Jun 28, 2020 at 10:28 am

    If the new leader Starmer agrees that UK should punish Israel for governing the territory that the UK assigned it in the 1920s, then this is another betrayal of the British Mandate for Palestine.

    Criticizing government policies of Israel is assuredly not anti-Semitic … Jews do it every day. What definitely IS ANTI-SEMITIC is the implication that JEWS DO NOT DESERVE TO HAVE A NATIONAL HOMELAND … ANYWHERE!

    The implied denial of a homeland for Jews is ANTI-SEMITIC.

    • RichardL says

      Jun 28, 2020 at 10:50 am

      Let’s see where he falls on this. It is clear that the anti-semitic left will not cede to Starmer that easily. The Labour Party was always run by Moscow and after the fall of the Soviet Union, Blair’s globalism, pacified them briefly. Starmer will have a tough job, if he means what he says.

    • gravenimage says

      Jun 28, 2020 at 11:15 pm

      Jihadists hate this guy:

      “Keir Starmer tilts Labour sharply towards Israel”

      https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/keir-starmer-tilts-labour-sharply-towards-israel

      “I support Zionism without qualification” – those are the words of the UK Labour Party’s new leader, Keir Starmer…

      “Anti-Semitism has been a stain on our party,” Starmer claimed in his victory speech, giving full credence to the smears against his predecessor.

      Still may not be as (comparatively) good as Boris Johnson–but good to know he is actually a lot better than the vile Jeremy Corbyn.

  3. stressed eric says

    Jun 28, 2020 at 11:13 am

    Slimy Starmer when head CPS gave his mate Jimmy Saville 2 more years of kiddie fiddling ashe said no case to answer just a massive cover up and Knee Bending Starmer the multimillionaire champagne socialist and EU plants gets paid £72000 a year EU subsidies and Starmer the pedo protector needs to get rid of otherLieour clowns include Naz Shah well known kiddie groomers friend and Liza Nandy and biggest expenses thief that evil BLDM racist and liar Lammy but in the Liebour/Momentum nasty party their still these days so many Liebour cover ups and will be a lot more to come !!

  4. Jaydam says

    Jun 28, 2020 at 2:46 pm

    This is the same Starmer, who ignored and disregarded the wishes of millions of Labour supporters, who whole hearted supported the U.K leaving the European Union in June, 2916,.. after the majority of the population voted to leave the EU by 52% to 48%

    He then campaigned over the next 3 and a half years to force a second referendum on the population, and was the instigator behind the Labour party’s December 2020 election manifesto to guarantee a second vote on remaining in the EU. The man cannot be trusted, and is a globalist through and through.

    • Jaydam says

      Jun 28, 2020 at 2:49 pm

      I meant,..

      supported the U.K leaving the European Union in June, 2016,.. after the majority of the population voted to leave the EU by 52% to 48%

    • gravenimage says

      Jun 28, 2020 at 11:09 pm

      Thanks for that information, Jaydam.

  5. Simon Platt says

    Jun 28, 2020 at 4:53 pm

    Sir Keir Starmer might be less of an antisemite than his predecessor, but don’t expect much improvement from the old Stalinist.

  6. gravenimage says

    Jun 28, 2020 at 11:05 pm

    Keir Starmer “Washing the Stain of Antisemitism” From the Labour Party
    ………………

    Well, I’m glad he is somewhat better than the appalling antisemitic pro-Jihad Jeremy Corbyn. That doesn’t mean he would be a good thing for Britain, though.

    This is a very bad sign:

    “Chief prosecutor Keir Starmer advised by radical Muslim”

    Azad Ali, a Treasury official who has used his internet blog to praise the spiritual leader of Al-Qaeda, sits on a Whitehall counterterrorism panel that provides advice to Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions (DPP)…

    https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/chief-prosecutor-keir-starmer-advised-by-radical-muslim-lx2ftrmpqwj

  7. Dawne Swift says

    Jun 29, 2020 at 10:50 am

    He’ll have a Herculean task to clear the Labour party of anti-semites; the Labour party has been infiltrated by Communists and Islamists to such an extent that even the British working class in the north of the country (who would normally vote blindly for Labour) could see it last December.

    In actual fact, I hope that he fails miserably and publicly, because the party officials, MPs and Councillors are so riddled with anti-semitism and the despisal of the white British working class, that if he SEEMED to have succeeded it would give the Labour party the ability to get into power again, and nothing would have changed underneath the surface.

FacebookYoutubeTwitterLog in

Subscribe to the Jihad Watch Daily Digest

You will receive a daily mailing containing links to the stories posted at Jihad Watch in the last 24 hours.
Enter your email address to subscribe.

Please wait...

Thank you for signing up!
If you are forwarding to a friend, please remove the unsubscribe buttons first, as they my accidentally click it.

Subscribe to all Jihad Watch posts

You will receive immediate notification.
Enter your email address to subscribe.
Note: This may be up to 15 emails a day.

Donate to JihadWatch
FrontPage Mag

Search Site

Translate

The Team

Robert Spencer in FrontPageMag
Robert Spencer in PJ Media

Articles at Jihad Watch by
Robert Spencer
Hugh Fitzgerald
Christine Douglass-Williams
Andrew Harrod
Jamie Glazov
Daniel Greenfield

Contact Us

Terror Attacks Since 9/11

Archives

  • 2020
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2019
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2018
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2017
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2016
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2015
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2014
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2013
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2012
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2011
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2010
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2009
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2008
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2007
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2006
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2005
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2004
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • September
    • August
    • July
    • June
    • May
    • April
    • March
    • February
    • January
  • 2003
    • December
    • November
    • October
    • March

All Categories

You Might Like

Learn more about RevenueStripe...

Recent Comments

  • gravenimage on Uighur leader: ‘We’re actually quite worried’ about what Biden might let China get away with
  • OLD GUY on Iranian top dogs approve bill to end UN nuclear inspections, increase enrichment
  • gravenimage on Uighur leader: ‘We’re actually quite worried’ about what Biden might let China get away with
  • OLD GUY on UK: Woman converts to Islam, distributes Islamic State jihad terror videos
  • OLD GUY on Al-Qaeda Calls on Jihadis to Kill Non-Muslims With Poisoned Coronavirus Masks

Popular Categories

dhimmitude Sharia Jihad in the U.S ISIS / Islamic State / ISIL Iran Free Speech

Robert Spencer FaceBook Page

Robert Spencer Twitter

Robert Spencer twitter

Robert Spencer YouTube Channel

Books by Robert Spencer

Jihad Watch® is a registered trademark of Robert Spencer in the United States and/or other countries - Site Developed and Managed by Free Speech Defense

Content copyright Jihad Watch, Jihad Watch claims no credit for any images posted on this site unless otherwise noted. Images on this blog are copyright to their respective owners. If there is an image appearing on this blog that belongs to you and you do not wish for it appear on this site, please E-mail with a link to said image and it will be promptly removed.

Our mailing address is: David Horowitz Freedom Center, P.O. Box 55089, Sherman Oaks, CA 91499-1964

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.