Scurrilous smear campaign against Vox Political writer is worthy only of contempt

Ken Livingstone. Many of the claims against me are about my research into allegations against him [Image: PA].

It looks as though This Writer is going to be in the news – for all the wrong reasons.

Today I received a telephone call from a newspaper reporter, saying the paper had been contacted by an organisation calling itself the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, which had claimed that I (Mike Sivier) should be deselected as a council candidate because I’m an anti-Semite and hate Jews.

For the record, I’m not, and I don’t. Obviously.

Admittedly, the story seems likely to run only in a local(ish) newspaper, the Powys County Times, but the timing is significant as, if a negative story about me goes to press in this weekend’s edition (the paper is a weekly), there will be no time for corrections before people go to the polls on May 4. I believe this is intentional on the part of these Campaign Against Anti-Semitism people.

The organisation seems to be more concerned with defending the reputation of the state of Israel than anything else – according to Powerbase, the “online guide to networks of power, lobbying… deceptive … public relations and the communications activities of governments and other interests”, member (or former member, it’s hard to tell) Joseph Cohen founded the Israel Advocacy Movement – which concerns itself with countering “the increasing hostility Israel suffers at the hands of the British public, caused by huge volumes disinformation circulated by Israel’s enemies”.

For the record, I’m not one of Israel’s enemies. I have no objection to there being a state of Israel. I do, however, object to hostile activities authorised and enacted by its government, where Israel is the aggressor. I would object to those activities if they were carried out by any country or government, and I would hope that you would feel the same.

For information, the Israel Advocacy Movement has “campaigns” against the UK charity War on Want, singling out its support for the boycott movement against Israel, and the pro-Palestinian Palestine Return Centre. And a local newspaper in Kent reported that Kent Anti-Racism Network accused the IAM of having a hand in the controversial suspension by the Labour Party of longstanding anti-racist activist Jackie Walker, for allegedly anti-Semitic comments.

According to the Charity Commission, Campaign Against Anti-Semitism is a “volunteer-led charity dedicated to exposing and countering antisemitism through education and zero-tolerance enforcement of the law.” This seems to mean that it is an organisation dedicated to bringing private prosecutions against individuals it accuses of anti-Semitic activity, claiming that the Crown Prosecution Service “has failed to take action, so now we must act instead”.

An alternative interpretation, of course, as used by one blogger currently being prosecuted by this organisation, is that the CAA attempts “to use the law to silence dissenters”.

No trustees are listed on the Charity Commission’s website. Why not? What reason do they have for secrecy?

The organisation’s website is registered at 167-169 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5PF. It must be pretty cramped as apparently Companies House has 1,109 firms registered there, all on the 2nd floor.

Is anything about this starting to seem a little suspicious to you?

Perhaps we should consider the article about me, which is headlined Labour Council candidate Mike Sivier defends far-left antisemites and quotes far-right Holocaust denier. So I’m a supporter of both the far left and the far right at the same time, it seems. Am I now a contortionist?

You may wonder what point this headline is trying to make. Hopefully, all will be revealed.

The text claims “He [meaning me] enthusiastically supports the hard ‘Corbynite’ left within Labour, referring to those who formerly led the Party as ‘neoliberals’.” Indeed. New Labour did follow neoliberalism and I’m not the only person to have mentioned this.

“He writes prolifically on issues relating to Zionism and Jews…” No, I don’t. Vox Political has published 8,686 posts (this is the 8,687th), of which around 40 mention Zionism or Judaism. Most of these are related to the controversy last year around Naz Shah and Ken Livingstone, and detail my attempts to find the facts, even as others tried to obscure them with claims about anti-Semitism.

“… and is an ardent defender of members of the Labour Party who are suspended or expelled over allegations of antisemitism.” Again, no. I’ll defend people I think are wrongly accused, but I don’t support everybody who is suspended or expelled for this reason. Note the ambiguity in the language used, though: I am said to be a “defender of members of the Labour Party who…” etc. You are meant to believe this means all of them, but the author could easily say they only meant some. Of course, there’s no getting out of the fact that the article wrongly claims I defend these people, whether the accusation is correct or not.

Case in point:

“He has defended Jackie Walker, particularly for her comments that Jews were the chief financiers of the the slave trade.” This is a lie. Jackie Walker did not say that, but organisations like CAA still repeat it.

Here‘s Ms Walker explaining what she did say: “Yes, I wrote “many Jews (my ancestors too) were the chief financiers of the sugar and slave trade”. These words, taken out of context in the way the media did, of course do not reflect my position. I was writing to someone who knew the context of my comments. Had he felt the need to pick me up on what I had written I would have rephrased – perhaps to “Jews (my ancestors too) were among those who financed the sugar and slave trade and at the particular time/in the particular area I’m talking about they played an important part.” The Facebook post taken by itself doesn’t, and can’t possibly reflect the complexity of Jewish history, of the history of Africa, the history of people of the African diaspora and the hundreds of years of the slave trade. The truth is while many peoples were involved in this pernicious trade it was the rulers of Christian Spain and Portugal that ordered the massacre and expulsion of thousands of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula who forced Jewish communities to seek refuge in the New World and the Caribbean. It was European and American Christian empires that overwhelmingly profited from the kidnap, enslavement and death of millions of Africans and I’m happy to make explicit and correct here any different impression my Facebook post gave. The shame is, at a time when antisemitism has been weaponised and used against certain sections of the Labour Party, nobody asked me before rushing to pin the racist and antisemitic label on me.”

She continues: ““If my historical understanding is shown to be wrong by future research I will of course adapt and change my views as necessary. For the record, my claim, as opposed to those made for me by the Jewish Chronicle, has never been that Jews played a disproportionate role in the Atlantic Slave Trade, merely that, as historians such as Arnold Wiznitzer noted, at a certain economic point, in specific regions where my ancestors lived, Jews played a dominant role “as financiers of the sugar industry, as brokers and exporters of sugar, and as suppliers of Negro slaves on credit, accepting payment of capital and interest in sugar.””

Any questions?

“He endorses the views and cross-posts the writing of Tony Greenstein.” And why not? His comments – particularly on the Jackie Walker controversy – made a huge amount of sense.

“He endorses the late Tam Dalyell’s slander saying: “…concerns that Tony Blair was being ‘unduly influenced’ by ‘a cabal of Jewish advisors’ may have been entirely justified.”” This one has been taken out of context. Responding to criticism of that claim, I said that, without further information – to prove or disprove the claim – anyone hearing it may have been justified to feel concerned about what it was saying. I was pointing out that the commenter to whom I was replying had not made his case; I wasn’t saying that there was any factual accuracy either way. In any case, the claim had been made and disproved years before and the discussion was therefore an academic exercise.

“He has defended the antisemitic tweets of Naz Shah, despite that MP accepting that what she had said was indeed antisemitic.” Not true. Naz Shah was right to apologise for her tweet stating “The Jews are rallying” in response to an online poll about Israel’s military activities. I believe her intention was to suggest that people who were pro-Israel were trying to skew the result of the poll, but her use of the word “Jews” instead certainly skews any interpretation of her tweet towards anti-Semitism. So she was right to apologise for it.

The images posted by Ms Shah were a different matter. One – showing a map of Israel overlaid onto a map of the United States – was a response to a plan to forcibly move Palestinians from the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and anywhere else they still had settlements, and move them to Jordan, or Saudi Arabia, or Egypt. The image posed the simple question: “How would you like it?” Ms Shah was using it for a different purpose, in response to Operation Protective Edge, the conflict between the Israeli military and a number of militant Palestinian groups in Gaza, in which Israel’s military superiority resulted in obscenely disproportionate Palestinian casualties and deaths – to suggest that the United States, whose Congress had expressed “vigorous” support for Israel, was too closely implicated in the conflict. Hence her “Problem solved!” comment – which should never have been taken as a serious expression of a desire to force all of the Israeli state to move to the American mainland.

The other – showing a police ‘mug shot’ of a black man, overlaid with the words “Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal” – was widely misinterpreted. The man in the photograph was civil rights icon Martin Luther King and his words were intended to show that an act can be perfectly legal and still be wrong. In this context, Ms Shah (and others, I’m sure) was using it to show that Israel’s military action against Palestinians in mid-2014 was legal – and wrong. The fact that it mentions Hitler is regrettable because of the obvious connotation for Jewish people, but the point was valid.

Ms Shah did admit, under pressure of the accusations against her, that all the tweets were made with anti-Semitic intent, and this had the unfortunate knock-on effect of bringing into disrepute the images that didn’t actually display anti-Semitism in these two tweets. In any case, I did not defend Ms Shah’s admitted anti-Jewish sentiment, once it had been made clear.

“He has asserted that the SWP’s claim that only thousands — not millions — of Jews died in the Holocaust reflected that party’s need to be “politically correct”…” This is another lie. I stated that I wasn’t “going to comment on “thousands” instead of “millions” because I don’t know [why it was said]” – as anyone can see if they follow the link provided in the article. The commenter to whom I was responding had said “In 2008, the SWP issued an explanation of the Holocaust that … omitted any reference to Jews” – and I was responding to that, pointing out that “the Nazi holocaust involved many other groups as well as Jews, and it seems likely that the SWP was simply being “politically correct” [in using an umbrella term – “victims” – to cover them all]. That is a matter of opinion, not fact – note my use of the word “seems” – and not an assertion at all.

“… and defended NUS President Malia Bouattia’s reference to the “Zionist-led media”.” Again, a lie. I didn’t defend the comment at all; the commenter was attempting to establish a spurious connection between opposition to Zionism and anti-Semitism. As I stated at the time: “Your comment about Maalia Bouattia conflates Zionism with Judaism and so I discount it out-of-hand. The two are not the same and unless you have performed extensive research into what she meant and why she meant it, you have no business making such a suggestion.”

Mr Sivier explicitly states that he believes that there is a “conspiracy” by Jews: “…it is a conspiracy, have no doubt about that” and those who would defend them in the UK.” Another lie. The article referenced here is about the exposed attempt by the (now-former) Israeli Embassy staffer Shai Masot to influence the top level of UK politics – and it was a conspiracy. But it was a conspiracy by agents of a foreign government, manipulating (or working with) people here in the UK. Their religion or ethnicity was neither here nor there. I don’t even know whether everybody involved was Jewish or not, as it has no bearing on the story.

“In the same breath as naming leading Jewish figures, Labour MPs and British journalists he says: “We are being told that agents of a foreign country have infiltrated our institutions”.” Agents of a foreign country. Again, whether they were Jewish or not is irrelevant; this was about a foreign country trying to influence UK politics for its own ends.

The next part of the article discusses my defence of Ken Livingstone, which I have covered in great detail elsewhere on This Site. I do not intend to cover that ground again here. Suffice it to say that Mr Livingstone’s words of 2016 were historically accurate and were not anti-Semitic – he was not even accused of this when the Labour Party disciplinary panel met at the end of March. He was found to have brought the party into disrepute – but this is a measure of opinion – not fact. And opinion had been skewed against him by people who had, for example, misquoted him as saying Hitler was a Zionist (he never said it) and who had misinterpreted the images that had been posted by Naz Shah.

Moving on, the article attacks me for quoting from a website called Redress Online, because it publishes the work of Gilad Atzmon who, it is claimed, is a notorious anti-Semite.

I did, indeed, refer to that website – I understood at the time that it was the origin of the image of Israel superimposed on the American Midwest. There was no way to state this without referring to Redress Online! Further investigations have revealed that the image had been created before it was used on that site – its origin remains unknown – so its use there has no bearing on the original intention behind it, one way or the other.

The reasons for the image’s creation still appear to be as described in my article and have nothing to do with anti-Semitism but are, in fact, satirical.

Gilad Atzmon, any anti-Semitism of his, and any use of my work by him, are entirely irrelevant to those facts. I can’t help what other people do with my work – as the Campaign Against Antisemitism article clearly demonstrates.

I really wasn’t all that bothered when James Mendelsohn criticised me on Twitter for referring to the Atzmon-connected site, partially for the reasons listed above, and also because Mr Mendelsohn is a persistent troll who has spent months sending abusive tweets, Facebook comments and blog comments in my direction.

Considering his behaviour, perhaps my response, “You’re the one claiming he’s a neo-Nazi so I’m not all that bothered”, is more understandable.

Okay, we’re on the home stretch.

“He is not only antisemitic on several counts under the terms of the International Definition of Antisemitism, but, en route, defends many of the leading individuals responsible for it.” Obviously the claim that I defend anti-Semites isn’t true, for reasons laid out above.

The so-called ‘International Definition of Antisemitism’ is highly controversial because it prohibits legitimate criticism of the human rights record of the Israeli Government by attempting to bring criticism of Israel into the category of anti-Semitism, and does not sufficiently distinguish between criticism of Israeli actions and criticism of Zionism as a political ideology, on the one hand, and racially based violence towards, discrimination against, or abuse of, Jews. It tries to blur the distinctions between Israel, Zionism and Judaism in an unacceptable way.

So, in the end, we have confirmation of what may have been suspected at the beginning: The Campaign Against Antisemitism is really nothing of the sort – it is a campaign against criticism of, not Israel, but merely the current Israeli government.

I am being attacked under a false flag – because anti-Semitism is much more emotive than opposition to political decisions by a foreign government.

The attack on me is also libelous, because an assertation of anti-Semitism is likely to lower me in the estimation of right-thinking members of the public generally.

Considering the fact that the claim is likely to be published in a newspaper, I may need to take legal advice on this matter.

NOTE: This article was edited on July 17, 2021 to clarify some of the arguments.

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46 thoughts on “Scurrilous smear campaign against Vox Political writer is worthy only of contempt

  1. paulmabbo

    Anti Zionism equated with anti semitism. That’s a ‘new’ one.
    If they ask to speak to you ask them if they’re Hebrews, or from Judea. Or maybe Khazaria 😉

  2. Fibro confused

    Legal advice and get your riposte in print fast, hopefully you can see of any possible damage in the local elections. It can’t be a coincidence that yourself & at least one other blogger are being targeted. Both blogs receive a lot of attention. Stay strong Mike your a decent caring man, that’s the simple truth.

  3. Dan Delion

    It would appear that the CAA article shows a rather poor comprehension of the English language and reflects badly on those it would appear to seek to defend. One may also query whether the action of publishing such distortion of facts in the context you describe (the week of the local elections) might be considered in conflict with charitable status.

  4. jeffrey davies

    they like to wear one down with their legal ways but it is they who are the bigots in whot they say and use against decent people blairs arm are long his crowd are they think the new masters oh dear jeff3

  5. Rose

    Sue ’em if you can. I’m not sure what the position is on legal aid or whether you could get somebody to represent you pro bono but if you can take them to court I would.

  6. Rupert Mitchell (@rupert_rrl)

    Could be that this has little to do with anti-antisemitism but anti-labour and the bugs have just crawled out from under the rubbish in the hope of spreading false information now that they see Labour being appreciated for what it really is under Jeremy Corbyn and to no small extent your own backing Mike.

    You will have many supporters behind you if you do take legal action! Labour needs people like you who take the time and trouble to explain so clearly the vagaries of the Conservative and devious actions of so many with vested interests in today’s greedy world.

    If required, a fund to support you could easily be set up I feel sure.

    Regards,

    Rupert

  7. Christine Bergin

    Your comment about silencing dissenters hits the nail on the head. Given that jewish people are not happily received among the ‘tory select’ unless they happen to be filthy rich or politically well connected, the concentrated attack on socialist enthusiasts is a bit surprising. Hugh numbers of the jewish faith avidly supported socialist ideas and saw off the intrusion of fascist Blackshirts in epic style.
    Most of the so called anti-terrorist legislation that has appeared recently is obviously designed to silence dissenters and this is true misuse of government power but ther are very few to speak against it and they most certainly are sidelined and ignored.
    Sadly the age of disinformation and blind ignorance are upon us once again.
    I am a sick old woman now but send you all best wishes. You must have them rattled to provoke this much reaction.

  8. Jackie Walker

    The Israel Advocacy Movement were the first people to hack my FB page. The CAA has no right to be a charity as it’s so obviously political – as long as being simply nasty and libellous. Israel has openly said it is funding the undermining of people who criticise Israel by millions. The Israeli lobby I have been told is the best funded lobby in UK politics. The LP leadership asked for a Parliamentary investigation into the influence of this lobby in UK politics but when May turned it down did nothing to investigate itself. This is one of the major political scandals of our time.

    I know what it is to be harassed by these people – they have no scruples and act in the same tradition they come from; racists, colonialist and fascists

  9. Barry Davies

    Welcome to the world of local politics, it makes national politics look like a game of croquet, while it is more like the roman arena, my recent, well over last 4 years, involvement with this arena of politics shows me that the local councillors are far more protective about their little bit of power and will do what it takes to keep it than the mp’s are.

  10. Laura Southall

    The Price of Success – The Skwawkbox received a threatening letter from a solicitor about a week ago as well

    1. Tony Dean

      Par for the course people who oppose of the Tory Government. There are some very nasty dirty tricks happening. I personally have had some very serious problems on forums, and my BT internet email being hacked and nobbled. (In an apparently unique way.)
      That has now been sorted but for all my email from April the 28th 2015 being deleted and no recoverable.

      1. wildswimmerpete

        No doubt part of Lynton Crosby’s election strategy – it worked for Cameron. I suspect Crosby and/or Conservative Central Office have recruited and pay an army of shills and trolls to attack the Left on social media and the Graun’s “Comment is Free”.

  11. Stu

    If nothing else, it goes to show that you have a prominent voice in the media and as such are a threat to …… (I’ve yet to figure that one out).

    Your passion and commonsense opinions are an inspiration to us all, just the sort of person I would enthusiastically welcome on my Council – perhaps that’s the problem !

    Stick to your guns and give as good as you get but remain as polite, professional as always.

  12. Steven James Rudd

    “Anti-semitism” is the go-to response these days for any criticism of the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestine. It’s a crude but effective weapon, because, after all, who wants to be thought to be anti-semitic, and somehow, organisations like the one making the accusation against you, have managed to shift the emphasis so that those they label as anti-semitic have to then spend vast amounts of time and effort proving they are NOT anti-semitic, when in fact the onus should be on the accuser to prove that anti-semitism has taken place.

    It seems to me from even a cursory examination of this organisation that they specialise in taking things out of context and using the febrile atmosphere of the internet to whip up hatred against anyone who dares to level criticism at the Israeli state over Palestine, or who dares to voice support for those who level such criticism. Why and how it has succeeded in becoming a charity escapes me, and I hope that the Charities Commission will be taking heed of the way it operates. It’s interesting that “because it has been recently registered”, they aren’t obliged to provide a legal annual return until August this year at the latest. Make a date in your diary folks, if you want to find out who is funding them…

    Of course, the whole question of supposed anti-semitism in the Labour movement has also been blighted by the Labour Party’s rather woolly and byzantine posturing in trying to keep both those who criticise Israel over Palestine AND those who specialise in getting offended on behalf of other people who they think might be offended by a discussion of something Hitler may or may not have believed in 1938 happy, at one and the same time. And of course, for the opponents of Labour, starting hares like this running and watching in glee as the confusion unfolds is yet another way of distracting people (and distracting the PLP, not they *they* need much distracting) from its real task of opposing the Tories.

    1. Jackie Walker

      I agree with everything you’ve said here apart from ‘Labour Party’s rather woolly and byzantine posturing in trying to keep both those who criticise Israel over Palestine AND those who specialise in getting offended on behalf of other people who they think might be offended’. I don’t see the LP has done anything to appease those who support Palestine – in fact it’s quite the opposite. The Israeli lobby has made huge strides in the party imo. Of course this has been used as part of the ongoing ‘soft coup’ in the LP

      1. Steven James Rudd

        Well, if Corbyn had spoken out strongly when the spectre of anti-semitism first reared its head, and said “I am the leader of the Party. This is not anti-semitism, it is bollocks, let us have no more of this” we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in now.

        Good luck, Mike Sivier, Take the bastards to the cleaners.

  13. Sally Spangle

    Here’s the big scandal.. most people involved in these attempts to bring down the left are actually tories and Blairite ex Labour… Partisan groups like JLM is riddled with tory/Blairite trolls who voluntarily harrass lefties for a full stop out of place online and send anything they can to CAA. What is Newmark going to do about his disgraceful members conduct and shouldn’t he ask these tory / Anti Corbyn members just why are they in an affiliated Labour Group. Newmark knows he will have to act soon as it’s getting very hot under a few peoples collars. He’d be best to act sooner rather than later. Meanwhile the CAA has so many impending lawsuits gearing up, I’d simply offer them a bigger spade.

    1. Jackie Walker

      Ironically a number of the most questionable Labour MPs who are supporters of Israel may well lose their seat in part (some are in constituencies with significant Jewish voters) because of the 10% or so Jewish voters who say they won’t vote Labour any more because of the level of AS in the party!!

  14. rotzeichen

    Mike: I have Just tried to complain to the charity commissioners and found that they require evidence, can we use your article as evidence, naturally you would need to check with a legal adviser before sanctioning that, but I will wait for your permission before citing it as a case in point.

    This could become an issue that we turn the tables on them, at very short notice is it possible for you to organise a public meeting in order to publicly challenge their claims. Perhaps inviting people who have received similar attacks on them.

    Going on the attack is again the best form of defence.

    We are solidly behind you and here may be the source of all our problems within the Labour Party: noting that there is a video in this article where Blair talks of his middle eastern affairs and how he loves Israel.:

    http://www.timesofisrael.com/tony-blair-says-regional-approach-to-peace-is-going-well/

  15. Alison Chabloz

    .

    An alternative interpretation, of course, as used by one blogger currently being prosecuted by this organisation, is that the CAA attempts “to use the law to silence dissenters”..

    The CPS has now taken over the prosecution and wants to bring two further charges for causing ‘gross offence’ under Section 127 of the 2003 Communications Act. These new charges concern two of my songs ( I am a musician, not a ‘blogger’).

    The CAA operates gangs of online anonymous troll accounts. One of the songs concerned deals directly with CAA gang stalkers – the reason why CAA didn’t bring a private prosecution for that particular number.

    In order to have me gagged by the now-recused CFI District Judge at Westminster Magistrates Court, CAA compromised their own ‘evidence’ and outed themselves as being these same gang stalkers, even going so far as to name their anonymous Twitter accounts.

    Despite being gagged, unable to work and without my laptop which was seized by police last November, I have still not been formally served with any charge.

    https://alisonchabloz.wordpress.com/2017/04/10/update-five-months-on-and-still-no-charge/

    1. Mike Sivier Post author

      Hmm. “Gangs of online anonymous troll accounts”? I may have been contacted by one on Twitter:
      Jeremy Corbin MP‏ @CorbynSnap
      .@MidWalesMike – I’ve befriended Holocaust Deniers, but identifying with a genuine Nazi on trial is a new record for a #Labour politician!

      So you’re “a genuine Nazi”, apparently. And on trial! I take it both those pieces of information are inaccurate.

      My response WAS genuine: “I know nothing about that. And aren’t you aware that British justice demands that a defendent is innocent until proven guilty?”

      Oh, and see the . before the @ in @CorbynSnap’s reply? That’s a way of making their tweet public, despite being sent to an individual (me). An attempt to get others to troll me too?

      1. Alison Chabloz

        Genuine Nazis are hard to come by these days, unless you happen to be a regular on the Daily Stormer comment boards. Whether or not I go on trial depends on a hearing ‘for legal arguments only’ set for June 23.

        I see CorbynSnap isn’t the only troll currently harassing you. The only way to take this kind of targeting is to see it as a badge of honour. My right to freedom of expression has been removed in my own country of birth because I dared to criticise and mock Jews and Jewish power. Worse still, I did this en musique. I’ve been hounded off Twitter, lost job contracts, had my gigs and venues targeted and was even banned from entering the building at my former local Labour Club.

        The stalking gang has many affiliates and to what extent CorbynSnap and MomentumGod are connected to CAA I’m not sure. However, I do know the accounts directly linked to CAA’s Board of Directors – a fact confirmed by the careless, presumably, of their own solicitor.

        I see Tim Farron has also now sacked David Ward. All good for our Cause: the public is gaining more awareness and becoming increasing uncomfortable regards this North Korea style, state-sponsored bullying.

      2. Mike Sivier Post author

        If you mock Jews and Jewish power, then your detractors may have a point about you.
        The case against me fails precisely because I don’t attack anyone over their ethnicity or religious views – but for their political decisions.
        Nobody is guilty of any crime because of their heritage.

  16. katythenightowl

    I do hope you can get this sorted out soon, Mike. It sickens me to see the vitriol being spat out at decent Labour campaigners, all to keep the sickeningly rich getting ever richer, while the rest of us fight over the scraps – which, of course, is the idea behind your accuser’s actions, no doubt! 🙁

    Please don’t hesitate to get the legal help you may need, as I’m sure there are many more of your readers, other than myself, and others on here who have already commented on this subject, who will be willing to donate towards any defence you may need?

    Whatever happens, I wish you all the best in your fight for a seat, even if it is next door to my area – I just wish we had someone like you, willing to fight for us, and letting us know what’s really going on, here in Ceredigion, too 🙂

  17. Signor tbf

    MIKE

    Given the personal blog re Mrs Mike you did a little while back, I strongly suspect this lot can be accused of internet bullying-at the very least.

    Why else have they gone for you now & not ages ago? I would let the journos know about this aspect and that that’s how these people operate-they don’t care who they hurt.

    And, if they are willing to print those allegations both they & this lot will be hit with CRIMINAL libel proceedings, because anti-Semitism is a hate crime, I believe.

    Steve

    1. Mike Sivier Post author

      I have a pretty good idea of why it has happened now. More may follow, after I see the article.

  18. Paula

    Hello Mike, I hope you will defend yourself robustly! As the comments here show, many people see straight through this dishonest smear campaigning. I note that their website boasts of an army of legal advisers, but I wonder if anyone is advising them on the libel laws? I think a good indicator of their lack of good faith might be their handling of last year’s Channel 4 survey of British Muslims: https://antisemitism.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/British-Muslims-and-Antisemitism.pdf. Despite claims of ‘reaching out’ and interfaith work, they seem quite comfortable with peddling the worst kind of islamophobia ….or am I missing something? This is a group that is supposed to be promoting religious tolerance, right?

  19. jamesakirkcaldy

    Mike, Naz is actually quite prejudice against Jews for being just Jews. Her record here is beyond her Internet activity and stems to what people have heard from her directly in more fully social settings. Like many from Bradford anti Semitism is alive and well there and it is not just the Muslim population but also the so called indigenous white. Take Keighley for example, a well known hotbed of far right neo-Nazi types and even those on the left will express anti Semitic views in Bradford. Heck, one person said to me that I must have Jew in me on account of my large nose!

      1. jamesakirkcaldy

        Just living in Bradford and mirroring the life of select others 🙂 . Look, I don’t think Mike is an anti Semite but we either face facts on the Naz issue and what it is like in West Yorkshire or just go home and ignore the truth of the matter. But anyway.

        Dave Ward in Bradford East (Lib Dem) has also been accused of such a thing but in his case he was stupid to say some of the things that he did. He said them because he knew he would not get elected otherwise and the same holds true for Naz.

        Just to highlight how bad the situation is in Bradford, a colleague of mine got withdrawn from a PGCE placement over fears for his safety because staff members at the local teaching training provider leaked the fact that he has an Israeli passport to school staff about the area, in order to block his placement. The leak was an act of prejudice AND the corresponding response and cover up.

    1. Mike Sivier Post author

      No. I think that paper might have dropped it.
      But the Brecon and Radnor Express – of which I used to be the editor – has now taken up the story. I gave out the same information I provided to the County Times, so we’ll have to see what they do with it.

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