Ellman’s lie raises serious questions about Labour Friends of Israel
Louise Ellman: Why did she lie?
Louise Ellman is vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel, an organisation with whom Shai Masot claimed to be working when he was conspiring to adversely influence UK politics in favour of the Israeli government.
This party-within-the-Labour-Party has gone unscrutinised for far too long. Masot was exposed and withdrawn from the UK more than a year ago but it seems no questions have been asked about LFI.
Now it is spreading indignation about an event hosted by Jeremy Corbyn, supporting claims that a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust who was at Auschwitz could be an anti-Semite, and keeping quiet about its own leaders’ tacit support for ugly pro-Zionist demonstrations.
Labour is quick to condemn rank-and-file party members for far less abhorrent behaviour. Why are these people immune?
Labour Friends of Israel vice-chair and Labour MP Louise Ellman has been at the forefront of much of the loud criticism of the party and its leader over alleged antisemitism, appearing regularly on programmes to express her dismay. The latest manifestation of that criticism is a claim that he acted somehow inappropriately in arranging an event at which Jewish Auschwitz survivor Hajo Meyer spoke.
She appeared on the BBC’s Newsnight programme, claiming to have been ‘appalled’ to find out about the event.
She did not mention – nor did the programme – that she attended the same 2010 event for which she and others were criticising Corbyn.
In fact, she was there far longer than Corbyn was.
Corbyn introduced the event and then had to leave to be elsewhere, before returning later. Ms Ellman, by contrast, is reported as staying throughout – including during a major disruption caused by pro-Israel demonstrators who invaded the event and heckled survivors of other genocides when they spoke.
A letter, written at the time to the Tribune, puts her attendance beyond question:
“A tiny group of Zionist fanatics invaded the gathering and shouted so continuously that the careful programme was derailed, though not prevented from happening. This was a total destruction of the democratic space for over an hour – something I’ve never seen before in any Parliamentary meeting. It was sickening to hear the hounding of 85 year-old Dr Meyer, and the bellows of ‘boring!’ every time any survivor of a different genocide tried to tell their experience.
“Most shockingly, Louise Ellman MP – who as Vice Chair of Labour Friends of Israel was presumably attending as an observer with a companion from the Board of Deputies – both sat unmoved without making the slightest attempt to quell their fellow supporters of Israel and create an open space. They later tried to guilt-trip MPs Jeremy Corbyn and Brian Iddon for bravely hosting the event.”
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Am I the only person to spot the very interesting appointment , last year, of Mark Regev, former Israeli government chief spokesman, as the Israeli ambassador to the UK? How useful would it be to have an experienced spin doctor and master of the arts of fake news and misinformation in such a role?
That’s just me thinking out loud. Doubtless, in light of this article, LFI and their like-minded cronies would have a view on that.
I think these kind of organisations should be disbanded , I for one a labour member would just like the party to remain just that with no outside influence , it is obvious this is a mechanism for spying
I agree they should be disbanded. I certainly don`t want any outside group taking control of my views in the Labour Party. if they want a political party, they can set up themselves. I Stand with Jeremey Corbyn. Like Him I haven’t ever spoken out against any country that didn`t deserve it. Jeremy Corbyn has spent his life speaking up for the “underdog” and against abuses of other human beings. I certainly do stand with him there.I have that right
Reading some of your recent observations añd listeñing to various news items, it does rather look as if the whole anti-Labour anti-semitic ‘debate’ is orchestrated in favour of Tory groups scared of a Corbyn win whenever the next election is held. How on earth can one refer to Hajo Meyer as anti-semitic for comparing Israeli treatment of Palestinians with his first hand experiences as an Auschwitz survivor? And as for Israel supporters drowning attempts by other survivors of ethnic cleansing to report their stories, they are beneath contempt. The wrongness of anti-semitism is written into our laws: perhaps that should be braodened to encompass other recognised cases of ethnic cleansing?
You are right. I have been asking, for some time, why anti-Semitism is even a thing and certainly why it is necessary to be recognised here, given that we have laws to protect all peoples from such treatment. Why make Jews a special case? Are we all not human and any such wrong, as recognised as happened to Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, that affects one of us affects all of us. Surely, we don’t each need our own law? Society is becoming increasingly divided, as it is; we need laws that recognise the oneness of us and only to treat us differently where it is absolutely necessary.
What is certain is that antipathy towards Jews is being stirred up, if not created, by what is happening and you can be sure that other groups will be in the firing line, too. This is very worrisome. I don’t know if those who are perpetuating this know, or even care.
Meyer’s treatment is little different to that of all other dissident jewish voices that question and openly criticise the grubby US sponsored supremacist cult.
They are aggressively vilified and defamed by the organised criminal enterprise.
About time people understand dirty work is happening,and is a national threat.The same thing in American Goverment.Now these people are organising for Boris Johnson.
The criminal supremacist cult is not to be underestimated, it is a disease that has infected western politics for over one hundred years.
Empowered by banking money a fifth column in the US under Louis Brandeis used lickspittles like Woodrow Wilson, the lamentable Churchill and the disgraceful Balfour who all helped deliver the cult their abomination.
You need to be careful. “Empowered by banking money” could be interpreted as a claim that the so-called “international Jewish banking conspiracy” is real.
I’m not making any mistakes, the financial backing of the newly formed European nationalistic political cult at the begining of the 20th century and calling itself Zionism, alongside the subterfuge, corruption, political double dealing, terrorism and genocide it employs are a matter of historic record.
Many prominent Jewish voices have and continue to oppose the criminality and hateful supremacist ideology that indoctrinated Zionists exude and the abomination embodies. Anti semitism and ‘self hatred’ have evolved as tools used primarily to marginalise, exclude and ultimately silence these voices by using Judaism and historic suffering as shield, weapon and cash cow.
Ruthlessly fomenting and subsequently exploitating anti jewish sentiment as a means to an end. Where it didn’t exist, it was actively created to achieve the hatred, perceptions and above all fear amongst Jewish populations that Zionism needs to succeed.
I don’t buy into the illuminati rubbish if that’s what you’re implying, Zionism is base, a grubby cult dressed as something it’s not, centred around supremacy, acquisition and greed.
it’s so obviously orchestrated
To you. How many people have researched the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism? How many people have the slightest clue about the issues? The sad things is that, despite the huge resource that is the internet, most people get their information from partisan and biased Media platforms. This is what those who are behind this rely on.
It’s also worth reading this report – Jonathan Hoffman had to be removed from the meeting by the Police https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2010/02/445742.html
All Zionists and their lickspittles are liars, it really is that simple. Colonial imposters, land thieves and liars.
Having watched video footage of the discussion on youtube, I see nothing wrong in what Hajo Meyer said. The following speaker’s talk was disrupted to the point at which it became unsalvageable so, he gets as far as giving thanks for being given a platform… The next thing to appear on the video is a woman explaining that they are there to discuss genocide and how to stop it, how they only continue but get justified in the name of the Nazi genocide and that they had created a space in which that could be done. It is well worth viewing. Why Jeremy Corbyn apologised… I wish that I knew.
This is an extract from Hajo Meyer–Auschwitz existed within history, not outside of it. The main lesson I learned there is simple: We Jews should never, ever become like our tormentors … Since 1967 it has become obvious that political Zionism has one monolithic aim: Maximum land in Palestine with a minimum of Palestinians on it. This aim is pursued with an inexcusable cruelty as demonstrated during the assault on Gaza. The cruelty is explicitly formulated in the Dahiye doctrine of the military and morally supported by the Holocaust religion.
I am pained by the parallels I observe between my experiences in Germany prior to 1939 and those suffered by Palestinians today. I cannot help but hear echoes of the Nazi mythos of “blood and soil” in the rhetoric of settler fundamentalism which claims a sacred right to all the lands of biblical Judea and Samaria. The various forms of collective punishment visited upon the Palestinian people — coerced ghettoization behind a “security wall”; the bulldozing of homes and destruction of fields; the bombing of schools, mosques, and government buildings; an economic blockade that deprives people of the water, food, medicine, education and the basic necessities for dignified survival — force me to recall the deprivations and humiliations that I experienced in my youth. This century-long process of oppression means unimaginable suffering for Palestinians.
“An Ethical Tradition Betrayed,” huffingtonpost.com
, Jan. 27, 2010. Retrieved on March 27, 2010