Keir Starmer: he seems to be conducting a war against This Site and others like it. Let’s put a stop to it.
One would imagine that, faced with a legal battle that it is unlikely to win, any organisation would back away from further antagonising the opposing side.
Not so with Labour!
Despite facing court proceedings for breach of contract over the way the party accused This Writer of anti-Semitism and expelled me from the party – a case it is almost certain to lose – it seems Labour is waging a hate campaign against me and This Site.
I read about it in a paper!
In its piece Labour suspends Brighton councillor over alleged antisemitism, The Guardian refers to Labour’s decision to suspend the party membership of Anne Pissaridou, over alleged anti-Semitic content.
Yes, it says “alleged” – but the article is clearly intended to give the impression that the pieces she shared on Facebook are anti-Semitic.
It continues: “Labour’s inquiry will also focus on a second post from August 2018 on a website run by Mike Sivier, who was expelled from Labour in the same year after he allegedly refused to undertake antisemitism training.
“The headline of that post said: “Jewish Israeli journalist claims pro-Israel propagandists have ‘taken out contract’ to stop Jeremy Corbyn being elected.””
Apparently the party’s compliance unit received the complaint the previous week.
For clarity, anyone reading my article will see that it consists mostly of quotes from a piece by a highly-respected, award-winning Jewish Israeli journalist, Gideon Levy, supporting Jeremy Corbyn as a potential future prime minister of the UK (it was published in 2018). There isn’t a scrap of anti-Semitism in it.
The Guardian piece, of course, fails to include a link to my article, thus depriving readers of the opportunity to judge for themselves.
Here’s a link to it. If you use it, you will see that Mr Levy was arguing that it is Israel’s aggression against Palestinians that is enflaming anti-Jewish sentiment across the world, and that Corbyn was right to speak up against it. The attempt to use the article as an example of anti-Semitism is an example of exactly the kind of behaviour it highlights: “the gagging, in the form of labeling any criticism as anti-Semitism, is outrageous”.
It is outrageous.
I have written to The Guardian, at first simply asking why I had not been offered the right of reply to the allegation made against me. The response has been unsatisfactory so I have now demanded a full retraction and apology. Otherwise I will consider my options.
And those options are likely to have serious repercussions for the newspaper. Remember that court case? I’m taking Labour to court at Bristol Civil Justice Centre on October 2, starting at 10am – for breach of contract. The party broke its own rules by mishandling accusations of anti-Semitism against me, in order to have an excuse to expel me. The evidence is very clear and I do not expect to lose.
If I win, then any news organisation publishing the lie that I am anti-Semitic in any way will be in a highly actionable position.
That includes the Brighton and Hove News, from which the Guardian piece seems to have been copied verbatim, on the very same day. Odd, that.
So I would like to appeal for anybody who has been accused of sharing anti-Semitic articles because they have shared pieces from This Site to contact me with information about these accusations. Let’s put this in front of a judge as soon as we can.
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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