Rebecca Long Bailey sacked for sharing Anti-Semitic Conspiracy Theory article.

Former Labour leadership candidate Rebecca Long-Baily has been sacked by the leader of the Labour party from the shadow cabinet for sharing an interview on social media which in the words of a spokesperson for the Labour leader

"contained an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory."

To be precise, in the interview the actress Maxine Peake managed to blame Israel for the death of George Floyd, claiming that the US police officers responsible for his death had learned their tactics from the Israeli secret services.

Dear oh dear.

No  party is completely free of prejudice and all parties need to be vigilant against this sort of nonsense, whether it is directed at Jewish people or anyone else. I am pleased to see that message is starting to get through, with strong and immediate action taken in the past two weeks by more than one party in cases of unacceptable comments..

Comments

Anonymous said…
What exactly did Maxine Peake say that is anti-Semitic?
Chris Whiteside said…
I think Jeremy Hunt put it very well:

"It requires some incredible mental contortion to make the killing of George Floyd about Israel. Yet somehow, the same group of people always manage to do it. Remarkable."
Chris Whiteside said…
According to Huff Post, quote,

Long-Bailey was removed from the shadow cabinet on Thursday after she Tweeted an article that included a claim the US police learned the tactics that killed George Floyd from Israel.

In the interview with The Independent, actress Maxine Peake said: “The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.”

A spokesperson for the Israeli police told the newspaper: “There is no tactic or protocol that calls to put pressure on the neck or airway.”

Long-Bailey tweeted the article along with the comment: “Maxine Peake is an absolute diamond.”
Chris Whiteside said…
IHRA working definition of Anti-Semitism, example three:

"Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews."

There are plenty of valid criticisms one can make of the current government of Israel, and making them is not necessarily anti-Semitic under the IHRA as long as you are not applying a double standard or breaking one of the other rules.

However, unless you have evidence to back up the charge, which Ms Peake does not appear to have, blaming Israel when a black American dies in Minneapolis and four US police officers are charged with murder or abetting murder looks to me to be heading towards the sort of prejudice which the section quoted above from the definition of anti-Semitism was getting at.

The original Maxine Peake interview in the Independent has had a postscript added on Thursday which reads as follows:

"UPDATE (25/06/20). This article has been amended to further clarify that the allegation that US police were taught tactics of "neck kneeling" by Israeli secret services is unfounded. The original version did carry a denial from the Israeli police, however we are happy to further clarify the matter.
Anonymous said…
Maxine Peake said: “The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services.”

Did Ms Peake really blame Israel when a black American was murdered on the streets of America?

Maxine Peake's comments were maybe misguided, but can one no longer criticise the practices of the Israeli state in Britain in 2020?

Anonymous said…
Context. She was saying that racism is a global phenomenon.
Chris Whiteside said…
"Context. She was saying that racism is a global phenomenon."

And Ms Peake not only said it but provided evidence for that statement, but probably not in the way she intended.

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