{"id":1818,"date":"2018-08-25T19:05:47","date_gmt":"2018-08-25T18:05:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/?p=1818"},"modified":"2018-08-30T12:53:01","modified_gmt":"2018-08-30T11:53:01","slug":"manufacturing-corbyn-anti-semitism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/amazonnewsmedia.com\/articles\/2018\/08\/25\/manufacturing-corbyn-anti-semitism\/","title":{"rendered":"Manufacturing Anti-Semitism"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>You\u2019d have to be living under a rock not to have noticed the slew of propaganda manufacturing anti-semitism through accusations to \u2018get<\/a>\u2019 Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Everything he has said in the past is up for scrutiny, and a speech he made in January 2013 at the Britain\u2019s Legacy in Palestine Conference is now being used to further these attacks in mainstream media.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Doughty St Barrister Adam Wagner is using the New Statesman<\/a> to express his view that this latest clip shows Corbyn really is an anti-semite.<\/span><\/div>\n
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The Context of Context<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n
However, just scratching the surface of his article shows what a fallacy this is, and brings up questions about Wagner\u2019s honesty and integrity.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Somewhat ironically, Wagner states that context is important to order to understand Corbyn\u2019s remarks (it is), then promptly misquotes what he said and veers off into an opinion that is totally removed from the actual context.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Here’s what Corbyn said at the conference which is apparently so contentious:<\/span><\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a>“The other evening we had a meeting in parliament in which Manuel [Hassassian, the Palestinian ambassador] made an incredibly powerful and passionate and effective speech about the history of Palestine, the rights of the Palestinian people. This was dutifully recorded by the, the thankfully silent Zionists who were in the audience on that occasion, and then came up and berated him afterwards for what he had said. They clearly have two problems: one is they don\u2019t want to study history and secondly having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don\u2019t understand English irony either. Manuel does understand English irony and uses it very, very effectively, so I think they needed two lessons, which we could perhaps help them with”<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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The context is clear: Corbyn was referring to a previous speech Hassassian gave which a handful of Zionists berated him on. He then jokes that even though these disruptors had likely lived in the UK all their lives, they had less understanding of English irony than the Palestinian Ambassador, a foreigner.<\/span><\/div>\n
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You can watch that specific segment here<\/a>.<\/div>\n
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Tampering with Evidence<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
So what did Wagner make of this? First off, he misquoted Corbyn, removing a sentence from the above quote without telling his readership that he had done so:<\/span><\/div>\n
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\u201cThey clearly have two problems: one is they don\u2019t want to study history and secondly having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don\u2019t understand English irony either.<\/i>\u00a0<\/i><\/b>They needed two lessons, which we could perhaps help them with.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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Removing the part where Corbyn states that unlike this handful of Zionists, Hassassian does understand irony, removes some of the context of the speech and more crucially, the comparison Corbyn was making.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Wagner also changed\u00a0\u201cI think they needed two lessons\u201d<\/i>\u00a0to\u00a0\u201cThey needed two lessons\u201d<\/i>, turns a clear opinion, into a statement. Again, this alters the context.<\/span><\/div>\n
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But Wagner doesn\u2019t stop there.<\/div>\n
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Look at my Banner, Not the Facts<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a>He now grafts on intent:\u00a0\u201cIt is said with anger, and as though he is trying to prove something to the audience<\/i>\u201d, and\u00a0\u201cthe video is evidence [of] his obvious anger at those men\u201d<\/i>.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Watch the video for yourself and you\u2019ll see there is no anger there. Corbyn is passionate and emphatic and obviously not impressed at the Zionists\u2019 actions, but he is not expressing anger.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Wagner is clearly hoping that having established himself as a fair and decent person, by holding up a\u00a0massive<\/i>\u00a0banner that says \u201cHuman Rights\u201d, people will take him at his word and not check the misquote or the mistaken opinion about Corbyn\u2019s emotional state. Of course a \u201cHuman Rights\u201d advocate from Helena Kennedy\u2019s own Chambers would never intentionally misrepresent facts, now would they?<\/div>\n
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Upping the Ante<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
Then Wagner goes much further:<\/span><\/div>\n
\u201c[Corbyn\u2019s] passionate support for Palestine, has spilled over into a stream of anti-Semitism that classes Jews as aliens and un-British.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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This is completely untrue. Corbyn\u2019s speech is very clear: he is critical of a handful of Zionists. Although many Jews are Zionists, not all of them are, and there are many non-Jewish Zionists.<\/span><\/div>\n
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So to twist Corbyn\u2019s comments about a handful of disrespectful Zionists into a statement that Corbyn said Jewish people are aliens and un-British is utterly false.<\/span><\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a>Corbyn\u00a0explained this very clearly to the BBC<\/a>: he spoke to\u00a0“defend the Palestinian ambassador in the face of what I thought were deliberate misrepresentations”<\/i>\u00a0from people\u00a0“for whom English was a first language, when it isn’t for the ambassador”.<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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He said: “I described those pro-Israel activists as Zionists, in the accurate political sense and not as a euphemism for Jewish people – and that is made clear in the rest of my speech that day. I am now more careful with how I might use the term ‘Zionist’ because a once self-identifying political term has been increasingly hijacked by anti-Semites as code for Jews.”<\/i><\/div>\n
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The Limitations of Context<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
Has Wagner deliberately fallen into that misrepresentation himself? This statement by him might make you wonder:\u00a0\u201cIf you doubt this, try reading the above excerpt and replacing \u201cZionists\u201d with \u201cblacks\u201d and see whether you see racism.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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Except Zionism isn\u2019t a race, nor is it a religion, and Corbyn didn\u2019t attack all Zionists nor even all Jewish people, but a handful of rude ones. The casual reference to \u201cblacks\u201d is also disturbing.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Wagner doesn\u2019t stop there. He states:\u00a0\u201cI am not sure whether he is referring to all British Jews or not, or even all Zionists, but it doesn’t really matter as it is such an incautious comment.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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It does matter. Context, remember? Corbyn\u2019s words were:\u00a0\u201cThis was dutifully recorded by the,\u00a0the thankfully silent Zionists who were in the audience on that occasion, and then came up and berated him afterwards for what he had said.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0Now unless all Zionists and all British Jews were present at that conference, then clearly, Corbyn was only talking about the ones in attendance. No one else.<\/div>\n
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Wagner’s statement also\u00a0raises the dangerous notion that to criticise a handful of berating Zionists is to attack the Jewish race as a whole.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Fomenting Hatred<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/div>\n
Wagner tries to appear balanced near the end of his article by pretending to consider the possibility that truth exists:\u00a0\u201cCorbyn may, in his own mind, have only been focussing on the small group of Jewish activists who attend pro-Palestinian events, ask difficult questions and write critical blogs afterwards\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n
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As shown above, this is what Corbyn was doing: defending the Ambassador against a small number of disrespectful Zionists. But by using\u00a0\u201cin his own mind\u201d<\/i>, Wagner is trying to show Corbyn as at least naive and unclear, and at worse a disingenuous racist, whereas his words truly do speak for themselves.<\/span><\/div>\n
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So why all the misrepresentation?\u00a0<\/span>The New Statesman is right<\/a>: a proper look at the context makes Wagner\u2019s unsubstantiated accusations much, much worse!\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
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\"\"<\/a>Unlike Wagner on Corbyn, we can\u2019t pretend to know what is going on in Wagner\u2019s own mind, but the importance of the subject surely merits a harder look at real anti-semites, like those Benjamin Netanyahu hangs around with<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n
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Contextual Addendum<\/strong><\/h4>\n

1. In order to fully understand the \u201cBritish irony\u201d remark we did a little digging to find ambassador Hassassian\u2019s original statement, and here it is:<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know I\u2019m reaching the conclusion that the Jews are the children of God, the only children of God and the Promised Land is being paid by God! I have started to believe this because nobody is stopping Israel building its messianic dream of Eretz Israel to the point I believe that maybe God is on their side. Maybe God is partial on this issue.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

And how was this reported by at least one of the Zionists in attendance? The post\u2019s title alone pretty much says it all: Palestinian Ambassador to the UK: \u201cI\u2019ve started to believe that the Jews are the only children of God\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

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2. If anyone has any doubt regarding Corbyn’s position on anti-semitism, his public record should speak for itself:<\/p>\n

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Before the public had internet access. Before anyone knew what an EDM was. Jeremy Corbyn used to pop into a little office to place on record his opposition to antisemitism. For no gain. For no recognition. But because he believed. If they bottled it, they\u2019d call it authenticity pic.twitter.com\/T2khlNuf0P<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) August 28, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n