The BBC are very careful how they report the speeches by Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth re anti-Semitic abuse - UPDATED

The BBC report www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43795854 very carefully the speeches made today by Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth regarding the antisemitic abuse they have received.

The BBC quote Luciana Berger:

'She said she had received abuse from both the far-left and far-right of politics, and that the abuse had become more "commonplace and corrosive" in the past two years.' 

And report that:

'The Labour leader, who was present in the chamber for much of the debate, is due to hold talks next week with leading Jewish groups amid criticism of his handling of anti-Semitism cases.' 

However the BBC are less keen to report Ruth Smeeth's speech which included some of the abuse that she'd received that was deeply antisemitic and also pro Jeremy Corbyn. 

Interestingly Jeremy Corbyn left the chamber before Ruth Smeeth spoke, I wonder if he knew what she was going to say.

Jeremy Corbyn leaving the chamber has not gone unnoticed elsewhere, Political Betting has these Tweets:

I simply don't understand why Jeremy Corbyn has left the chamber for this debate on antisemitism. I had him down as all sorts of things. I never had him down as a coward.

— Tom Peck (@tompeck) April 17, 2018

Well, I don't hold Corbyn responsible for the abysmal contents of antisemitic Facebook groups he is a member of, or of disgraceful tweets done in his name. But to walk out of this, to show no solidarity with his own MPs? I'm really quite stunned.

— Tom Peck (@tompeck) April 17, 2018

Ever seen him call out a racist on his own side?
Of course you haven’t, he’s always been a coward with a thin skin.

— GOsborneGenius (@GOsborneGenius) April 17, 2018

From the beginning of all this I think he’s been more guilty of cowardice than anything else. He won’t confront; instead he retreats to his adoring base, again and again.

— Benji Lanyado (@benjilanyado) April 17, 2018

(He has returned. After a lengthy, curious spell standing with his hands in his pockets behind the Speakers chair, he is back on the front bench.)

— Tom Peck (@tompeck) April 17, 2018

An impartial BBC would question Jeremy Corbyn about the content of Ruth Smeeth's speech and its implications for the perniciousness of antisemitism in parts of the Labour Party. An impartial BBC would question Jeremy Corbyn as to why he left the front bench for such a long part of the debate, what did he have to do that was more important? However the BBC are not impartial, they are pro-Labour and via their clear bias against Israel they have helped create an environment favourable to the growth of antisemitism. 

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party and anti-semitism

That Jeremy Corbyn has a problem with Israel has been clear for years, that he had no problem calling virulent anti-Semites 'friends' likewise, but that he was himself freely associated with anti-Smites was less clear - until now.

The recent revelations that he was a member of five Facebook groups where anti-Semites posted nasty anti-Jew comments should be headline news but the BBC are still minimising their reporting of this story, for two reasons: first because they want a Labour government as soon as possible (partly to end Brexit) and secondly because the BBC itself indulges anti-Semites by regularly vilifying Israel and by indulging the Muslims and anti-Semites who hate Jews.

There's a line in Ian Fleming's Goldfinger where Auric Goldfinger says of James Bond's habit of appearing in his vicinity "Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it’s enemy action." Jeremy Corbyn has now been found to be a member of five Facebook groups where anti-Semitic sentiments have been freely expressed. It seems that Jeremy Corbyn joined these groups of his own free will and was a member of some for years. Guido Fawkes here and here has the detail. So is it time to conclude that Jeremy Corbyn is an enemy of Jews?

We keep being told that Jeremy Corbyn is a man of principle and a kindly old chap too. It seems that the truth is at variance with those claims.

The one hundred and nineteenth weekly "No shit Sherlock" award - "BDS spurs anti-Semitism on campuses"

"Reports of anti-Semitic incidents on US college campuses have increased, much of it attributed to the rise of the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, a new report has found."

No shit Sherlock.

More about this here and more anti-Semitism on university and college campuses across the UK, USA and beyond.

What is anti-Semitism? A quiz for Ken Livingstone

Absolute genius and something that lays bare the hypocrisy of some members of the Labour Party

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2016/04/29/what-is-anti-semitism-a-quiz-for-ken-livingstone/

How to get the result you want from an enquiry

The BBC seem terribly impressed that 'Jeremy Corbyn is to hold an independent inquiry into anti-Semitism and other forms of racism in the Labour Party.'

The BBC report that 'The inquiry's vice-chairman will be Professor David Feldman, director of the Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism.'

That sounds positive, he must know his stuff.

Unfortunately for Jeremy Corbyn and the BBC some people actually do know their stuff, the Jewish Chronicle for one:

'The man helping to lead Labour’s inquiry into antisemitism is a named supporter of a group which has dismissed allegations of Jew-hatred in the party as “baseless and disingenuous”.

Professor David Feldman, director of the Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism, was named by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn as vice-chairman of the inquiry - led by Shami Chakrabarti, former head of campaign group Liberty - which will look into claims of antisemitism among the party members.

Prof Feldman is a signatory to Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), a group of Jewish academics who are critical of British Jewish communal institutions.

On Sunday, IJV released a statement which expressed concern “at the proliferation in recent weeks of sweeping allegations of pervasive antisemitism within the Labour Party.”

It added: “Some of these allegations against individuals are, in our view, baseless and disingenuous; in other cases, ill-chosen language has been employed.”

IJV continued: “We are equally concerned, however, by the way in which such accusations are deployed politically – whether by the press, the Conservative Party, opponents of Corbyn’s leadership within Labour, or by those seeking to counter criticism of the actions of the Israeli government. The current climate is quickly coming to resemble a witch-hunt, in which statements and associations, some going back years, are being put under the microscope.”

IJV went on to express “dismay” that “anti-Arab racism or Islamophobia” were not receiving the same attention.'

So would it be fair to say that the independent enquiry's vice chairman may have some preconceived ideas about Israel and antisemitism? I wonder if that's why he was picked?

Labour has secretly suspended 50 members for anti-Semitic and racist comments

The Telegraph reports:

 

'Labour has secretly suspended 50 of its members over anti-Semitic and racist comments as officials struggle to cope with the crisis engulfing  the party. 

Senior sources reveal that Labour's compliance unit has been swamped by the influx of hard-left supporters following Jeremy Corbyn's election.

The  suspensions that have been made public so far are said to be just the tip of the iceberg.'

I would wait for the BBC to report this, but it's not going to happen as there are local elections on Thursday and the Labour Party needs the support of its friends at the BBC

Labour’s Bank Holiday Timeline per Guido Fawkes - What connects these three?

Labour councillor Ilyas Aziz
Labour councillor Salim Mulla 

Labour councillor Shah Hussain

More details here at Guido Fawkes and links, but obviously not on the pro Labour BBC.

Now if only I could work out what factors link these three... 

Labour Party members - yes

Labour Party councillors - yes

But I think there's another common factor that I just can't put my finger on... Something that might cause them to harbour antisemitic views...

Another Labour Party member with issues

'The leader of Brent Council has apologised for sharing a Facebook post which compared Israel with Islamic State.

Labour politician Muhammed Butt shared a clip which appears to show a Palestinian girl in a skirmish with an Israeli soldier, which at the bottom claimed "Israel is a terrorist state like ISIS."

When contacted by Jewish News, Muhammed Butt, who is also the Lead for Equalities at London Councils, said: "I apologise for sharing this on social media. I do not agree with these views and as Leader of Brent Council I have championed diversity, tolerance and respect for all faith communities, and will continue to do so."'

More here at the Jewish News but not on the BBC. 

I do wonder why this Labour Party politician shared something with which he didn't share the view with.

Notice of arrangements for the closing of the 2016 Labour Party Conference

Could all Labour Party members please note that arrangements for the closing of the 2016 Labour Party Conference will be slightly different this year. The Red Flag will still be sung but that will be followed by the Horst Wessel Song...

Ha ha ha?

However that the Labour Party seems to be riddled with anti Semitism is no joke...

Is Sadiq Khan continuity Ken Livingstone?

Vote Sadiq Khan and get Ken Livingstone...

Hmmmbest vote Zac Goldsmith in the London Mayoral election.

Rupa Huq defends Naz Shah

What's interesting is the way that the defence that she did this before she was an MP, albeit less than a year before is seen as an acceptable defence by Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party. I don't think they'd be so relaxed about a Conservative or UKIP MP saying something even 10 or 20 years ago when at university, but that's the hypocrisy you expect from the left.

Oddly the BBC interviewer didn't pick up Rupa Shah on her remark about just clicking on like or share. Naz Shah typed "the Jews are rallying", that seems to be the phrase that the BBC and the Labour Party are keenest to pretend was never said. So I will remind them of it at every opportunity.

"Enough's enough now" - Too much about antisemitism in the Labour Party?

Jake Wilde (@Jake_Wilde) tweeted at 3:22 PM on Thu, Apr 28, 2016:
Here's the footage of Jeremy Corbyn refusing to talk to the press about today's antisemitism row @jimwaterson https://t.co/QcTbhvbqtm
(https://twitter.com/Jake_Wilde/status/725691746181627904?s=03)

How can Jews vote Labour again?

Sam Gad Jones (@samgadjones) tweeted at 3:17 PM on Thu, Apr 28, 2016:
The @FT's @robertshrimsley on the anti-semitism that is poisoning Labour's electoral chances https://t.co/FRX6TNkFdu https://t.co/DLVlGey2sR
(https://twitter.com/samgadjones/status/725690426787766272?s=03)

Labour Party Member who agrees with Naz Shah comments: 'I can't be antisemitic I'm a Marxist and Marx was a Jew'

https://audioboom.com/boos/4491053-labour-party-member-who-agrees-with-naz-shah-comments-i-can-t-be-antisemitic-i-m-a-marxist-and-marx-was-a-jew/embed/v4?image_option=full&link_color=%2355ACEE&source=twitter_card&utm_campaign=detailpage&utm_content=card&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Oh good grief

David Cameron on antisemitism in the Labour Party

SussexFriendsIsrael (@SussexFriends) tweeted at 0:17 PM on Wed, Apr 27, 2016:
Watch:
@David_Cameron at #PMQ's
'Perhaps if you could deal with the anti-Semites in your party we'd listen to you' https://t.co/JBCvEnjHJs
(https://twitter.com/SussexFriends/status/725282623048830976?s=03)

Jeremy Corbyn's weasel words on Naz Shah

Guido Fawkes has Jeremy Corbyn's weasel words http://order-order.com/2016/04/27/corbyn-statement-on-naz-shah/

' CORBYN STATEMENT ON NAZ SHAH

"What Naz Shah did was offensive and unacceptable. I have spoken to her and made this clear.

"These are historic social media posts made before she was a Member of Parliament.

"Naz has issued a fulsome apology. She does not hold these views and accepts she was completely wrong to have made these posts.

"The Labour Party is implacably opposed to anti-Semitism and all forms of racism."'

My comment related to 'fulsome', really? 

Also if she doesn't hold these views then why did she express them? Any chance of an answer to that?

Labour's disgusting antisemitism per The Telegraph

This Telegraph article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2016/04/27/labours-disgusting-anti-semitism/ deserved wide readership. Here is the beginning of the piece:

'The word is overused, but the details of Naz Shah's Facebook postings are shocking. That anyone, in Britain in 2014, should gleefully spread material discussing the (presumably forcible) transportation of Jews from Israel is troubling enough. That the person concerned was only months later elected to the House of Commons is truly disturbing. Even today, her actions exposed to the public, the best Ms Shah can offer is that the repellent material concerned does not reflect her current view, a weasel-worded statement that all but confirms the she endorsed a quintessentially anti-Semitic position at the time.

Perhaps this story raises questions about Bradford, where Ms Shah won her seat for Labour in a bruising fight with George Galloway – himself an unpleasant demagogue who is no stranger to distasteful comments on the Middle East. What do her constituents make of the views expressed in her fateful post? Perhaps there are issues to explore relating to the British Pakistani community of which Ms Shah is a prominent member. Do all the people who live in this country accept that anti-Semitism is as unacceptable as any other racism?

But the most pressing questions are those facing Labour under Jeremy Corbyn, for this is just the latest in a string of cases to emerge under his leadership. Mr Corbyn himself is friendly towards hateful groups seeking Israel's destruction. Is it any wonder then, that his party contains and – perhaps even attracts – anti-Semites? So far, Ms Shah has lost her job as an aide to John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, but remains a Labour member. That speaks volumes about Mr Corbyn's disgustingly inadequate response to anti-Semitism in his party. '

That the Labour Party has a problem with antisemitism is obvious. That the BBC is running cover for them is too.

Naz Shah, who's she?

Whilst Naz Shah's anti-Israel comments are all over the Internet, the BBC seem to be totally ignoring the story. I can find absolutely nothing about Naz Shah on the BBC website, other than pieces from a while ago that boost her...

So the BBC are happy to highlight alleged smears against Naz Shah whilst ignoring her support for comments that argued the “solution” to the Israel-Palestine conflict is to “relocate Israel into the United States”, claiming the “transportation costs” of deporting Israelis would be “less than 3 years of defense spending”. Do I smell hypocrisy and a desperation at the BBC to keep signs of possible anti-Semitism in the Labour Party under wraps with the local elections less than two weeks away?

Naz Shah is still a Labour MP, she's still on a Home Affairs Committee that is investigating anti-semitism but I read that she's resigned from her role as the Shadow Chancellor's PPS. I wonder when or if the BBC will cover this news story.

If a Conservative MP had been discovered making derogatory comments about Muslims or another (BBC) favoured minority group the story would be a headline topic on the BBC but as this is a Labour MP, a Muslim woman Labour MP in fact, and she was only agreeing with ethnically cleansing Israel then there's just no interest in reporting the story.

The BBC disgust me...


UPDATE:
The BBC have posted a piece about Naz Shah   and it's the mealy mouthed one that you would expect. The BBC report doesn't include the referred to graphic or any of the accompanying tweets, Guido Fawkes managed to show these graphics, maybe the BBC want to keep the article as dry as possible and of course to hide it away on the politics page not on the main news page.

This line from the BBC report is of interest:

'In a statement, Ms Shah said: "This post from two years ago was made before I was an MP, does not reflect my views and I apologise for any offence it has caused."'

So did it reflect her views then? What made her change her views between then and now? Other than being exposed by Guido Fawkes of course.


As an aside John McDonnell, the man for whom Naz Shah was a PPS, said about people who made such comments:

Out, out, out. If people express these views, full stop they’re out.. People might be able to reform their views and the rest of it. On this? I can’t see it. I’m not having it. People might say ‘I’ve changed my views’ – well, do something in another organisation.’

 Did he mean it? Does Jeremy Corbyn stand by such zero tolerance attitudes towards expressions of anti-Semitism or is he happy to lead a party where holding such sentiments is tolerated?

Freedom of Information is very important to the BBC

This BBC article bemoans the way that the government doesn't comply with Freedom of Information requests, it's an interesting article and worth a read. However I'd take Michael Buchanan, BBC Social Affairs Correspondent more seriously were he not working for an organisation that routinely refuses to divulge information when in receipt of an FOI request. 

There are numerous examples of this culture of secrecy at the BBC but possibly the most disgusting is their refusal to release the Balen Report. If you don't know what the Balen Report is, then here's Wikipedia:

'The Balen Report is a 20,000 word document written by the senior broadcasting journalist Malcolm Balen in 2004 after examining thousands of hours of the BBC's coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The report was commissioned by former BBC Director of News, Richard Sambrook, following persistent complaints from the public and the Israeli government of allegations of anti-Israel bias.

It is a legal obligation for the Corporation to be impartial which is why this Report is so important. Well-known examples of purported bias are: BBC's correspondent in Jerusalem 2004, Barbara Plett who broadcast Yasser Arafat's exit to hospital "When the helicopter carrying the frail old man rose above his ruined compound I started to cry ...".

Eventually one year later Helen Boaden, Head of BBC News admitted this was "an editorial misjudgment". There have been similar issues since the report. In 2006 Middle-East correspondent Orla Guerin claimed the Town of Bint Jbeil had been 'wiped out' by the Israelis and showed footage to support this. It had not in fact been wiped out and Channel 4's Alex Thomson, the same day, reported ( from the same street) that the town was "pretty much untouched by the Israeli attack". In fact when the two new's reports were compared it became clear Guerin had completely misled the public. in 2005 The Israeli government accused Ms Guerin of being 'anti-Semitic' in her reporting of a would-be suicide bomber.'

 It is estimated that the BBC has spent over £200,000 of licence payers money on keeping the Balen Report secret.

Just how damning must the Balen Report have been for the BBC to be so desperate to keep it under wraps?

Maureen Lipman right on the money about the questionable Jeremy Corbyn

This whole article is worth a read, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3259055/MAUREEN-LIPMAN-afraid-Michael-Foot-like-vinyl-anti-Semitism.html   but here's an extract:

'... A man who sups with the devil but claims no one told him that the horned, red-skinned man at the table was, in fact, the actual devil.'

... Corbyn had addressed a party conference meeting of Labour Friends of Israel last week without once actually saying the name of the country.

She listed a series of 'conspiracy theorists' Corbyn had met with, including 'the Rev Stephen Sizer and the anti-Semites Paul Eisen and Gilad Atzmon.'

Mrs Lipman then added: 'I would be grateful for any evidence that he has ever objected to the anti-Semitic rantings of these "colleagues" or stated his own belief in the legitimacy of the Jewish state.

'If he is not anti-Semitic himself then he is more than happy to consort with those who are.''

She's right  isn't she?