Fabricated Labour antisemitism crisis dies down…for now

Last week the hotly-anticipated Chakrabarti Inquiry released its report into antisemitism and other forms of racism within the Labour Party.

Its main finding is that “the Labour Party is not overrun by antisemitism, Islamophobia or other forms of racism”. It did however say that there was evidence of “minority hateful or ignorant attitudes” and a “sometimes bitter incivility of discourse”.

Shami Chakrabarti, a famed barrister and civil rights campaigner, had been asked by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to launch the inquiry, after a high-profile media campaign decrying allegations of antisemitism in the party.

This campaign of defamation was led from the outset by three main interested sectors: the right-wing press, anti-Corbyn right-wing elements within the Labour Party and pro-Israel campaign groups. The latter two sectors frequently overlap.

The prelude to this campaign of vilification came during the Labour leadership elections last summer, which Corbyn ultimately won,with a democratic mandate just shy of 60 per cent. Mainly led by pro-Israel newspaper the Jewish Chronicle, the press sought to smear Corbyn as a dangerous extremist who was far too close to dangerous “Muslim antisemites” for comfort.

These attacks gained some traction, with the mainstream media quickly picking up on them. But were proven to be without foundation, and ultimately had little impact.

The campaign began in earnest in February, with a series of allegations by one Oxford university student, the vice-chair of the student Labour club. He quit his position, protesting that the student left in general, and the Labour students in particular, had “some kind of problem with Jews”. But the truth ultimately emerged that the real dispute Alex Chalmers had was a factional one: he was close to the Labour Party’s right-wing Progress faction (and as I revealed in April, he was also a former Israel lobby intern) .

More importantly, his allegations were strikingly non-specific in nature and entirely without foundation. He eventually departed the party, with his closest co-conspirator, a student called David Klemperer, being kicked out altogether after nominating a candidate from a rival party in the May local elections.

With everything that has happened in the Labour Party over the last year, it can be hard to remember such specifics. But it is important to remember where all this began, after all the headlines about “Labour Party antisemitism” rows this year.

This campaign of defamation cumulated with the suspension of former mayor of London Ken Livingstone from the party after he made comments about the historical reality of the links between the German Zionist movement and the Nazi party in the 1930s. He had made the comments during the course of a BBC radio interview in which he’d been asked if MP Naz Shah’s social media posting that what the Nazis did was legal had been accurate.

It was after this that Corbyn announced the Chakrabarti report. But despite the media hysteria and exaggeration Corbyn revealed on Monday, speaking to the Home Affairs Select Committee, that the number of Labour Party members who had ultimately been suspended for alleged antisemitism was “less than 20”.

The Chakrabarti Report is a really serious piece of work that has clearly grappled with the evidence. At the launch, the media once again continued its absurd campaign of fabrication and defamation against Labour and against Corbyn. They misquoted Corbyn, claiming he had “compared” Israel to Islamic State – I was there and I can say without doubt this is completely untrue.

The report was welcomed by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and even by some of Corbyn’s most ardent critics, including the Jewish Labour Movement (a pro-Israel organisation which has been criticised by many Jewish members of Labour for refusing to represent their critical views on Israel).

But the media effectively tried to derail its launch by concocting a fire storm about Ruth Smeeth, an anti-Corbyn MP who stormed out of the press conference after having being challenged by Marc Wadsworth, an activist and journalist. (Smeeth, incidentally, is a former spin doctor with BICOM, a significant Israel lobby organisation, and was also named as a US embassy source in a diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks.)

Nonetheless, despite the media’s best efforts, the report seems to have quelled these attempts to weaponise antisemitism in order to unseat Corbyn at all costs. For now.

Palestine solidarity campaigners and the Labour Party left should be under no illusions: this strategy will in all likelihood be used again in the months and years ahead.

If there is to be an early leadership election in the Labour Party (at the time of writing the press is reporting that Angela Eagle will finally mount a challenge on Monday), this dishonest tactic will no doubt be dredged up again. Prepare for it now: read Chakrabarti closely and learn the appropriate lessons from it.

Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist who lives in London and an associate editor with The Electronic Intifada.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.