Yes of course Israel is interfering in British politics

Asa Winstanley Lobby Watch 11 February 2019

UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn standing at a lectern holding his hands up.

Jeremy Corbyn has been targeted by Israel and its lobby for years.

Aaron Chown ZUMA Press

Sarah Leah Whitson, the head of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East division, was fiercely attacked by anti-Palestinian groups and pundits this weekend.

She had shared a posting of mine on the manufactured “Labour anti-Semitism crisis” story.

My tweet included an article from last year in which I reported a clear example of Israeli interference in British politics.

The “Act.IL” organization, which is coordinated, backed and has been funded by Israel’s so-called Ministry of Strategic Affairs, had used a troll army to spread false information about Jeremy Corbyn – the leader of the UK’s official opposition party.

Whitson commented, “Why is this #Israel interference in domestic UK politics acceptable? Is it only a problem when Russia does this?”

Both are pertinent questions.

But predictably, Israel’s propagandists attacked the article as “anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.”

What Whitson’s attackers refused to address was the substance of the report. Instead, they falsely accused her of spreading “anti-Semitism.”

This is a deliberate tactic to distract from how Israel interferes in domestic UK politics – and indeed around the world.

What I reported – and has still not been contested, let alone refuted – is the fact that in August last year, a well-funded group called Act.IL had used a troll army to spread anti-Corbyn and anti-Labour propaganda in the UK.

A “mission” on the app directed users to comment on Facebook in response to a Huffington Post UK story about Corbyn’s alleged “anti-Israel remarks,” which the Israel-backed app claimed are “often a way to hide anti-Semitism.”

Since that report, The Electronic Intifada has obtained further evidence that Act.IL’s budget is more than $1 million.

An internal report states that, based out of “media rooms” in Israel, the US and the UK, Act.IL can direct an army of more than than 15,000 propagandists via its app.

This is only one example of Israeli interference in the UK. Here are some recent examples that we have reported in detail.

In January 2017, an Israeli embassy spy, Shai Masot, was expelled from the UK after plotting to “take down” a senior Conservative minister, and other members of Parliament.

That same month it was revealed that Joan Ryan – Israel’s top MP within the UK Labour Party – fabricated an allegation of anti-Semitism at Labour’s annual conference in order to smear a party member and Palestine solidarity campaigner.

At that same conference, undercover video taken by an Al Jazeera reporter shows Masot telling Ryan, who is chair of Labour Friends of Israel, that he had secured “more than one million pounds” in Israeli government funding to bring UK lawmakers on junkets to Israel.

And last year we obtained a document proving that Ella Rose, the Jewish Labour Movement’s then director, had privately admitted to working closely with Shai Masot – that same Israeli embassy spy.

“We work with Shai, we know him very well,” she said in undercover footage.

Rose herself had only recently been working directly at the embassy, and is still involved with the JLM – one of the most prominent anti-Corbyn groups.

But for anti-Palestinian propagandists, all these uncontested facts are ignored, or dismissed as a “conspiracy theory” or “anti-Semitic.”

The defamation against those who report factually about Israel and its campaigns to influence politics overseas as anti-Semitic is not only deeply dishonest, but actively damaging to genuine anti-racist efforts to fight anti-Semitism – which is rising globally in Israel-allied countries such as Ukraine and Hungary.

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Comments

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Chris Friel replied on

Thanks for this Asa. I have looked at open sources trying to sort out what's going on in that troll army - especially useful is a time-line to tell coincidence from collusion, cause from effect, unfeigned ignorance from choreographed knowledge. Here is a short piece that ties my results together. I publicise so as to get more researchers involved:
https://www.academia.edu/38226...

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Jan Brooker replied on

Had to join academia.edu to download a copy of your paper, which I shall read. I see you're in Liverpool, as am I [an adopted Scouser]. I can be found on facebook [2 pages + CDC].

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a.hall replied on

The day after Corbin was elected Labour Leader in the UK Parliament he said "Palestinian" and was immediately put on the 'Daily Mail" Dartboard.

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Andy Simpson replied on

Keep up the good work Asa, dont let 'em grind you down.
Andy Simpson (Labour Party & Unison member)

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Asenueh Meriye replied on

I wonder if the Google Play store or the Apple App store have any terms of service regarding whether apps can be offered on their platforms that incite harassment... It seems like that kind of liability might bite them on the ass, if they didn't act on reports to remove apps, whose use could figure into lawsuits.

Just a thought.

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John replied on

Palestinians are Semites. They speak a Semitic language: Arabic.
So when zionists attack Palestinians, it is zionists (Jewish and non-Jewish) who are anti-semites.
Why is this fact never made plain?
Is it because "liberal" Jews and zionists cannot accept that Arabs and Palestinians are their equals?
Truly, the zionist state IS a racist endeavour!

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David replied on

But the Party policy in 'For the Many not the Few' is for a State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel, and it was beautifully articulated by Jeremy when he gave his leader's speech at the last Conference!

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John replied on

It will - nevertheless - never happen because the ultra-zionists who control Israel won't let it happen.
The so-called "solution" was never a serious proposal and is now effectively dead due to Netanyahu encouraging the growth of illegal so-called "settlements".
Extremist zionist racist supremacists are responsible for imperilling Israel's future - no one else.
They and their crazy western supporters - primarily in the United States - share an equal or even greater responsibility for the mess of Palestine.

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Antony replied on

Can anyone help? I'm sure I've seen an article that uses text analysis to show when this affair arose, using word frequency in the media. If anyone knows of it please can you point me at it? I also carry out data analysis and would like to carry out some work like this.

Asa Winstanley

Asa Winstanley's picture

Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist who lives in London. He is an associate editor of The Electronic Intifada and co-host of our podcast.

He is author of the bestselling book Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel Lobby Brought Down Jeremy Corbyn (OR Books, 2023).