31 May 2019 — Off Guardian
The Labour Party have suspended Pete Willsman, a member of their National Executive Committee, for being “antisemitic”.
The charge is that Willsman was recorded claiming that the antisemitism charges against the Labour party were all lies, and that a member of the Israeli embassy staff had been caught covertly giving money to Labour Friends of Israel, as well as planning to “take down” anti Israeli MPs.
The recording was released to LBC radio. It sparked outrage in all the predictable places.
Tom Watson, who has previously described Willsman as a “loud-mouthed bully”, tweeted this:
The fact that a member of Labour’s governing body feels he can continue to make such offensive remarks after being warned for similar outbursts previously shows how serious the problem of antisemitism is in our party. https://t.co/mguwrLrBf6
— Tom Watson (@tom_watson) May 31, 2019
Whilst former Labour MP Joan Ryan, now a Change UK MP (and the worst motivational speaker in the world), went with this:
This appalling outburst demonstrates all that is wrong with @UKLabour he should be expelled immediately. https://t.co/B0kLlCojOB
— Joan Ryan MP (@joanryanEnfield) May 31, 2019
There is just one problem, of course: Everything Willsman said was true.
Whilst making a documentary for Al Jazeera, an undercover reporter recorded Embassy staffer (and former Israeli Naval officer) Shai Masot discussing “taking down” Alan Duncan, “creating pro-Israel groups” and giving money to the head of Labour Friends of Israel.
None of the media covering Willsman’s suspension have mentioned this, of course. Despite reporting on (some) of the story in the past.
Joan Ryan’s response is particularly galling…since she was the leader of LFI at the time and appears on film discussing the transfer of the money. Clearly, Ms Ryan either forgot this happened or hoped everybody else did.
Well, we didn’t.
The New Dark Age 