Commentary — The following article from the British newspaper The Daily Mail represents an attempt to undermine the candidacy of Jeremy Corbyn as head of the British Labour Party by associating him with Dr. James Thring, who has appeared numerous time on the David Duke Show. Dr. Thring is a tireless peace advocate and campaigner for the rights of Palestinians who are being ethnically cleansed by Jewish Israelis. Corbyn was also slammed for his association with Paul Eisen, another past guest on Dr. Duke’s show.
The article points out the two men’s connection to the show and prominently displays a photograph of Dr. Duke juxtaposed with Max Blumenthal, who has used his membership in the Jewish tribe to gain access to and report on the anti-gentile hatred that goes on behind closed doors in Israel. Unfortunately, Mr. Corbyn’s office is trying to distance him from these frankly stellar associations.
From The Daily Mail
Notorious conspiracy theorist who believes the ‘world is controlled by Jewish elders’ spoke at Westminster event hosted by Jeremy Corbyn
- Labour leadership favourite hosted event with anti-Israel speaker
- James Thring, a notorious 9/11 conspiracy theorist, seized the stage
- Thring said that weapons should be provided to a Palestinian militia
- The campaigner scheduled to speak compared Israel to Nazi Germany
Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn hosted an event at Parliament at which a 9/11 conspiracy theorist gave a speech.
The hard-left favourite to become the party’s leader unwittingly gave a platform to James Thring, who has previously made bizarre claims that ‘Jewish elders’ control financial markets.
Heavily-bearded Thring gave vent to his views at the event organised by a pro-Palestinian pressure group and hosted by Corbyn. Another controversial campaigner also spoke at the meeting and compared Israel to Nazi Germany.
The revelation is the latest to hit leadership hopeful Corbyn, whose unexpected success threatens to split the Labour party.
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Jeremy Corbyn, left, hosted an event at Parliament at which James Thring (right), a notorious conspiracy theorist, made a speech
James Thring addresses the audience at Parliament at an event hosted by Jeremy Corbyn
James Thring wearing a T-shirt that compares the Palestinians to victims of the Holocaust
While Thring was not scheduled to speak, the actual booked speaker was also a controversial figure anti-Israel figure, Max Blumenthal.
Blumenthal gained notoriety by inventing the hashtag #JSIL, implying that Jewish people are as bad as ISIS.
In his unscheduled five-minute address, Thring stated that a Palestinian militia should be armed and equipped.
He also boasted of having close connections to the Chinese authorities, whom he said he was lobbying to provide weapons to the Palestinians.
In Blumenthal’s address, which took place later that evening, he called Israel ‘a racist society’ in which non-Jewish Africans were ‘attacked by right-wing mobs in scenes reminiscent of Kristallnacht’.
Jeremy Corbyn said that he had no prior knowledge that Thring was going to speak.
‘James Thring was, hitherto, unknown to me,’ he said. ‘From what I’ve recently discovered, he is not someone I would choose to have on a platform. Indeed, he was not selected to be on this particular platform either.
‘The course of events were that the invited speaker was very late (45-60 mins). Whilst we were busy looking for him in the parliamentary estate, thinking perhaps he’d come in a different entrance and needed to be escorted to the appropriate room, an uninvited number of people chose to speak to those assembled there. Unfortunately one of those seems to have been James Thring.’
As well as being a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, James Thring has associations with former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke and has campaigned for the release of Holocaust denier David Irving.
Max Blumenthal, left, an anti-Israel campaigner, was the headline speaker at the event hosted by Jeremy Corbyn at Parliament. David Duke, right, is a former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard and associate of James Thring
In a separate interview with Iranian television, Thring said: ‘The Israeli lobby… [has] a pretty good grip in nearly all Western countries. They can whisper in the ear of the governing party.
He added: ‘The Israeli lobby… has managed to dominate either by fear or finance most of the television stations around the world.’
Thring campaigned for the release of David Irving when he was arrested in Austria for denying the Holocaust in 2005.
The emergence of Thring’s speech at the Parliamentary meeting comes after it reports that Corbyn wrote a letter of support for a vicar who was banned from social media for suggesting Israel was responsible for the 9/11 attack on the twin towers.
The Reverend Stephen Sizer used his internet accounts to spread ideas which were ‘clearly anti-Semitic’, the Church of England said. He was banned by Church authorities for six months in February.
Stephen Sizer meets Nabil Kaouk, a top Hezbollah official and militant commander, in Lebanon
Corbyn argued that Sizer was ‘under attack’ by a pro-Israeli smear campaign.
The controversy arose after the vicar posted an article on his Facebook page which attempted to connect wealthy Jews to the 9/11 attacks. ‘Is this antisemitic?’ Mr Sizer commented under the link, adding ‘It raises so many questions.’
Politicians need not only to condemn antisemitism but be seen to distance themselves from it
–Jonathan Sacerdoti, Campaign Against Antisemitism
Corbyn wrote to the Church authorities suggesting that Sizer had been victimised because he had ‘dared to speak out against Zionism’.
‘Reverend Stephen Sizer seems to have come under attack by certain individuals intent on discrediting the excellent work that Stephen does in highlighting the injustices of the Palestinian Israeli situation,’ Corbyn wrote.
Sizer told MailOnline, ‘I have been asked by my Bishop not to engage in public comment for the foreseeable future as a result of media controversy surrounding my alleged views on Israel and Iran.’
When contacted by MailOnline about the issue of Reverend Sizer, Corbyn was unavailable for comment.
It also comes after the emergence of a video in which Corbyn described Hamas and Hezbollah as his ‘friends’.
MailOnline has previously revealed that Paul Eisen, the self-professed Holocaust denier, gave Corbyn his support in an extraordinary blog post in which he said that he has been close to the Labour leadership contender for more than 15 years.
Eisen, who runs a pro-Palestinian pressure group, also claimed the Islington North MP attended ‘every single’ one of his annual anti-Israel events and has even donated to the group, Deir Yassin Remembered (DYR).
‘One evening 15 years ago I cycled over to see [Corbyn],’ he wrote. ‘I was just beginning to establish Deir Yassin Remembered in the UK and I wanted him to join.
‘I’d hardly begun my feverishly-rehearsed pitch before his cheque book was on the table.
‘From that day on, without fuss or bother, whether DYR was flavour-of-the-month or the maggot-at-the-bottom-of-the-food-chain, he attended every single Deir Yassin commemoration.’
DYR focuses on controversial allegations that Jewish soldiers killed about 100 Arab villagers in the run-up to the war of 1948, and seeks to promote its remembrance at annual events.
It highlights the fact that the village of Deir Yassin is situated close to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Holocaust museum.
Many mainstream Palestinian activists view the group as anti-Semitic and in thrall to ‘anti-Semitic conspiracy theories’.
The DYR website says: ‘In keeping with Simon Wiesenthal’s observation that “Hope lives when people remember”, the suffering of Jews has been rightly acknowledged and memorialised. But there are few memorials for Palestinians who died in 1948. Their history, in which the massacre at Deir Yassin is a very significant event, has been largely buried and forgotten.’
Paul Eisen, left, is a self-professed Holocaust denier who frequently shares anti-Semitic and far-Right content on his blog. Jeremy Corbyn, right, who according to Eisen has attended ‘every single’ one of his organisation’s annual events, appears to sit attentively during one such meeting in St John’s Wood Church in 2013
A spokesperson for Jeremy Corbyn’s campaign said: ‘Paul Eisen is not someone Jeremy Corbyn’s office has any dealings with. Based upon what is in written in the articles here, anyone can call themselves a “long time associate” when in fact that is not the case.
‘Paul Eisen clearly holds some of the most extreme views that are entirely his, and Jeremy totally opposes them and disassociates himself from them.’
When asked to confirm whether Corbyn knows Eisen personally, or whether Eisen’s accounts of Corbyn attending ‘every single’ one of his events and ‘opening his cheque book’ to his organisation are correct, the spokesperson declined to comment.
Commenting on the series of revelations about Corbyn, Jonathan Sacerdoti, Director of Communications at the Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: ‘No politician should have any association whatsoever with a Holocaust denier like Paul Eisen. It is disturbing to see these pictures of a potential Leader of the Opposition at one of his events.
‘Politicians need not only to condemn antisemitism but be seen to distance themselves from it.’
Jonathan Arkush, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: ‘Paul Eisen is a notorious Holocaust denier and if Jeremy Corbyn does have links with him this would be very alarming. We would ask Mr Corbyn to clarify the situation.’
Eisen could not be reached for comment.
