Donors to unofficial crowd-funder for Jeremy Corbyn’s legal expenses post horrendous comments denying Labour antisemitism and equating Zionism with racism
Donors to an unofficial crowd-funder for Jeremy Corbyn’s legal expenses have posted horrendous comments in support of the beleaguered former Labour leader.
The crowd-funder was launched by a supporter of Mr Corbyn’s and does not appear to have his formal endorsement, however the supporter said: “The funds on this campaign will not be touched and remain on GoFundMe until the details for distribution have been established with Jeremy’s office and I will continue to provide updates as they become available.”
Not only did some donors use names like “Adolf Hitler” and “B*stard Son of Netanyahu and Starmer”, but the online activist Habibi has alerted Campaign Against Antisemitism to some of the horrendous comments that donors – including those using what appear to be their real names – have posted. Many of the comments deny Labour antisemitism under Mr Corbyn, using phrases such as “false antisemitism accusations”, “smears”, “lies”, “false”, “trumped up”, “witch-hunt” and “stitch-up”.
Other comments suggested that such accusations come from “elitist tax dodging leeches that are trying to tarnish [Mr Corbyn’s] name” or “Anglo-American oligarchs”.
There were also concerns that Mr Corbyn was being “crucified”, and equations of Zionism and Israel with racism.
Mr Corbyn will have to decide whether he wishes to accept donations from “Adolf Hitler” and other antisemitism-deniers.
The campaign, called Jeremy’s Legal Fund and hosted by GoFundMe, has so far raised hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Mr Corbyn is being sued by the journalist John Ware for defamation. Another defamation case, brought by the Jewish activist Richard Millet, is also underway.
On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.
In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
