Laura Alvarez found in Facebook group full of antisemitic conspiracy theories and complaints about CAA
Laura Alvarez has been discovered to be a member of a Facebook group that is reportedly full of antisemitic conspiracy theories.
According to the JC, Ms Alvarez, the wife of the antisemitic former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, is a member of the Organise Corbyn Inspired Socialist Alliance group, which was created in February after Sir Keir Starmer announced that he was barring Mr Corbyn from standing as a candidate for the Labour Party.
Mr Corbyn had the Labour whip removed, which means that he has been indefinitely suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party. He remains a member of the Labour Party, however.
One member of the group posted an edited image of Sir Keir in front of an Israeli flag alongside a fake quotation that read: “We stand up for Israel, we stand up for Israeli people, we stand up for Israeli interests and we will always put them first.” An administrator of the group wrote: “This just goes to prove that [Sir Keir] has been well bought and paid for, by a foreign government!”
The administrator also shared an interview in the group in which Sir Keir insisted that Israel “is not an apartheid state.” In response, a member of the group wrote: “Israelis have recreated the genocide inflicted upon them by the Nazis [while] the whole world turns a blind eye.”
According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.
Another user complained about Campaign Against Antisemitism, describing us as “unhinged Zionists” and claiming that the group was “almost certainly a venture funded from Tel Aviv.” We and other groups were also accused of being “proxy Israeli agencies” who “exaggerated” antisemitism within the Labour Party to “assassinate” Corbyn.
Yet another wrote: “[Sir Keir] has been bought and paid for by the Zionists in the party.”
A further post claimed that Jews do not suffer racism, only “prejudice”, an received hundreds of likes. The group member wrote: “Why are Jewish people regarded as a race?…To stifle criticism of the actions of Israel.” Another member said in reply: “[Jewish people] are not Semites, they are Israeli Zionists who are from Eastern Europe.”
The Organise Corbyn Inspired Socialist Alliance group is attempting to select a candidate to run in Sir Keir’s Holborn and St Pancras constituency against the Labour leader and to raise half a million pounds to back the challenger’s campaign.
It is alleged that Ms Alvarez commented on a photograph of Sir Keir that was posted in the group, writing “disgusting creature”.
According to Sky News, Ms Alvarez has been a member of the group “since day one” and has sent the group’s administrators her “good wishes”.
A spokesperson for Campaign Against Antisemitism said: “The posts in this group are utterly repugnant. These comments constitute a repository of antisemitic tropes and antisemitism-denial, the likes of which were at the core of Labour’s scandal of racism against Jews. No prominent individual should have anything to do with a group like this, let alone be a member.
“It goes without saying that the claims made against us in the group are ludicrous, and are borne of the same conspiracist mentality that infected Labour in the Corbyn years. Far-left antisemites have been forced to return to the sewer whence they came. Peeping down there is never pretty.”
Campaign Against Antisemitism has lodged a complaint against Jeremy Corbyn, holding him responsible for conduct that is prejudicial or grossly detrimental to the Labour Party, as the Leader during the period of the EHRC’s shameful findings. Given the serious detriment that this conduct has caused, we are seeking Mr Corbyn’s immediate resuspension and, if the complaint is upheld, we will be requesting his expulsion. On the day of the publication of the EHRC’s report, we also submitted a major complaint against Mr Corbyn and other sitting MPs. These complaints are yet to be acknowledged by the Party, and they must be investigated by an independent disciplinary process that the EHRC has demanded and Sir Keir has promised but has yet to introduce.
The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.
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.
