Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis is that Ms Oliver’s actions amount to breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism and qualify as antisemitic discourse according to our methodology.
By sharing a video of a speech in which Israel’s behaviour in Gaza was compared to that of the Nazis [1a], she was “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
The assertion that Jews exploit the Holocaust politically and financially is an antisemitic trope based on the perception of negative Jewish character traits; namely the classic antisemitic stereotypical portrayal of Jews as dishonest and greedy. This trope is now so widespread that, in a 2018 CNN survey, a third of Europeans expressed the opinion that Jews exploit the Holocaust. By sharing a video of a speech alleging that the Holocaust is being exploited for political ends [1b], therefore, she was “making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.”
By retweeting posts in which it was alleged that those who have claimed there is antisemitism in the Labour Party (which necessarily includes Jewish groups and individuals) are doing so for ulterior political motives — that accusations of antisemitism within Labour, or against Jeremy Corbyn and Chris Williamson were “false”, “contrived”, “[smears]…with no evidence”, “grossly exaggerated, and in some cases fabricated” [2][3][5][6]; or that such accusations were part of a conspiracy by “the establishment media and Zionists across all political parties” to “serially” undermine the Labour leader” and in which “dark forces” were at play [6]; or that the accusations against Chris Williamson were, in reality, a conspiracy to undermine Jeremy Corbyn [4] — she was disseminating material which was deploying the so-called ‘Livingstone Formulation’, by accusing Jews who cite evidence of antisemitism of lying, conspiring or having deceitful motives in doing so, when there is clear evidence that there have been breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism. This further constitutes “making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews.”
