Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis is that Ms Linnegar’s action and statements amount to breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism and qualify as antisemitic discourse according to our methodology.
By ‘liking’ a post that compares the actions of Israel to those of Nazi Germany [6], Ms Linnegar was endorsing “…comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”
In sharing posts characterising accusations of antisemitism brought by Jewish groups or individuals as “smear[s]”, “cynical attack[s]”, a “distraction[s]” and in other ways characterising them as having a hidden motive, particularly to attack Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party, in [1], [2], [3], [4] and [5]; and by ‘liking’ a post in which it is alleged that an “Israel Lobby” had “fabricated” an “antisemitism crisis” — a trope regarding the hidden power of diaspora Jews or Israel — Ms Linnegar 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”.
She was further deploying the so-called Livingstone Formulation in [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] and [7], by accusing Jews who cite evidence of antisemitism of lying, conspiring, or having deceitful motives in doing so, in cases where there is clear evidence that there have been breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism. Furthermore, we note that on 26th March 2018, in a published response to complaints of antisemitism by Jewish community charities, Jeremy Corbyn MP stated: “I recognise that anti-Semitism [sic] has surfaced within the Labour Party, and has too often been dismissed as simply a matter of a few bad apples.” On 24th April, 2018, in an article published in the Evening standard, Mr Corbyn stated: “We must strive to understand why anti-Semitism [sic] has surfaced in our party”…and “when members of Jewish communities express genuine anxieties we must recognise them as we would those of any other community. Their concerns are not “smears”.
