The controversial front-runner in the race to head the UK Labor Party recently hosted a meeting of anti-Israel extremists which included a speech by a well-known holocaust denier, it has emerged.
Jeremy Corbyn hosted the event in October 2014, just months before standing as Labor leader candidate, on behalf of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), a radical anti-Israel group he chairs.
The event’s keynote speaker was notorious anti-Israel author Max Blumenthal, who regularly compares Israel to Nazi Germany and makes no secret of his desire to see the Jewish state annihilated.
But prior to Blumenthal’s arrival several other audience members got up to speak – among them prominent far-right 9/11 conspiracy theorist and anti-Semite David Thring. After being greeted by anti-Israel activists with a loud round of applause, Thring called for the arming of “Palestinian militias,” and bizarrely boasted about having links to the Chinese government.
Thring has previously claimed that “Jewish elders” control the world’s financial markets, that Jews were behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and has campaigned on behalf of leading Holocaust denier David Irving when the latter was jailed for hate speech in Austria. He is also close to former KKK leader David Duke, and regularly features as a guest on Duke’s radio show to rail about “Jewish” or “Zionist” conspiracies.
Thring is one of an increasing number of anti-Semites on the far-right fringe who, like David Duke, have embraced the “Palestinian cause” usually associated with the far-left as a vehicle to attack Jews in general. During last summer’s protests against Israel in London, some of which involved open displays of anti-Semitism, the heavily-bearded Thring was pictured marching together with Marxists and Islamists wearing a t-shirt comparing Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza to the Holocaust.
In response to the revelation, Corbyn said Thring had not been scheduled to speak at the event, but merely stood in for Blumenthal, who was running late.
“James Thring was, hitherto, unknown to me,” he told the Daily Mail. “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.”
It is just the latest revelation of Corbyn’s worrying links to a wide range of extremists, spanning from the far-left, far-right and Islamist terrorist groups. Most famously, in 2009 he invited members of the Hamas and Hezbollah terrorist groups to parliament, and referred to them as his “friends.”
But ties to other extremists are also emerging, as Corbyn continues to poll well ahead of his fellow Labor Party candidates – meaning he cold theoretically stand as prime minister at the next general elections.
Earlier this year he defended anti-Semitic British vicar Stephen Sizer, after the extremist clergyman was sanctioned by the Church over a Facebook post which suggested Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks.
Sizer posted a link on his Facebook page to an article entitled “9/11: Israel did it”, which claimed that wealthy Jews including philanthropist Ronald Lauder were in fact responsible for the terrorist atrocity. Under the link Sizer asked: “Is this antisemitic? It raises so many questions.”
The post triggered an uproar and complaints to the Church of England by Jewish organizations, prompting the Church to issue Sizer with an ultimatum to stop speaking or writing about the Middle East conflict or lose his job, and banning him from social media altogether for six months.
But Corbyn jumped to the aid of Sizer, who is himself a longtime supporter of Corbyn’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
In a letter to the Church, Corbyn claimed Sizer was being persecuted because he “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 claimed.
And another infamous holocaust-denier, Paul Eisen, has claimed Corbyn has been a leading supporter of his own anti-Israel group “Deir Yassin Remembered (DYR)” – a group which even other pro-Palestinian organizations have branded anti-Semitic.
“One evening 15 years ago I cycled over to see [Corbyn]. I was just beginning to establish Deir Yassin Remembered in the UK and I wanted him to join,” Eisen wrote recently on his blog.
“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.”
Corbyn’s office has denied the claims and said the MP has absolutely no association with Eisen.
