July 16, 2019, 1:10 pm. After asking Twitter who the most iconic British Jew is, Web Editor Jack Mendel reflects on the frustrating response online.
,26 tweets,12 min read Read on Twitter
A thread on the antisemitism and MO of Aaron Bastani. He should not be given airtime by the mainstream press...>
Instead of spokespeople, Labour’s leadership office mobilise their unofficial mouthpieces to cheerlead them. People like Aaron Bastani... > thetimes.co.uk/article/corbyn…
Novara Media (often shortened to Novara) is an independent, left-wing alternative media organisation based in the United Kingdom. Novara Media was founded in 2011 by James Butler and Aaron Bastani, who met in the same year during the protests against the increase in UK university tuition fees. — Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) January 1, 2019. She said: 'Someone on twitter set me evidence of someone (alleged from a Lab CLP) saying something antisemetic. I replied saying I'd report. Aaron Bastani is a British political analyst, author, and activist. He has co-founded Novara Media, where Bastani works as a contributing editor and digital officer. Similarly, he is known to be a founding father of a digital agency, Silke Digital. Furthermore, Aaron is also an accomplished researcher in the centrist think firm, Demos. The latest tweets from @AaronBastani.
It’s an overstatement to call them ‘journalists.’ They are just activists with a platform who are following instructions. Which is why real journalists like @OzKaterji get so infuriated with them...>
Aaron Bastani is drawn to posting far right antisemitic conspiracies. In this case ‘Rothschild’ and ‘Soros’ having undue influence and control...>
These are well known far right antisemitic conspiracies. This time it’s Goldman Sachs, Philip Green and the Rothschilds (again). They represent the wealthy Jews being in league with the Tory government against ‘the people’...>
Like many Labour supporters using antisemitic tropes, Bastani quickly discovered Jewish ancestry...>
Aaron Bastani Twitter Login
Bastani calls Labour MP Chris Williamson, ‘legendary’ and a ‘hero’. Williamson has consistently denied Labour antisemitism and promoted antisemites, including a Holocaust denier. When Labour organisations boycotted Williamson, Bastani instead supported him...>
Bastani will not tolerate dissent towards Jeremy Corbyn, as it threatens his own career prospects. So when 68 Rabbis signed a letter about Labour antisemitism, Bastani had a sinister suggestion - that the labour leaders office should ‘examine the record’ of the Rabbis...>
He’ll go to any lengths to deflect from Labour antisemitism. When self-made woman @jk_rowling recently wrote about Jeremy Corbyn’s antisemitism, in a stunning example of whataboutery Bastani castigated her for not using her wealth for other purposes.
Bastani promotes notorious antisemites. This account is called ‘warmonger hodges’ after a Jewish MP. It uses the image of a Holocaust survivor who had dementure and blamed Jews for 9-11. The account was attacking @rachelrileyrr and @mishtal for standing up to antisemitism ...>
This article Bastani tweeted implies Jewish Labour MP Margaret Hodge is a racist, quoted Ken Livingstone supporters @JVoiceLabour and was written by Richard Seymour who once said a Jewish journalist should have his throat cut
Bastani regularly absolves Assad and Russia. When Assad gassed his own people, Bastani bizarrely claimed the Sarin was 'watered down'. And he implicated the British civil service in the chemical attack on the Skripals. It’d be laughable if he didn’t have such a large platform...>
Bastani appears to be an extremely unpleasant individual. He is also a convicted criminal, and mockingly posted photographs of intimidating messages left anonymously on the desks of a female MP...>
politicshome.com/news/uk/politi…‘menacing’-cards
politicshome.com/news/uk/politi…‘menacing’-cards
Without Jeremy Corbyn, Bastani and his colleagues would be irrelevant and ignored. Their story is of middle class people pretending to champion ‘the poor’ while actively disabling the political party which could’ve helped....>
Women and Jewish people are terrorised by them on behalf of their movement. @AaronBastani is nothing more than a shock jock - a left wing version of Katie Hopkins. Like her, he should be shunned by decent society. end
*Footnotes
1) Following my thread, Bastani doubled down saying it was a ‘coordinated’ plot against him using ‘backchannels’.
Because a Jewish person retweeting another Jewish person can only mean we’re up to no good.
1) Following my thread, Bastani doubled down saying it was a ‘coordinated’ plot against him using ‘backchannels’.
Because a Jewish person retweeting another Jewish person can only mean we’re up to no good.
2) It’s a perfect example of how Jewish people pointing out Labour antisemitism have racist stereotypes used against us, to cast suspicion on our motives. Where other people share posts we’re secretly conspiring.
3) Bastani then went even further down the rabbit hole, retweeting a conspiracy theory about a Jewish account by one of the most prolific abusers of Jewish people on twitter.
4) @jewishlabour took the unprecedented step of publicly chastising Bastani for it. He still hasn’t deleted his tweet or apologised.
5) In the comments under his retweet, Bastani claimed one of the screenshots I used of his Rothschilds conspiracies was sarcasm (conveniently ignoring the others)
6) If he is being truthful, then it just proves he knew exactly what he was doing the many other times he posted about the Rothschilds malevolently influencing events
7) Following my thread, the way Bastani went about denying the antisemitic nature of his discourse, only succeeded in proving my point. He dug a deeper hole
Paul France 2 Twitter
8) To be fair, you don’t need to scratch far below the surface to see he’s attracted to antisemitic conspiracies.
https://twitter.com/stephenpollard/status/1086671554279280640?s=21
9) The article Bastani retweeted is by Winstanley, who’s notorious for antisemitic conspiracies. He alleged the “Israel lobby” manufactured Labour’s Party’s anti-Semitism crisis, and that @jewishlabour were a front for the Israeli embassy. He’s popular among Labour antisemites
10) Here’s some more about the fallout from my thread. I am just a solitary Jewish person, highlighting someone’s antisemitism who is part of the Labour Party apparatus. And look how scared they all got. #BeLouder
https://twitter.com/omgstater/status/1079709253953146882?s=21
Underscore Mason Twitter
11) As I added these updates, Bastani tweeted something antisemitic. He accused those fighting antisemitism of being ‘Netanyahu fans.’ It’s demonstrably untrue and accused Jews and their allies of being a fifth column, with allegiance to a foreign power.