Campaign Against Anti-Semitism - REALITY

Previously appearing before my inspection when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader, the so-called Campaign Against Anti-Semitism has in the recent past left no stone unturned in its burning desire to attack The Red Team, even complaining to the EHRC until the latter opened an inquiry into the claims made. But now some of those who had backed it are no longer on board.

Not after the CAA went after current party leader Keir Starmer over a video showing events from his trip to Berlin, where he met, among others, Olaf Scholz, now Chancellor and leader of Labour’s sister party, the SPD. The video looks uncontroversial, but for the CAA, Starmer visiting the Holocaust memorial near the Brandenburg Gate was too much for them.

“It is a matter of decency and long-established convention in Germany that you never stoop to using the Berlin Holocaust Memorial as some kind of a prop. But to incorporate the Memorial as the backdrop for a political clip that does not even mention the Holocaust is an insult” they howled. But then something happened: their own supporters did not all agree.

Margaret Hodge, that most strident of Corbyn critics, took exception to the CAA’s attack. “Keir Starmer visited Holocaust memorial on trip to Berlin. Totally appropriate. I’m fed up of CAA using antisemitism as a front to attack Labour. Time to call them out for what and who they really are. More concerned with undermining Labour than rooting out antisemitism”.

If only she had said that earlier, eh? Also not saying much earlier, except to bash Corbyn, was former MP Ruth Smeeth. “[Keir Starmer] has a proud record in fighting antisemitism. He visited the Holocaust memorial and spoke about it at the time. This attack is not only wrong, but completely disingenuous and deeply unfair. And attempts to politicise something that simply shouldn’t be”. What if Jezza had made that video? What indeed.

Especially as Margaret Hodge had previously been made an Honorary Patron of the CAA, although as I pointed out earlier, this distinction has been shared by some who have benefited from racism, those who have endorsed racism for political advantage, and at least one individual who has a track record of forthright bigotry, but towards Muslims, which seems not to trouble the CAA.

It certainly didn’t trouble Tory MP Bob Blackman, who was one of those Honorary Patrons, until he got called out for it after he was caught “posting the piece from the anti-Muslim website Hardcore News USA”. This, he claimed, was an “error”. Not sure how you can accidentally go there.

All of which suggests the name of the CAA’s game was more Labour bashing than rooting out anti-Semitism: after all, they’ve done nothing about incidents of it in the Tory Party, and there have been several of those recently. The group’s credibility is finally being shredded - in one case by someone who they made an Honorary Patron. And someone from the Jewish Chronicle.

Who that? Lee Harpin, he of libel loss infamy, saw Ms Smeeth’s response and responded “Totally agree [Ruth Smeeth] - time organisations like [the] CAA come clean about their links to another political party”. And which political party might that be? It wouldn’t be the Tories, would it? And where does that leave the CAA’s complaint to the EHRC? Well, well.

This spectacle was not lost on some of those who have previously been dismissed for not going along with the CAA, like activist Heather Mendick, who observed “Interesting to see [Margaret Hodge] and [Ruth Smeeth] now agree with us 'cranks' that the Campaign Against Antisemitism makes bad faith accusations of antisemitism and uses these to attack the Labour Party. This is 'denialism' and should be reported to the Party's disciplinary team”.

Touché. The CAA is no longer a credible organisation. No surprise there.

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