9 Dec 2017

Defamation

Introduction by GA: In the following commentary, Laura Stuart points out the duplicitous nature of the arguments that were levelled against her. Stuart shows that Labour councillor Adam Langleben doctored her tweets in order to present a misleading message of anti Jewish bigotry. In Stuart’s tweet, she referred to Israeli film maker Yoav Shamir’s grandmother who was caught on camera being highly critical of her own people’s affinity to money; in Langleben’s ‘evidence’ of Stuart’s ‘antisemitsm’ the reference to Shamir’s film was left out. If Jewish Labour councillor Langleben thinks that justice is on his side, why does he feel the need to doctor evidence?  Is deception in the attempt to defame consistent with Labour Party’s values? 
Quoting with precision is at the core of Athenian methodology and Western scholarly ethics. The Labour Party will have to choose between Athens and Jerusalem.  I wonder how long it will be before the Labour Party openly expresses fatigue with the foreign lobby that is determined to derail Labour ideologically, politically and spiritually. 
***
Defamation
By Laura Stuart: As evidence of my being anti-Semitic, Adam Langleben has tweeted a number of screens hots with accusations against posts on the Gaza Boat Convoy Twitter feed.
  Let’s let’s pick just one of AL’s Tweets just so we can try to understand the real duplicitous nature of this character.
Now compare this with a screenshot of the Tweet of mine used by the ‘charity’, the Campaign Against Antisemitism and see if you can spot the difference. The screen shot following shows clearly that my Tweet is about the video, something completely missing from AL’s and illustrates exactly how duplicitous Adam Langleben is prepared to be.
In reality, the words in my Tweet are not mine but are those of the filmmaker Yoav Shamir’s grandmother and the screen grab from the movie below shows clearly what the lady said.
So Adam Langleben posted in a very dishonest way - without context or reference to the linked film or to who actually said the words - as if the words are those of the poster.
The linked film, ‘Defamation’ by the Israeli Yoav Shamir, is about anti Semitism. Shamir, having grown up in the State of Israel and claiming never to have experienced anti Semitism himself, sets out to discover what anti Semitism actually means. The first person he interviews is his 94-year-old grandmother, who gives her opinion as to why diaspora Jews claim to be victims of anti Semitism, yet still don’t move to Israel. Please do watch the film and listen to what the lady has to say.  
Yoav Shamir was heavily criticised by David Hirsh who said in the Guardian:
“The first easy target, queasily enough, is the film-maker's own grandmother who lives in Jerusalem. She says that Jews don't come to live in Israel because they are too busy swindling the non-Jews among whom they live. When I saw the film at the London Jewish Film Festival the audience laughed at Shamir's silly grandmother. If I was a film-maker I wouldn't use my grandmother in this way”.
And Yoav Shamir replied in Comment is Free as follows:-
“My grandmother loved the film and was proud to take part. Hirsh sees her as an "easy target", and although I personally completely disagree with what she stated on camera, her perspective represents the very early Zionists thinkers such as Nordau, who wrote Degeneration, and Herzel, "the visionary of the [Jewish] state". This small and marginal group (representing less than 3% of the entire Jewish population at the time) were young, secular, socialist Jews who wanted to create a "muscle" Jew; a Jew who would be different from all of what they resented in their parents' generation. My grandmother is a genuine representative of this school of thought. She opens the film, not only because she is a great character who expresses what many people of her generation and, in fact, many Israelis feel toward diaspora Jews, but she is a reminder of the vicious cycle that Zionism became caught in – the state that was supposed to be a cure for what antisemitism started, as both Foxman and Finkelstein are actually saying, has ended up generating anti-Semitism”.
 This is indeed a very interesting discussion that should be had about the State of Israel, to see if it actually achieved the purpose for which some claim it was created.
What is certain is that Adam Langleben  operated in a duplicitous manner in a clear attempt to deceive. Would people in Barnet really want to vote for a Councillor who may doctor their tweets and then issue complains against them? I for one, am pretty sure that voters expect higher standards of integrity from their local politicians.

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