What the @Guardian @severincarrell report here is factually untrue on what seems like a minor detail, but it’s not. What it achieves is obfuscating the obvious antisemitic conspiracy theory and turning it into a misunderstanding about Israel. https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jun/25/keir-starmer-sacks-rebecca-long-bailey-from-shadow-cabinet

1/12

Peake’s allegation was NOT based on a report from Amnesty International, as the article claims. How do I know this? For one, there is no such report. More importantly, she never claimed that’s where she got it from. And there’s no plausible way she would have.

2/12

The idea that the demonic powers of the Jewish state are behind some latest outrage is always out there in the circles she has chosen to associate with — ironically or not, the same circles that are always bashing Jews concerned about antisemitism as being up to something.

3/12

Peake did not make any reference to Amnesty. The @Independent writer @alexjpollard added the Amnesty reference to buttress her claim (and apparently after the article was out, because the original screenshots don’t even include it). It was later deleted.

4/12

But the added reference is not an Amnesty International report. It’s @amnestyusa, not International. And it’s not a report, just a blog post. And a scandalously bad one, just as steeped in conspiracy and guilt-by-association that relies on a prior view of Israel as demonic.

5/12

It claims Israel is training American cops in bad practices, but then provides exactly zero evidence or documentation to back up this claim. Instead there is an exhaustive list of states conducting police exchanges with Israel where almost every one is hyperlinked.

6/12

I clicked on all the links. None — not one — support the claim that Israel has anything to do with racism, militarized policing, excessive use of force. Most are news articles about exchanges and briefings on things like counterterror, airport security, & financial fraud.

7/12

None seem to involve beat cops or “training.” Some explicitly mention other countries. Click on the New York link and you’ll learn about ONE cop in Israel investigating terrorism and other NYPD cops in Germany, Britain, and France.

8/12

Follow the Georgia link and you’ll learn about the Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange, whose website boasts of briefings with police from Israel, Italy, Greece, Canada, and six other countries. https://gilee.gsu.edu/programs/gilee-on-the-map/

9/12

The DC link is for an AIPAC pamphlet mentioning airport security. Etc.

10/12

The framing in the @Guardian article (and the gratuitously nasty quote from @amnesty) make it sound like there was a misunderstanding about a real problem rather than a febrile fantasy of a Jew-hater.

11/12

It's a minor error, but it demonstrates a great deal about how parts of the British left found themselves where they are now on this issue.

12/12