The editor-in-chief of left-leaning website The Canary, which has been called Jeremy Corbyn’s personal Pravda, once compared Israel to Nazi Germany by claiming the country has “horrific echoes” of the Third Reich.
In May, Kerry-Anne Mendoza, a Labour member, appeared on a BBC Radio 4 programme discussing the Left’s favourite blind spot – antisemitism – and said the following:
“And so, well, what other state in the world do I know of in the present day who’s [sic] been behind the forced sterilization of Jewish women? That would be Israel. It was applying Depo-Provera – long term contraceptive injections – to Ethiopian Jewish women. I think that’s an anti-Semitic act. I think it has horrific echoes … of some of the atrocities – not all of them – some of the atrocities perpetrated by the Third Reich and I think it’s right to call that out.”
What Mendoza failed to mention, despite writing about Israel on a regular basis, is that her claim was shown to be false back in January by the Israeli Government.
She continued talking unchallenged on the programme: “Do I think it’s helpful for people to go around willy-nilly attempting to bait Jewish people by calling them Nazis? Absolutely not. But do I think there is some evidential case for saying there are echoes here of some of the worst behaviour that we have committed in Europe? Yes I do.”
But this wasn’t the first time Corbyn aficionado has subscribed to conspiracy theories.
She once called Israel a “terrorist state”, said there “are no terrorist targets” in terrorist Hamas-controlled Gaza, and implied Hamas isn’t a terrorist group:
Mrs Mendoza has confirmed to Heat Street that she’s currently a full Labour Party member and had the right to vote in the leadership election – despite being purged from the party after the 2015 general election for not voting for Ed Miliband.
However, she refused to accept that these are troubling remarks.
She told Heat Street: “It is wrong and dangerous to conflate Israel as a state with the millions of Jewish people around the world – many of whom hold the same views and criticisms.”
She added that some her family – and her wife – are Jewish, as are several Canary writers, as if implying that makes her remarks reasonable.
Her site takes an actively Pro-Corbyn stance – not a single critical article has been written against the Labour leader – and has peddled conspiracy theories including one which claimed a “Blairite” PR company orchestrated the coup against Corbyn back in June.
Her statements come at the time when Labour Party is once again in turmoil over what is widely perceived to be its tolerance of anti-semitism.
As Heat Street revealed on Saturday, Jewish peer Lord Mitchell quit Labour in the wake of Corbyn’s leadership election victory.
Mitchell was particularly disturbed by Labour’s allegedly independent inquiry into anti-semitism carried by Shami Chakrabarti.
She concluded: “The Labour Party is not over-run by anti-Semitism” and was created a life peer after finishing her report.
Is her conclusion really accurate?