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THREAD: “Twin Peakes: How antisemitic conspiracy theories about the death of George Floyd are shared by far left and far right” https://cst.org.uk/news/blog/0000/00/00/twin-peakes-how-antisemitic-conspiracy-theories-about-the-death-of-george-floyd-are-shared-by-far-left-and-far-right
Rebecca Long-Bailey lost her job because she tweeted support for an interview by the actor Maxine Peake, in which Peake said “The tactics used by the police in America, kneeling on George Floyd’s neck, that was learnt from seminars with Israeli secret services”
This conspiracy theory has spread on the far left among people who want to blame Israel for anything they can – but it is also shared by the antisemitic, conspiracist far right who say this is all part of a Jewish plot to divide America and encourage attacks on white Americans.
The American far right conspiracy outlet TruNews claimed the murder of George Floyd was carried out to create “division”, “strife” & “civil war” between whites and blacks, blaming Israel for this plot to divide America.
They even used a headline from the Morning Star as evidence to back up their claim
The underlying message is the same, whether it comes from far right or far left: Jews and/or Israel are ultimately to blame for the racial division currently gripping America.
These are all videos from far right channels on the alternative video sharing platform BitChute, claiming “Zionist controlled police” are creating chaos to assist “the Jew occupation of America”
On the 4chan site, where extreme antisemitism, racism, misogyny, homophobia and hate are standard, far right users share articles from left wing websites protesting that American police are trained by Israel
This is how antisemitism works: a constant striving to place Jews and/or Israel at the centre of all that is wrong in the world, be it wars, economic downturns, terror attacks or in this case the murder of a black man at the hands of American police.
Conspiracy theories about Israel (or “Zionists”) only have the appeal they do because they echo historic antisemitic ideas about Jews. Updating the language by swapping in Israel as the malevolent, secret force to blame for terrible things.
Those people on the left spreading or defending this conspiracy theory may not know that neo-Nazis are doing the same, but here’s a rule of thumb: if you are saying the same thing as neo-Nazis about Jews or Israel, it’s not ordinary criticism of Israel. It’s antisemitism. END
