Labour just invented an antisemitism scandal

Another day, another manufactured case of antisemitism from the Labour Party. Currently holding their annual conference, the failing collective led by fanatical Blairites today put on an event there entitled From Cobra Kai to Kneecap: anti-Semitism in popular culture and what we do about it (Anti-Semitism Policy Trust).

The talk’s name clearly implies that West Belfast rappers Kneecap are haters of Jewish people, presumably based on their pro-Palestine activism. This represents yet another dangerous attempt to conflate anti-Zionism with antisemitism, as those opposing so-called Israel‘s genocide in Palestine are baselessly smeared as despising all Jewish people.

On Saturday, the hip-hop trio defeated the British (in)justice system as it attempted to prosecute them for allegedly supporting a proscribed group. They had been accused of backing Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah by flying a flag on stage at a performance in November 2024. Supporting one of the few groups meaningfully attempting to impose a cost on the Zionist entity for its atrocities can in no way be interpreted as antisemitic.

Genocide, climate disaster…but let’s focus on Cobra Kai

The Cobra Kai reference appears to refer to a line of dialogue in the Netflix series that implies antagonist Terry Silver is Jewish.

A Reddit post on the topic objected to such a character having this identity, on the basis that it played into antisemitic tropes of underhanded Jewish people seeking to manipulate and control. Other followers of the series scoffed at the suggestion in comments below, pointing out the show’s creators are Jewish, along with the original creator of The Karate Kid, on which the series is based. The single line is from a program that ran for six seasons and contained 65 episodes, each around 40 minutes in length. We’re going to struggle for evil fictional villains in future if they’re never allowed to be manipulative or megalomaniacal.

Co-founder of Novara Aaron Bastani pondered whether the contents of a hammy TV series should be a Labour focus amid its many shortcomings:

The government is polling 16% and they’re…talking about how Cobra Kai is antisemitic?

Novara commissioning editor and reporter Rivkah Brown contacted Kneecap’s manager Dan Lambert, who said: “We’ll assess what we need to do,” when asked whether the band were considering legal action for the defamatory accusations. Earlier, Lambert had described the talk – promoted on Labour’s official app – as “outrageous” and pointed out that the band:

are explicitly anti-sectarian in everything they do and say.

Labour fake antisemitism dragnet has a habit of targeting Jewish people

Brown (who is Jewish) was present at the event, and has said panellist Joani Reid “heavily implied that I am an antisemite”. Presumably this puts her in the “self-hating Jew” camp, a canard that has been elegantly eviscerated by Norman Finkelstein.

Reid is the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, and has challenged Brown’s version of events, saying:

This simply isn’t true. Rivkah Brown was not present at the meeting until the end when she attended with what appeared to be the specific purpose of haranguing me. I didn’t mention her and indeed had never even heard of her until she started screaming at me. Good journalists don’t report baseless rumours as fact. Hope her next “scoop” is an improvement.

Brown said she has footage of the incident, so the truth of the matter will likely be known very soon. The hounding of a Jewish reporter and Jewish TV writers follows a pattern of the Labour right cracking down on the very people they claim to be protecting. During the antisemitism panic under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, Jewish members of the party frequently found themselves the target of a witch hunt, which often followed the familiar pattern of ‘mistaking’ anti-Zionism for antisemitism.

The party was found by the Forde Report to operate a “hierarchy of racism“, in which antisemitism was taken more seriously than other forms of racial prejudice. Report author Martin Forde described accusations of antisemitism being used as a “factional weapon” during the period of Corbyn’s tenure as leader.

The Labour Party’s continued practice of ‘crying wolf’ on antisemitism undermines tackling actually existing antisemitism, examples of which are readily available on the largely unmoderated X cesspit. Perhaps if the government was more concerned with challenging the Nazi-salute performing owners of such platforms, real progress on the issue could be made.

Featured image via the Canary