Disgusting fraudian santisation for geoncide loving Akehurst
Posted by RaskolnikovX on June 1, 2024, 10:35 am
Such a dreadful piece and a case study in spin and deceit from the media on behalf of their masters. Various highlights which really made me sick but any paragraphs could be examined for distortion, bias, ommissions, mealy-mouthed downplaying of his record and just flat out lies.
I particularly like, "...Akehurst’s history of punchy engagement on social media". That's an odd description of virulent, racist hatred and unhinged support for a genocidal regime, not to mention lying for said regime to remove the leader of the opposition.
No mention of the 1500 tweets he scubbed over the weekend.
Luke Akehurst: who is Labour activist turned controversial candidate?
Described by critics as on the Labour right, Akehurst’s defence of Israel’s actions in Gaza has upset many in party and without.
During the Jeremy Corbyn era, some of the leftwing leader’s fiercest critics gave up and left the Labour party: not so Luke Akehurst.
Behind the scenes, Akehurst was doing what he has been doing since he was a 16-year-old political activist – organising to get his wing of Labour back on the front foot and later to help cement Keir Starmer’s control over the party.
“In 2018, there were not many of us in the proverbial trench,” says one Labour activist of that time.
Six years on, Akehurst is one of Labour’s newest candidates, standing for North Durham among a slate of many party officials and aides parachuted into safe seats with just weeks to go before the election.
Akehurst is, though, particularly controversial – even something of a hate figure – for some on the left, both inside and outside Labour. While Akehurst and his allies term themselves “the moderates”, their opponents would call them “the Labour right”.
Some of the antagonism comes from Akehurst’s job as the director of an organisation called We Believe In Israel, which he runs as a non-Jewish committed Zionist. In this role, he has stridently defended Israel’s actions in Gaza as proportionate, and has campaigned to stand in solidarity with Israel – a view not widely shared across Labour.
Momentum, the leftwing group that grew out of Corbyn’s leadership, described his views on the conflict as “a slap in the face to voters across the country already outraged by Labour’s failings on Gaza” and argued he was “not fit to be a candidate”.
A former colleague who has worked closely with Akehurst said: “Ultimately, why he is hated by some is that he is proud of his beliefs, and he argues them, as well as the Israel connection. He is a believer in, and a friend of, Israel.”
Other criticism is directed towards him for his efforts to wrest control of Labour’s national executive committee, conference agenda and constituency Labour parties from the Corbynite left. He now sits on the NEC, which is helping to select candidates for the coming election.
Akehurst’s history of punchy engagement on social media and his Labour-focused blogs may also be a factor. Since his announcement as a candidate, he has defended comments saying that the UN was antisemitic, and that Jews were “politically black”.
“One of the things that’s interesting about Luke’s reputation is that he’s much nicer than the internet thinks he will be,” the colleague says. “People who don’t like him turn up to have a row with him, and find a really nice guy.”
Now 52, Akehurst delivered his first Labour leaflets aged 10 for his mother when she was standing to be a parish councillor. He joined as a member at 16, before becoming the national secretary of Labour Students, and later an agent for Frank Dobson, the late former Labour MP and health secretary. He stood unsuccessfully for the party in Hampshire and Essex during the Blair years.
Akehurst also crossed swords with the left of the party in Hackney, the east London seat of Diane Abbott, where he served as a Labour councillor for 12 years from 2002. There has been speculation that this is ideally where he would have sought a seat, had it become available. But his political career was stymied in 2010 when he developed a neurological disorder and spent five months in hospital followed by a further nine months in a wheelchair. He now uses a walking stick.
In the years that followed, while the party was in opposition, Akehurst turned back to organising through Labour First, a group set up by the MP John Spellar, who says its aim was to “roll back the takeover of the party by extremists, particularly the Leninist left who made Labour unelectable” in the 1980s. Akehurst became its secretary, and stayed in that role as the group played a part in organising against Corbynism in Labour.
Akehurst’s candidacy is “enormously deserved”, says Spellar. “He’s very much a force of nature in terms of helping people around the country, and played a very considerable role in the recovery of the Labour party. Luke has been an incredible organiser for the moderate cause in the party and on the national executive.”
As Starmer took over as leader, Labour First joined forces with another organisation, Progress, to form an umbrella group called Labour to Win, dedicated to bringing the party to power.
Sources say it was Akehurst, armed with a spreadsheet of 650 constituency party names and details of their delegates, who helped deliver the 2021 rule changes at party conference that shut the left of the party further out of power.
Despite his reputation as an organising linchpin for the new leadership, Akehurst is not personally close to Starmer, with the two men only having spoken substantially once or twice. He does have allies in the leadership office, with Matt Pound, one of the key officials involved in seat selections, having worked with him as an organiser at Labour First.
If he becomes an MP as expected, Akehurst is likely to be well known by force of his personality and organising power, those who know him say. One says: “He loves a spreadsheet and backroom plotting. I’d have thought he’s destined for the whips’ office.”...no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
People like Luke Stanger, a nutjob who harrassed leftwing labour party members and pro-palestine activists, spreading lies about them, trying to get them fired, even stalking them when dropping their kids off at school.
Akehurst's 'help' for this person extended to writing his appeal against his suspension from the labour party for him, revealed by metadata on the email: 'Labour’s highest disciplinary body did in fact vote to expel Stanger but the decision has never been implemented.
The first episode of Al Jazeera’s series reveals that a letter to the party from Stanger objecting to his suspension was actually authored by Luke Akehurst – a prominent Israel lobbyist who now sits on Labour’s ruling national executive. The network determined this from the document’s metadata.
Notorious on the Labour left as an arch foe of Jeremy Corbyn, Akehurst is a former arms industry lobbyist and now runs the group We Believe in Israel.
In his appeal to the party against his suspension Stanger was represented by prestigious London law firm Mishcon de Reya, best known for representing Princess Diana in her divorce from her husband, who is now King Charles III.
The firm also has a long track record of acting on behalf of the Israeli government in the UK.
In the episode, Al Jazeera interviews former Brighton Labour member Damian McCarthy, who says Stanger sent him intimidating messages online and even turned up outside his child’s school.
Soon after this encounter McCarthy began to be bombarded by anonymous online allegations of anti-Semitism.
Stanger also began to bombard McCarthy’s employer with similar complaints.
The office was sent “dossiers” about McCarthy, including an online conversation in which one of his anonymous attackers threatened to behead the activist and his family.
Another caller at that time was Zionist extremist Jonathan Hoffman, who was in 2019 convicted of harassment and threatening behavior against a Palestinian protester in London.
McCarthy and his family were sent statements threatening depraved and obscene acts against McCarthy’s mother, “even if she is dead (which I hope she is).”
McCarthy, visibly emotional in the Al Jazeera film, recalls that his step father “was very upset about reading all of that. I can’t talk about most of it.”
From the memory-holed AlJaz documentary (around 57:50):
Also:
'On Saturday, at the PSC stall in Brighton, [Stanger] followed me around, with his phone on record, asking me questions. He stood behind me shouting at me. It was extremely threatening. He did the same to [redacted]. This is the third time he has appeared at PSC events and harassed [redacted] and myself.'
Luke is using the name of the Labour Party in his shouty abuse. He is bringing the Labour Party into disrepute. He has targeted two female Hove CLP members to physically stalk and harass. He is trying to make [redacted] and I feel unsafe, even in the centre of Brighton.
An example of Akehurst's 'punchy' social media commentary, via Tony Greenstein:
'Luke Akehurst @lukeakehurst 12 Oct 2023 Just seen an MP call for an "end to the siege of Gaza". The blockade is to prevent arms going in and terrorists coming out. That will only be able to end when Hamas are not running Gaza.
Spiralunbound @spiralunbound Which job are you doing now Luke? Your We Beleive in Israel gig or you NEC gig?
Luke Akehurst @lukeakehurst The NEC is an unpaid, voluntary role, not a "job". My opinions about Israel are the same whatever capacity I am speaking in. This Twitter account represents my personal views. They coincide with my work and political ones.
Spiralunbound @spiralunbound Yes but you are paid by an organisation called We Believe in Israel, aren't you. So is this 'believing' in the current government advocating ethic cleansing? Or the Israeli people, who don't all agree with this action, some opposing it unequivocally. webelieveinisrael.org.uk/
We Believe In Israel webelieveinisrael.org.uk
Luke Akehurst @lukeakehurst Personally if I lived in Israel I would support the Labor Party, which is in the opposition. But I support the current government's right to take action to free the hostages and remove Hamas from power in Gaza.
Spiralunbound @spiralunbound So you support the breaching of International Law?
Luke Akehurst @lukeakehurst 13 Oct 2023 Replying to @spiralunbound I don't believe that anything Israel is doing is in breach of any of those points. It is all proportional to achieving a legitimate military objective. Israel's command structure involves sign-off by lawyers to ensure conformity with intl law for all IDF actions.
Oct 13, 2023 · 10:51 AM UTC Michael BURN @MICHAEL37656467 13 Oct 2023 Replying to @lukeakehurst @spiralunbound Luke - you are truly one of the most horrible, bile-filed, factional frauds in politics. No moral compass & totally in the pocket of lobbyists from Big Pharma & the arms industry. That you're at Labour's top table & making decisions on policy & expulsions is truly horrific. Luke Akehurst @lukeakehurst 13 Oct 2023 Could you explain the reference to big pharma? Not sure I have ever expressed opinions relating to pharmaeuticals or shown any interest in the topic. Just something you've casually made up? more replies Mor Leidr @BartiDdu10 14 Oct 2023 Replying to @lukeakehurst @spiralunbound Your personal morally demented beliefs are immaterial What matters is genocide & collective punishment (of which btw half the recipients in this case are under 18) are both in breach of international law In addition they are repugnant to every decent human being on the planet Luke Akehurst @lukeakehurst 14 Oct 2023 Neither of those things are happening. more replies BJ1878 @BJ18781 13 Oct 2023 Replying to @lukeakehurst @spiralunbound That is because yoy are morally corrupt... I bet your parents are sooo proud of you Luke Akehurst @lukeakehurst 13 Oct 2023 They are both dead, but yes they were. more replies fml @ihatepearjuice2 13 Oct 2023 Replying to @lukeakehurst @spiralunbound you don’t believe using white phosphorus on civilian areas is a breach? are you deeply fucking stupid or wilfully ignorant? (trick question - it’s both!) Luke Akehurst @lukeakehurst 13 Oct 2023 I don't believe it has been used. more replies Maximusure @MaximuSure 17 Oct 2023 Replying to @lukeakehurst @spiralunbound You spineless bigoted excuse for a human being. Your New neighbour has killed someone so lets bomb your home just in case his hiding in there. Geneva Convention ring a bell??? Anti-imperialist News @eryxian46 13 Oct 2023 Replying to @lukeakehurst @spiralunbound pure evil Load more Tell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/
The nerve of the guy to publicly make this kind of speculation, proper little stalinist implying mental illness because she disagrees with the Party...
Jackie Walker - HRH, MP, MBE, ABC @Jackiew80333500 13 Sep 2023 @lukeakehurst - at least try and get my heritage right. I have a Russian Jewish father and a mother of Jewish ancestry. As you know I’m married to a Jewish man. Our politics and understanding of Zionism as being a deeply racist and barbaric ideology is totally shared. You know this. You know him. Does Graham Bash have an ‘inner conflict’ about his identity? If not, Wtf are you suggesting about people of mixed heritage?
[quote tweet: Steve Powers @StevePowers_ 🚨Labour official making inappropriate racial remarks about Black Jewish activist at public event. Believes she has ‘inner conflict’ and is not ‘celebrating’ her heritage. Name and CLP?😮 ]
Luke Akehurst @lukeakehurst I'm very sorry for you if you cannot see Zionism as a beautiful ideology of anti-racism and the national liberation and cultural flourishing of the Jewish people. I have no idea why you or anyone else harbours such intense negativity towards such a profoundly decent movement.
Jackie Walker - HRH, MP, MBE, ABC @Jackiew80333500 Your obsessive interference in the decades long internal dispute between Jews on the matter of Zionism, and your fascination in weapons of destruction is I presume based on some kind of dissatisfaction with the self, most likely a response to having experienced repeated childhood bullying, perhaps of being beaten by those in authority or a sense of being unloved. Whatever the cause it remains inexcusable to allow this emotional damage to be acted out in the public forum..
Luke Akehurst @lukeakehurst No, support for Israel and Trident are really boring mainstream views held by almost every post-war politician in the UK. I'm very satisfied with my life, and had a rather idyllic though financially impoverished childhood. Sorry to disappoint.
Jackie Walker - HRH, MP, MBE, ABC @Jackiew80333500 I’m sure you’re satisfied with your life …. You useful idiots of tyrants feel the same. As for your past, I care little. I know you for what you are you merchant of death. Your knowledge of my history is as flawed as your understanding of the global ancient history of the Jews. How could you disappoint? I’ve known white power in so many of its ghastly incarnations all my life. Your vision of Israel is already doomed - Swallowed by a demography out of your control. They will increase their hold on the sham of democracy you valorise and throw the husk of the dream of Israel to the desert where it belongs …. You make monstersTell your story; Ask a question; Interpret generously http://storybythethroat.wordpress.com/tell-ask-listen/
on June 1, 2024, 10:35 am
