I am not a supporter of Corbyn. However, I'm not going to sit by while he's accused of something which he almost certainly didn't do in the case of Paul Eisen. Unless anybody can come up with real proof that Corbyn had close links with Eisen (not just from Daily Mail claims), I'm inclined to believe the following:
The most shocking accusation, originating with The Daily Mail, is that Corbyn has “long standing links” with Paul Eisen, a “notorious” Holocaust denier involved in the group Deir Yassin Remembered.
Eisen certainly expresses disgusting views, denying the Nazi Holocaust took place and frequently expressing other anti-Semitic opinions on his blog.
However, his only real notoriety is for his attempts to infiltrate the Palestine solidarity movement.
Once it became clear what his views were, he was widely condemned and shunned by a movement which is fundamentally anti-racist in its basic principles. Indeed, even in the blog post which the Mail relied on as the source for its smear, Eisen admits that the movement has long “despised me.”
The only real link between the two men (as the Mail conveniently omitted) is that Eisen happens to live in Corbyn’s Islington parliamentary constituency in North London.
Eisen claims to have met him in that capacity – as Corbyn is his member of parliament. It is nonetheless odd that the Mail would be so keen to take the word of a Holocaust denier when it comes to his relationship with Corbyn.
Jeremy Corbyn at the 2012 PSC conference where a Holocaust denier was expelled from the membership. Tony Greenstein
A photograph has been produced of a memorial event which the Mail claims was run by Eisen. However, as this 2013 email sent out by the Palestinian Authority’s UK Mission shows, there was nothing in the advertising about the Holocaust and nothing naming Eisen. There were certainly no links to his blog.
Indeed, even on the Deir Yassin Remembered website, Eisen is not named on the contact page, the About page or the Board of Advisors page.
The page misleadingly includes several people as advisors who resigned after some of the the group’s troubling associations became clear.
This includes the Palestinian-American novelist Susan Abulhawa, who stepped down after Eisen wrote an anti-Semitic post on his blog.
The site of an infamous historical massacre of Palestinian civilians, Deir Yassin was a Palestinian village invaded and destroyed by Zionist militias before the establishment of Israel.
Corbyn was therefore not the only person misled by Deir Yassin Remembered, as detailed in recent blog posts by long standing Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) activists Diane Langford and Tony Greenstein.
The Jewish Socialist journalist Charlie Pottins recounts on his blog the real story of Paul Eisen’s transformation. As he puts it: “if Jeremy Corbyn attended annual events commemorating the Deir Yassin massacre, where is the evidence that he or anybody else at these events thought they were there to support Holocaust denial?”
Finally, it’s worth noting that, as Greenstein recounts, Corbyn was present, as PSC patron, at the 2012 PSC conference where a Holocaust denier was expelled by a massive majority.
electronicintifada.net/blogs/asa-winstanley/4-reasons-anti-semitism-attacks-jeremy-corbyn-are-dishonest
Many British Jews have criticised the Jewish Chronicle for trying to link Corbyn with Eisen:
Dozens of prominent anti-Israel activists have signed an open letter attacking the JC for highlighting of Jeremy Corbyn’s links to antisemites and Holocaust deniers.
It follows the publication last week of seven key questions for Mr Corbyn to answer regarding his alleged ties to Holocaust denier Paul Eisen, his defence of controversial Anglican vicar Stephen Sizer, and support for blood libel cleric Raed Salah. Mr Corbyn has also previously called Hamas and Hezbollah “friends”.
Signatories to the letter include Tony Greenstein, Professor Haim Bresheeth, Abe Hayeem, Miriam Margolyes, Professor Ilan Pappe and Michael Rosen.
It states: “Your assertion that your attack on Jeremy Corbyn is supported by ‘the vast majority of British Jews’ is without foundation. We do not accept that you speak on behalf of progressive Jews in this country. You speak only for Jews who support Israel, right or wrong.
"There is something deeply unpleasant and dishonest about your McCarthyite guilt by association technique. Jeremy Corbyn’s parliamentary record over 32 years has consistently opposed all racism including antisemitism.
"Jeremy Corbyn has nothing to apologise for in his meetings with representatives of Hamas and Hizbollah. Hamas was democratically elected in Palestinian elections generally accepted as fair, and Hezbollah also has strong electoral support in Lebanon.
"You report Paul Eisen as saying that Jeremy Corbyn donated to Deir Yassin Remembered. So did many people before discovering the existence of antisemites and Holocaust-deniers in the organisation. Many people attended the occasional fundraising concert that DYR organised, without either knowing of or sympathising with Mr Eisen’s views.
"As supporters of Israel, perhaps you agree with the racist statements of Israeli government ministers such as Eli Dahan that Jews have higher souls than non-Jews? Or Miri Regev’s belief that asylum seekers are a ‘cancer’? Or, would this be guilt by association, as in your character assassination of Jeremy Corbyn?"
www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/142553/anti-israel-activists-attack-jc-challenging-jeremy-corbyn
