An actor who starred in The Office shared a statement on social media that said "some rich Jews play the ‘anti-semitism’ card to protect themselves" in a discussion over Labour's disastrous election result.
Ewen MacIntosh, who played Keith Bishop in the iconic sitcom, posted a long statement that he attributed to “one of the wisest Jewish men I know” on Facebook response to Jewish comedian and writer Lee Kern.
The statement accuses Jews of "hyper-sensitivity" that "leads us to see ANY criticism of Jews" as racism, says "outrageous activities of The State of Israel towards the Palestinians" inspire antisemitism and claims "many Jews" are "rich" and therefore their "position is threatened" by Labour.
“One can see how certain people make the amalgam of ‘Jewish = Genocidal rich evil people who wish to rule the world’ and that 'some rich Jews play the ‘anti-semitism’ card to protect themselves' from Labour," the statement says.
Mr MacIntosh shared the statement in response to a Facebook post by Mr Kern, who worked with Sacha Baron Cohen on the show Who Is America?
Mr Kern had shared a video of Neil Kinnock's famous 1985 speech to Labour conference in which he called out the party's leftwing hardliners.
Mr MacIntosh responded by calling Mr Kern "entrenched and weirdly radicalised", adding "I sort of get it but any extremism is dangerous in my opinion" before he posted the statement.
The statement says: “In recent times – due to the outrageous activities of The State of Israel towards the Palestinians – we are now the target of hate crimes from certain people who adhere to the Islamic faith.
“So our hyper sensitivity leads us to see ANY criticism of Jews as ‘antisemitism’.
“It isn’t (to my mind anti semitism [sic] means an irrational hatred of Jews per se and a desire to see them exterminated; not a criticism of behaviour which would come under “racism” if it were applied indiscriminately to a group of people)."
It adds: “In modern Britain there are many Jews who are rich.
“Being rich, their position is threatened (as they see it) but the ‘Marxist’ ideas of the Labour Party. Indeed many Left wing members of the Labour Party will identify ‘The Rich’ as their enemies. So some rich Jews play the ‘anti-semitism’ card to protect themselves. Personally I find this inexcusable.
“Add to that the horror that the State of Israel perpetrates on the Palestinian population + Netanyahu saying ‘I speak for all the Jews in the world’ (an outrageous lie) and one can see how certain people make the amalgam of ‘Jewish = Genocidal rich evil people who wish to rule the world’.
“They are a miniscule minority – but due to our paranoia, as Jews we get nervous.”
Mr Kern told the JC: “Ewen typifies why the contemporary left is failing not only to be a genuine anti-racist ally but why the left is failing electorally.
"Not only are they engaging in racist tokenisation of communities… we now have comedians who will happily post ideas of Jewish bankers and a Jewish community that are not to believed or trusted – that we are always up to something that is against the interests of the people.
“This sort of crankery is why Labour has been rejected at the polls.”
When approached for comment, Mr MacIntosh identified the statement's author as actor Colin David Reese but denied endorsing his views, adding: “I merely posted it as an example of a different viewpoint to Lee's.
"I respect both Lee and the other person. I'm not endorsing either.
“It's hopefully still possible to quote sources in this day and age without being accused of agreeing with them. Otherwise we are in serious trouble.”
