John McDonnell sparks Jewish fury by calling Julian Assange the ‘Dreyfus case of our age’ and compares him to the Jewish French soldier falsely accused of treason by anti-Semites
- Shadow chancellor spoke as he visited Wikileaks founder in Belmarsh prison
- Dreyfus was was convicted of treason in 1895 after an anti-Semitic witch-hunt
- McDonnell’s remarks branded ‘outrageous, ridiculous and so deeply offensive’
John McDonnell sparked fury from Jewish groups today by comparing Julian Assange’s battle to evade extradition to the United States to the plight of a French soldier falsely convicted of treason by anti-Semites.
The Labour shadow chancellor made the remark as he became the most senior politician to visit the Wikileaks founder in prison in London.
He described US attempts to extradite the Australian as ‘the Dreyfus case of our age – a comparison with 19th French officer Alfred Dreyfus.
He was convicted of treason at an 1895 court martial on treason charges many felt were brought against him because he was Jewish.
He was later exonerated after a long campaign featuring intellectuals such as novelist Emile Zola, who wrote a famous denunciation of the prosecution case entitled J’Accuse (I accuse).
Labour has been engulfed by an anti-Semitism crisis under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership and Mr McDonnell’s remarks prompted a furious backlash.
Karen Pollock, the chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: ‘Dreyfus was a French artillery officer falsely accused of treason because he was Jewish.
‘Go figure how or why John McDonnell could make such an inappropriate comparison with the Assange case.
‘Outrageous, ridiculous and so deeply offensive.’
The Labour shadow chancellor made the remark as he became the most senior politician to visit the Wikileaks founder in Belmarsh prison in London
French soldier Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason at an 1895 court martial on treason charges many felt were brought against him because he was Jewish
Mike Katz, national chairman of the Jewish Labour Movement, said: ‘What an absolutely ridiculous and offensive thing to say.’
Who was Alfred Dreyfus?
The Dreyfus Affair has remained a source of guilt-ridden controversy in France for more than 120 years.
Alfred Dreyfus was a patriotic young French officer with a brilliant career before him, an adoring wife, Lucie, and two children.
But he was a Jew in a Roman Catholic nation that had a deep antipathy to Jews.
In September 1894, a cleaning woman at the German Embassy in Paris fished out an unsigned memorandum from the bin of the German military attache.
When pieced together, it proved to be a list offering details of French military secrets.
Suspicion fell on Dreyfus because there was a vague resemblance in the handwriting – and from that point on, no one else was seriously investigated.
A French nobleman called Armand du Paty de Clam confirmed that Dreyfus was the traitor and on that basis, Dreyfus was court-martialled and publicly disgraced.
Before a crowd screaming ‘death to the Jew’, his buttons, braids, epaulettes and trouser stripes were torn off and he was sentenced to solitary confinement for life.
He was sent to the notorious penal colony of Devil’s Island, off the coast of French Guiana. His legs were put in chains and a high palisade was built so that he would have no view of the sea.
Yet the evidence showed there had been a gross miscarriage of justice. From the start, it was obvious that Dreyfus’s handwriting did not match the memorandum.
Handwriting experts agreed, but were silenced. The real spy, a Hungarian officer called Esterhazy, was unmasked in early 1896, when his handwriting was shown to match that of the memo.
But against him were senior army commanders who had falsified evidence, spread lies and leaned on judges; and behind them were legions of anti-Dreyfusards who thought the fabric of society would collapse if the conviction was overturned.
Emile Zola set out the damning evidence of conspiracy, forgery and lies in an open letter to a newspaper, under the headline ‘J’Accuse’.
Even after two more court cases, the army still found ways to win guilty verdicts. Eventually, the French premier gave Dreyfus an official pardon – to spare the sufferings of the Dreyfus family and to end growing international outrage.
He was brought home at the end of 1898, his body emaciated, his teeth rotted in his mouth.
The cabal of army officers who conspired against him were all promoted, but Dreyfus never won the promotion he longed for.
He died in 1935, 25 years after his official exoneration.
He added: ‘Though I can see how you could confuse Dreyfus, a loyal soldier wrongly accused of treason because he was a Jew, with an entitled bloke who hid in a foreign embassy to evade extradition on a rape allegation.
‘If you view everything through an anti-American lense, obvs.’
And Miriam Mirwitch, the chair of Labour’s youth wing, said: ‘Assange – a man who previously evaded extradition to Sweden to avoid a rape allegation – should never be compared to Dreyfuss: a Jewish man accused of treason because of sickening antisemitism.
‘This is an absolutely gross comparison.’
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is currently investigating complaints of anti-Semitism within Labour, along with the actions it took to tackle the issue.
Assange has been held on remand in Belmarsh since last September after serving a 50-week jail sentence for breaching his bail conditions while he was in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
He entered the building in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden over sex offence allegations, which he has always denied and were subsequently dropped.
The 48-year-old is wanted in the US to face 18 charges, including conspiring to commit computer intrusion, over the publication of US cables a decade ago.
If found guilty he could face up to 175 years in jail.
He is accused of working with former US army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning to leak hundreds of thousands of classified documents.
The Labour politician visited Assange for two hours at Belmarsh prison, where the Australian is awaiting the start of an extradition hearing next week.
Speaking to the press afterwards by the prison gates, Mr McDonnell said: ‘I think this is one of the most important and significant political trials of this generation, in fact longer.
‘I think it’s the Dreyfus case of our age.
‘The way in which a person is being persecuted for political reasons, for simply exposing the truth for what went on in relation to recent wars.’
Mr McDonnell said: ‘We’re hoping that in court he (Assange) is able to defeat the extradition bid.
‘We don’t believe that extradition should be used for political purposes.’
Mr McDonnell said Assange’s health had been affected by his imprisonment but said he appeared ‘strong’ and ‘determined’ to fight his extradition.
‘This is all about the protection of sources, whistleblowing, ensuring that people have true information in the public domain on which they can make they own judgments,’ Mr McDonnell said.
He added: ‘I think if this extradition takes place it will damage the democratic standing of our own country as well as America.
‘We have a long tradition in this country of standing up for journalistic freedom, standing up for the protection of whistleblowers and those who expose injustices.’
Mr McDonnell said he felt ‘anxious’ over the ‘barbaric’ treatment Assange has experienced in prison, where he said he spends 20 hours a day in his cell.
‘I hoping that the hearings in the coming months will secure his freedom, there is no need for him to be locked up in a place like Belmarsh,’ he said.
On Tuesday it emerged that fellow inmates at the high-security Belmarsh successfully lobbied for Assange’s release from solitary confinement.
Assange’s legal team have claimed his health has deteriorated in recent years as he sought to avoid extradition.
Assange’s father John Shipton said his son’s condition has improved, but said if he was extradited it would be akin to a ‘death sentence’.
‘It demonstrates, I think, the political nature of the trial itself,’ Mr McDonnell said.
He suggested there are ‘deeply held doubts’ in Parliament and Government over Assange’s case.
He said he did not know the views of Labour leadership candidates, but added: ‘From my point of view, I’m hoping that the Labour Party overall will oppose this extradition.’
The hearing is due to begin at Woolwich Crown Court on Monday, beginning with a week of legal argument.
At a court hearing on Wednesday it emerged US President Donald Trump allegedly offered Assange a pardon if he said Russia was not involved in the leak of Democratic National Committee emails.
A series of emails embarrassing for the Democrats and the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign were hacked before being published by WikiLeaks in 2016.
The White House denied the allegation.
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