A
leading Jewish Labour MP has showed the level of antisemitism online by
publishing abusive messages sent to her.
Shadow
cabinet member Luciana Berger, 34, says she has been sent thousands of insults.
Some
feature the yellow star Nazis used to label Jews, while others caricature her
with a big nose or greedily rubbing her hands. Some even call her a pig or
threaten to rape or kill her.
For those in any doubt, this is just a little snapshot of what Antisemitism in 2016 looks like. It is very real. pic.twitter.com/aCImyG6OeC
— Luciana Berger (@lucianaberger) April 28, 2016
Miss
Berger joined the attacks on suspended Ken Livingstone, saying on Thursday that
his claims Hitler was a Zionist were ‘a disgrace and have no place in our
party’.
She
tweeted a selection of the sick material and stressed antisemitism remained a
danger.
A
source close to the Liverpool MP said: ‘They could be from Labour, they could
be from further afield. There’s no way of knowing. With tweets you don’t know
whether they’re from the left or right, although a lot of the abuse in the past
has been from far-right groups in America.’
Miss
Berger introduced her selection posting: ‘For those in any doubt, this is just
a little snapshot of what Antisemitism in 2016 looks like. It is very real.’
An
online troll calling himself AntiRacist Hitler told her ‘Luciana Berger move to
Israel, you don’t belong in Europe…It’s only going to get worse.’ Another
called for her to be raped, she was branded ‘a pig’, and a call for ‘her head
on a spike’ followed.
Former
management consultant Miss Berger, who married husband Alistair last year,
first became a target two years ago.
She
received a tweet from neo-Nazi Garron Helm, 21, of Litherland, Merseyside, using
the hashtag ‘Hitlerwasright’. He was jailed for four weeks. Some 2,500 further
vile copycat messages followed in just a few days.
