Asa Winstanley

Asa Winstanley   (journalist)
Residence	London
Interests	• anti-semitism • Israel lobby
Investigative journalist who quit the UK Labour party

Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist living in London who writes about Palestine and the Middle East. He has lived in occupied Palestine and writes for The Electronic Intifada, the New Left Project and Ceasefire. He worked for two years in the occupied West Bank and was managing sub-editor of the Palestine Times, an English language daily newspaper.

On 10 February 2020, Asa Winstanley tweeted to say why he had just resigned from the Labour Party:

"I’ve concluded that going along with this sham any further would be to participate in a political show trial whose outcome is a foregone conclusion."

Suspended by Labour

On 12 March 2019, Labour Against the Witchhunt condemned the suspension of Asa Winstanley, a journalist and associate editor of The Electronic Intifada. Winstanley learnt this from a story in the Jewish Chronicle, which stated that he had been suspended for calling the Jewish Labour Movement a “proxy for the Israeli Embassy”.

The disciplinary measures against Asa Winstanley are a full frontal attack on freedom of speech.^{[Says who?]} Winstanley has written a number of well-researched articles showing how the ‘anti-Semitism campaign’ in the Labour Party has been manufactured by pro-Zionist groups (for example, How Israel lobby manufactured UK Labour Party’s anti-Semitism crisis and Jewish Labour Movement was refounded to fight Corbyn).

Leaked to Jewish Chronicle

We are outraged that once again, the compliance unit has leaked details of Labour’s disciplinary processes to the Jewish Chronicle and the press before the person themselves has been notified. This is in clear violation of the General Data Protection Regulations and is illegal. The compliance unit should be shut down. It is not fit for purpose.

Automatic suspensions reinstated

The last two weeks have seen a worrying acceleration of the witch-hunt against pro-Corbyn members. It seems that general secretary Jennie Formby has reinstated automatic suspensions over the most minor accusations:

• Councillor Stuart Porthouse, former mayor of Sunderland, was suspended for sharing an interview with George Galloway on Sky News.

• Sean McCallum, mayoral candidate in Mansfield, has been suspended on the basis of two tweets questioning the origins of a meme that Naz Shah MP had posted.

• Jo Bird, a Jewish councillor in the Wirral was suspended for telling jokes.

• And Chris Williamson MP has been suspended for daring to question the party’s tactics over the campaign to conflate anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

None of the above are under investigation for anything remotely anti-Semitic. It has become an offence merely to question the very assertion that there is widespread anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. What we are now seeing is Orwellian. As Asa Winstanley said at a recent meeting:

“They’re trying to defeat the man by demoralising, splitting and defeating the left movement supporting him.”

Books

Asa Winstanley is the co-author of "Corporate Complicity in Israel's Occupation: Evidence from the London Session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine" (Pluto, 2011).

How the Israel lobby brought down Jeremy Corbyn

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine is a people's tribunal in the spirit of the Tribunal on Vietnam that was set up by Bertrand Russell in the 1960s. This book contains a selection of the most vital evidence and testimonies presented at the London session.

In May 2023, Asa Winstanley's "Weaponising Anti-Semitism: How the Israel lobby brought down Jeremy Corbyn" was published:

Investigative journalist Asa Winstanley shows how Labour’s crisis of anti-Semitism allegations was manufactured by pro-Israel groups. Jeremy Corbyn’s enemies were determined to abort his left-wing project in its infancy, and he was hated by Israel and its allies because of his long support for the Palestine solidarity movement.

"Weaponising Anti-Semitism" exposes the plot by the Israel lobby in alliance with the Labour right and Israeli and British intelligence agencies to stop a socialist entering Number 10 Downing Street. With new interviews and unique access to most of the “high profile cases,” read Labour’s smeared activists in their own words.

An essential historical corrective, "Weaponising Anti-Semitism" tells a true story of hope, despair, solidarity and betrayal.

 

A Document by Asa Winstanley

Title	Document type	Publication date	Subject(s)	Description
Document:Labour expulsion hearing set for anti-Zionist Jackie Walker	Article	5 February 2019	Israel/Lobby Jeremy Corbyn Jewish Labour Movement Chris Williamson WitchHunt Jackie Walker National Constitutional Committee	WitchHunt documentary: “We are determined to get it out whatever the threats,” Jackie Walker vows

 

Event Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
International Festival of Whistleblowing Dissent and Accountability	8 May 2021	8 May 2021	Internet	Whistleblowing event held in 2021.

 

Related Documents

Title	Type	Publication date	Author(s)	Description
Document:Police escalate the British state's war on independent journalism	blog post	17 October 2024	Jonathan Cook	"This isn't about terrorism, except by the British state. Even the name of the 'counter-terrorism' raid is performative: 'Operation Incessantness'. The message the state wants to send is that it will not rest till it has us all behind bars."
Document:UK police raid home, seize devices of EI’s Asa Winstanley	Article	17 October 2024	Ali Abunimah	"On 17 October 2024, British counterterrorism police raided the home and seized several electronic devices belonging to The Electronic Intifada’s associate editor Asa Winstanley. The letter handed to Winstanley by police refers to the raid on his home as being part of 'Operation Incessantness', perhaps indicative of a broad and ongoing crackdown against critics of Israel’s British-backed crimes."

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