Is David Icke Britain’s Leading Antisemite?

If David Icke is not Britain’s leading antisemite I am yet to come across anybody else who is preaching the Protocols of the Elders of Zion to thousands of bewitched followers in sold-out arenas in Britain. Former footballer and sports presenter David Icke has been Britain’s leading conspiracy theorist for decades; hugely popular throughout the world and capable of selling out venues usually reserved for those of rock star status. Most famous for his belief in multi-dimensional reptiles but unfortunately less well known for the ancient anti-Jewish prejudice that lie at the heart of so many of his theories.

That’ll be where I come in.

The Protocols of the Elder of Zion is a notorious piece of antisemitic propaganda. A forgery concocted by Czarist Russian secret police used to incite the Russian populace against its Jewish population. It tells the story of a secret meeting in 1897 where leading members of the Jewish community throughout the world convened to discuss the trivial matter of their secret plan to take over the world (hopefully with nibbles). To accomplish this dastardly plot they would infiltrate all political parties, take ownership of the press and media in order to control ‘both sides’ of the argument; they would even disseminate pornography alcohol and drugs to corrupt decent good folk.

They would do this in order to spread dissension which would lead to revolution which in turn would lead to all-out war. Down on their luck the people’s of the world would then look to the Jews, now in control of everything, to lead them out of the darkness the evil Jews had manufactured.

The publication of the Protocols in 1919 resulted in an intensification of pogroms which claimed the lives of over 100000 Jews. By 1921 the Protocols had found their way to Germany and were quoted extensively by Adolf Hitler both in his speeches and in Mein Kampf. In America they were promoted most notably by Henry Ford in The International Jew: The World’s Problem making their way around the world to become the second biggest selling book on the planet after the bible. The result of this conspiracy theory was catastrophic, contributing significantly to the anti-Jewish agitation which led to one of humanities most heinous crimes.

It is the blueprint for all future world conspiracy theories and still widely believed all over the world today.

Unsurprisingly antisemitism got a bad name in Europe after the Holocaust however by the 1950’s the Protocols made their way to Egypt and are now more popular than ever throughout the Arab world; where understandable anger at the Jewish state brings a ready-made audience of millions for this most diabolic of fictions. It is quoted in the Hamas covenant and pseudo-intellectual documentaries  based on the Protocols are numerous. See this short clip from Iranian Protocol series Secrets of Armageddon for a taste.

It is a fusion of old European antisemitism and modern anti-Zionism. It makes up a large portion of David Icke’s current fare. It is the most pernicious and intoxicating form of antisemitism in the modern world.

Thus the Protocols departed Europe, received a new veneer in the Soviet Union and Arab world and are now being fed back into European culture, with Icke, seemingly leading the way in the UK.

Icke at Wembley in 2010 explaining to the audience that then President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – a Holocaust denier – does not dislike Jews (because he once met extreme antizionist ultra-orthodox Jewish sect Naturei Karta)

Members of Naturei Karta giving the ‘Quenelle’ – an inverted Nazi salute – at an anti-Israel rally. I can’t imagine what Ahmadinejad and David Icke see in them?

The potency of Icke’s modern brand of antisemitism is enhanced by its charade as an anti-racist doctrine. That it is solely concerned with promoting Palestinian justice. More traditional forms of antisemitism made no distinction between ‘good’ Jews (antizionists) and ‘bad’ Jews (Zionists) but Icke uses antizionism to hide what is, at times, little less than Nazi-strength antisemitic propaganda. Whether he does this consciously or not is of little concern as many people have been and are being fooled, or at best ignoring it, thus David Icke gets an unfettered pass to ply his trade in large scale venues in Britain.

Icke is a conspiracist omnivore: splicing all manner of esotericism, pseudo-science, New World Order end-times scenarios and melding them into a coherent ideology. He is an entrepreneur of improvisational millennialism; deftly capable of rearranging copious amounts of eclectic hidden knowledge and distrust of authority to construct an apocalyptic New-age rhapsody.

Doomsday scenarios are often impossible to resist within the conspiracist worldview as without them the conspiracy itself begins to either fall apart or must be reduced in scope.

But it is antisemitism that runs through the core of so many of Icke’s theories and as he places ‘Rothschild Zionists’ at the forefront of the ‘plan to kill you’ I shouldn’t need to spell out it’s potential dangers.

I have previously written about David Icke, his normalisation and why he is mistakenly viewed as a harmless conspiracy theorist. Although he is Britain’s leading conspiracist, Icke is from the American millennialist tradition of the early nineties; when the right-wing isolationist militia men and New World Order conspiracists coalesced with the New-age movement and ufologists to create a colossal galactic conspiracy.

As Michael Barkun noted in Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America “They construct these end-times scripts from an eclectic combination of ingredients, Babylonian mystery religions, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Masonic magicians and UFO’s, the Illuminati and the UN. As everything in the conspiracist’s world view is interconnected, so every source may be mined for something useful, no matter what taboos may be attached to it.”

For this reason, although laughable to many, super-conspiracism is extremely dangerous. Barkun concurs, “Indeed… the greater the stigma, the more attractive the source becomes, for the intensity of rejection is its truthfulness.” Thus the taboo around more pernicious conspiracy theories such as Holocaust denial and the Protocols are very likely taken by Icke and his followers to be the very essence of their validity.

(This partly explains why on white supremacist sites and Neo-Nazi hang-outs Icke gets thousands of hits. His relationship to far-right activists in the USA and Canada throughout the 90’s was explored in Will Offley’s useful piece from February 2000 – David Icke And The Politics Of Madness: Where The New Age Meets The Third Reich)

Number of hits for ‘David Icke’ on White Supremacist site Stormfront

The apocalyptic milieu of pre-millennium hysteria inspired the creators of The X-files; the tagline Trust No One itself a homage to the paranoid style. This was the time when the Men in Black and the aliens became ‘in on it’ together. Known as super-conspiracism – or meta-conspiracism – all the conspiracies are linked together, often in a pyramidal hierarchy, with each smaller event and systemic conspiracy nested within. Above which there is a unifying supernatural force controlling the lesser earth bound conspirators.

For this super-conspiracist the Vatican is the supreme manifestation of the evil rulers of the world.

The main danger arising from writing off super-conspiracists as simply cranks who are of little consequence is that we stop listening to what they are saying. In my view they are too important to ignore. In his superb study of conspiracism A Year Among the Truthers Jonathan Kay cries out, “You cannot challenge the enemies of the Enlightenment if you do not understand them.”

Since being introduced to the Protocols by ultra right-wing ufologist William Milton Cooper in the earlier nineties Icke has been successfully touting them throughout the Western World. In Icke’s 1994 book The Robots Rebellion he describes them as “the Illuminati Protocols” in what appears to be a sincere attempt to distance the tract from Jews themselves. However over the following twenty years, as he got deeper into antisemitic theory, the Elders seem to have undergone a re-conversion back to Judaism  and are now referred to as ‘Rothschild Zionists’. In fact he has used several different terms to reference these evil Jews –  Zionists, Rothschild Zionists, Khazars, The Khazarian Mafia –  one saving grace of which is that he appears to be committed to giving us cooler names.

Rothschild Zionism

In the section of his live show entitled ‘Rothschild Zionism’ Icke avoids mentioning the Protocols by name but his introduction closely echoes the canny note of prophecy:

“In the Matrix movie there’s something called the Zion mainframe. Well Zionism, Rothschild Zionism is a mainframe of this network… it is a secret society, putting it’s agents in places of power. A secret society within the web to massively contribute and control our global society.”

So, just the Protocols then.

But then over the next ten minutes he goes into standard hard-line anti-Zionist politics, the kind you would hear at a normal pro-Palestine engagement. He declares that he has nothing against Jews and separates good Jews (anti-Zionists) from the rest – at the last count around 93% of British Jews would fit into the not so good category.

Icke showing the audience a picture of anti-Zionist Jew Norman Finkelstein at Wembley Arena to demonstrate what a good Jew looks like.

Then, after enraging the audience with the plight of the Palestinians, he proceeds to go full Protocol; going through the most evil powerful Jews in control of the world often using Nazi-era antisemitic imagery.

Antisemitic Nazi cartoon from 1930’s depicting the ‘string pulling’ Jew in control of assorted dignitaries

Contemporary version of string pulling Jew depicting George Soros in control of Barrack Obama

Icke at Wembley Arena in 2010

Jews using world leaders as puppets to further their diabolic aims comes direct from the Protocols. Billionaire philanthropist George Soros is the most recent incarnation of the archetypal Jewish puppet master, evidenced in far-right demonstrations currently on the rise across Europe, where they blame Soros for everything from immigration to global financial crashes and terrorism. Gideon Rachman’s recent piece for the Financial times: “Soros hatred is a global sickness” gives a brief overview of how George Soros has become new the figurehead for far-right antisemitic hatred.

A Far-right demonstration in Eastern Europe

An effigy of George Soros dressed as an orthodox Jew is burnt during a Neo-Nazi demonstration in Poland.

Satanic image of Soros on Icke’s website

For a flavour of the antisemitic hatred that follows Soros – a Holocaust survivor himself – take a look at these replies under Soros’ recent tweet about the dangers of conspiracism.

“Our most powerful weapon will be freedom with which we will lure the gentile. We will blind them with the abstraction of freedom and replace their representatives as we would a worn-out glove. They will be at our disposal and easily disposable.” – from The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Image from Icke’s live show denoting ‘Rothschild Zionist’ Rham Emmanuel (a Jew) as the Obama puppeteer.

“There may appear to be different ‘sides’ but so often they are controlled and manipulated by the same force”

The above image and caption is taken from David Icke’s Guide to the Global Conspiracy in his chapter on the Jews entitled The Cruellest Hoax.  The illustration appears to be an amalgam of Jew portrayed as Devil, as per medieval antisemitism, whilst simultaneously pulling the strings of humanity. It gives a reasonable indication of how deep into antisemitic theory Icke is. Further reading in the same chapter gives more clues:

“Satanism is at the heart of everything the leaders of the (Rothschild) family do and one of their sources of esoteric influence and ‘magic’  is the Kabbalah.”

Back to Icke’s live show; going through the current the Elders of Zion (Rothschild Zionists) he indicts them for everything from wars to terrorism to climate change.

Climate change.

Is he really blaming the Jews for the weather?

Well, he is a British antisemite.

And speaking of Blighty…

Wembley Arena 2010

Even Ed Miliband (Jewish himself) who wanted to recognise the state of Palestine, is constructed as one of the malevolent ‘Rothschild Zionists’.

To begin his section on Rothschild Zionism Icke declares… “What I’m about to say now, virtually no one else (is touching) there are some, and some of them are characters I wouldn’t like to spend an evening with…”

That’s because they’re Nazis aren’t they Dave?

You silly sausage.

ROTHSCHILD SOUP

Icke’s obsession with the Rothschild conspiracy is longstanding, it is a conspiracy that has been used to indict Jews for over 200 years.

1940 Goebbels produced Nazi propaganda film used to incite the German populace against the Jews.

But its not just a couple of evil Jewish bankers that Icke’s interested in…

“Hundred’s of thousands of Rothschild offspring, most of them produced  in sperm bank breeding programmes to ensure that the genetic ‘purity’ is both maintained and expanded.” – David Icke’s Guide to the Global Conspiracy

“The administrators, who will be their advisers (will be) specialists bred and reared from early childhood to rule the affairs of the world.” – from The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion

Holocaust Denial

Icke has been promoting Holocaust denial since the late 90’s, losing a publishing deal as a result. His website is teeming with links to far-right websites, including to the Institute of Historical Review (IHR)  a beacon of the international Holocaust denial movement with numerous links to Neo-Nazi organisations. He has promoted James Bacque’s book: Other Losses. He has supported notorious Holocaust denier Ernest Zundel – though Icke claims to do so only in support of free speech. Although as the Critical Thinking website wryly observes… “one would imagine however that a more worthy symbol (of free speech) could be found than a pro-Nazi propagandist who has appeared at a trial in a concentration camp uniform and who has disseminated stickers such as “Holocaust teaching is Child Abuse”.

In his self-published And The Truth Shall Set You Free Icke has denounced the Nuremberg trials as a ‘farce’ and “a calculated exercise in revenge and manipulation”. He continues… “why do we play a part in suppressing alternative information to the official line of the Second World War? How is it right that while this fierce suppression goes on, free copies of the Spielberg film, Schindler’s List, are given to schools to indoctrinate children with the unchallenged version of events.”

David Icke insists he is not a Holocaust denier.

“I am not a Holocaust denier. I have never denied the Holocaust” said David Icke

Although his website tells a different story.

In July a concerned Jewish resident of Manchester tweeted The Lowry Hotel and asked them why they were hosting a Holocaust denier and linked to a page on his website which talks about “the alleged persecution of the Jews” and the “fake Jewish Holocaust narrative.” Above these words it is emblazoned “BY DAVID.” Now I’m not claiming to be Agatha Christie but I would think it reasonable to deduct from this that David Icke is a Holocaust denier.

The Lowry Hotel swiftly cancelled his show, followed by venues in Sheffield and Liverpool. The Manchester Evening News and ITV.com immediately picked up on the story. Within an hour they were threatened by Icke’s legal team and removed the article.

Icke’s get out clause is that the words are not his. He simply quotes and links to other websites – usually far-right websites – which leaves him clear from charges of Holocaust denial. Ironically the page on his website mentioned above is filed under the section ‘MIND CONTROL AND POLITICAL MANIPULATION.’

But seriously…

There is some truly sickening, blood-curdling stuff on Icke’s website which is frequented by many thousands of people. As a couple of examples: Icke in his own words calls Elie Weisel a “Holocaust Fraud” (I have archived the link here should it mysteriously vanish.) On this post he simply links to a genuine article from the Jewish Telegraph Agency where 81 year old Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel – still alive at the time – gave a speech in Hungary warning of the dangers of Holocaust denial and the rising popularity of antisemitic publications.

To put this into some kind of perspective: Wiesel was an inmate at Buchenwald and Auschwitz – taken from his home with his family and deported to the camps – this story told in his book Night won him the Nobel prize for literature. On his arrival to the camps his mother and younger sister were immediately led away to the ovens. “I told him that I did not believe that they could burn people in our age, that humanity would never tolerate it…” He watched his father slowly die in agony from dysentery.

“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky. Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever.”

David Icke’s Own Words

“To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.” ― Elie Wiesel, Night

Another example, from many, is a story on his website entitled World Jewish Congress Approves Resolution Calling for Criminalising Holocaust Denial under which – again in his own words – he writes…

“The arrogance of these people knows no bounds. What about the Palestinian holocaust? The Native American holocaust? The Cambodian holocaust? And all the holocausts instigated by Rothschild Zionism? You know what they call ‘anti-Semitic’ most of all? The truth.” (my emphasis)

Under these words hang the link where you can ‘read more’ which connects the user to what looks like a Neo-Nazi blog called The Ugly Truth which has the charming tagline – “Intelligent ‘anti-Semitism’ for thinking Gentiles”  and this image:

 

Icke probably wouldn’t put an image like that directly on his site but deliberately directs his followers to other sites that do. And Icke goes further than Holocaust denial. As with the image above it is Jews who are responsible for the Holocaust. In short, the bad Jews killed the good Jews.

“I strongly believe that a small Jewish clique which has contempt for the mass of Jewish people worked with non-Jews to create the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the Second World War.” – And The Truth Shall Set You Free, David Icke

Icke promotes the Khazar Hoax theory – that 90-95% of Jews (Ashkenazi Jews) originate form the Khazar region rather than the Middle East. (some people have to pass the time I guess) He quotes Jack Bernstein in his book “Regarding the tie between the elite Ashkenazi Jews and the Nazis, take a look at the word ‘Ashkenazi’ – look again – ‘AshkeNAZI.’ interesting isn’t it?”

(They thought you’d never figure it out)

This is what David Icke is promoting. Hardcore, Nazi-strength antisemitism. If you see people sharing David Icke stuff this is what they are mixed up in. And yet Icke can threaten publications with legal action for calling him a Holocaust denier.

The antisemites are winning.

Isreal and Antizionism

This meme and many like it pour out of David Icke’s twitter feed daily. This particular image is a good distillation of old antisemitism dressed up as modern anti-Israel propaganda – the all-seeing omnipotent Jew operating in the shadows. Antisemitism has always painted it’s victims as superior rather than inferior unlike most other forms of racism. It is one of the main reasons why it has been so effective throughout history.

Antisemitic image used by Icke showing Israeli Prime Minister as the archetypal string pulling Jew behind all the world’s problems: in this case Syria, ISIS and the Paris attacks.

A David Icke meme common in both far-right and far-left circles claiming ISIS is Israel’s creation.

When Israel becomes responsible for all wars and global terrorism it safely exceeds what is commonly known in the trade as ‘legitimate criticism of Israel’, the Jewish state becoming in essence the world’s Jew.

Apparently, one of the reasons why you can be sure that Israel is behind ISIS is that they haven’t attacked Israel itself. Not only is that not true but one would think with limitless power and predatory deceptive skills they would be capable of staging a ‘false flag’ in Israel itself and blaming it on ISIS… or how about just hiding the word Nazi properly guys?  But let us leave aside the plot holes of this tedious drama.

Cephalopods

1938 antisemitic Nazi cartoon

These are classic antisemitic images of the Jew as an Octopus, in control of the world. The above image is a Nazi cartoon published in 1938 – an image used in the German publication of the Protocols. (note the blood seeping from the wounded earth echoing the Blood Libel)

A similar image from early 20th century American antisemitic propaganda depicting Jewish infiltration of New York City’s Tammany Hall as part of their quest to take over the City.

A similar antisemitic cannard from the American edition of the Protocols ‘The International Jew: the World’s Problem” this time incorporating the Rothschild conspiracy.

Contemporary antisemitic image used by David Icke showing the Octopus smothering the White House. With this image there is one striking difference; the letter ‘Z’ has been slapped on the Star of David. Icke and other antisemites thus defend it as criticism of Zionism and not Jews.

They know what they are doing. Same shit. Repackaged with a ‘Z’ on it.

(Thank you to Lee ‘budgie’ Barnett for the above examples.)

This image of Jews controlling Hollywood is an offshoot of the antisemitic epithet about Jewish media control explicit in the Protocols.  In his live show Icke says “Rothschild Zionists control the media and Hollywood, don’t take my word for it…” and then goes on to quote a satirical humour column from Joel Stein.

A close look at the image again shows the Star of Davids in the Hollwood sign and just visible on the horizon is the Israeli flag; inserted to evade charges of antisemitism.

Blood Libel

A closer look at the red carpet of Jewish controlled Hollywood reveals the blood and inside the blood are what look like the victims of a Holocaust.

Make no mistake this is real extremism; given a pass because Icke is seen as a likeable fool rather than the dangerous hate preacher he really is. Racist propaganda has real-life consequences no matter how it is dressed up and repackaged. Antisemitism is an ever mutating virus.  With three terrorist plots foiled on Jewish premises in Britain, two Kosher shops firebombed in Manchester two months ago, antisemitic incidents up by a third last year and Jews shot dead because they were Jews in Toulouse, Paris and Copenhagen in the last few years we should take what David Icke is saying very seriously. Millions of people watch these videos – it incites people to hurt Jews in the same way that the EDL crew incite people to hurt Muslims with only one difference…

Could you imagine the leader of the EDL or Nick Griffin hiring a venue and speaking to 3000 people wihout so much of a murmur of protest from anti-racists?

There is a different rule for Jews.

Replace the word Jew with Zionist and you can get away with it. Sadly this is also damaging the pro-Palestinian cause where the refrain of ‘antizionism is not antisemitism’ is often played on a loop. Antizionism needn’t be antisemitism but unfortunately some of it is. The accusation of ‘conflation’ is constantly levelled at Jews rather than at people like Icke which is counter-productive to what is a righteous cause.

This is why most British Jews, myself included, feel completely abandoned by the anti-racist movement. This largely has to do with anger at the policies of the Israeli government but in turn this opens up a space for real antisemites to preach ancient anti-Jewish hatred in this new guise and get away with it.

Images above used by Icke’s to demonstrate ‘Zionist’ influence. I must give credit to Icke’s illustrator David Dees, ever thorough with his attention to antisemitic detail, who once again pays homage to the blood libel, shown by the red goo oozing from the Whitehouse.

“Jewish people (who, like the rest of us, are evolving consciousnesses which happen to be experiencing a Jewish lifetime), will never be free until they step out of the mental and emotional control of this tiny clique, which uses them in the most merciless ways to advance its own sick and diabolical ambitions” – David Icke

Well that’s good to know.

Following Icke’s sold out 12-hour lecture at the Apollo in Manchester in January 2017, The Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) had the novel idea of asking Icke’s followers – who attended the show – whether they believed there were any antisemitic themes expressed therein. David Icke dutifully obliged and placed their request on his website.

Below is a small sample of the responses:

“Just because he believes a Jewish elite run the world doesn’t make him an antisemite.”

“May I recommend you read a book called ‘The falsification of history’ by John Hamer. Here you will find documented and remembered proof about the Hitler myth. (I am NOT a neo-Nazi, by the way, before you start accusing me of causing all the s*** the ‘Jews’ bring on themselves for self pity. Check it out, they even have a word for it.) There’s a great video on YouTube called ‘Adolf Hitler – the greatest story NEVER told’

“Mr Icke did indeed mention the Rothschild Zionists and global elite who are factually running things in this world. He also gave proof of this in his presentation. More and more people understand what the Rothschild Zionists have done to the world.”

“It is my understanding that he believes, upon conducting extensive unbiased research, a group of Zionists control the media, many political decisions that affect us all. How is that antisemitic?”

David Icke’s argument is one of free speech. And thankfully he has it. In Britain a person can virtually say what they like as long as it doesn’t incite violence. Icke has the freedom to make videos and write whatever he wishes on his website. But if you owned a venue would you be happy enabling him to not only spout this stuff but profit from it financially?

Three dates for his upcoming book launch – which includes The Troxy in London. It promises… “A 30-minute discussion between David Icke and Richie Allen on the explosive content of the book… The book is destined to go down in history as one of the most controversial ever written (even for David Icke) and it’s not to be missed.” – tickets – which include dinner – are priced at £90.

It is worth noting that the only country which refused to host Icke for his world tour in 2016 was Germany; where both of his shows in Stuggart and Berlin, were cancelled.

Jan Rathje of the Amadeu Antonio Stiftung, an NGO that tracks racism in Germany, welcomed the cancellation of the German events. “David Icke has a lot of influence on the conspiracy ideological scene, especially through the anti-Semitism he spreads, which appeals to people in Germany because it offers some relief from the guilt of German crimes against humanity in the Holocaust,” he told DW. “David Icke denies the Holocaust, and I think that’s more important than focusing on the fact that he sees reptilians in power behind everything,” Rathje added.

It’s almost as if the Germans don’t want a messiah type figure peddling antisemitic theory to large arenas of brainwashed people.

For the life of me I can’t figure out why.

The Richie Allen Show

For the discerning Icke-ist their daily fix is delivered via internet radio programme The Richie Allen Show. Available on numerous platforms it boasts of being ‘Europe’s No.1 independent radio station’. It has 50000 subscribers and all episodes are available as podcasts and many are on Youtube. The show sprang from the embers of now defunct internet TV show The People’s Voice which Icke founded. Allen is Icke’s protege, plying his trade at Fab Radio International in Manchester, broadcasting six times a week.

On the show nothing is taboo. As long as you are a conspiracist you get an easy ride from the presenter who claims his guests come on to ‘debate’ but as yet – and I’ve listened to hours of the stuff – I am yet to hear anything approaching real debate. To head off any potential criticism Allen often states ‘I’m just asking questions’  but as this is Icke-ism so many of the questions seem to be about those bloody Jews.

On the 27th January 2016 The Richie Allen show hosted ‘friend of the show’ Nick Kollerstrom – one of Britain’s leading and most extreme Holocaust deniers – on to discuss his book Breaking The Spell: Myth and Reality of the Holocaust

Kollerstrom said:

“The number of Jews who died I would put an absolute ceiling on 200,000… there’s no trace of any extermination policy, no trace of any scorn or contempt towards for example Jews in the camps… I think Jewish people should very happy to hear that their ancestors didn’t go into big gas chambers and that the deadly Nazi Cyanide chambers killed bugs and not people and they had clothing put into them and not human beings, they should be glad and happy to be told that. I would recommend that people discuss the function of the German Labour camps without harping too much on the Jews they were only a minority of the people there… it was quite a multi-cultural experience.”

The 27th January is Holocaust Memorial Day.

It is glaringly obvious from the interview that Kollerstrom is also a Nazi sympathiser. When he says “the real Holocaust was perpetrated on the Germans” it is a bit of a giveaway. When half-challenged by Allen who put it to him that the Nazi’s ‘were bastards’ Kollerstrom replied “I prefer to look at the science.” – this was not followed up by the presenter.

(It never is)

Richie Allen and David Icke are currently supporting and hosting Alison Chabloz, a Neo-Nazi who writes songs mocking Holocaust survivors. She is currently being prosecuted for hate speech. You’ll often hear Chabloz on Aryan Radio (if that’s your thing) but as Richie Allen is quick to point out, lest anyone think her an antisemite, her Holocaust denial ditties are simply “satirical songs.”

A sample of Alison’s ‘satire’:

I saw them taking babies and then tearing them in two
And creepy Dr Mengele he removed my tattoo
They tried to turn my brown eyes blue
Make lampshades from my skin
For months I swallowed diamonds
And shat them out again.

Come on, my brother
Tell us another
Story for cover
Of tribal gain
Safe in our tower
Now is the hour
Money and power
We have no shame

Let’s cheat and lie on film
No one suspects a thing
Bigger the lie is better for us!
Every fake survivor
Every fake survivor’s laughing
Fake survivors’ tongues are wagging
All us frauds are busy blagging
Spin and yarn there’ll be no gagging
You shall pay
All the way
Every night and day!

My name is Elie Wiesel may I show you my tattoo
[Talks … “Oh … Where’s it gone?”]
I wrote a book for US kids to study while at school
It’s full of nonsense tales of course
What do you all expect?
But it made me very wealthy 
As a liar I’m the best

The presenter himself is not as extreme a Holocaust denier as Chabloz and Kollerstrom but he does practice his own version of ‘soft-core’ denial or minimisation. He says he believes the Nazis were ‘maniacal’ but continues, “I have massive massive problems with the numbers (of Jewish dead) how they would have done it and I have massive problems with the teaching of the narrative to generations of children throughout the world”
On Holocaust Memorial Day he described the plans for a permanent Holocaust memorial in London as ‘sinister.’

Coming up next on The Richie Allen Show we’ll be discussing rampant paedophilia in the Jewish community.

If only that was satire.

American website Right Wing Watch commented on a recent episode in which Liz Cronin was a guest:

“Recently, Crokin appeared on The Richie Allen Show to discuss the current Hollywood sexual abuse scandals. After nearly an hour of attempting to avoid the host’s persistent efforts to link the scandals to Jews, Crokin eventually stopped resisting the anti-Semitic undercurrent of the discussion and found a way to link the death of Rich to the supposed problem of “rampant” paedophilia within the Jewish community.”

“Paedophilia is rampant within the Jewish religion, from what I’ve researched,” Crokin said. “I’ve also discovered that predators prey on children at Jewish camps. Now, it is interesting how paedophilia has been exposed within the Catholic church but there hasn’t been a huge scandal about the paedophilia that goes on within the Jewish community. We do know that the Jews control most of the mainstream media and Hollywood, so you’re probably on to something with that.”

Richard Bartholomew also notes on The Richie Allen Show:  “Conspiracy-mongers from left and right are apparently equally welcome, although the vibe is more ‘left alternative”’than right-wing fringe.”

Richie Allen describes himself as a ‘former socialist’ with a previous empathy for the SWP, he claims to be in close contact with trade unionists in Manchester, speaks of ‘our friends on the left’ when in conversation with The Canary’s Kerry-Anne Mendoza and was possibly involved with the Occupy movement.

Conspiracism can often act as a conduit for ideas to be passed from the far-right to far-left and whereas Icke has been in close proximity to far-right isolationists in America and in Britain Combat 18 – who once heralded his work – these days Icke’s output has much more traction on the radical, libertarian left.

A comment left by a former political scientist on my previous Icke post is quite revealing:

“I have been reading Icke’s website and his fora for some time. A few years ago at an interfaith meeting in London where the guest speaker was a barrister who had written a book about antisemitism, I was laughed at by the audience when I mentioned Icke and the dangers he poses. Even then I could see that the demagogue was attracting large post 9/11 audiences eager for someone to ‘make sense of events’. The barrister dismissed Icke as a crackpot who would not gain traction. However, I had visited the Occupy camp at St. Paul’s cathedral and saw the sheer number of people engaging with Icke’s followers. The menacing antisemitism was there both explicitly and coded.”

Correspondingly the most vitriol for my previous post on Icke came from the Occupy Movement which appears to be Icke’s core fanbase. The reaction on their Facebook page reveals that not only does Icke have real traction in these circles but his supporters eschew much of his spiritual battery, particularly the reptilian meme. (To sum up, he may be wrong about the lizards but he’s right about the ‘Zionists’) This is concurrent with what Icke is actually peddling. Scroll down his twitter feed. You won’t see a lizard. Not even a scale.

What will you will find is the full battery of anti-Western, anti-American, anti-Zionist, anti-semitic, anti-capitalist, anti-modernity, anti-EU, anti-Nato, pro-Assad, pro-Iran and pro-Putin propaganda: all seductive ideologies in many parts of the left – a part which has grown significantly in the last two years as Corbynism has brought radical, fringe leftists into the mainstream.

In post-Brexit post-truth Britain we write off fringe ideas at our peril. It would be unthinkable a decade ago for Icke to be this engaged in mainstream politics but let’s face it, the world has gone a bit Icke. His output for the last couple of years largely emanates from Russia Today with plenty of links back to Iranian state broadcaster Press TV. With these outlets being avowedly anti-western and a hotbed of conspiracy theory it is a natural fit for Icke and Allen’s paranoid fare.

These days of fake news and alternative facts have been a boon for cranks like Icke. On a recent video after the Manchester and London terror attacks he remarked at how pleasantly surprised and encouraged he was to see how many people were questioning the official version of events.

Right now the conspiracists are winning.

Icke has always been an entrepreneur so perhaps he wishes not to scare away a whole host of potential new customers by banging on about lizards.

Or maybe there is enough madness occurring in real politics to keep him occupied.

As ever the truth will probably lie somewhere in between.

***This post is the first in a series of three. (I know, you can’t wait.)

---

 

“I go into the Protocols because they’re very very important… don’t let people tell you what to do and what to read. If you give them a read, you can get them on Amazon, read them dispassionately and look at the world and how it’s been manipulated over the last hundred years. They mirror each other.” – David Icke, 2014