Labour donor goads Pro-Palestine demo to come and attack him

Right, so to possibly no surprise whatsoever, very rich pro Israel businessmen have been donating heavily to the Labour Party since Rishi Sunak called the snap General Election, which finally culminates tomorrow, but as should always come with big donations to major parties, we should always ask ourselves what they are donating for, what are they getting in return and in who’s interests are they acting? As far as the case implied in this video title, well, just check out the next bit of footage as to the conduct of one particular donor, who has just handed Keir Starmer’s party over half a million pounds and ask yourself in who’s interest he’s acting because, frankly it’s pretty obvious and is a dead giveaway as to the direction Labour will be taking on such matters.
Right, so quite something that wasn’t it? Boo me, attack me, you murdered children, you murdered grandparents, this is not the time to be doing this, it’s like another pogrom, it should not be allowed, go back, I’m allowed to tell you what I think, you’re standing there, hundreds of you, I’m on my own, you like that don’t you, innocent people unable to protect themselves, are you going to murder me he said to one little old woman as a police officer appeared to be admonishing her, rather than the very loud shouty man berating her, claiming he isn’t allowed to speak despite very much appearing to be the one doing any speaking, everyone else just peacefully stood by or indeed booed him.
That folks, was Stuart Roden, at Labour Conference in Liverpool last October, so in the aftermath of the night of October 7th, telling people what he thinks they shouldn’t be allowed to do, attacking people standing in support of the innocent Palestinian lives lost as he refers to the demonstrators themselves as murders of innocent people and given that he gave Keir Starmer’s very much pro Israel Labour Party £570,000 following Rishi Sunak announcing the date of the General Election, with views like his, what exactly is he paying Labour all that money for? What has he won in return for it, or is Starmer just so pro Israel he figures its just money well spent to get someone like him into power? Well goodness knows that we know Starmer won’t turn down donations or freebies of any kind, it now having come out that he’s racked up something like £76,000 worth of hand-outs and perks, Roden might not be far wrong in such thinking, if that is indeed his thinking, but his conduct there is something else and really does beg the question of what a Starmer run country is going to look like taking money from the likes of him.
Stuart Roden is, you’ll be shocked to hear, very pro Israel. He is amongst he 500 wealthiest people in the UK and in 2018 he set up Hetz Ventures, based in Tel Aviv, with two business partners, former Conservative Party chairman and David Cameron’s tennis partner Lord Feldman and a London born former IDF soldier, Israeli special forces soldier no less, called Judah Taub. Taub incidentally, has served 111 days in the Israeli reserves in Gaza since October 7th according to the excellent investigative reporting once more of Declassified UK, who have quoted him as saying that doing so was ‘a privilege rather than a burden.’ What a delightful chap.
Where people have fundraised and donated aid, where aid agencies have risked their lives trying to get supplies into Gaza to help people there, Hetz, have been volunteering for the Israeli war effort, with food packing, donations and farming.
Roden himself was not shy about speaking to the press in the immediate aftermath of October 7th, talking of the IDF doing it’s best to avoid civilian casualties. He actually spoke to them on the 12th October last year, after his disgraceful antics caught on film there, saying that, even if Israel does come back with an aggressive response, it’s priority must be to protect it’s borders. 1500 Gazans had already been killed by that point and of course the death toll now sits in excess of 37,000 Gazans. So his antics and his interview have not aged well.
Completely unconnected of course, Roden was vehemently anti Jeremy Corbyn, a well known advocate for the two state solution, for Palestinians rights, Roden celebrates the fact Starmer has changed the party and clearly he has, Israel has never enjoyed more influence it seems and pro Israeli money has flowed into Labour Party coffers, not to mention the fact the it was the Israel Lobby who financed Starmer’s leadership campaign and put him where he is today, he is a man who owes them everything and they’re actions then are about to deliver him into Number 10 now it seems.
According to Declassified UK, Roden is also a major funder of a Zionist education initiative called I-gnite, a somewhat unfortunate name to my mind given what they’ve done in Gaza both in recent months and historically along with in the West Bank, which aims to support students, teachers and parents in Britain to find their voice when discussing Israel and antisemitism. As long as you’re not a critic of Israel in anyway I presume? That goes without saying would you not say?
That program is chaired by Dana Brass, who is a former director of the pro Israel media monitoring group Just Journalism, which has close ties to the Douglas Murray founded neo conservative think tank the Henry Jackson Society.
Amongst various claims by I-gnite, have been arguments that Hamas were placing weapons in schools, hospitals and mosques therefore they would have been legitimate military targets. They have claimed that calling Israel and apartheid state, is offensive, false and an insult to the many black people who died in apartheid South Africa, I’d suggest having that argument with a member of the South African government or legal team who have accused Israel precisely of apartheid and genocide and dragged your sorry backsides to The Hague over it. And they also argue against Israel being colonial, on the basis that you cannot occupy the land your ancestors are from and that this dehumanises Jews. I’ll point you back to the apartheid practiced as to what constitutes dehumanisation thanks.
Roden’s donation here brings his total donations to Labour since 2023 past the £1m mark, both directly funding the party and donations to both Shadow Education Minister Bridget Phillipson and Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, Lisa Nandy.
It should also be pointed out that Roden isn’t even the biggest pro Israel donor to Starmer’s outfit either. I’ve covered another chap, Gary Lubner before, a man who has via his family’s business interests in apartheid South Africa amassed vast wealth too and I can’t imagine what drew him to be pro Israel as well in light of that. He has given Starmer’s party £900,000 since the General Election was called, bringing his donations to Labour since Starmer became leader up to around £6m. Starmer’s rival in Holborn & St Pancras, Andrew Feinstein, himself a former South African MP and Jewish, the son of Holocaust survivors, said in a Declassified UK excerpt:
‘Andrew Feinstein, an independent candidate standing against the Labour leader in Holborn and St Pancras, told Declassified: “It’s absolutely appalling and indefensible that Keir Starmer is taking millions of pounds from pro-Israel lobbyists.
“Between Gary Lubner and Stuart Roden we’re talking about over £1.5m to fight this election, from two people whose primary interest would appear to be protecting Israel from criticism”.
Feinstein, the son of a Holocaust survivor, fears these donations could deter Starmer from speaking out over Gaza, where Labour has not demanded an arms embargo or unqualified ceasefire.
He added: “It is because of massive donations like this from incredibly wealthy individuals that today Britain has the best democracy money can buy.
“It is for this reason that we must stop Keir Starmer becoming prime minister, and we must get money out of our politics – because our politicians represent the interests of their super-rich donors rather than their constituents.”’
He’s not wrong. What Labour stands for in power, seems set to be whatever donors are prepared to pay for. That isn’t a party or a government that will work in our interests, or even possibly in the national interest, when vested interests for another state entirely are coughing up such vast sums. What are they paying for? Well if Labour wins a majority following tomorrows elections, I daresay we’ll soon find out.
Meanwhile, here’s a video recommendation where I covered more about Gary Lubner and his track record, his son incidentally is now chair of Young Labour, amazing coincidence that isn’t it? And I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.