What
really concerns people is that he hasn't lain low
and is playing this peculiar media game. An apology
from him for the adverse publicity the party has
suffered would be welcome
London, Friday, December 6, 2007 David Abrahams
gave in secret 'to quell conspiracy
fears' By Leon Symons and the JC
Reporting Team LABOUR
donor David Abrahams (right) has made
clear to the JC where he thinks the blame lies for
the events that put him at the centre of a major
political scandal alongside Jon Mendelsohn,
a former colleague at Labour Friends of Israel and
now Gordon Brown's fundraiser. From his £1 million apartment overlooking
London's Regents Park, he lashed out at those he
claimed had blackened his name simply for giving
money to a cause close to his heart. He also claimed that he had made his donations
secretly so as to avoid accusations of his being
part of a "Jewish conspiracy". Of the row surrounding 19 anonymous donations
made through third parties, Mr Abrahams told the
JC: "A lot of this is character
assassination, conjecture and speculation.
The Daily Telegraph was saying that the
money was not mine and that it came from Israel.
That was patently untrue. My accountant has
recently done my books and it was all there. The
money was earned legitimately through hard work
and it was totally wrong to say that it came
from Israel."Some of the things written about me have
been terrible. Now they are saying there was a
Jewish conspiracy, with Lord Levy, Jon
Mendelsohn and me, and that is ridiculous. "The real reason I wanted to remain anonymous
was that I didn't want Jewish money and the
Labour Party being put together because this is
what I feared would happen. People would say
there's a Jewish conspiracy. I didn't come into
Labour just to give them money. I give money to
many good causes, to Jewish charities, not just
to Labour." As for Jon Mendelsohn, the Prime Minister's
chief fundraiser, the Newcastle-born property
developer said: "The letter that Jon Mendelsohn
sent [asking for a meeting with Mr
Abrahams] was totally confidential. Mendelsohn
was a fool and politically naïve to slag me
off because he didn't want me in Labour Friends of
Israel. I was the treasurer and I had been a member
for some years. When he became chairman, he thought
he might have opposition. "He tried to alienate me from my own
organisation that I had helped to build up. He
slagged me off over it and that's why I released
the letter. If the government starts hammering me,
then it might take one or two dirty turns there as
well." Mr Abrahams and Mr Mendelsohn were both involved
with LFI, Mr Mendelsohn as chairman and Mr Abrahams
as a donor. Sources in the community have suggested
that the pair did not get on because Mr Mendelsohn
wanted to imbue LFI with a more modern approach to
its lobbying role, whereas Mr Abrahams preferred
more traditional methods. Mr Abrahams had been a regular visitor to LFI
stands at Labour events and his family were said to
have been long-standing supporters. The furore surrounding both men began when the
Mail on Sunday revealed that Mr Abrahams had
used third parties to conceal donations amounting
to more than £600,000. Mr Mendelsohn became embroiled after he admitted
he had known of the arrangement, which broke
electoral law, for at least two months. The JC has
seen the letter to Mr Abrahams from Mr Mendelsohn
praising him as "one of the party's strongest
supporters". Mr Abrahams also had long-standing connections
to Trade Union Friends of Israel and had been a
supporter of, though not a donor to, the
boycott-fighting Academic Friends of Israel. One Jewish Labour
activist said this week of Mr Abrahams: "What
really concerns people is that he hasn't lain
low and is playing this peculiar media game. An
apology from him for the adverse publicity the
party has suffered would be welcome." But Lady Cocks, a past director of LFI,
said: "I am always chasing people for money for
charity, but it never occurred to me to ask David,
because one would never have imagined he was rich,
or seeking any interest for himself." Mr Abrahams has not shied away from publicity.
On Tuesday night, he topped the guest list at the
Anglo-Israel Association's fundraising dinner at
the Savoy, arriving with a friend he introduced as
Catherine Zalanowska. They spent the evening at Table Number 1,
flanked by a clearly anxious Anglo-Israel official
and the Israeli ambassador's Special Branch
officer. Photographers who spent last Shabbat outside St
John's Wood Synagogue were told by a warden to
return next September -- Rosh Hashana. On Wednesday, Mr Abrahams's flat in Imperial
Court in St John's Wood, overlooking London Zoo,
was silent. Neighbours appeared surprised to learn
that he lived there, and security guards said they
had not been seen him for weeks. Mr Abrahams last week hired Martin Minns
as his spokesman. Mr Minns has a long history in
politics, which began with the Conservative Party,
as an agent then assistant campaign director at
Central Office. He left in 1992 to set up a PR
company and, during the 1997 election, defected to
the Eurosceptic Democracy Movement. In a stunt designed to warn
of what he perceived as the horrors of the euro, he
arranged in 1999 for five minimally dressed women
to have a telephone number written on their
buttocks. The number was for a phone line warning
of the euro. He has worked as an adviser on numerous
campaigns, most famously for the Paddington
Survivors Group. This led to a huge political furore when the
special adviser to then transport secretary,
Stephen Byers, tried to research Mr Minns's
background, suggesting there may have been
political motivations behind the actions of the
group.
IN the Commons on Wednesday, MP Andrew
Dismore was somewhat taken aback at the
response to a question he put to Gordon Brown
during Prime Minister's Questions. Mr Dismore wanted the Prime Minister to
acknowledge the contribution made by the British
Jewish community, to mark Chanucah.
[Website note: The
non-monetary contributions include World War I,
World War II, the war in Iraq, and other minor
blessings]. But as he began his question, he said: "Some
Tories shouted 'Lord Levy' and 'David Abrahams'
when I said the word Jewish. There were a few of
them heckling. It didn't get out of hand, it was
brief and the Speaker didn't have to intervene. "When I carried on speaking they stopped. "This just feeds the problems we have in
relations, in the way that this whole thing has
been turned into an antisemitic attack. "It's neither here nor there that they [Lord
Levy and Mr Abrahams] are Jewish, it's
irrelevant. The Prime Minister rose above
it." -
David
Irving's Books
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