Nigel Farage under fire over 'antisemitic tropes' on
far-right US talkshow
Exclusive: Brexit party leader referred to ‘new world order’
in interviews with Alex Jones
How Farage adapted his voice to Infowars’ toxic worldview
Peter Walker Political correspondent
@peterwalker99
Mon 6 May 2019 18.00 BST Last modified on Mon 6 May 2019
20.06 BST
Nigel Farage is facing strong criticism from Jewish
organisations and a series of other groups after it emerged he repeatedly took
part in interviews with a far-right US talkshow host, during which the Brexit
party leader openly discussed conspiracy theories, some of which have been
linked to antisemitism.
A Guardian investigation has found Farage has appeared at
least six times on the show of Alex Jones, who was sued by bereaved parents
after claiming a US school shooting was faked, and was banned permanently from
Facebook last week.
Among those condemning Farage include a father whose
six-year-old son died in the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting, and a man whose
son died in the London bombings on 7 July 2005, which Jones has claimed were a government
plot.
Farage, who led Ukip for many years, quit the party last
year because he said he disliked its hard-right, anti-Islam stance under Gerard
Batten. However, the website that Jones fronts, Infowars, regularly features
anti-Islam stories.
In his various appearances on Jones’s show, Farage discussed
themes commonly associated with an antisemitic conspiracy theory that Jewish
financiers are behind a plot to replace nation states with a global government.
In the six identified interviews, which date from 2009 to
last year, Farage, whose Brexit party is leading polls for the upcoming
European elections, repeatedly uses words and phrases such as “globalists” and
“new world order”, which regularly feature in antisemitic ideas.
In the interviews, Farage also says:
Members of the annual Bilderberg gathering of political and
business leaders are plotting a global government.
The banking and political systems are working “hand in
glove” in an attempt to disband nation states.
“Globalists” are trying to engineer a world war as a means
to introduce a worldwide government.
Climate change is a “scam” intended to push forward this
transnational government.
In the most recent interview, filmed in April last year,
Farage said the EU is “the prototype for the new world order”, and “globalists
have wanted to have some form of conflict with Russia as an argument for us all
to surrender our national sovereignty and give it up to a higher global level”.
In an earlier interview with Jones, who is also banned from
Twitter, Farage mentions Bilderberg, saying: “These lunatics genuinely believe
that they know what’s best for us, genuinely believe in this concept of global
government, and it will be a disaster.”
Later in the same interview, from June 2010, Farage argues
Bilderberg members, along with other supposed plotters, could soon start
“censoring and maybe ultimately even imprisoning those who challenge them and
fight them”.
A spokesman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews said:
“It is vital that our politicians distance themselves from conspiracy theories
and conspiracy theorists, including those who trade in antisemitic tropes. We
would call on Nigel Farage to repudiate these ideas and to commit not to
dignify oddball nasties like Alex Jones with his presence again.”
The Community Security Trust, which monitors antisemitic
sentiment, said Jones was “a notorious conspiracy theorist who should be beyond
the pale for any mainstream politician”.
A spokesman said: “Furthermore, for Jones’s conspiracy-minded
audience, Farage’s references to ‘globalists’ and ‘new world order’ will be
taken as familiar codewords for antisemitic conspiracy theories.”
A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said Farage’s
close links with Jones and Infowars “demonstrates a serious lack of judgment by
Mr Farage and a willingness to tolerate Islamophobia”.
The Labour MP David Lammy said the interviews showed
“serious questions should be asked about Farage’s associations and networks”.
He added: “His indulgence in conspiracy theories about a
‘new world order’ should send chills down the spine of all who are aware of how
these tropes have been used in the past.”
Graham Foulkes, whose 22-year-old son, David, was among 52
people killed by Islamist attackers on 7 July 2005, said he was aghast at
Farage’s decision to be interviewed by Jones so many times.
“It fills you with despair that such a high-profile
politician could even consider giving people like that the time of day,” he
said. “It’s hard to understand. There can be no rational motivation to speak to
people who are, shall we say, in need of help.”
Lenny Pozner, whose six-year-old son, Noah, was the youngest
of 26 people shot dead at Sandy Hook, has sued Jones for saying the massacre
was faked. In a recent legal deposition, Jones said he had argued this because
of “psychosis”.
In a statement to the Guardian, Pozner said such a
conspiracy theory “doesn’t simply affect me or other victims of mass casualty
events”.
He added: “When people in positions of authority or
influence consume, perpetrate and regurgitate conspiracy theories, they
legitimise the lie, they normalise the hate and build policy that affects every
citizen on this planet.”
Farage and the Brexit party were contacted for comment.
April 2018
April 2018
Jones: “Why is the left allied with radical Islam?”
Farage: “Because they hate Christianity. They deny,
absolutely, our Judeo-Christian culture, which if you think about it actually
are the roots, completely, of our nations and our civilisation. They deny that.
They also want to abolish the nation state – they want to get rid of it. They
want to replace it with the globalist project, and the European Union is the
prototype for the new world order.”
August 2016
Farage: “If America, as the leader of the western world,
once again becomes the leader of the free world, well then I think, basically,
we will have done away with the globalists.”
November 2012
Farage: “The fact is that the banking system and politics
became hand in glove – one and the same thing. And that’s been a complete
disaster. The amazing thing is, we have had elected prime ministers in Greece
and Italy removed by the bully boy bureaucrats and replaced by former Goldman
Sachs employees. You honestly cannot believe what is going on.”
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June 2010
Farage: “You mention yourself the Bilderberg group – these
lunatics genuinely believe that they know what’s best for us, genuinely believe
in this concept of global government, and it will be a disaster.”
February 2010
Farage: “Yes, it all fits together, doesn’t it? Hand in glove
– the big businesses, the bureaucrats, they have the sole right to make laws.
It all fits together. They’re all very happy with the world they’re creating.”
December 2009
Farage: “We have a political class across the world that are
basically aiming for a form of global governance. If you don’t believe me, look
at what’s happening in Copenhagen. Governments are sitting there trying to sign
us up to treaties on a very, very questionable concept of global warming caused
by C02 emissions.”
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