By, Jennifer Lipman
1 min read
ByJennifer Lipman, Jennifer Lipman
An antisemitic writer who has been described by anti-Fascist campaigners as a Holocaust denier is believed to be working as a Russian distributor for WikiLeaks.
Israel Shamir, a Swedish resident who also uses the names Jöran Jermas and Adam Ermash, has been identified as the WikiLeaks staff member responsible for choosing which leaked documents are distributed in Russia.
It is also claimed that his journalist son Johannes Wahlström, known to share some of Mr Shamir’s views and previously criticised for faking reports, works for WikiLeaks in Scandinavia.
Yulia Latynina, a journalist for the Moscow Times, accused Mr Shamir of falsifying a cable about collusion in the international response to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at the United Nations, and feeding it to the Russian press.
Mr Shamir previously called Ahmadinejad a “brave and charismatic leader” on his personal website
Siberian-born Mr Shamir, who was born Jewish but has renounced his religion, claims on his website to have served in the Israeli army during the Yom Kippur War. He is described by anti-Fascist organisation Hope Not Hate as a “professional anti-Zionist” who publishes “rabid Holocaust denial material on his website”.
According to the magazine Searchlight Mr Shamir once described BNP leader Nick Griffin as an “anti-bourgeois nationalist.”
He has worked for Zavtra, a notoriously antisemitic Russian publication and has written of his belief in the blood libel on his own website.
After White House correspondent Helen Thomas was fired for her antisemitic remarks, Mr Shamir condemned “the madness of organised Jewish outrage.”
He wrote: “Might not this unique Jewish ability to become outraged be connected with that other Jewish ability, of becoming rich?”
In 2005 the Labour peer Lord Ahmed invited Mr Shamir to address a meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the House of Lords.
At the event Mr Shamir referred to several conspiracy theories about Jewish influence, including the suggestion that Zionist control UK newspapers and the UK’s political parties had been infiltrated by Zionists.
He said: “Jews indeed own, control and edit a big share of mass media” and added that the Middle East policy of the US and Britain was driven by the “fight for ensuring Jewish supremacy.”
