When Challenged Stebbing Claimed That His Emails Were ‘Pure Irony’
I
have become used to receiving racist and anti-Semitic emails and posts. Often
my first task is to work out whether they come from neo-Nazis or Zionists (or
both). But on this occasion it seemed clear that it was the former.
At
15.36 on Sunday I received an email from Stebbing thanking me for having made
him hate Jews. Since I’d never even heard of him I assumed that this was just
another racist crank with time on his hands.
Possibly it was a neo-Nazi who took my criticism of Zionism and Israel to
mean that I was anti-Jewish.
After
all Zionists claim that to be Jewish is to be a supporter of Israel so maybe
Stebbing or whatever his real name was, had taken them at their word. Maybe it
was one of those Trump supporters who stormed
Capitol Hill wearing ‘camp Auschwitz sweat
shirts.’
My
immediate reaction was to make a complaint to the Police who quickly issued me
with a crime number. I then circulated it amongst friends, one of whom googled
the name and told me that there was a professor at Imperial College, London
with the same name.
Stebbing
then emailed me a second time with a link to a New
York Times article, which has since been discredited, alleging
that Hamas had weaponised sexual violence. I informed the Police and thought
nothing of it.
I
also circulated it to members of Brighton & Hove Palestine Solidarity
Campaign one of whom suggested that I should contact Professor Stebbing to
inform him that someone was distributing anti-Semitic emails in his name.
I therefore emailed Stebbing at 18.52 on
the 22 January to inform him that
You
will not know me though I am a well known anti-Zionist Jewish activist. I won't
even begin to (go) into the mentality of Zionists who do this kind of thing but
it is not, by any means, unique.
I have been sent the following emails in your
name. I assume that this is not you but someone impersonating you. Nonetheless
they are vile and I have reported them to the
Police in Sussex.
The
two emails I had previously circulated had come from a gmail account but the
email I received back from Professor Stebbing was from his Imperial College
email address.
You could have knocked me down with a
feather when Stebbing replied that the emails were from him and it was no
impersonation.
My e mail was pure irony, but as always here the response to the
crime is blamed. I have zero doubt that in WW2, you would have been thrilled to
gas all Jews. That was the point I was making.
I have no doubt you
understood this.
Israel gassed its own captives
Stebbing’s
emails were apparently ‘pure irony’. There was nothing at all in the first
email to suggest irony. As far as I was concerned it was mere assertion. His
second email referring to the NYT article arrived over 5 hours later.
What
he was saying was that when he said he supported gassing Jews, what he really
meant was that I did. Except that I don’t. It is Israel which at this present
time is pumping
poison gas into tunnels and killing Jewish captives in the process.
But
even when the second email arrived there was no reason why I should assume that
his first email was ironic. Perhaps whoever sent the email had read the NYT article
alleging that Hamas raped his victims and approved of what had allegedly
happened. The email was headed ‘friends’.
Having
falsely said that I had contacted him previously, Stebbing then accused me of
being ‘the most
anti-semitic person I have ever encountered in my life.’ But he hadn’t encountered me before. I had the feeling
that maybe Stebbing had mental health problems in that he assumed that other
people understood his disconnected thought processes. Or maybe the illness he
was suffering from was an extreme form of Zionism.
A further email from Stebbing claimed that
you
know i don't think jews should be gassed but you do - that was my ironic point
you miss, repeatedly but suspect you know this
Again there was an assumption that I knew what he thought despite
not knowing who had sent the emails. Why should I know anything about someone I
had never met? All I knew was what he had sent me. His claim that I believe Jews
should be gassed is a typical evidence-free Zionist libel.
Finally
I told Stebbing that I assumed he was not Jewish because no one who was Jewish
would make a ‘joke’ about those who were exterminated in the death camps. Like
most Jews I had relatives who had been murdered by the Nazis.
However
I was wrong. Stebbing is not only Jewish but a Zionist and for most Zionists
the Holocaust is something to be weaponised. That is what is happening now with
the genocide in Gaza. As I have written previously, during the Holocaust the Zionist
movement was focused on one thing and one thing only – creating a ‘Jewish’
state. All else, including rescue of Jewish refugees, was put to one side. It
was a distraction.
At
this point I emailed Imperial College authorities informing them of Stebbing’s
emails and suggesting that he was not fit to teach students given his deep
racism and anti-Semitism, itself not uncommon among Zionists.
The following morning I received an acknowledgement from Joanna Ivison, Secretary to the President of Imperial College, Hugh Brady. I have heard nothing since. I assume that Imperial College has policy on racism, including anti-Semitism albeit that Imperial has adopted the IHRA misdefinition of anti-Semitism which doesn’t cover genuine, far-right anti-Semitism of the Breivik/Trump kind. However if Imperial don’t suspend Stebbing and proceed to remove him altogether then they will have a lot of questions to answer.
People
then started to find out more about Stebbing. In December 2021 he was suspended
for 9 months and nearly struck off the medical register.
Stebbing
had admitted adopting a “cavalier” approach in the way he treated some patients
and having sent ‘inappropriate’ emails to a dying patient he nicknamed LMT
(Little Miss Trouble). Stebbing had treated patients at the end of their life
with aggressive treatments and had raised false hopes. Stebbing himself has since admitted, “I
should not have treated any of these individuals; they were too sick to be
treated.” An article detailing the nature of the case for his suspension is
on the British Medical Journal blogs.
Sharon Beattie, QC for the GMC argued that Stebbing should be
struck off because he posed an 'ongoing risk' to patient safety and
that he'd embarked on a 'persistent
course of conduct' and 'persistent
dishonesty' which he'd attempted to cover-up. Shades of his behaviour
today.
However these are medical matters though it is interesting
that the Daily Mail leapt
to his defence.
What
isn’t in doubt though is that he sent a virulently anti-Semitic email to me, that
he made assertions about me that are not based in fact and that he doubled down
on them. Furthermore all his emails subsequent to the first two were sent from
an Imperial College email address thus bringing Imperial College into disrepute.
Tony
Greenstein
Your actions were the best you could take in the circumstances, else you could have been accused of guilt by association.
ReplyDeleteStebbing thoroughly exposed. Thank you Tony.
ReplyDeleteDisgusting man. People have been sacked for less. Solidarity Tony.
ReplyDelete“I should not have treated any of these individuals; they were too sick to be treated.”
ReplyDelete“I am very remorseful about my behaviour related to dishonesty, which has the potential to undermine the foundations of the medical professional and to erode the trust of both the public and patients in general.”
These 2 quotes from him, in the linked to article, say a lot about his level of arrogance and dishonesty. If he's a Zionist, well, no surpise there. Timed as it is in the middle of the genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza [and simultaneous murderous activity from Zionist settlers in the West Bank] ~ "Physician, heal thyself"?
Far right and Zionist views together with a cavalier attitude to end of life patients make him a scary piece of work with potential to into something even worse.
ReplyDeleteIt has been said that Zionism is a mental illness. Example after example appear to confirm this opinion. The shear nastiness with which the members of this 'cult' respond to criticism is indicative of a deep seated hatred of those who question their beliefs and motives. They have an almost psychopathic loathing for other human beings who have not been similarly indoctrinated.
ReplyDelete"Example how meaning of words get inverted in propaganda. Anti-racist discourse gets labelled racist (anti-semitic) while effective racist (anti-semitic) discourse is disconnected from its intention which is claimed to be ironic. None of this is demonstrated empirically, because propositions based on dogma that opposing Israel is anti-semitic. End of free speech. Start of absurdity.”
ReplyDeletesomebody needs to invent a "ziodar" - a zionazi radar - so I can avoid these disturbed yet intelligent people who are indistinguishable from the anglosaxon native population..
ReplyDelete