Thaindian News

London, Mar 2 (ANI): After Christian Dior’s John Galliano landed in trouble for his anti-Jewish remarks, WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange is next in line - he allegedly accused a group of journalists of a ‘Jewish conspiracy’ against his website.

Ian Hislop, editor of satirical magazine Private Eye has said that Assange called him to complain about a previous piece on WikiLeaks contributor Israel Shamir.

Shamir is a Siberian-born writer and commentator who is recognised as a Holocaust denier and has been called ‘a rabid anti-Semite’ by Stephen Pollard, editor of The Jewish Chronicle.

Hislop claims Assange told him he should be ashamed of himself for being part of an international smear campaign against WikiLeaks, reports the Daily Mail.

Assange claimed that Private Eye was ‘part of a conspiracy led by the Guardian which included journalist David Leigh, editor Alan Rusbridger and John Kampfner from Index on Censorship - all of whom “are Jewish”.’

“I pointed out that Rusbridger is not actually Jewish, but Assange insisted that he was “sort of Jewish” because he was related to David Leigh (they are brothers-in-law),” wrote Hislop in the current edition.

When I doubted whether his Jewish conspiracy would stand up against the facts, Assange suddenly conceded the point. “Forget the Jewish thing”,” he wrote.

Assange called the accusations “serious and upsetting” and released a denial, which read, “Hislop has distorted, invented or misremembered almost every significant claim and phrase.

“In particular, “Jewish conspiracy” is completely false, in spirit and in word. We treasure our strong Jewish support and staff, just as we treasure the support from pan-Arab democracy activists and others who share our hope for a just world.” (ANI)