A freelance photographer called Samuel Hardy has made news for refusing to sell an incriminating photo of British Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn – accused of antisemitism and supporting terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hizbullah – to Israel’s Ynet.
One seemingly innocuous image snapped by photographer Sam Hardy back in 2012 has received an unexpected surge of less-than-welcome interest recently.
The image in question features newly-appointed UK Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn with his arms crossed, smiling. In the background, two men pass, holding a flag.
At the time he captured the photo, Hardy was unaware of the significance of that particular flag—it happened to be the flag of Hezbollah, the Shi’a Islamist militant group considered to be terrorists by the Western world.
When leading Israeli newspaper ?????? ??????? Yedioth Ahronoth approached him, enquiring about a photograph he had uploaded to stock image site Demotix, it dawned on Hardy that in the wrong hands—and without context—this image of a relaxed Corbyn listening to speakers at the 2012 pro-Palestine march could be very damaging for the politician.
Hardy explained to Phogotrophy the situation that led up to the image he snapped of Corbyn:
“Jeremy Corbyn was (by) himself just standing to the side listening to the speakers. I turned to get a shot of him and he smiled back at me–at the time, I did not realise that the flags were of the Hezbollah group (had I realised at the time I might have tried to framed a photo without the flag), although it was clear to me that Jeremy was not posing with the flag–the two men behind him were simply passing by.”
And the Independent:
Mr Hardy said he did not realise the partially-obscured banner represented Hezbollah and uploaded the image along with others from the day to his blog and the Demotix photojournalism website.
It was swiftly picked up by critics of Mr Corbyn, who is the national chair of one of the annual demonstration’s supporters, the Stop the War Coalition.
As bloggers began sharing the image in 2012, claiming the MP was “posing” with the Hezbollah flag and using it to claim he attended “anti-Semitic and racist” rallies, his aides got in touch with the photographer.
“Jeremy Corbyn’s office emailed me asking whether the photo could be removed, saying they were quite worried about it,” Mr Hardy said.
“Bloggers were posting slanderous stories saying he was posing with the Hezbollah flag but he wasn’t.”
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I was a bit taken aback,” he said. “As a student not really with an income, part of me thought I could do with the money.
“I thought about it and spoke to a few people. They said that your integrity is worth more than the money, and from that point I realised I wasn’t going to sell out.
“It’s wrong on so many levels, knowing that your photo is going to be used to describe something that really wasn’t there.”
After refusing the request, Mr Hardy spotted other news outlets using the image without permission and has asked for them to be removed, saying he did not want his work “being taken out of context”.
This is the photo in question (I am embedding it and not posting it directly here since Hardy is going after people for copyright violation):
https://www.facebook.com/photofoxsam/posts/994359273961251?pnref=story
So Hardy claims Corbyn just happened to be standing there, while the Hizbullah flag-bearing dudes passing by at that moment without his knowledge. Just an innocent bystander betrayed by bad timing. He could not have possibly known about the presence of terrorist supporters.
Not quite.
This is the “context”: Al Quds Day 2012 in London. Where Corbyn spoke.
Note his solidarity with “elected Palestinian parliamentarians” (i.e. Hamas) and “hunger-striking” palestinians (ie. terrorists ) in Israeli jails, and speaking of Israeli’s establishment in 1948 as “Nakba.”
I have posted about this 2012 rally before, where calls for Israel’s destruction and Hizbullah flags were par for the course. Like every year.
So Corbyn was clearly aware of his audience and their support for terrorists. He was no innocent bystander – he was a key speaker!
Samuel Hardy was at the rally, so he either knows this full well and is covering up for Corbyn, or was oblivious.
Assuming for a second the latter, I call on him to view Corbyn’s speech, the videos of the rally and admit Corbyn was no innocent bystander, but rather someone who at the very least condones the support of Hizbullah and their ilk.
That is, if his integrity really does mean something to him.
Update: Hardy continues to defend Corbyn, despite being provided with the evidence.
https://twitter.com/photofoxsam/status/644795282660716544
https://twitter.com/photofoxsam/status/644797574998851584
https://twitter.com/photofoxsam/status/644797703898202112
https://twitter.com/photofoxsam/status/644800627743326208
https://twitter.com/photofoxsam/status/644802960489324544
Update: Incriminating evidence of Hardy’s anti Israel, pro “resistance” views, which explain his stance.
