‘Labour Together’ sabotage outfit now run by former IOF soldier peer

The Labour peer now running right-wing, Zionist sabotage outfit ‘Labour Together’ has been revealed to be a former IOF soldier and ‘religious Zionist’. Activist journalist Jody McIntyre uncovered financier Jonathan Kestenbaum’s record, which has not been mentioned by Labour or Labour Together.

McIntyre believes Kestenbaum’s military history has been mostly ‘scrubbed’ from the web. However, he found one remaining mention of Kestenbaum’s training in the use of clubs and tear gas on Palestinians and his participation in a “brutal” curfew imposed to “break the spirit” of a Palestinian town in the occupied West Bank:

Kestenbaum was national secretary of the [religious Zionist] Bnei Akiva movement in his native England, and studied at the London School of Econom­ics and at Cambridge University. He settled in Israel three years ago, is married, and has recently become a father.

He was called to serve a stint in the IDF reserves in August, and found an outlet for his frustrations in the diary below, a record of his day-to-day anguish. Kestenbaum says the very thing he and his colleagues were not prepared for were the moral questions posed by service in the admin­istered territories, although they were taught how to use clubs and tear.

Coloniser in uniform

Kestenbaum’s unit was ordered to bring the town “to heel”, isolating it and cutting off power:

McIntyre noted that Kestenbaum’s Wikipedia page was updated minutes after his revelations went public, to include a mention of his period in the IOF:

Kestenbaum’s activities were also mentioned in a 1998 US article, which quotes him recording his “shame”:

The hatred [for the IDF] is not surprising, considering that during the last 17 months, the army has shot and killed about 400 Palestinians, wounded thousands of others, thrown more than 6000 of them into prison, blown up more than 200 of their homes, and kicked 45 of them out of the country.

It is not only that, as the reservist Jonathan Kestenbaum wrote in a diary he kept of his time in the West Bank town of Qabatiya last year, ‘When a child of 3 looks at me with hatred, I feel ashamed of what I am doing.’

Kestenbaum appears to have recovered from his “shame”, however. He went on to hold a directorship of pro-Israel propaganda outfit BICOM for seven years.

Labour Together at the centre of it again

Labour Together was exposed as a key player in the anti-Labour sabotage campaign to lose the 2019 general election in order to oust then-leader Jeremy Corbyn. Morgan McSweeney, who admitted using the ‘Labour antisemitism’ scam as a primary tool of this sabotage, went on to become Keir Starmer’s leadership campaign manager and then his chief of staff. However, McSweeney resigned in disgrace in February 2026 over his part in plush senior jobs Starmer gave to corrupt pal of child-rapist Jeffrey Epstein, Peter Mandelson.

Before McSweeney’s resignation, while Labour Together was being managed by Josh Simons, another Starmer front-bencher, the organisation paid a US firm to spy on and attempt to discredit journalists who were investigating Labour Together’s funding and activities. Simons resigned from the front bench after being outed. Front-benchers Steve Reed and Lisa Nandy continue to be closely linked to the group.

Labour Together declined to comment.

Featured image via the Canary

By Skwawkbox

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