https://www.declassifieduk.org/pro-israel-tycoon-gives-labour-half-a-million-pounds/

Stuart Roden started a company with an Israeli special forces veteran and a senior Conservative. He’s now among Labour’s top election donors.

Stuart Roden, the chairman of Israeli venture capital firm Hetz Ventures, has given the Labour party over half a million pounds ahead of the UK’s general election, Declassified has found.

His donations worth £570,000 were registered with the Electoral Commission after Rishi Sunak called the snap poll.

He is among a number of pro-Israel businessmen in Britain to have contributed to Labour’s election warchest, with figures such as Gary Lubner also donating £900,000 to the party in recent weeks.

Roden is joined at Hetz Ventures by an array of former Israeli soldiers, many of whom have served in elite intelligence units.

He is also the prime funder of a Zionist educational programme in Britain which teaches children that the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are acting proportionately in Gaza.

Roden was filmed shouting at peaceful pro-Palestine protesters outside the Labour party conference in October. “You murdered children” he screamed at the crowd, which included elderly women, telling journalists the demonstration should be banned.

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Roden has now donated over £1m in total to Labour since 2023. He has funded the party directly as well as shadow ministers Bridget Phillipson and Lisa Nandy.

Declassified approached his company for comment on why he is giving this amount of money to Labour. No response was received at the time of publication.

His donations are dwarfed by those of another pro-Israel funder, Gary Lubner, who has given Labour around £6m since Keir Starmer became party leader. 

Lubner was a policeman in Apartheid South Africa whose family donated to the ruling white supremacist National party. Lubner claims he opposed Apartheid. 

The scale of Labour’s funding from pro-Israel businessmen is significant and exceeds the £5.9m it received from trade unions last year.

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Andrew Feinstein, an independent candidate standing against the Labour leader in Holborn and St Pancras, told Declassified: “It’s absolutely appalling and indefensible that Keir Starmer is taking millions of pounds from pro-Israel lobbyists.

“Between Gary Lubner and Stuart Roden we’re talking about over £1.5m to fight this election, from two people whose primary interest would appear to be protecting Israel from criticism”.

Feinstein, the son of a Holocaust survivor, fears these donations could deter Starmer from speaking out over Gaza, where Labour has not demanded an arms embargo or unqualified ceasefire.

He added: “It is because of massive donations like this from incredibly wealthy individuals that today Britain has the best democracy money can buy. 

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https://www.declassifieduk.org/pro-israel-tycoon-gives-labour-half-a-million-pounds/