Eric Moonman

Eric Moonman (born 29 April 1929) is a former Labour MP, turned academic, broadcaster and Israel lobbyist. More recently he has emerged as a security and counter terrorism expert on UK commercial television and local press. He is invariably identified as a ‘terrorism expert’ without mention of his Zionist affiliations.

Chronology of appointments

• 1956, human relations advisor for the British Institute of Management
• 1959, fellow of the British Institute of Management
• 1963, member of the Tower Hamlets Council
• c.1963, senior research fellow at the Institute of Science and Technology at the University of Manchester
• 1966-70, MP for Basildon
• c.1966/68, parliamentary private secretary to the Secretary of State for Education and Science
• c.1968, chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party’s committee on science and technology
• c.1968, governor of Imperial College, London
• 1972 Attends World Jewish Congress and gets support of zionist propaganda body.
• 1974-79, MP for Billericay
• 1974, established the West European Public Relations Group for Information on Behalf of Israel
• 1980, chairman of Islington Health Authority
• 1986, senior vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews
• 1986-87, board member of the British-Israel Public Affairs Committee
• 1989, takes degree in Medical Informatice at City University
• 1990, Appointed visiting professor at City University
• c.2001, head of the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland’s Media Response Unit
• post 2001-present, member of the Advsiory Board of the Centre for Counter Terrorism Studies at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies
• 2006-7, Honorary visiting professor at City University.

Early life

Eric Moonman was born in Liverpool on 29 April 1929 to Borach and Leah Moonman. He went to Rathbone School in Liverpool which he left at the age of 13 to start a seven-year apprenticeship at WJ Pugh Printers and then the Liverpool Echo. After the war, Moonman undertook his national service in the Kings Liverpool Regiment from 1951 to 53, during which he took courses in military studies as well as evening classes in subjects such as public speaking. In 1954 got a place at the University of Liverpool to study for a Diploma in Social Science. At Liverpool he edited the University magazine and became chairman of the Labour Society. After graduating Moonman says he worked as a lecturer in Industrial Relations and the Director of Management at SW Essex Technical College.

British Institute of Management

In 1956 Moonman became a human relations advisor for the British Institute of Management (BIM) – an organisation put together by a group of powerful British businessmen during the end of the Second World War. Whilst at the BIM Moonman became involved in local politics and served as leader of Stepney Council in East London from 1958 till 1962. In 1959 he was made a Fellow of BIM.

During this time Moonman also studied for a Masters in Management Sciences at the Institute of Science and Technology at the University of Manchester. A contributor’s notes in a 1968 book edited by Moonman states that he was a senior research fellow there until 1966.

In his penultimate year at the British Institute of Management, Moonman published The Manager and the Organisation (1961) a managerial handbook described by the journal International Socialism as ‘an unfortunate hotch potch’ with ‘no sociological value at all’.

Political Career

Moonman left the British Institute of Management in 1962 and in 1963 he became a member of the Tower Hamlets Council. He contested the constituency of Chigwell in 1964 without success, but was elected as Labour MP for Billericay in the 1966 general election. A contributor note in a 1968 book edited by Moonman describes him as ‘a former parliamentary private secretary to the Secretary of State for Education and Science’. In this role he was probably working with the influential Fabian Anthony Crosland who led the right-wing of the Labour Party at that time. By 1968 Moonman had become chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party’s committee on science and technology as well as a governor of Imperial College, London.

In the 1970 General Election Moonman lost his seat but was elected MP for Basildon at the February 1974 election when the Labour Party returned to power. He lost his seat again at the 1979 general election and in the 1980s he joined the Social Democratic Party.

Health Policy

After leaving Parliament Moonman became involved in health policy and was chairman of Islington Health Authority 1980-90. He created controversy within the Labour Party because of his support for privatisation within the NHS. He was able to win a vote in favour of privitisation by reintroducing the matter on a much-criticised pretext at a meeting at which his supporters were in the majority.

City University

Moonman took a course in Medical Informatics at London's City University 1989 and was subsequently appointed a Visiting Professor at the University in 1990. Moonman seems to have had some continuing association with city. In 2007 the University decide on'the reappointment of Professor Eric Moonman as Honorary Visiting Professor in the School of Informatics from 1 December 2006 to 31 November 2007.'

Israel lobbyist

In 1972 Moonman was at the World Jewish Congress in Switzerland. He approached Stephen Roth, who was then director of the European Jewish Congress, and told him that changes had to be made in the way that Israel and the Jews represented themselves abroad. Roth accordingly gave him permission to start up a commission on Israel. In 1974, Moonman convened the first gathering of Jewish professionals to work out propaganda strategies.

The group subsequently met in twice every year, once in Europe in the summer and once in Jerusalem in the autumn. Moonman was the “the founder and guiding light” of the organisation which became the West European Public Relations Group for Information on Behalf of Israel. The group was initially funded by the World Jewish Congress which later withdrew its funding. From 1980 it was funding instead by the World Zionist Organization and from 1985 also by the Israel Foreign Ministry.

In 1981 a broadcast by the Israeli Radio Peace and Progress (summarised by the BBC) referred to Moonman as one of several “leaders of the Zionist organizations in Britain”; although it is not clear if this referred to the West European Public Relations Group for Information on Behalf of Israel or another organisation. The broadcast reported that Moonman had “explained his [opposition to Menachem Begin] in an article in the Jewish Chronicle, wherein Moonman argued that: “We must support Israel, but we must give consideration to the image of the Israel which we support. It is clear that Israel's Western allies are less and less interested in supporting Begin's Israel.”

In 1985 Moonman forced the editor of the Jewish Quarterly to resign. According to his successor Colin Shindler: “The offence had been caused by a Jewish Quarterly editorial which questioned the actual dangers of anti-Semitism today as popularly viewed by Jewish leadership.”

A 1986 report in The Guardian refers to Moonman as ‘chairman of the research committee of the Board of Deputies of British Jews’, and Moonman’s profile in Debrett's People of Today states that that year he was appointed senior vice-president. At this stage Moonman was also a board member of the British-Israel Public Affairs Committee (BIPAC) where he worked on a publication called EEC Monitor. In 1987 however he was forced to resign from BIPAC after a financial scandal which he considered the result of a campaign against him. Below is an extract from The Guardian explaining the circumstances of Moonman’s departure from BIPAC:

An unusual advert has just appeared in the Jewish Chronicle, asking anyone who knows about a campaign of malice against the former Labour MP Eric Moonman to send the information to a box number. It has been placed, of course, by Moonman himself, who is senior vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, and chairman of the Islington Area Health Authority in London. Until recently he was also a board member of the British-Israel Public Affairs Committee (BIPAC), but he resigned at the last meeting following what might be called the Alexander Keddie Affair. Keddie doesn't actually exist, although he was

once described as a recluse in Essex who didn't like taking phone calls; the name was simply used over a period of about four years to steer payments to a variety of people, including Moonman, who worked on a BIPAC publication called EEC Monitor. An accountant's report into the affair was prompted by Monty Sumary, a prominent Jewish businessman and fundraiser, and it concluded that Moonman had left people confused about the Keddie arrangement. Moonman denies this, and is now intent on unmasking his putative tormentors. 'I do think there is a campaign against me,' he said this week. 'There have been anonymous letters

and phone calls as well.'”

By 2001 Moonman had joined the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland. In mid January 2002 the New Statesman reported that he headed the Zionist Federation’s Media Response Unit; organising email and letter writing campaigns against journalists perceived to be anti-Semitic or critical of Israel. A week after the publishing of that article, Moonman had reportedly become President of the organisation.

Terrorism Expert

Moonman appears on Channel 4 News after the Glasgow Airport attacks next to a huge gas canister

Moonman’s emergence as a terrorism expert seems to have stemmed from his involvement in an organisation called the Centre for Contemporary Studies, a think-tank which published material on football hooliganism and race relations, as well as terrorism. The Centre appears to have been founded by Moonman who seems to have been affected by the Brixton riots and anxious about the possibility of societal breakdown. In writings he focused in particular on the influence of media and television. He published a report in 1981 on the riots that summer called Copycat Hooligans which argued that: “Youths imitated television film of violence in Northern Ireland when they rioted in more than 20 British cities last summer…Eric Moonman, the centre's director and author of the report entitled Copy Cat Hooligans, said the rioters knew what to do because they had seen it on television.

In 1987 Moonman published a book called The Violent Society which included contributions from prominent terrorologists Paul Wilkinson and Richard Clutterbuck. Paul Wilkinson was identified in the contributors notes as a member of the Advisory Board of the Centre for Contemporary Studies. Insight, the Alumni magazine for Liverpool University, wrote that The Violent Society ‘was well received and, surprisingly for Eric, marked another chapter in his life’. The article states that after the publication of The Violent Society Moonman ‘began to take on consultancy work for ITN as an expert in counter-terrorism’.

In fact Moonman’s media presence as a terrorism expert does not seem to have taken off for another 15 years. The television archive ITV Source contains only one item in the 1990s listing Moonman as a terrorism expert and the note does not contain an exact date. With the exception of that item, Moonman's first appearance seems to have been on a Channel Five Lunchtime Bulletin on 18 July 2002, after which he appeared dozens of times on UK television.

At some point after September 11th Moonman was appointed as a member of the Advsiory Board of the Centre for Counter Terrorism Studies at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.

Media Presence

The graph on the right shows Moonman’s presence in the English print media up from 1975 until the end of 2007. The figures were compiled by searching All English Language News at Lexis-Nexis. The results seem to suggest that Moonman was at his most influential - at least with the media - during his time at the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland.

Personal Life

It was probably at BIM that Moonman met his first wife Jane. She worked with Moonman at the British Institute of Management where she was research and information officer. Like Eric Moonman she later became involved in Zionist organisations. She edited the 1980 edition of The Zionist Yearbook, published by the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland and was affiliated with the British-Israel Public Affairs Committee (BIPAC) from at least 1987, and is reported to have been its Director in 1990.

She divorced Moonman in the early 1990s and married Israel’s former ambassador to the UK Yoav Biran. She moved with her new husband to Jerusalem and was appointed as the Jerusalem Foundation's liaison with Britain.

In February 2000 Moonman met City University alumna Gillian Mayer who gave a vote of thanks after a speech he gave in his home town of Southport. They married on 11 February 2001.

Publications

• MOONMAN, Eric. The Manager & the Organization, Tavistock, 1961.
• MOONMAN, Eric. Security of Employment. pp. 14. Industrial Welfare Society: London, [1963.]
• MOONMAN, Eric. The Manager and the Organization, pp. 220. Pan Books: London, 1965.
• MOONMAN, Eric. Science and technology in Europe; edited by Eric Moonman; associate editor Jane Moonman. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968.
• MOONMAN, Eric. The communication of objectives in an expanding company. London: Industrial Educational and Research Foundation, [1969].pp. 24. 21 cm. (Research paper. no. 1.)
• MOONMAN, Eric. Communication in an expanding organization: a case study in action research. Tavistock Publications, 1970.
• MOONMAN, Eric. Reluctant partnership. A critical study of the relationship between government and industry. London: Gollancz, 1971.
• MOONMAN, Eric. British computers and industrial innovation. The implications of the Parliamentary Select Committee. Edited by Eric Moonman. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1971. pp. xx, 126. 23 cm. Parliament. House of Commons. Committees. Select Committee on Science and Technology. Sub-Committee D. [Minutes of evidence.]
• Moonman, Eric. Business and the arts. Foundation for Business Responsibilities, 1974.
• Moonman, Eric. Copy-cat hooligans. 1981. Contemporary affairs briefing; Centre For Contemporary Studies, 1981.vol 1 no 9
• European Economic Community Policy in Relation to the Middle East, Israel and Matters Concerning Jews the twenty-first Selig Brodetsky memorial lecture, 1980. by Eric Moonman Paperback: 18 pages Publisher: Leeds University Press (Jan 1981) ISBN-10: 0853161259 ISBN-13: 978-0853161257
• Stars of today : talking, living, working and playing together / edited by Eric Moonman. London : Centre for Contemporary Studies, [1986] [48]p. : ill., col.ports. ; 30cm.
• The Violent Society (Paperback) by Eric Moonman, Paperback: 167 pages, Publisher: Frank Cass Publishers (20 Jan 1987) ISBN-10: 0714640557 ISBN-13: 978-0714640556

Affiliations

• Chair, Academic Response Against Racism and Anti-Semitism in Europe
• Association of Former Members of Parliament, executive committee
• On the International research council of the International Center for Terrorism Studies within the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies.
• Stag FM, director (owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust).
• West European Public Relations Group for Information on Behalf of Israel, Chairman

Contact

Tel: 020 7040 8369

Email: emoonman@soi.city.ac.uk