Shami Chakrobati now Shadow Attorney General in Corbyn reshuffle

I think what really worries me about the remarks made as well is that it is what might be described as "old fashioned" antisemitism. These are words that might have been said in the 1930s and a good education should have at least taught that these were unacceptable, but not it seems to Conservative students.
I think the antisemitism in the Labour party is sometimes an out come of over enthusiastic support for Palestine. It isn't acceptable but it is more understandable and what needs to be examined is how education can be used so that the belief in the Palestinian cause can express itself and act without being accused of antisemitism. It is a difficult problem.

No more than you think a party member holding an independent enquiry is acceptable trisher and the party leader taking this party member of just a few months to answer questions for him at the select committee's enquiry and her refusal to tell the committee when she had been offered a peerage and the fact she did not reply to this question when it was again asked by letter

Attack is the best form of defence

There was the case which Pickles apparently knew nothing about - and the position he holds indicates he should know.
This is in the evidence used by the committee

In August 2014 UCL Conservative Society was under scrutiny for a series of anti-semitic, Islamophobic and racist remarks, fostering a culture of discrimination and bullying, and creating a “toxic” environment. One comment included, “Jews own everything, we all know it’s true. I wish I was Jewish, but my nose isn’t long enough”.

In October 2014 after an investigation by UCL Union, the Conservative Society was ordered to apologise. There is no evidence that the Conservative Party investigated the incidents.

Now this may be historic, but given the position Pickles holds shouldn't he at least have known about it? He claimed he didn't. OK it is a small incident but the students attending UCL then may be working in Westminster now. I find it a cause for concern, maybe you don't

Good posts POGS and ab

Trisher, I agree with some of your post but not all. The report said it was in all parties, the news repeated this.

Naturally the attention went onto the Labour Party with all that has been happening within the party. You refuse to accept this.

Naz Sha did make anti Semitic remarks and she admitted it and apologised

Ken Livingston did cause anger with his rant about Hitler

Corbyn did sit in silence whilst a Jewish MP was verbally attacked by a momentum member. He was filmed laughing with this person when the meeting ended

Corbyn talking with Hamas but refusing an invite to Israel by their Labour Party

Iam has said she has a circle of Jewis friends who are party members and eho are troubled

Shooting Shami into the lords after her independent enquiry, a party member holding an independent inquiry? How damned daft was that ?

You are so defensive of Corbyn you excuse all the above but they are not excused or ignored by all. Even the labour MP's on the committee have been accused of bias against Corbyn

Yes all anti semitism is cause for concern and has to be acknowledge by all parties, this Includes Corbynites

trisher

There were so many problems being raised by the Labour Party itself. It wasn't other political parties who were making accusations it was coming from within the Labour ranks. Firstly there was the Baroness Jan Royall Inquiry primarily looking into the Labour Oxford University Students and subsequently the Shami Chakrobarti Report as there were concerns from within the party who were seeing a rise in anti-semetism , including behaviour towards their own MP's from within the ranks of Labour members.

What cases do you feel should be addressed by the Lib Dems and Conservative Parties that have not been dealt with over say the past decade. What happened decades ago for all parties is of no consequence we have moved on and are discussing the rise of antisemitism in relation to date which wass the remit of Labour Baroness Jan Royal, Shami Chakrobarti and the Home Office Select Committee Report.

I understand where you are coming from in pointing to other parties, it is a fair point. I am not however of the belief the problem is anywhere near, not remotely close to those of Labour which has had a succession of reports of anti-semetic behaviour. So again , which cases do you think make you believe other parties come close to Labour at this moment of time please.

If there are as the report said anti-Semitic issues in all parties and you are concerned about antisemitism wouldn't it be better to fully acknowledge this and to ask all parties to look at what is happening?
I really object to the way this is becoming a case of "we are better than you are" and of the way it is becoming a way of raising the issue of Corbyn as leader again.
There is a problem with antisemitism. The conduct of Israel and the situation of the Palestinian people have caused many people to become politically involved, and in some cases this may have slipped over into anti-Semitism. This is understandable, but not acceptable, ways need to be found to help prevent this happening- this to my mind is the basis for most of the anti-Semitism found in the Labour party.
The Conservative problem is slightly different it seems to be an older form of anti-Semitism relying on concepts about Jewish influence and physical appearance.
Both of these are of concern and need to be dealt with.

I have never as far as I can see posted that there is no problem with antisemitism in the Labour party. I have questioned the validity of a report which acknowledges there are problems in ALL political parties and then goes on to make many points about one of them. To my mind that is not a balanced view. This is further reinforced when you read more of the report, look at some of the evidence acknowledged in it, and wonder why there is no accompanying recommendations for the political party involved. When the political party not mentioned has the largest number of MPs involved, has a leader who did not give evidence, sent the UK Special Envoy for Post Holocaust Matters who was ignorant about an anti-Semitic incident in his own party the whole thing stinks to high heaven.
By all means condemn antisemitism in the Labour party, although I would like to see the blame for the lack of leadership shared by all those MPs who wasted time and energy on pursuing an unnecessary leadership contest, but don't regard this as a balanced report when there are such huge holes in it.

rosesarered, I am having a problem with all this , Corbyn is a Labour Party member ! I am a Labour Party member, the labour MP's on the select committee are Labour Party members, the Labour MP's who have been attacked are members,

Who are the racists?

As Corbyn is the leader of the Labour Party the two things become mixed up.A good leader aknowledges a problem and deals with it.

Those who won't accept that Labour has a problem with anti-semitism are in denial: always a worrying sign.

Good post Iam,

It seems the Corbynites are not concerned with defending the Labour Party but Corbyn though, just shows the two are seperate

It would be interesting to see what the response of those who dispute that the Labour Party has a problem with anti semitism would be if the word Jewish was replaced by disabled, black, female, lesbian/gay/transgender, asian, muslim etc.

trisher your post 19.06

"One Labour MP didn't sign because she was also a witness, the other 2 have openly criticised Corbyn and are members of Progress. It would have been nice to have at least one impartial voice on there."

Would the one Labour MP who didn't sign because she was a witness Naz Shah by any chance?

Maybe that's because she had to apologise to Parliament for anti-semetic remarks she had made. I am surprised she was even on the Committee to be honest.

She told MPs:

“I wholeheartedly apologise to this house for the words I used before I became a member. I accept and understand that the words I used caused upset and hurt to the Jewish community and I deeply regret that.”

She quit her role as a parliamentary assistant to the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, on Tuesday and was summoned on Wednesday morning to a meeting with Corbyn, who told her the comments were “offensive and unacceptable”. Corbyn accepted she no longer held those views.

But shadow energy secretary, Lisa Nandy, was among Labour figures saying the party faced “real problems” if it was seen not to apply the same standards to MPs as to other activists.

John Woodcock, MP and former chair of the Labour Friends of Israel, said: “The handling of this has been a mess. But the most important thing is that the Labour leadership properly acknowledges now the scale of the antisemitism problem that is growing in the party.”

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/27/naz-shah-suspended-labour-party-antisemitism-row

There are always questions about Momentum , could the young be drawn in thinking they were fighting for Palastine , quite possibly

Yep. Labour MP Louise Ellman for starters.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/apr/07/british-jewish-leader-corbyn-must-stop-fobbing-off-antisemitism-in-labour
Extract

'The latest incident to trigger a row centred on a tweet by Corbyn’s brother, Piers. After the Labour MP Louise Ellman, who is Jewish, said actions rather than words were needed to tackle antisemitism within the party, Piers Corbyn tweeted that this was “rubbish”, and “All #Corbyns are committed #AntiNazi. #Zionists cant cope with anyone supporting rights for #Palestine”.

In response, Jeremy Corbyn said his brother was “not wrong”. He added: “My brother has his point of view, I have mine and we actually fundamentally agree – we are a family that were brought up fighting racism from the day we were born.”

Arkush said: “Jeremy Corbyn’s defence of his brother’s belittling of the problem of antisemitism is deeply disturbing.”

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/momentum-activists-tried-to-stop-antisemitism-inquiry-hh3jrlzml

www.theguardian.com/membership/2016/sep/13/louise-ellman-mp-liverpool-riverside-labour

Worth a read as it brings in the question of Momentum too.

'Despite significant press and public attention on the Labour Party, and a number of revelations regarding inappropriate social media content, there exists no reliable, empirical evidence to support the notion that there is a higher prevalence of antisemitic attitudes within the Labour Party than any other political party. We are unaware whether efforts to identify antisemitic social media content within the Labour Party were applied equally to members and activists from other political parties, and we are not aware of any polls exploring antisemitic attitudes among political party members, either within or outside the Labour Party.'

From the report.

Well, Luciana Berger was the only one who had someone taken to court for it.
He wasn't a Labour member.
Ruth Smeeth has had her complaint looked into, and the remarks were not anti semitic.

Do you know of any more Jewish MPs who were attacked?

trisher

So now Chuka Umuna and David Winnock are bias, disreputable in your eyes if you don't disagree with my post . Ye Gods David Winnock! No doubt Keith Vaz too had he not resigned.(hmm,).

I know you have stated until recently you were a Lib Dem voter and returned to Labour under Corbyn but seriously David Winnonck! Am I mistaken in believing he has been an outspoken critic of the Israeli Government? Do you not know that.

You are clutching at straws in your defence of Corbyn using any distraction such as the Select Committee Members, David Cameron , Theresa May and Pickles.

I like the brilliant answer Pat McFadden gave Andrew Neil today on Sunday Politics when asked about The Home Affairs Select Committee Report into Anti Semitism and Labour . He said this:-

"I hope we don't make the mistake here of shooting the messenger. I hope we take the report seriously and I hope we don't fall into the trap that sometimes I see when these accusations are wielded that we point to anti racism records
and say "Look at our virtue and our record here that must mean we can't be anti-semetic".

Let me be clear about this 'POINTING TO YOUR OWN SENSE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NO EXCUSE FOR NASTYNESS OR CRUELTY TO SOMEBODY ELSE' so I think we should take this very seriously indeed"

Well said that man.

Do you Jen? I had no one in MP in mind , best not to presume perhaps

Annie, I presume Luciana Berger was one of the Jewish Labour MPs to whom you referred?

Perhaps momentum are organising a March Ana

? Jen

No doubt there'll be a petition soon protesting against the findings of the select committee - or is there one up and running already?

The attacks on Jewish MP's are most certainly racist

One of your posts, Annie.