Labour Party and anti semitism

An ex rabbi has accused Corbyn’s claim that British Zionists had no sense of British irony as the most offensive statement since Enoch Powell’s river of blood speech .

The defence of Corbyn by the Labour Party ? He ssid it before he was Party leader !

Nick Griffin and the KKK have praised Corbyn for his comment on Zionists.

Corbyn has said he will take more care what he says. Well he would now he leader so no regret for what he said in that speech, a case of - i’m Not sorry I said it, i am sorry i was found out.

How can the right wing press be blamed for repeating what has been said by Corbyn and others. The verbal attack on Ruth Smeeth and Corbyn greeting her abuser after she had fled from the room can be seen on uTube. The ranting by a member of the NEC can heard. The following was released yesterday

news.sky.com/story/jewish-mp-feels-unwelcome-in-labour-after-jeremy-corbyn-zionistcomments-11480739

Fennel

" Franbern I agree with you. The whole thing has been blown up out of all proportion by the rightwing press. "
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I think that is being dismissive . The cop out that is to fall back on the usual suspect, the right wing press, is trotted out regularly to avoid having to accept it is the Labour MP's themselves that have raised the issue whether it be anti - semitism or deselection threats.

Did you have the opportunity of watching the debate mentioned?

We? Fennel

ps going off now for 24 hours.

Annie we haven't dismissed her - don't jump to conclusions. No need to be personal.

POGS, thank you for your post. The poor woman, it beggars belief that she can be dismissed as Fennel and Franbern have done, the devotion to and defence of Corbyn and Co knows no limits for some .

O" I beg the indulgence of the House to tell my story, which I hope will go some way to explain how anti-Semitism can manifest itself in our country.

I come from a family that is drawn from many corners of the Jewish diaspora: I am of Dutch, Polish, Russian, Lithuanian and Turkish heritage, and I am a mix of both the Ashkenazi and Sephardic traditions. My Dutch family was traced back to the Jews who were expelled from Spain in the 15th century, and in Britain we found our home. While we are small in number, the Jewish community has proudly been a part of British society and has made many great contributions to all aspects of civic life for hundreds of years.

I grew up in multicultural north-west London and went to a Christian school. I had friends of all faiths and none. I had never seen anti-Semitism as a child, but I knew from my own family history what anti-Semitism was. During a debate in 1938, Commander Robert Tatton Bower MP told my great uncle, the hon. Member for Seaham, across the Floor of the House to “go back to Poland”. The most pernicious and haunting examples came from the holocaust. On my mum’s side alone, we know that more than 100 members of her family, aged from ​four to 83, were sent by the Nazis to their death in the gas chambers of Treblinka, Sobibór, Mauthausen, Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz, for no other reason than that they were Jewish.

I was 19 when I received my first piece of hate mail—it described me as a dirty Zionist pig—and so started my 18-year experience of contending with anti-Semitism. As a university student and activist, I was attacked from all quarters from the far right to the far left. I had members of Hizb ut-Tahrir, an anti-Semitic and homophobic organisation follow me and camp outside my house. I received countless anti-Semitic emails and letters condemning my work as the convenor of the National Union of Students anti-racism campaign. When I was selected as a Labour council candidate in 2009, people publicly challenged how I could possibly represent anyone from the Bengali community because of my faith, and since my selection and election as the Member of Parliament for Liverpool, Wavertree, I have received a torrent of anti-Semitic abuse.

In total, four people have been convicted since 2013 for the anti-Semitic abuse and harassment they have directed towards me. Three of those were imprisoned; they were of a far right persuasion, including a member of the now proscribed National Action organisation. In the wake of one of those convictions, a far right website in the United States initiated the #filthyjewbitch campaign, which the police said resulted in me receiving over 2,500 violent, pornographic and extreme anti-Semitic messages in just one day alone. There is currently one more person on remand, having made threats to my life because of my faith.

I am fortunate—I have said it publicly, and I will say it in this House—that I have a platform, as an MP, that affords me the opportunity to speak out, and I happen to be pretty resilient.
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" I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention, and I will never stop speaking out about all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism.

I say that I have spoken out, but it is important to say that I have been able to speak out because I am resilient, but at a later moment my mental health may mean I am not in a place where I have the opportunity to speak out. I am grateful to my family, friends and team of staff, and my constituents and supporters, who serve as a welcome antidote to the bile that gets hurled in my direction. I will not be cowed in using the full force of the law that we have in this country to hold people to account. Having heard victim impact statements read out in court of people who have not been able to speak out—people so negatively impacted that they are now unable to work or to maintain relationships, and who have had their mental health affected—I know that just one instance of racism can have a devastating impact on an individual’s life.

I make no apology for holding my own party to a higher standard. Anti-racism is one of our central values, and there was a time not long ago when the left actively ​confronted anti-Semitism. The work done by the previous Labour Government to move the equality goalposts in this country was one of the reasons why I joined the Labour party in the first place. One anti-Semitic member of the Labour party is one member too many.

Yet, as I said in Parliament Square outside this place—it pains me to say this as the proud parliamentary chair of the Jewish Labour Movement—in 2018, anti-Semitism is now more commonplace, more conspicuous and more corrosive within the Labour party. That is why I have no words for the people purporting to be both members and supporters of our party and using the hashtag JCforPM who have attacked me in recent weeks for my comments, for speaking at the rally against anti-Semitism, and for questioning the remarks of those endorsing the anti-Semitic mural. They say I should be de-selected, and they have called it all a smear."
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2 speeches from Labour MP Lucian Burger during the Anti-Semitism debate in the House of Parliament , 7 April 2018 Volume 639.

Franbern and Fennel

I respect your position but do you respect the position of others of the Jewish faith who have a totally different experience to you?

If you did not have the opportunity to watch the debate in Parliament it is worth viewing to get the view from those who are dealing with antisemitism and the vile people who hide behind anonymity usually to spew their hatred.

The last 2 paragraphs speak the truth and that is why Luciana Burger and other Labour MP's are despicably being harassed and threatened with ' deselection '. Deselection has been the ' threat ' from Corbyn and his inner circle and Momentum from the time he became Labour Leader and the Labour Party returned to the 1970's , 1980's and the days of the likes of 'Militant'.

I don’t think anti semetism is a problem in the country, i do believe Corbyn has stirred it up in sections of the party. He has said it exists in the party, is he lying?

ps forgot to add that the local council is solidly Labour and supports the various religious and ethnic groups even-handedly.

Franbern I agree with you. The whole thing has been blown up out of all proportion by the rightwing press.
I'm also a Jew (convert, my husband is a Jew.)
We live in an orthodox community and on the whole are well tolerated by the local non-Jewish people.
It's a big mix anyway - an even bigger Muslim community from various parts of the middle east.
I've had occasional comments which some would call anti-semitic, but nothing serious b'h.
I hope and pray that it stays like this.

Corbyn said anti semetism exists in the party

John McD said it exists in the party

And could you be a member of Jewish voice for labour.?

Because you have never encountered anti semitism does this mean it doesn’t exist? I think not

Anniebach - I would classify anyone as a Zionist who
A) thinks that it is the duty of all jewish people to go to live in Israel.
B) Those who think that Israel -just because it is a Jewish state, can do no wrong.

On (A) there are plenty extreme right=wingers who support this idea, as well as plenty in the Jewish communities
On (B), I would suggest a group like the Jewish Board of Deputies.

As a Labour Party member, and an East London Jew - I would say that I have NEVER encountered any sort of anti-semitism in the Labour Party.
I totally deplore virtually everything that the right wing government currently in Israel is doing and will continue to speak out against them.
I am not particularly a JC fan, but feel that all this is just being whipped up deliberately by political groups and the media out of fear that the Labour Party will oust the tories at the next general election.

Anyone know who the zionists who live in this country are ?

I agree lemongrove and MawBroon

When someone wasw talking about Patrick Stewart up-thread I assumed they meant some politician I'd never heard of (there are many).

Unfortunately, people who are well-known, even those of little talent such as Lily Allen, have a platform from which they can influence others with their views (in her case muddled and ill-thought through).

I agree with lemongrove about actors, indeed any “celebrities” pop musicians included.
What on Earth gives them their imagined insights into politics or world affairs?
Angelina Jolie in Africa? Bono? Madonna? Bob Geldoff? Even the lovely Patrick Stewart - what makes him think he knows any more about anything, other than acting , than my dentist, today’s Ocado delivery driver or, in fact me?
There was/is a good sketch on The Now Show (for which I heard a trailer recently) about pop musicians and the influence they feel they should have.
Ant and Dec for PM?

Who are the ‘zionists in this country’ Corbyn spoke of and reported in the press today

Day6 says there is a huge Labour Leaver contingent.

65% of Labour voters voted to Remain. Only 35% to Leave.

www.google.co.uk/search?q=What+percentage+of+Labour+voters+voted+leave%3F&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjTlIOh4YPdAhUkLcAKHTM8CeEQzmd6BAgGEAo&biw=1536&bih=730

They can be very astute, well informed and highly educated. Actors that is!

I rarely take anything that actors say seriously.

It's good that Patrick Stewart sees flaws in the present day Labour party and its leader. He is very wrong about the EU being what Labour supporters want. There is a huge Labour Leave contingent. "Basic Labour values"entail looking out for the poorest and not supporting capitalism last time I looked.

If he did a bit of reading around and looked at the late Union boss Bob Crow's stance regarding Brussels and the EU he'd see that that a migrant workforce accepting pitifully low ages anywhere they can get them fans the flames of austerity and keeps the poor worker stuck. Low wages also make capitalist bosses very rich, very quickly. It's a corrupt system that has to be broken. Rich businessmen/women have the workforce over a barrel and many, many people see leaving the EU as a left wing cause.

Stewart needs to remove his blinkers.

Sir Patrick Stewart, a lifelong Labour Party supporter says he will probably not vote Labour again – so long as it supports Brexit and seems unable to deal swiftly and decisively with obvious evils such as anti-Semitism.

"To be perfectly honest, I find it difficult to understand what Labour really stands for or what it represents right now. It doesn’t feel like my party any more. I am not a politician and I am not a strategist, but I have a suspicion Jeremy believes a disastrous Brexit would benefit him politically, and, in all the chaos and confusion that would occur after the policy is implemented – in either a hard or a soft way, I might add – he sees himself taking power. It seems to me to be just plain wrong to play with the country’s future in this way.

What Jeremy doesn’t appear to understand is that it would be the easiest thing in the world to attack the government on Brexit and to oppose it at every turn and to tear apart their arguments and expose it for what it is. There is, after all, nothing that is more opposed to basic Labour values than Brexit and I think just about everyone except him can now see that.”

www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/sir-patrick-stewart-i-find-it-difficult-to-know-what-labour-stands-for-1-5653286