Labour anti-semitism

Excellent post grany

Jewish Voice for Labour. Official Statement.

Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour a crucial ally in the fight against antisemitism

JVL Introduction

A letter published today by the Guardian rebuffs claims by MPs defecting from Labour that the party led by Jeremy Corbyn is “institutionally racist”.

Two hundred and one Jewish members and supporters of the party, including film director Mike Leigh, writer and broadcaster Michael Rosen, author Gillian Slovo and Walter Wolfgang, 93, who fled Nazi Germany as a child, note the rise of reactionary, racist ideologies across Europe. They decry the “disproportionate focus on antisemitism on the left, which is abhorrent but relatively rare.”

They point to Jeremy Corbyn’s lifetime record of campaigning for equality and human rights and argue that Labour government led by Corbyn “will be a powerful force to fight against racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism.”

The signatories, among them many eminent academics, urge “all who wish to see an end to bigotry and racism, and who seek a more just society, to give their support to the Labour Party.”

For further information contact [email protected].

Over 200 Jewish members and supporters of the Labour party sign a letter urging that anyone seeking an end to bigotry and racism should back Labour and Corbyn

Guardian Letters
20 February 2019

You report (19 February) that a number of implacably anti-Corbyn MPs have left the Labour party alleging a failed “approach to dealing with antisemitism”, with Luciana Berger criticising Labour for becoming “sickeningly institutionally racist”.

We are Jewish members and supporters of the Labour party concerned about the current rise of reactionary ideologies, including antisemitism, in Britain and elsewhere across Europe.

We note the worrying growth of populist rightwing parties, encouraging racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism. In Britain the far right is whipping up these prejudices, a threat that requires a resolute and energetic response. But instead we have seen a disproportionate focus on antisemitism on the left, which is abhorrent but relatively rare.

We believe that the Labour party under the progressive leadership of Jeremy Corbyn is a crucial ally in the fight against bigotry and reaction. His lifetime record of campaigning for equality and human rights, including consistent support for initiatives against antisemitism, is formidable. His involvement strengthens this struggle.

Labour governments introduced both the anti-racist and human rights legislation of the 20th century and the 2010 Equalities Act. A Labour government led by Jeremy Corbyn will be a powerful force to fight against racism, Islamophobia and antisemitism.

It is in this context that we welcome the Labour party’s endorsement of freedom of expression on Israel and on the rights of Palestinians. Labour is correct to recognise that while prejudice against Jewish people is deplorable, criticism of Israel’s government and policies can and must be made.

We urge all who wish to see an end to bigotry and racism, and who seek a more just society, to give their support to the Labour party.

Comments.

Ellie Palmer
22nd February 2019 at 00:35
Ellie Palmer Professor Emeritus of Law /Human Rights University of Essex.
My decision to join the Labour Party coincided with Corbyn’s appointment as leader, my retirement and move to London from Essex. My academic legal work though not party political has always focused on comparative issues of socio economic rights -, public services etc. Shortly before retiring I published an edited collection Access to Justice: Beyond the Policies and Politics of Austerity with preface by Stephen Sedley and launched by Helena Kennedy. I grew up in Glasgow (the daughter of a Jewish refugee father and and my mother was the daughter of an Irish miner who came to Scotland before the First World. One could say a different socio economic grouping from the Jewish victims in this recent melodrama. I have been watching the manufactured crisis unfolding and I fully support your letter. I have always been angry and saddened by the unbalanced media coverage given to the melodrama but even more shocked by the support given by Tom Watson and Barry Gardiner in fuelling the flames. I would like to support your organisation in any way I can

Dr Brian Robinson
22nd February 2019 at 11:32
Jonathan Pie: ‘I don’t believe that Labour has an antisemite at the helm, I believe they have something much, much worse — a socialist: a proper leftie! In their heads that’s far more dangerous.’ youtu.be/-O2NsPioKBs

Dr Brian Robinson
22nd February 2019 at 16:40
Professor Palmer, I loved reading that, many thanks. I too have been surprised at Tom Watson’s line, indeed I’ve written to him a few times to criticise it. I like Tom and in many ways admire him and voted for him as deputy, but on this issue he’s lost it completely. Perhaps it’s the old canny political bruiser coming out in him, redolent of the backroom stitch-ups in smoke-filled rooms, echoes of ditch Blair/crown Brown days (I doubt there’s ever been much love lost between Tom and Jerry). In 2015 I thought Watson could form a creative bridge between the radical Corbyn and the reactionary PLP, smoothing things along. I was wrong alas.

Professor pnina werner
23rd February 2019 at 18:50
I support this letter. I am a member of the Labour Party. I to have been shocked by the way that criticism of Israel’s right- wing government led by Netanyahu is construed as anti-semitism.

Terence McGinity
24th February 2019 at 08:50
I was one of the Signatories to the JVL letter to the Guardian. I fully support its defense of the LP under the Leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. I re-joined the LP because of his Election and his record against racism of any kind. I consider him a principled politician and one who has consistently stood up for the Oppressed either at home or abroad. He has consistently stood against war and sought dialogue and peaceful reconciliation. There has been so much blood shed in recent decades including the blood of Palestinians and children of Yemen by UK sponsored Arms deals.
I shall also be supporting Jackie Walker when she comes to face a LP Tribunal on March 26th. I consider it incredibly dangerous the current attacks on the LP with accusations of ‘institutional antisemitism’. It is entirely false and it plays into the hands of the Far Right who meantime are gathering force in the world. Lessons from Germany in the 30s must surely teach us this. ‘Corbynism’ is a threat to the Neo Liberal elite which engages huge resources into destroying it.
My message to John MacDonald is that you cannot appease the Right. Every concession leads onto further attacks. They will not be satisfied till Corbyn and all that he represents falls. We must stand firm against these attacks and any witch hunts of members within our Party. I think of what Tony Benn would make of all this and am encouraged by his warmth, principle and humanity.
Where real antisemitism or racism of any kind exists we will tackle it. But we must stand firm on our right to criticize Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians, its Nation State Law and brutality.
ps. I think it is high time a TV media outlet for the Labour Movement
including the many campaigning groups was created. How else to combat
the appalling propaganda of MSM and the supposed ‘Neutrality’ of the BBC? There are many principled independent journalists, writers and film makers who would make such an endeavour very timely. At least, a discussion could be opened.
T. McGinity

November 2018

Luciana Berger accused the Tories of employing an anti-Semite -Scruton - chair of housing- because he pedals anti Semitic conspiracy theories. Although the government tried to defend his appointment he was later sacked because he rather dimly repeated the same conspiracy theories in an interview with the New Statesman.

His language was of a white supremicist.

Getting back to Suella Braverman and her “cultural Marxism” speech, which is as we know an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory.
Bizarrely Braverman accused Jeremy Corbyn of leading this conspiracy by Jews. When asked what she meant by the term Braverman replied that she wants to prevent further attacks on British Genius.

Thank you POGS, Hunt spoke the truth

pogs I googled it, I suggest you do the same.

2017 a Birmingham councillor left the Tory party after abusive emails came to light talking about “foreign Jew agents”

2018 three days before the local elections Tory party candidates were revealed to have made anti-Semitic remarks. All suspended. The remarks are too unpleasant to repeat on here.

White wave

Can you give more information please as to who etc.

trisher
POGS

" Some comment on Jeremy Hunt's disgusting remarks might be interesting"
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POGS

" I notice you still haven't commented on the remarks made by Jeremy Hunt ad the failure of the British media to pick up on this. It does illustrate one thing that a British politician is prepared to use the Holocaust for his personal political aims, and if one MP is prepared to do this perhaps others are as well."
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Here goes.

Re the using of the Holocaust and Auschwitz politically and your point " if one MP is prepared to do this perhaps others are as well " I was reminded of just one politician who spoke of the Holocaust and Auschwitz also during one of the debates in Parliament.:-

Dame Margaret Hodge (Barking) (Lab)

" I rise to speak feeling a mixture of anger and anguish: anger at the shocking increase in antisemitic incidents in our country, and anger at the abject failure of the Labour leadership to root out the cancer of antisemitism within our party; anguish because of the stuff of antisemitism, whether online, verbal or physical, constitutes an unspeakably dreadful stain on our society, and anguish because my colleagues, the hon. Member for Liverpool, Wavertree (Luciana Berger) and the right hon. Member for Enfield North (Joan Ryan), both of whom have dedicated themselves to fighting antisemitism, feel that they can no longer stay in the Labour party and work with Labour MPs, both Jews and non-Jews, to eradicate antisemitism from our party.

It just beggars belief that on the very day the hon. Member for Liverpool, Wavertree chose to leave the Labour party Derek Hatton was readmitted. This is a slight deviation, but I knew Derek Hatton in the 1980s. A leading member of Militant, he holds bigoted views and never believed in consistency between what he said and what he did. I remember a meeting of rate-capped councils, when he harangued the leader of one council who had told us his council was going to set a rate that night. Hatton accused the man of betraying the working classes by complying with the law. I was fed up with his hypocrisy, because that was precisely what Hatton had done the previous year. When I told him to be quiet, he turned on me and shouted, “If it’s too hot for you Margaret, get back in the kitchen.”

To return to the debate, I never ever thought that my Jewish identity would be central to my political work. I have always been secular. I arrived as an immigrant with my family at the age of four. We were not active in the Jewish community, although all our family friends were also Jewish refugees. But like so many other Jews, I lost family in the holocaust. In recent years, as my sisters trawled through family letters and diaries, that family history became more vivid and poignant for me. I read a letter from my aunt—after fleeing, she found herself in France—that she sent to Marshal Pétain, pleading with him to release her husband who had been taken from their home in the Ardèche:​
“He is only a number to you. He is everything to me.”

Her husband, my uncle, was later murdered in Auschwitz.

At Auschwitz, years later, I walked into a room filled with luggage and was confronted with a battered suitcase bearing his initials. I read my grandfather’s diaries and heard the despair he expressed as he visited his parents’ graves in Vienna for the last time before fleeing the Nazis. And most painful of all, I read my grandmother’s last letter, written to her son, my uncle, nine days before she was shot in a trench outside a concentration camp, in which she twice says, “Don’t forget me completely.”

Stamping out antisemitism matters. We must never shirk our shared responsibility to prevent such horrors from happening again. We ignore the present increase in antisemitism incidents at our peril: a 16% rise, as others have said; the third year in a row that figures have reached an all-time high; a 54% increase in just one year in antisemitic abuse on social media. Complacency, denial, the shifting of blame on to others—all that is unacceptable.

This is not about weaponising racism for political advantage, an accusation that makes me profoundly angry. Likewise, for some people to claim that those fighting antisemitism are simply protecting the Netanyahu regime in Israel is deeply insulting and utterly wrong. I often criticise the actions of successive Israeli Governments where I feel that is justified, but legitimate criticism of a foreign Government should never morph into racist abuse against all Jews, as it too often does.

The increase in antisemitism comes from both the left and the right. On the right, CST analysis tells us that one in four of the incidents of recorded abuse involved language used by the far right, but under the leadership of my right hon. Friend the Member for Islington North (Jeremy Corbyn), a platform has also been given for antisemitism, which was always present on the hard-left fringes, but has now moved into the mainstream of my party. That is why we have experienced a surge in abuse against us—abuse particularly targeted against female Jewish MPs.

I have seen the internal Labour party documents leaked to LBC that formed the agenda for one single meeting of the group tasked with investigating allegations of antisemitic abuse, and I congratulate LBC on doggedly pursuing this story. There are 47 antisemitic allegations in these documents against Labour party members. The evidence of abuse is shocking. I quote:

“He needs to check out the love fest between the Zionists and the Nazis.

People are finding out how much power Jews have. They seem to have a lot of power over the main opposition party. Might they rebel if…the reason they didn’t get a job or a home was because a Jew got it.

You are paid by Israel to destabilise UK Labour.

A Zionist plot to oust Jeremy Corbyn.

A swastika is appropriate as Israel is a fascist state.”

Some of the abuse is directed at Members of this House. LBC gave the file to Mak Chishty, who ran the hate crime unit for the Metropolitan police until 2017. He identified 17 cases that he judged were “race hate incidents” and four cases that crossed the threshold for criminal investigation. It took three months for the Crown Prosecution Service to give the police the go-ahead just for a criminal investigation. Will the Government urgently inquire into why this delay occurred and will ​they also provide me with written assurance that the delay will not result in cases being dropped because they run out of time?

The documents leaked to LBC covered less than 50 cases. The Labour party has received hundreds and hundreds of complaints, yet only 12 individuals have been expelled from the party since April. I could have identified more than that from the one set of papers I saw. This tells me that the leader of the Labour party is not demanding zero tolerance of antisemitism in our ranks. Until he does, I and other members of the party will continue to call it out fearlessly, loudly and persistently.

Trust between the leader, his staff, Labour headquarters and Back-Bench Labour MPs has now broken down completely. I have absolutely no confidence in the integrity of the data that the party has provided concerning its progress. I submitted a dossier of abusive communications. The only communication that I have received back is a letter from a party member—about whom I had complained —in which he says of my complaint:

“I can’t tell you how pathetic I think this is of you, going crying to the complaints department when someone says they don’t like you.”

He had accused me of “hysterically abusing Corbyn” to advance my own agenda and had said that Jewish people in this country are not victims of anything and that I was a nasty, dishonest person. The level of care provided to MPs by the party is so pathetic that the only response one gets to complaining about antisemitic abuse is further abuse from the culprit.

This week, two Labour MPs quit the Labour party, mainly because they think the party is institutionally antisemitic. I understand and respect their decision and mourn their departure. I joined the Labour party 56 years ago because it was the natural home for Jews, with its proud tradition of fighting racism, promoting equality and fostering tolerance. I do not yet want to give up the fight for the heart and soul of a party I have worked for and with throughout my adult life. The leader of the Labour party must really listen, must really understand and must really change. If he does not do so, he will be culpable for sabotaging the values that led to the creation of the Labour party and responsible for the withering away of a once great political force."
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You are concerned about Jeremy Hunt who said:-

" When I went to Auschwitz I rather complacently said to myself, "thank goodness we don't have to worry about that kind of thing happening in the UK" and now I find myself faced with the leader of the Labour Party who has opened the door to antisemitism in a way that is truly frightening.'

The problem is I believe the words of those Labour MP's such as Margaret Hodge and councillors who have been intimidated by antisemitism from within the Labour Party , their own words by the way . I believe the words of those Labour MP's who also feel that this has happened since Corbyn became Leader and the lack of will to stop it from Corbyn down.

Those who openly say they either dislike/hate/accuse of being part of a conspiracy to oust Corbyn those Labour MP's such as Margaret Hodge don't and never will believe what they say.

So was Hunt wrong?

My problem is Corbyn talks the talk but does not walk the walk on antisemitism in his Party and it doesn't take a conservative MP to tell me that. That is not accusing Corbyn of being antisemitic either by the way.

March 2017. There was a call from a Tory activist for a European wide purge and inquisition.

Jewish groups were alarmed at this call because the inquisition led to pogroms on a wide scale.

The Welsh Tory party recognising this has tried to distance itself from this activists message.

October 2018.
Young Tory party members were caught wearing clothing with the yellow Star of David sewn onto them with the words Juden. Others were dressed as Hitler.

November 2017

Hope not hate reported that Tory party activists were members of a Facebook group called Right Society. This is awash with anti-semitism, Holocaust denying and racist material.

Interestingly the Tory party have a history of anti-semitism all the way back to its inception right up to the present day.

It might help to balance this argument on anti -semitism to list the events.

The most recent and serious is the charge of “cultural Marxism” used in a speech by by Suella Braverman and a number of Tory party members and MPs. Cultural Marxism Is an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory beloved of the far right, particularly the Nazis at the beginning of the last century.

The alt right have resurrected the theory, and it has been doing the rounds at various Tory party conferences, including the publication of a booklet called “A cultural virus”

The Tory youth wing in Scotland has picked this theory up and run with it and has been accused of anti semitism by various Jewish groups.
The Tory leader in Scotland was asked to treat this problem seriously by the Jewish groups, because “ it was created by the Nazis to demonise Jews.

The Jewish Council for Racial Equality has called for an investigation, into what appears to be an endemic problem in the Tory party. but nothing has been done.

trisher

' And that is what Finkelstein is saying that the investigations into anti-semitism and the involvement of the Jewish community in the political in fighting of MPs is wrong and dangerous.'
-

On one hand you say:-

' Finkelstein is Jewish and as such is more qualified to recognise anti-semitism than most people '
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Then to back up your point you come out with :-

' the involvement of the Jewish community in the political in fighting of MPs is wrong and dangerous.'
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So have I got your logic straight?

Finkelstein is a Jew you believe so he can be involved politically! .

The Jewish community and Jewish MP's you don't believe and are involved politically are ' wrong and dangerous '?

By the way I accused ' nobody ' of being antisemitic thank you very muh.

Nothing to do with Hunt - but if you recognise that as another deflection, then yes, add that in too!

You can roll on the floor laughing but try to remove your blinkers at some point, you might crash into something and hurt yourself.

A community is people not leaders trisher

Callistemon unsubstatiated rumours^- really!!! Corbyn's record on human rights and his reputation for working for them is internationally known but this is apparently discounted by ^Unsubstatiated rumours if it wasn't such a serious issue I would be rolling around the floor laughing.

Would you like to say what you regard as deflection in any of my posts? (I suspect it is the reference to Hunt's remarks which people have tried to pretend were never made)

I believe that part of the problem is that Jewish people are regarded as white & privileged.

I don't think that you can state categorically that Corbyn is not anti-semitic as there are unsubstantiated rumours that he was at one point.

Much of what you are posting is a deflection from the point of this discussion, trisher, whether deliberate or not.

Iam64 when Finkelstein speaks of the Jewish community I think what he means are the outspoken leaders and associations as whole bodies, not individuals. There are probably as many different views amongst the community as a whole as there are on GN. Of course it isn't indiviuals he is speaking about, after all how many individuals have access to mainstream media?
lemon your comment- is a friend of Palestine that has emboldened those with antisemitic views to air them and get away with it. says everything about you. Being a friend of Palestine and being anti-semitic are nothing to do with each other except that those who recognise the rights of Palestinians are far more likely to recognise other human rights abuses. Corbyn has never been anti-semitic and has endeavoured to battle it at every turn. He is also supportive of human rights in Palestine which most people would regard as a positive.
But I notice STILL no comment on Jeremy Hunt and his Holocaust remark and this man is a possible PM!!!

"what Finkelstein is saying is the investigation into anti semitism and the involvement of the Jewish community in the political infighting of MPs is wrong and dangerous".

So are we now to believe that constituents, members of the public are not to get involved in political infighting, otherwise known as dissent within political parties? That would rule out any of us getting involved in writing to MP's about Brexit for example, as the MPs themselves are in disagreement about the way forward.

yes! Corbyn being appointed as LOTO has everything to do with the spread of antisemitism within the LP !
It isn’t strange at all, it is the result of a weak ineffectual leader who is a friend of Palestine that has emboldened those with antisemitic views to air them and get away with it.

POGS there are many MPs who have received an awful lot of hate comunication in one form or another amongst them Diane Abbott. So the abuse of MPs is not limited to anti-semitism. Perhaps one of the questions that could be asked is why has this become so much front line news when other abuse isn't?
But it isn't the anti-semitic abuse anyone is excusing or denying, simply the very strange circumstances which link this with the election of Corbyn as leader. And that is what Finkelstein is saying that the investigations into anti-semitism and the involvement of the Jewish community in the political in fighting of MPs is wrong and dangerous.
I notice you still haven't commented on the remarks made by Jeremy Hunt ad the failure of the British media to pick up on this. It does illustrate one thing that a British politician is prepared to use the Holocaust for his personal political aims, and if one MP is prepared to do this perhaps others are as well.

Sorry.

That question was to trisher and Grany

Grany

I know Finkelstein is Jewish.

I know Labour MP's Ruth Smeeth, Margaret Hodge, Louise Elleman , Luciana Berger et al are Jewish.

Have you ever listened to those Jewish MP's during antisemitism debates in Parliament ?

Do you hear and read what they say and ever query whether there is any truth in what they say or are they just a cabal who fabricated this whole antisemitism witch hunt ?

Quote from your post to Finkelstein:-

" If Corbyn loses, a lot of people in the Labour Party are going to blame it on those Jews who fabricated this whole anti-semitism witch-hunt hysteria.

I personally think they are MP's who have been treated appallingly and I believe their account of what is /has happened over the past few years and have continued to raise their voices under duress/harassment and intimidation.

The interview with Jeremy Hunt
jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/exclusive-jeremy-hunt-accuses-corbyn-of-deeply-held-prejudices-against-jews/
If you have read the whole thread Smilless2012 you will know that the artist has named the people. JP Morgan is certainly recognisable. If you think you can recogniise Jewish people by their looks isn't that anti-semitic?
More info about noses www.firstforwomen.com/posts/does-your-nose-keep-growing-162596
It's something I thought everyone knew!!!