by Manfred Gerstenfeld
An analysis of the British Labour party under the chairmanship of Jeremy Corbyn provides a panoramic view of many aspects of socialist anti-Jewish hate-mongering.
Jeremy Corbyn, photo via Wikimedia Commons
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 865, June 13, 2018
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: An
analysis of the British Labour party under the chairmanship of Jeremy
Corbyn provides a panoramic view of many aspects of socialist
anti-Jewish hate-mongering. The most extreme comments come
disproportionately from Muslims, a subject that is taboo for the British
media. The incitement is accompanied by a whitewashing of the party’s
anti-Semitism problem, a whitewashing that is supported by a great
majority of its members. The ongoing hate-mongering in the party has led
to some unprecedented reactions by the British Jewish leadership.
In the past decades, Western European social
democrat politicians and parties have been among the most extreme
inciters against Israel. In several cases, there have also been
expressions of anti-Semitism. Leading socialist politicians, including
the late Swedish Socialist Prime Minister Olof Palme and the late Greek
Socialist Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, have accused Israel of Nazi
practices.
Only in the past two years, however, has a
European socialist party – the British Labour Party – been exposed for
widespread and extreme anti-Jewish incitement. Classic anti-Semitic as
well as anti-Israel remarks by elected representatives have been
published on a more or less ongoing basis. An analysis of the British
Labour party provides a panoramic view of many aspects of socialist
anti-Jewish hate-mongering.
In September 2015, extreme leftist Jeremy Corbyn
became the party leader. A few months later, the first accusations about
anti-Semitism concerning the Oxford University Labour Club became
widely known. The party’s National Executive Committee chose to reveal
only a limited summary of the findings exposed by Labour peer Lady
Royall. Several months later the entire report was leaked to the press.
As the “anti-Semitism in Labour” issue started to
interest the British media, it slowly became clear that extreme
anti-Semitic expressions had been present in the party prior to Corbyn’s
appointment. In 2014, for example, under previous Labour leader Ed
Miliband, Naz Shah proposed – before she was elected MP in Bradford –
that Israel should be relocated to the US. At that time, apparently no
one was interested in publicizing this statement.
Among the expressions of anti-Semitic hate uttered
by elected representatives, a disproportionate number has come from
Muslims. This was the case during Miliband’s leadership and continues
under Corbyn. Despite hundreds of articles on anti-Semitism in Labour,
the specifically Muslim aspects remain taboo in the British media.
Miliband steered the party towards a proposal of
recognition of a Palestinian state. This was possibly done to gain the
support of Muslims during the May 2015 elections, as an estimated 4.5%
of the British population are Muslim.
Corbyn mixes with anti-Semites. He has donated
money to, and attended gatherings of, a charity headed by Holocaust
denier Paul Eisen. He has referred to the genocide-promoting Hamas and
Hezbollah terrorist organizations as his friends. When he came to power
he promoted anti-Semites, including Ken Livingstone, to senior
positions. Livingstone, the former mayor of London, was later suspended
after his repeated claims that Hitler had supported Zionism in the
1930s. Livingstone resigned from the party in 2018.
It is not easy to identify which of Corbyn’s acts
fall squarely within the International Holocaust Remembrance
Association’s definition of anti-Semitism, which was adopted by the UK
government. In May 2018, Jonathan Arkush, outgoing President of the
Board of Deputies, the umbrella organization of British Jewry, claimed
that Corbyn held anti-Semitic views. He noted that the Labour leader had
been chairman of the Stop the War organization, which is known for some
of the worst anti-Israel discourse.
When media pressure concerning anti-Semitism in
Labour became an issue, Corbyn appointed human rights activist Shami
Chakrabarti in April 2016 to investigate the accusations. Her report was
poorly written and unprofessional. Shortly afterwards, Corbyn proposed
Chakrabarti for a peerage, which resulted in her becoming a baroness.
Corbyn also appointed her the party’s Shadow Attorney General for
England and Wales. Little has been heard from this supposed expert about
ongoing Labour anti-Semitism.
It is by now abundantly clear that Corbyn has
little desire to confront anti-Semitism in his party other than through
general statements. As a result, the whitewashing of anti-Semitism in
Labour has become a significant problem. In March 2018, a poll of paying
Labour members found that 47% said anti-Semitism is a problem, but the
extent of the problem is being exaggerated “to damage Labour and Jeremy
Corbyn or to stifle criticism of Israel.” A further 30% said
anti-Semitism is not a serious issue. Sixty-one percent thought Corbyn
is handling the anti-Semitism claims well. Only 33% thought he is
handling them badly.
The confrontation with anti-Semitism in one of the
country’s two major parties has had an important impact on members of
the Jewish community. Many of them no longer vote for Labour, and some
have stopped donating. An unprecedented demonstration of the Jewish
community against anti-Semitism in Labour took place in London outside a
Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) meeting. In a letter to the chair of
the PLP, the Board of Deputies wrote: “Again and again, Jeremy Corbyn
has sided with anti-Semites rather than Jews.”
In Parliament, several Jewish and pro-Jewish
Labour MPs have reported that they have been subjected to tremendous
harassment. Labour’s attempt to conquer the London constituency of
Barnet – the most Jewish borough in the UK – failed in the May 2018
local elections.
The modest increase in Labour seats nationwide
during those elections disappointed the party’s expectations and was
seen as partly due to the anti-Semitism debate. Arkush went farthest,
stating that Corbyn’s views could drive Jews to leave Britain if he were
to become prime minister. He was one of the Jewish leaders who met
Corbyn in April 2018, a meeting those leaders found disappointing.
Small groups on the Jewish left are enthusiastic
supporters of Corbyn. He continues to provoke, and attended a Passover
seder at Jewdas – a radical anti-Zionist Jewish organization that has
called Israel a “steaming pile of sewage which needs to be properly
disposed of.”
In March 2018, Corbyn said that since he became
party chairman, there have been 300 complaints about anti-Semitism. He
said that of those accused, 150 people have either been expelled or
resigned, and added that the backlog of complaints is 60 cases. However,
the Daily Mail reported a backlog of 74 cases and said MP John
Mann claims to be aware of another 130 complaints. One source in Labour
told the paper: “Many of these cases include the most shocking and
blatant anti-Semitism that would make even a committed Nazi blush.”
The disappointing local election results may have
been the impetus for Labour’s announcement that it will speed up dealing
with the complaints with the intention of clearing the backlog by the
end of July. In view of the party’s checkered past under Corbyn, we will
have to wait and see whether this promise will be fulfilled.
BESA Center Perspectives Papers are published through the generosity of the Greg Rosshandler Family
Source: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/uk-labour-antisemitism/
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