Antisemitism in the British Labour Party
There have been instances of antisemitism within the Labour Party of the United Kingdom (UK) since its establishment. One such example is canards about "Jewish finance" during the Boer War. In the 2000s, controversies arose over comments made by Labour politicians regarding an alleged "Jewish lobby", a comparison by London Labour politician Ken Livingstone of a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard, and a 2005 Labour attack on Jewish Conservative Party politician Michael Howard.
Following the election of Jeremy Corbyn as the party leader in September 2015, allegations of antisemitism within the party grew. Incidents involving Naz Shah in 2014 and Ken Livingstone in 2016 resulted in their suspension from party membership pending investigation. In response, Corbyn established the Chakrabarti Inquiry, which concluded that while the party was not "overrun by anti-Semitism or other forms of racism," there was an "occasionally toxic atmosphere" and "clear evidence of ignorant attitudes."[1][2]
In 2017, Labour Party rules were amended to categorize hate speech, including antisemitism, as a disciplinary matter. In 2018, Corbyn faced scrutiny for his response in 2012 to an allegedly antisemitic mural and for his association with Facebook groups, mainly pro-Palestinian, containing antisemitic posts. Labour's National Executive Committee (NEC) adopted a definition of antisemitism, for disciplinary purposes, in July of that year, aligning with the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition, with modified examples related to criticism of Israel.[3][4]
In September 2018, the NEC incorporated all 11 IHRA examples, unamended, into the party's code of conduct.[5]
In May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) launched an inquiry into whether Labour had "unlawfully discriminated against, harassed or victimised people because they are Jewish." In October 2020, the EHRC published its report, determining that the party was "responsible for unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination." The EHRC found 23 instances of political interference and concluded that Labour breached the Equality Act in two cases.[6][7] Corbyn was subsequently suspended from the Labour Party and had the party whip removed on 29 October 2020 "for a failure to retract" his assertion that the scale of antisemitism within Labour had been overstated by opponents.[8]
2000–2015
"Israel lobby" accusations
In 2003, Labour MP Tam Dalyell claimed, referring to the Israel lobby in the United States, that "there is far too much Jewish influence in the United States" and that "a cabal of Jewish advisers" was directing American and British policy on Iraq, stating that six of seven hawkish advisers to President George Bush were Jewish, close to Ariel Sharon's Likud, and also singling out Michael Levy, chief fundraiser for Tony Blair and his Middle East envoy for nine years. Eric Moonman stated he did not think Dalyell, a close associate of Richard Crossman, antisemitic, but that his language could be taken as supportive of that outlook.[17][a]
In 2010, Labour MP Martin Linton alleged that there is a malevolent Israel lobby in the UK: "There are long tentacles of Israel in this country who are funding election campaigns and putting money into the British political system for their own ends," while his Jewish fellow Labour MP Gerald Kaufman said that right-wing Jewish millionaires had large stakes in the Conservative Party.[b] Community Security Trust spokesman Mark Gardner responded: "Anybody who understands antisemitism will recognise just how ugly and objectionable these quotes are, with their imagery of Jewish control and money power."[17][19] In 2015, Kaufman said that "Jewish money, Jewish donations to the Conservative Party ... [and] support from the Jewish Chronicle" had led to "a big group of Conservative MPs who are pro-Israel whatever (its) government does", referring to the Conservative Friends of Israel; Corbyn condemned Kaufman's remarks at the time as "completely unacceptable".[20]
Livingstone's comments in 2005
In 2005, Labour politician Ken Livingstone was accused of antisemitism after he asked Evening Standard reporter Oliver Finegold if he had been "a German war criminal". When the reporter said he was Jewish, Livingstone said he was "just like a concentration camp guard, you are just doing it because you are paid to, aren't you?" and asserted that he (Finegold) worked for the "reactionary bigots... who supported fascism" at the Daily Mail. The Evening Standard was then a sister paper of the Mail, which had been supportive of fascism in the 1930s.[21][22][23]
2005 election
In the run-up to the 2005 United Kingdom general election, the Labour Party, under Tony Blair, tested posters[24] which TBWA, Labour's advertising agency, later said originated from Campaign Director Alastair Campbell.[25] One depicted the faces of Conservative Party leader Michael Howard[c] and Shadow Chancellor Oliver Letwin, who are Jewish, superimposed upon flying pigs. The slogan was "The Day Tory Sums Add Up" and the poster illustrated the adynaton, when pigs fly, used for something that will never happen.[27][28][d] A second poster was of Howard swinging a pocket watch on its chain with the slogan "I can spend the same money twice!" somewhat suggestive of stage hypnosis, where the subject is persuaded to accept false suggestions as true. Conservative backbencher Ann Widdecombe had suggested Howard, whose father was born in Romania, had an image problem in that he had "something of the night about him". Labour strategists leapt at this by then depicting Howard as a Dracula figure swinging a hypnotic watch.[30] The pose was said by The Jewish Chronicle to be reminiscent of fictional Jewish, criminal, characters, such as the moneylender, Shylock, from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice and the master pickpocket, Fagin, from Dickens' Oliver Twist.[31] The posters were not used and Labour denied any antisemitic intent.[32][33] They prompted protests from some Jewish groups but the Board of Deputies of British Jews declined to raise the issue.[24]
Corbyn's backbench record
Jeremy Corbyn was a patron of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign[34] and had campaigned extensively for Palestinian rights during his 32 years as a backbencher.[35]
In August 2015, as Corbyn emerged as a front-runner in the Labour Party leadership election, The Jewish Chronicle devoted its front page to seven questions regarding Corbyn's associations with those it described as "Holocaust deniers, terrorists and some outright antisemites", although Corbyn said he met with them in his search for peace in the Middle East.[36] These included his relationship with Islamist militant organisations Hezbollah and Hamas, organisations that Corbyn called "friends" (although he has stated he disagrees with their views);[37] and his failure to object to what The Jewish Chronicle described as antisemitic banners and posters that "dominate" the London Quds Day rallies supported by the organisation, Stop the War Coalition, of which Corbyn was national chair from 2011 to 2015.[38] Two of the questions related to "Deir Yassin Remembered", an organisation commemorating the massacre of over 100 Palestinian villagers in 1948 and founded by Holocaust denier Paul Eisen.[39][40][41][42] Up to 2013, Jeremy Corbyn and Jewish Labour MP Gerald Kaufman[43] attended "two or three" of the group's annual events. Corbyn has said that this had taken place before Eisen had made his views known publicly, and that he would not have associated with him had he known.[39] It was reported that Eisen's views were known in 2005 and that he had written an essay on his website in 2008 entitled "My life as a Holocaust denier".[41][44][45]
2016
Shah, Livingstone and Walker's comments
In April 2016, after it was revealed that Labour MP Naz Shah had, during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict and before she became an MP, shared a graphic of Israel superimposed on the U.S. with the caption "Solution for Israel-Palestine conflict – relocate Israel into United States", adding the comment, "Problem solved". She was suspended pending investigation, but reinstated after agreeing to apologise for bringing the party into disrepute.[46][47] By May 2016, the Labour Party had suspended 56 members for statements alleged to be antisemitic, pending investigation; these comprised 0.4% of the parliamentary group, 0.07% of Labour councillors, and 0.012% of the Party membership.[48] The graphic that Shah shared was created by American political scientist Norman Finkelstein, who described the controversy as "obscene". Referring to those on the right of the Labour Party allegedly using the scandal to undermine Corbyn, Finkelstein asked "What are they doing? Don't they have any respect for the dead? ... All these desiccated Labour apparatchiks, dragging the Nazi holocaust through the mud for the sake of their petty jostling for power and position. Have they no shame?"[49]
Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone defended Shah and said he had never heard antisemitic comments from Labour members. Livingstone added: "When Hitler won his election in 1932 his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews."[50] After being suspended for a year, a hearing in April 2017 by the National Constitutional Committee determined he was guilty of prejudicial and detrimental conduct and suspended him from standing for office or representing the party at any level for a further year.[51] In May 2018, he resigned from the party, saying the issues surrounding his suspension had become a distraction.[52] In a statement Livingstone said, "I do not accept the allegation that I have brought the Labour Party into disrepute – nor that I am in any way guilty of antisemitism. I abhor antisemitism, I have fought it all my life and will continue to do so."[53]
In May 2016, the vice-chair of Momentum, Jackie Walker, was investigated by the party over private comments she made on Facebook exaggerating the role of Jews in the Atlantic slave trade. Walker said her words had been taken out of context and no further action was taken following the investigation.[54] Jon Lansman, the chair of Momentum, defended her, describing the media as "a 'lynch mob' whose interest in combating racism is highly selective".[55] Following that year's Party Conference, at which Walker asked in a training session why Holocaust Memorial Day did not include pre-1940 genocides such as the Atlantic slave trade, she was removed from her Momentum position, while remaining on its steering committee, after Manuel Cortes, the general secretary of the TSSA union, said their funding would be reconsidered otherwise.[56][57] Lansman called Walker's comments "ill-informed, ill-judged and offensive", but not antisemitic.[55] The party suspended her from membership, pending investigation.[58] Walker said that she "utterly condemn[s] antisemitism", that her words were taken out of context, and that "I would never play down the significance of the Shoah. Working with many Jewish comrades, I continue to seek to bring greater awareness of other genocides, which are too often forgotten or minimised. If offence has been caused, it is the last thing I would want to do and I apologise."[59] She was expelled from the party for misconduct in March 2019.[60]
Inquiries into antisemitism
Following the suspensions, Corbyn commissioned an inquiry into antisemitism and other forms of racism in April 2016, led by Shami Chakrabarti, a barrister and the former head of the human rights advocacy group Liberty. She joined the Labour Party when appointed to, she said, show that she had members' interests and values at heart.[61] The inquiry had two deputy chairs: Jan Royall, who was also investigating allegations of antisemitism at Oxford University Labour Club, and David Feldman, Director of the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism. In 2007, Feldman was a signatory to Independent Jewish Voices, which in May 2016 described some allegations of antisemitism within Labour as "baseless and disingenuous", and Chakrabarti said he distanced himself from this comment.[61]
In June, the inquiry reported that it had found "no evidence" of systemic antisemitism in Labour, though there was an "occasionally toxic atmosphere", and made 20 recommendations, including outlawing offensive terms and improving disciplinary procedures.[62] Responses comprised both acceptance and criticism. Jeremy Newmark, chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, said: "It's a strong platform for the party to ... set a gold standard in tackling racism and anti-Semitism." John Mann MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Antisemitism, called it "hugely significant". The Jewish Leadership Council and Community Security Trust jointly welcomed aspects of it.[63] The Board of Deputies of British Jews said: "We hope that the implementation of this report will be rigorous and swift."[64] Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis also called for a "full and unhesitating implementation of the report's findings".[65]
Chakrabarti was Labour's sole nomination to the House of Lords in David Cameron's August 2016 Resignation Honours. She became a peer in September and the following month was appointed Shadow Attorney General. Commentators were immediately more critical, with the report being described as a "whitewash for peerage scandal" by the Board of Deputies of British Jews[66][67][68] while British author Howard Jacobson called the inquiry "a brief and shoddy shuffling of superficies" that "spoke to very few of the people charging the party with anti-Semitism and understood even fewer of their arguments",[69] and suggested that the peerage was showing contempt for those who had raised issues over antisemitism in the party.[70]
In April 2018, Chakrabarti accepted that some recommendations had not been implemented and said that the new Labour Party General Secretary, Jennie Formby, would make this a priority.[71]
Following allegations of antisemitism within the Oxford University Labour Club, an inquiry was launched by Labour Students, chaired by Jan Royall.[72] The party's National Executive Committee accepted the report in May 2016. The report found that there was "no evidence the club is itself institutionally anti-Semitic", though there was a "cultural problem" in which (antisemitic) "behaviour and language that would once have been intolerable is now tolerated".[73]
In October, the House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee held an inquiry into antisemitism in the United Kingdom.[74] The committee found "no reliable, empirical evidence to support the notion that there is a higher prevalence of antisemitic attitudes within the Labour Party than any other party." It was critical of Corbyn's response to antisemitic incidents against Labour MPs and described the Chakrabarti inquiry as "ultimately compromised".[74] The report also found that "the failure of the Labour Party to deal consistently and effectively with anti-Semitic incidents in recent years risks lending force to allegations that elements of the Labour movement are institutionally anti-Semitic".[75]
2017
Jewish constituencies in the general election
During the 2017 general election campaign, Jeremy Newmark, the chairman of the Jewish Labour Movement, said that "Jeremy Corbyn appears to have failed to understand the nature of contemporary anti-Semitism in the same way that it's understood by most of its target group". Labour MP Wes Streeting criticised the party's record on antisemitism, saying "I don't think many Jewish voters in my constituency have been very impressed with the way the Labour Party as a whole have responded", but denied that Corbyn was antisemitic.[76][77] According to polling in 2015, politicians' attitudes towards Israel influence the vote of three out of four British Jews.[78]
It is estimated that 26% of Jewish voters voted for Labour.[79] Analysis by election analysts academics Stephen Fisher et al., based on The British General Election of 2017 by Philip Cowley and Dennis Kavanagh, suggests that, in the five UK constituencies where, according to the 2011 Census, more than 10% of the population identify as Jewish - Finchley and Golders Green (21.1%), Hendon (17.0%), Hertsmere (14.3%), Hackney North and Stoke Newington (11.3%) and Bury South (10.2%) - Labour's vote share at the 2017 general election increased by seven share points on average, almost three points less than the national average. This includes an above-average swing to Labour in Hackney North and Stoke Newington.[80]
Hate speech made a disciplinary offence
During the 2017 Labour Party Conference, new rules proposed by the Jewish Labour Movement and supported by Jeremy Corbyn were adopted on hate speech. Previously, party members could not be disciplined for "the mere holding or expression of beliefs and opinions". Under the new rules, those who express antisemitic or other forms of hate speech, including racism, Islamophobia, sexism and homophobia, or other "conduct prejudicial to the Party", can be disciplined.[81]
Authors' public letter
In November 2017, Jewish authors Howard Jacobson, Simon Schama, and Simon Sebag Montefiore in a letter to The Times, said "We are alarmed that during the past few years, constructive criticism of Israeli governments has morphed into something closer to antisemitism under the cloak of so-called anti-Zionism", further stating "Although anti-Zionists claim innocence of any antisemitic intent, anti-Zionism frequently borrows the libels of classical Jew-hating," and adding "Accusations of international Jewish conspiracy and control of the media have resurfaced to support false equations of Zionism with colonialism and imperialism, and the promotion of vicious, fictitious parallels with genocide and Nazism".[82][83]
2018
Relationship with the Jewish community
In March 2018, the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council issued an open letter stating that Corbyn was "repeatedly found alongside people with blatantly anti-Semitic views", concluding that Corbyn "cannot seriously contemplate anti-Semitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far-left worldview that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities".[84] Following the open letter's publication accusing Corbyn of siding with antisemites "again and again", hundreds of people outside Parliament Square gathered to protest 'Enough is Enough' against antisemitism in the Labour Party,[85] demanding that Corbyn do more to tackle anti-Jewish feeling in Labour Party ranks.[86] Jewish Voice for Labour organised a smaller counter-demonstration.[86]
In April 2018, Corbyn attended a "third night" Passover Seder celebration held in his constituency by the radical Jewish group Jewdas.[87][88][89][90] Corbyn was criticised for attending the event by the Jewish Leadership Council, while the Board of Deputies of British Jews said: "If Jeremy Corbyn goes to their event, how can we take his stated commitment to be an ally against anti-Semitism seriously?"[91][92] Charlotte Nichols, Young Labour's women's officer and a member of Jewdas, commended Corbyn for attending the event,[93] arguing that it was "absolutely right" for Corbyn to "engage with the community at all levels"[92] and that many of the event attendees "are absolutely part of the 'mainstream community'".[94]
In April 2018, following a meeting with Corbyn to discuss antisemitism in the Labour Party, the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies said "We are disappointed that Mr Corbyn's proposals fell short of the minimum level of action which our letter suggested. In particular, they did not agree in the meeting with our proposals that there should be a fixed timetable to deal with antisemitism cases; that they should expedite the long-standing cases involving Ken Livingstone and Jackie Walker; that no MP should share a platform with somebody expelled or suspended for antisemitism; that they adopt the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism with all its examples and clauses; that there should be transparent oversight of their disciplinary process".[95][96] Corbyn described the meeting as "positive and constructive" and re-iterated that he was "absolutely committed" to rooting out antisemitism in the Labour Party.[97]
In April 2018, the Israeli Labor Party, the sister party of the Jewish Labour Movement,[98] led by Avi Gabbay announced it would cut ties with Corbyn and his office due to their handling of antisemitism, but still retain ties with the UK Labour Party as a whole. In a letter to Corbyn, Gabbay wrote of "my responsibility to acknowledge the hostility that you have shown to the Jewish community and the antisemitic statements and actions you have allowed".[99]
In August 2018, Corbyn said that antisemitism was a "problem that Labour is working to overcome". He said that some criticism of Israel may stray into antisemitism at times, but denied that all forms of anti-Zionism were inherently racist, and pledged to "root out antisemitism" within the party,[100] saying: "People who dish out anti-Semitic poison need to understand: You do not do it in my name. You are not my supporters and have no place in our movement."[101] In a video release a few days later, Corbyn apologised again, saying, "I acknowledge there is a real problem of antisemitism that Labour is working to overcome. I am sorry for the hurt that has been caused to many Jewish people".[102] In the same month, Corbyn said that the notion that he or Labour posed an "existential threat" to British Jews was "overheated rhetoric", but agreed that factions of the Labour Party had issues with antisemitism and that there was work to be done for Labour to regain the trust of British Jews.[103][104]
In September 2018, at the Labour Party Conference, Corbyn said he wants Labour and the Jewish community to "work together and draw a line" under antisemitism. He went on to attack the record of the Conservative Party for accusing Labour of "anti-Semitism one day, then endorse Viktor Orbán's hard-right government the next day".[105]
March–April 2018: Corbyn's record questioned
In 2018, a number of controversies occurred about incidents in Jeremy Corbyn's backbench record.
2020
Keir Starmer's statements
On 4 April 2020, newly elected party leader Keir Starmer expressed the view that "Antisemitism has been a stain on our party" and apologised to the Jewish community on behalf of the Labour Party, vowing to fight it.[268][269] Starmer had previously made eliminating antisemitism in the Labour Party one of his main campaign issues, and said he would take steps to eradicate it "on day one" of his assuming party leadership. He also said he would look to fully cooperate with the EHRC's investigation into antisemitism in the party.[269]
2021–present
Exclusion of alleged far-left factions
In mid-July 2021, the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party voted to ban four factions which they described as being on the far-left, including Resist, Labour Against the Witchhunt, the Labour in Exile Network, and Socialist Appeal, on the grounds that "these organisations are not compatible with Labour's rules or our aims and values." These factions had been accused of obstructing efforts to combat antisemitism within Labour. The party committee also ruled that belonging to these factions is grounds for expulsion from Labour; that future complaints will be handled by a review panel of independent lawyers reporting to an independent appeal body; and that all prospective Labour candidates will be trained by the Jewish Labour Movement in dealing with antisemitism.[295][296] While the Jewish Labour Movement welcomed the announcement, the bans were condemned by Momentum and Unite the Union for targeting left-wing elements and worsening internal tensions within the party.[297]
Forde Report
The long-awaited Forde Report, written by lawyer Martin Forde in response to the dossier that was leaked in April 2020 (The work of the Labour Party's Governance and Legal Unit in relation to antisemitism, 2014–2019), was finally released on 19 July 2022,[298] revealing that antisemitism had been used as a factional weapon by opponents, and by supporters, of Corbyn in the Labour Party. The report said: "[R]ather than confront the paramount need to deal with the profoundly serious issue of anti-Semitism in the party, both factions treated it as a factional weapon."[299][300][301] It also laid bare how senior Labour staff displayed "deplorably factional and insensitive, and at times discriminatory, attitudes" towards Corbyn and his supporters,[302] and revealed that there was a "hierarchy of racism" in the party which ignored Black and Asian people.[303]
Israel–Hamas war
The Labour Party under Keir Starmer has suspended several parliamentary candidates and MPs, including Graham Jones, Andy McDonald, Azhar Ali and Kate Osamor, for allegedly making anti-Semitic comments about Israel during the Israel-Hamas war.[304][305][306] Jones said Britons who go to Israel to fight for the Israel Defense Forces "should be locked up".[307] Osamor wrote that there was an "international duty" to remember the victims of the Holocaust and that "more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and now Gaza" should also be remembered.[308]
Rebuttals
Labour movement
In September 2017, general secretary of Unite the Union, Len McCluskey said that the row "was created by people who were trying to undermine Jeremy Corbyn".[309] He stated that he had never heard antisemitic language at a party meeting, adding "Unfortunately at the time there were lots of people playing games, everybody wanted to create this image that Jeremy Corbyn's leadership had become misogynist, had become racist, had become anti-Semitic and it was wrong."[309]
In December 2017, Momentum founder Jon Lansman categorised antisemitism in the Labour Party into three forms: petty xenophobic remarks, of which he "[doesn't] think there's much" in the Party; old-school blood libel type antisemitism, which, according to Lansman, is "extremely rare"; and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, whereby, Lansman says, "we all understand that when that conflict heats up, it results in dreadful antisemitism."[310]
In June 2019, Labour peer Peter Hain and former Israeli negotiator in peace talks Daniel Levy said that the effect of Labour's stance on antisemitism has been "to empower apologists for totally unacceptable Israeli government attacks on Palestinians and the steady throttling of their rights – allowing those apologists to scale new heights in their dishonest attempts to label criticism of such Israeli policy as 'antisemitic'".[188][189]
In August 2019, former Deputy Leader of the Labour Party and Shadow Home Secretary Lord Hattersley said that he believed that Labour had "managed to expunge the party" of antisemitism.[311]
Jewish activists and organisations
Some left-wing Jewish groups have disputed the antisemitism claims. These include Jewish Voice for Labour,[312][313] Jews for Justice for Palestinians,[314] Jewish Socialists' Group,[315] Jewdas[316] and Independent Jewish Voices;[317] all of whom have said that accusations of antisemitism against the Labour Party have a twofold purpose: firstly, to conflate antisemitism with criticism of Israel in order to deter such criticism and, secondly, to undermine the Labour leadership since Corbyn was elected leader in 2015.[318][319][320]
In August 2015, dozens of Jewish activists signed an open letter criticising The Jewish Chronicle for what they viewed as its "character assassination" of Corbyn. Signatories to the letter included Laurence Dreyfus, Selma James, Miriam Margolyes, Ilan Pappé, Michael Rosen and Avi Shlaim.[321]
According to an openDemocracy opinion piece by Ben White, In April 2016, Richard Kuper spokesperson for Jews for Justice for Palestinians, said that, while "there is some antisemitism in and around the Labour party – as there is in the wider society in Britain", "there is clearly also a coordinated, willed and malign campaign to exaggerate the nature and extent of antisemitism as a stick to beat the Labour party" under Corbyn.[322]
In April 2016, the Jewish Socialists' Group said that antisemitism accusations were being "weaponized" in order to "attack the Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour party with claims that Labour has a "problem" of antisemitism". It added "A very small number of such cases seem to be real instances of antisemitism. Others represent genuine criticism of Israeli policy and support for Palestinian rights".[323]
Later that month, 82 "Jewish members and supporters of the Labour party and of Jeremy Corbyn's leadership" wrote an open letter to The Guardian stating that they "do not accept that antisemitism is 'rife' in the Labour party" and that "these accusations are part of a wider campaign against the Labour leadership, and they have been timed particularly to do damage to the Labour party and its prospects in elections in the coming week."[324][325][326] The signatories included Miriam David, Ivor Dembina, Stephen Deutsch, Selma James, Miriam Margolyes, Charles Shaar Murray, Ian Saville and Lynne Segal.[324][327]
In December 2017, Jewdas suggested that the allegations are aimed at discrediting the party[87] and called the reaction to them a "bout of faux-outrage greased with hypocrisy and opportunism", saying it was "the work of cynical manipulations by people whose express loyalty is to the Conservative Party and the right wing of the Labour Party".[328]
In February 2019, over 200 Jewish members and supporters of the Labour Party signed a letter published in The Guardian, calling the party under Corbyn an "a crucial ally in the fight against bigotry and reaction" and Corbyn's campaigning consistently in support for "initiatives against antisemitism". They felt that the "disproportionate focus on antisemitism on the left, which is abhorrent but relatively rare." The signatories included David Epstein, Mike Leigh, Michael Rosen, Avi Shlaim, Gillian Slovo, Annabelle Sreberny, Walter Wolfgang, Peter Buckman, Erica Burman, Keith Burstein, Miriam David, Michael Ellman, Nick Foster, Susan Himmelweit, Selma James, Ann Jungman, Frank Land, Gillian McCall, Helen Pearson and Ian Saville.[329][330]
The Morning Star reported that, in July 2019, Andrew Feinstein, anti-corruption campaigner and executive director of Corruption Watch pointed out that "Only a very small percentage of Labour members hold anti-semitic views and a YouGov poll in 2015 found Labour displayed the second least amount of any political party, second only to the Liberal Democrats. In 2017, two years into Jeremy Corbyn's leadership, the extent of anti-semitism in Labour had actually dropped, according to polling."[247]
In November 2019, John Bercow, the Jewish former Speaker of the House of Commons and Conservative MP, said he had never experienced antisemitism from a Labour Party member and had known Corbyn for 22 years and did not believe he was antisemitic.[331] In February 2020 Bercow claimed that he had only ever experienced 'subtle' antisemitism from members of his own Conservative Party, and had never experienced any antisemitism from Labour MPs.[332]
In November 2019, 14 British Jews signed a letter published in The Guardian describing allegation of antisemitism as "a political siege of the Labour party." The signatories included Antony Lerman, Lynne Segal, Jacqueline Rose, Miriam David, Brian Klug, Jonathan Rosenhead, Graeme Segal and Stephen Sedley.[333]
Academics and researchers
In April 2016, independent researcher Jamie Stern-Weiner's review in openDemocracy of the cases of antisemitism found that some were represented in the media in a way that treated comments about "Zionists" as being the same as Holocaust denial and comments about antisemitic conspiracy theories.[62][334]
In May 2016, Israeli historian and Oxford University Professor of International Relations Avi Shlaim argued that "charges of Jew-hatred are being deliberately manipulated to serve a pro-Zionist agenda."[62][335]
In January 2017, John Newsinger, professor of history at Bath Spa University, wrote in the Socialist Workers Party's journal: "There has been a sustained attempt made to discredit the Corbynites by alleging that they are somehow responsible for the Labour Party having a serious problem with anti-Semitism, that the Labour left and the left outside the Labour Party is, in fact, anti-Semitic... the allegations are politically motivated smears, perpetrated by people completely without shame, and... they do considerable damage to the real fight against anti-Semitism."[336]
Also in 2017, linguist and philosopher Noam Chomsky said: "I wholeheartedly support the right of anyone to criticise Israel without being branded antisemitic. That goes in particular for Jackie Walker."[337]
In April 2018, 42 senior academics wrote to The Guardian condemning anti-Corbyn bias in coverage of the debate and suggested that "Dominant sections of the media have framed the story in such a way as to suggest that antisemitism is a problem mostly to do with Labour and that Corbyn is personally responsible for failing to deal with it. The coverage has relied on a handful of sources such as the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Leadership Council and well-known political opponents of Corbyn himself." The signatories included Lynne Segal, Annabelle Sreberny, Beverley Skeggs, Gary Hall, Neve Gordon, Margaret Gallagher, Maria Chatzichristodoulou, Jill Daniels and Ruth Catlow.[338] One of the signatories, Jane Dipple of the University of Winchester, was herself investigated by her university and the Labour party over allegedly antisemitic posts on Facebook. In August 2018 the university said that Dipple no longer worked there but refused to say if she had been sacked or if she had resigned.[339][340]
Later that April, Israeli historian and political scientist Ilan Pappé stated that "Corbyn is not an anti-Semite and the Labour Party, until his election, was a pro-Israeli bastion..." and "there is anti-Semitism among all British parties – and much more on the right than on the left."[341]
In July 2018, philosopher and scholar of antisemitism Brian Klug wrote: "It's paradoxical if, at the moment Labour wakes up to the necessity of combating antisemitism in its ranks, it is shouted down because of its failure to deal with it in the past."[171] In October, he wrote: "It appears that two different objectives are being conflated by Jewish leadership: confronting antisemitism and toppling Corbyn."[342]
In March 2019, Neve Gordon, Professor of Politics and Government at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, wrote: "the real point of contention ... is not about whether the party should tolerate anti-Semitism, but about what anti-Semitism is."[343][344]
In April 2019, historian and University of Buckingham Professor of Politics Geoffrey Alderman wrote in the Jewish Telegraph that Jeremy Corbyn "has an impressive demonstrable record of supporting Jewish communal initiatives".[345] In May, he wrote in The Spectator that "I will agree that from time to time, as backbench MP and party leader, Corbyn has acted unwisely. But the grounds for labelling him an anti-Semite simply do not exist."[346]
In October 2019, Greg Philo, lead author of Bad News for Labour: Antisemitism, the Party and Public Belief remarked in an interview with Jacobin magazine that "Both the BBC and even a paper like The Guardian have contributed to public misunderstanding of this issue. They have a moral duty to discuss the new evidence and analysis that we have offered. But both have not covered it. That is a key source of their power — they can impose silence and simply refuse to discuss their own role."[347]
Palestinian author and academic Ghada Karmi wrote that the book "shows Labour is not 'institutionally racist' but the victim of an orchestrated campaign of unfounded accusations of antisemitism."[348]
Journalists and authors
In 2018, Mark Seddon and Francis Beckett conclude that "(t)he debate has become toxic. It's all abuse and bullying and point-scoring. It long ago ceased to concentrate on the protection of British Jews on one hand, and the creation of a better and more equal society in Britain on the other."[349] For Matt Seaton the controversy over Labour's attitudes to Jews and antisemitism is a proxy fight whose real conflict is one of a battle for the soul of the party waged between social democrats and traditional anti-imperialist socialists.[350]
In July 2018, writer and scholar of antisemitism Antony Lerman wrote: "after the battering Labour has experienced over the issue of antisemitism in the party since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader and the fact nothing the party has done has succeeded in fully placating its critics... the new code [of conduct] had barely seen the light of day before it was being condemned in the harshest terms by all and sundry."[152] In September, he noted "The default mode of almost all the mainstream media is to take as given that the party is institutionally antisemitic" and "the ever wilder doubling-down on painting Corbyn an antisemite and the increasingly desperate attempts to oust him from the leadership using hatred of Jews as a weapon with which to achieve this."[153]
Writer Richard Seymour wrote on his Patreon blog in 2018 that "...allegations that Labour is institutionally antisemitic, or that Corbyn himself is a racist, cut against, rather than with, the grain of what people already suspect to be true. Those who dislike Corbyn overwhelmingly think he's a politically correct peacenik, not a Jew-hater."[351]
In early 2016, American political scientist Norman Finkelstein said in an interview with Stern-Warner in openDemocracy: "The only plausible answer is, it's political. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the factual situation; instead, a few suspect cases of antisemitism – some real, some contrived – are being exploited for an ulterior political motive. As one senior Labour MP said the other day, it's transparently a smear campaign."[352] In August 2018, Finkelstein, writing in the Mondoweiss blog, called the criticism of Corbyn and Labour 'insane' and 'hysteria' and led by powerful interests, with Chomsky arguing that the aim is to undermine Corbyn's attempt to create a political party responsive to the electorate, and Finkelstein asserting that, given the lack of evidence, the campaign was a calculated hoax.[353]
Surveys and studies
General population
In 2015, 2016 and 2017, the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) commissioned YouGov to survey British attitudes towards Jews.[354] The 2017 survey found that supporters of the Labour Party were less likely to hold antisemitic views than those of the Conservative Party or the UK Independence Party (UKIP), while those of the Liberal Democrats were the least likely to hold such views. 32% of Labour supporters endorsed at least one "antisemitic attitude", as defined by the CAA, compared to 30% for the Liberal Democrat, 39% for UKIP supporters, and 40% for the Conservatives.[354][355]