Antisemitism in the British Labour Party

Allegations of Antisemitism in the Labour Party, a political party in the United Kingdom, have created controversy, leading to the party launching an internal inquiry in 2016. Some party activists have been either expelled or suspended after labour party investigations concluded they had used antisemitic language, however some were subsequently reinstated. The party has been condemned by leading Jewish figures, and according to a 2017 poll Eighty-three percent of UK Jews stated that in their opinion racist sentiments were not adequately challenged by Labour members of parliament, members of the party, or Labour Party supporters.

History

James R. Vaughn traces the origin of antisemitism within the party to Christopher Mayhew's creation of the Labour Middle East Council in 1969, laying a foundation of radical anti-Zionism that enabled the later growth of antisemitism within the Labour Party. Mayhew was among the 15 Labour MP's who crossed the floor in 1972 to vote in favour of imposing an arms embargo on Israel.

According to June Edmunds, University Lecturer in Sociology of the University of Sussex, the Party leadership shifted to to an anti-Israel attitude in the early 1980s, although the membership did not. Noting that "fringe" Palestinian groups began operating at annual Party conferences in the 1970s, Edmunds credits the shift to fading memories of the plight of Jews in the 1940s, together with agitation for Party change by Arab and socialist groups. However Paul Kelemen, in his 2012 book, The British Left and Zionism: History of a Divorce, explores the question of whether it was antisemitism, perhaps in new form,, that caused the Labour Prty to move away from its historic support for Israel in the 1980s, and concludes that Labour's shift to support for the Palestinian cause was purely political.

2015

Following the election of Jeremy Corbyn, contemporary antisemitism researcher David Hirsh penned an open letter to Corbyn saying "Your new Labour Party does not feel like a safe place for Jews", further stating "We know you don't hate Jews and you do hate Nazis. But you do have a history of leaping to the defence of blood libellers and conspiracists, consorting with Holocaust deniers and politically embracing antisemitic organisations".

2016 inquiries

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn launched an internal inquiry on 29 April 2016 following the publication of comments made by Naz Shah and Ken Livingstone, for comments that were widely called antisemitic, both of whom were suspended pending investigation. The report was widely criticised and described as a 'whitewash', and as a "whitewash for peerage scandal" Shami Chakrabarti led the inquiry and joined the Labour Party on the same day she was appointed to chair the investigation. The inquiry had two deputy chairs: Jan Royall, who was at the time holding an investigation into antisemitism at Oxford University’s Labour club, and Director of the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism David Feldman, whom Chakrabarti had to defend due to his being a signatory to Independent Jewish Voices, which has claimed that some of the allegations of antisemitism within Labour were “baseless and disingenuous”.

Livingstone was suspended for a year after a hearing over 3 days by the National Constitutional Committee, for breaching rule 2.1.8, . Shah was reinstated after accepting a number of conditions (such as apologizing for bringing the party into disrepute and to carryout engagement with the Jewish community).

British author Howard Jacobson called the Chakrabarti 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." Jacobson also suggested that Corbyn nominating Chakrabarti for a peerage was showed contempt for those who had raised issues over antisemitism in the party.

Following allegations of antisemitism from the Oxford University Labour Club, an inquiry was launched by the Labour party’s national student organisation, chaired by Jan Royall. The party's National Executive Committee accepted the report in May 2016. Some of the report was published, but the full report was deemed confidential until Royall leaked it.

In 2016, the Home Affairs Select Committee held an inquiry into antisemitism in the United Kingdom. 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 political party”. However it was critical of Corbyn's response to antisemitic incidents against Labour MPs. The committee described the Chakrabarti inquiry as “ultimately compromised”. 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".

In May 2016 American political scientist Norman G Finkelstein (whose map "Solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict – relocate Israel to into United States” was shared by MP Naz Shah leading to claims she was antisemitic) described the controversy as “obscene”. Asking “What are they doing? Don’t they have any respect for the dead?” Adding “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?”.

2017

Public perceptions

According to a poll carried out in 2017 a majority of Jews in Britain believed that the Labour Party was too tolerant of anti-Semitism. Eighty-three percent of those surveyed stated that in their opinion racist sentiments were not adequately challenged by Labour members of parliament, members of the party, or Labour Party supporters. The poll was held for the group Campaign Against Antisemitism, and followed increasing criticism of Corbyn’s attempts to fight anti-Jewish sentiment within the party.

According to Stephan Daisley, the Labour Party had previously been quick to take a stance against groups where racism, sexism, and homophobia had been tolerated. However, according to Daisley, anti-Semitism is now routine within the party, and that by it's own definition, the party is now "institutionally anti-Semitic".

According to Jonathan Freedland, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn supported the pro-Palestinian group Deir Yassin Remembered, founded by Holocaust denier Paul Eisen, and had attended one of the group's events. Corbyn also praised Raed Salah, in 2012, Salah had had been found guilty of using the antisemitic trope of the blood libel in 2009. Freedland says that due to Corbyn the Labour party is increasing in numbers and is attracting those on the left who would previously have rejected the party, or would not have been accepted by it. A party spokesman said "Jeremy has consistently spoken out against all forms of antisemitism and condemned Holocaust denial as vile and wrong." Corbyn said had he known of Eisen's Holocaust denial, he would have had nothing to do with the group.

In November 2017, leading UK Jewish authors Howard Jacobson, Simon Schama, and Simon Sebag Montefiore condemned Labour's failure to address anti-semitism in a letter to The Times saying "We are alarmed that during the past few years, constructive criticism of Israeli governments has morphed into something closer to antisemitism [sic] under the cloak of so-called anti-Zionism", further stating "Although anti-Zionists claim innocence of any antisemitic [sic] 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."

Election

During the 2017 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 also 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". Corbyn has in the past said that the party will not tolerate anti-Semitism in any form. Streeting also said he did not believe Corbyn was antisemitic.

Conference

During the 2017 Labour party conference, new rules were introduced to combat antisemitism or other “conduct prejudicial to the Party” by members. Some party activists made the accusation that Labour were policing “thought crime” and claimed that the rule was "an attempt to stifle criticism of Israel". 98% of members supported the rules change. Deputy leader Tom Watson promised there would be an investigation into how the party provided a platform at a conference fringe event to Miko Peled, who is alleged to have said that people should be allowed to question whether the Holocaust happened. Watson responded that “it is nothing to do with the official Labour party conference. And if there was Holocaust denial there, these people have no right to be in the Labour party, and if they are they should be expelled”. Delegates at the event demanded that the Jewish Labour Movement be expelled from the party over their support for the state of Israel.

Causes

Attracting Muslim voters

According to Baroness Deech "Too many Labour politicians cravenly adopted the anti-Semitic tropes and anti-Israel demonization they think will get them British Muslim votes, rather than standing up to the prejudice that exists in the community". According to anti-Semitism scholar Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld while not all of the most extreme anti-Semitic slurs were made by Muslim representatives of Labour, they represent a disproportionately large proportion of anti-Semitic perpetrators. According to Gerstenfeld, Labour's anti-Semitic issues "demonstrate what happens when a party bends over backwards to attract Muslim voters".

Rebuttals

In September 2017 Len McCluskey said that the anti-semitism row was nothing more then an attempt to undermine Jeremy Corbyn by his political opponents saying "No, I've never recognised that. I believe it was mood music that was created by people who were trying to undermine Jeremy Corbyn," He claimed that in 47 years as a labour member he had never heard any antisemitic language at any meeting he had attended. 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."

In a piece for Channel 4 Georgina Lee pointed out that Labour is the only UK party that explicitly bans antisemitism by it's members.

Bibliography

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Sources

• Alan Johnson, Antisemitic anti-Zionism: the root of Labour's crisis; A submission to the Labour Party inquiry into antisemitism and other forms of racism, June 2016.[1]
• Lesley Klaff, K (2016). Jeremy Corbyn : Why the British Labour Party is no longer a safe place for Jews. International Relations and Diplomacy, 4 (7), 427-433, 2016.[2]
• Tony Kushner, Antisemitism in Britain: Continuity and the Absence of a Resurgence?, pp. 253-276 [3] Chapter in Antisemitism Before and Since the Holocaust: Altered Contexts and Recent Perspectives, McElligott, Anthony, Herf, Jeffrey Herf, Palgrame MacMillan, IBSN: 978-3-319-48866-0, 2017.
• Dave Rich, The Left's Jewish Problem: Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and Anti‑Semitism, Biteback Publishing, 2016.
• Colin Schindler, From Zionist to Corbynist: The Evolution of Britain’s Labour Left, Jewish Quarterly, Volume 63, 2016 - Issue 2, [4]
• A. Sivanandan, Liz Fekete, Jenny Bourne, Submission from the IRR to the Labour Party Inquiry into anti-Semitism and other forms of racism, including Islamophobia, Race & Class, September 30, 2016 [5]

External links

• Whitewashed: Anti-Semitism in the Labour Party