Home

Labour Antisemitism

Antisemitism Definition Allows Legitimate Criticism of Israel
Why the Israel Obsession?
Is Corbyn Pro-Palestinian?
I’m not Anti-Semitic … I’m Anti-Zionism
‘Only 0.1% of Labour Members are Antisemitic’ ?
“I Merely Disapprove of Israeli Actions”
Anti-Jewish Violence Preceded Israel Establishment; Occupation, Settlements…
Israel is not an Apartheid State
Is Israel a Racist Endeavour?
Contact
Submit

Search for:

Category: Uncategorized

IHRA Antisemitism Definition Allows for Legitimate Criticism of Israel

Author: login12345 Published Date: November 25, 2019

In September 2018 Labour adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Definition of Antisemitism and its illustrative examples in full as detailed below. However, Labour…

Continue Reading... IHRA Antisemitism Definition Allows for Legitimate Criticism of Israel

Posted in Uncategorized

Why the Obsession with Israel?

Author: login12345 Published Date: November 25, 2019

According to wikipedia, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the 24th most deadly in the world in 2018, accounting for well under 1% of deaths by conflict….

Continue Reading... Why the Obsession with Israel?

Posts navigation

Newer posts →

About

This website was set up in November 2019 to demonstrate the institutionally antisemitic nature of the Labour Party. We are Jews and deeply troubled by the antisemitism in the Labour Party. Combatting the antisemitism the same issues are encountered repeatedly:

1. ‘Where’s the proof?’’

2. ‘what about racism in other parties’?

3. ‘The antisemitism is fictional and a conspiracy theory to unseat Jeremy Corbyn’

4. ‘The racism exists merely in a tiny fringe minority of the party’

5. ‘That you’re not allowed to accusing Israel of some alleged injustice without being unfairly accused of being an antisemite’.

6. ‘It isn’t antisemitism but anti-Zionism or anti-Israelism’

7. ‘That Jeremy Corbyn has been a lifelong antiracism campaigner and that his comradery with Islamic terrorist groups is for peacemaking purposes.

How much proof would satisfy the public that the Labour party is institutionally antisemitic?

This website contains a list of MPs, Councillors, Candidates, Party Officials, activists and more who have been reported in the national or local press or dedicated blogs for allegations of antisemitism, suspension from the party for alleged antisemitism, readmittance to the party desite antisemitism allegations, or an association with antisemitism or antisemites etc. Each person appears with a position… some of which might well be out of date but indicative of the status of the person in the party.

According to the BBC there were about 2000 Labour councillors, about 630 candidates standing in the December 2019 elections, and about 250 Labour MPs. On this list there are over 40 councillors (recent past and present), over a dozen MPs (past and present), and over 80 Labour candidates (again, past and present).

British people who are not dedicated to the subject might witness antisemitic material once in a while. A Jew or interested party who follows the subject of antisemitism closely will witness it every single day – that is the scale of the problem.

We are not privy to all the allegations of antisemitism in the party. The Labour party has not released many details. If you examine some of the links, the racism involved can often be described as innocuous when examined alone. However, when put together the issue arises as to why antisemitic tendencies are so welcome in Labour at high levels … so much so that the party becomes institutionally antisemitic.

It might appear positive that members or councillors or candidates etc have been suspended from the party – the implication that the party is acting on antisemitism. Unfortunately this is undoubtedly not reflective of reality. The reports that end up in the press are when action has been taken and presumably account for the tip of the iceberg. Plus numerous suspended persons have been readmitted… so much for ‘zero tolerance for racism’. Is there really such a lack of options that the Labour party cannot find people who haven’t been associated with racism to fill important roles?

There is very little information online on action taken by the party against low level racist members. This isn’t the sort of material that features in the local or national press.

Numerous party insiders who are presumably privy to information that the public is not, have publicly expressed their disgust at the problem; numerous MPs and councillors have left the party. Numerous insiders have spoken out (the Panorama program being a prominent example.) These are indicative of a problem on a scale not revealed to the public at large.

And finally, the EHRC investigation did not happen in a vacuum. Again, this is an organisation presumably privy to information that the public is not privy to.

What about racism in other parties?

While racism in any political party is entirely unacceptable, to suggest equivalence between the scale of Islamophobia by the Conservatives, for example, and antisemitism by Labour is morally reprehensible.

The Muslim Council of Britain submitted its complaint to the EHRC with 150 examples of Islamophobia in the Conservative Party.

Conversely 15,000 complaints of antisemitism in Labour were submitted to the EHRC.

There are approximately ten times as many Muslims in the UK as there are Jews so these figures alone make the antisemitism 1,000 times worse.

Denying the Reality of Labour Antisemitism

The claim that the problem of antisemitism in Labour is fictional or a conspiracy to unseat Jeremy Corbyn stems from a variety of factors:

A totally reasonable lack of knowledge of the scale of the problem. (Honestly, why would a disinterested non-Jew have intimate knowledge of a problem that affects them in no way?)

the reluctance to have to admit that the party one supports could actually be institutionally racist;

Antisemitism: the classic antisemitic trope of a Jewish conspiracy – a manipulative, moneyed cabal seeking to control the country, or media or government. (Jews were largely considered to be Labour supporters as opposed to other parties, so this conspiracy theory doesn’t really make sense anyway.)

The scale of so many people in the upper echelons of the Labour party associated with antisemitism dismisses the claim that the problem exists merely on the party fringes.

A ‘0.1%’ figure is popularly quoted as ‘proof’ that the racism is minor. Even this figure is a misleading representation of the statistics reluctantly released by the party). See why….

Classic Antisemitic Tropes

‘Jews control Britain and are committing genocide on us’ (CLP Chair), Hitler was the ‘greatest man in history’ (Labour Councillor), Jewish people are ’murdering bastards’ who ‘should be gassed’ (Labour Councillor). Calling for the execution of ‘Talmud Jews’, calling Jews ‘parasites’, claiming Jewish people ‘drink blood and suck baby’s dick’, Jews engage in ‘double dealing, back stabbing, cheating’, Jews ‘pervert democracy in the UK, saying that the Holocaust figures ‘don’t add up’, that it isn’t human blood running through the veins of Jewish MPs, talking of the Rothschilds, Jewish control of the media, Jewish bribes, Jewish greed, hook noses…

These are classic antisemitic tropes and have NOTHING to do with Zionism or Israel. And even these examples have not been dealt with properly. (See http://fathomjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Institutionally-Antisemitic-Report-FINAL-6.pdf

and https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tom-watson-unleashes-savage-attack-14044990 )

One of the most disturbing publicly known examples of how inadequately the Labour Party has dealt with complaints of antisemitism relates to a blatantly antisemitic image a Labour activist shared from a Neo-Nazi website. The image has nothing whatsoever to do with Israel, and yet, the head of the Labour party’s Governance and Legal Unit dismissed it as merely anti-Israeli and recommended that the activist in question not be suspended. Only after an MP intervened, the activist was finally suspended (not expelled though) a year later.

The Israel Obsession…

There is an obsession with Israel (which is admittedly not limited to the Labour Party). And yet, objectively, there is very little that is unique about the country or the conflict it is involved in….except for the Jewish angle.

The conflict is barely deadly relative to other conflicts, isn’t the longest lasting, isn’t the most brutal etc. and yet it garners so much attention to the level of obsession, while conflicts that deserve more attention are typically ignored.

This obsession is witnessed throughout the Labour party, but the leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, is demonstrably and inexplicably obsessed with Israel. An investigative reporter examined Corbyn’s EDM sponsorships (assuming that EDMs are supportive of his views). Why on earth would the leader of the Labour party show more interest in Israel than his own constituency of Islington, or Ireland, or Labour relations and workers rights, or Iraq? I cannot think of any reasonable explanation.

(And it isn’t that Corbyn supports the underdog, or is merely pro-Palestinian rather than being anti-Israeli. There is no similar obsession with oppressed Tibetans, Kurds, Georgians, Syrians, Armenians, Catalonians or Ukrainians etc…)

Read: Why Won’t the British Left Pick on Someone Else?

So it is merely anti-Zionism?

Zionism is the national movement of the Jewish people that supports the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as the historic Land of Israel.

The Zionism movement is not by nature to the exclusion of other people who have settled in the historic Land of Israel. The fact that there is a conflict situation is not due to Zionism.

Does criticising Israel make one an antisemitic?

Obviously not. However, criticising Israel IS antisemitic when Israel is held to standards not applied to other countries. The IHRA Definition of antisemitism that Labour begrudgingly adopted explicitly states that “criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic”.

Demonizing Israel is NOT legitimate criticism – it is incitement to hatred that is typically due to antisemitism.

Jeremy Corbyn

We do not wish to recreate the wheel nor take away credit from numerous people who have worked hard to produce excellent material on Jeremy Corbyn, so here are some links:

If Corbyn met with Hamas to further peace since why hasn’t he met with the Israeli side?

Corbyn did not just call Hamas his “friends”, he said much worse but too many ignored it

https://order-order.com/2017/06/08/100-times-jeremy-corbyn-sided-terrorists/

Would you vote for someone who… 100 examples on Jeremy Corbyn

The ‘unluckiest anti-racist’ of all times

Jeremy Corbyn voting against 17 different terror laws

Antisemitism Crisis – a timeline

Dozens of articles and speeches by Jeremy Corbyn promote 9/11 conspiracy theory with antisemitic themes

There is a very popular list on the internet attempting to explain that Corbyn is protective of Jews. This rebuttal shows that the there is far more than appears at first glance: 50 Attempts to Excuse Jeremy Corbyn’s Failure to Deal with leftist antisemitism

‘Pro-Palestinian’ Jeremy Corbyn Has Never Really Cared About Muslim Suffering

Corbyn and Anti-Semitism: An Overwhelming Indictment

About

Contrary to an apparently popular theory that people who speak out against antisemitism or in favour of Israel are paid by the Israeli government, we are private citizens doing this on our own free time and are not receiving any payment whatsoever for this. The information here is certainly not complete (the project only began after the election was announced) but we do hope it is accurate. If you see any inaccuracy please contact the email below. We’re time limited so if you have links to online articles about Labour hierarchy facing accusations of antisemitism, information, feedback or wish to donate your time please email antisemitisminlabour@gmail.com.