News
Communal letter attacks Corbyn for "siding with anti-Semites rather than Jews"
Board of Deputies and JLC in strong attack on Labour leader
March 25, 2018 21:35
Board of Deputies and JLC in strong attack on Labour leader
March 25, 2018 21:35The Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council tonight accused Jeremy Corbyn of repeatedly “siding with anti-Semites rather than Jews” in an open letter to be delivered to the PLP tomorrow night.
The letter was published hours after Mr Corbyn apologised for the first time for what he described as "pockets" of antisemitism within the Labour Party.
The letter begins: “We’ve had enough of hearing Jeremy Corbyn 'opposes antisemitism', whilst the mainstream majority of British Jews, and their concerns, are ignored by him and those he leads.”
It attacks an “institutional failure to properly address Jewish concerns and to tackle anti-Semitism” – citing the Chakrabarti report as a “glaring” example.
Mr Corbyn “personifies the problems and dangers” of antisemitism on the hard left. “He issues empty statements about opposing anti-Semitism, but does nothing to understand or address it. We conclude he cannot seriously contemplate antisemitism because he is so ideologically fixed within a far left worldview that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities.
“He has sided again and again with anti-Semites rather than Jews. At best, this derived from the far left’s obsessive hatred of Zionism, Zionists and Israel. At worst, it suggests a conspiratorial worldview in which mainstream Jewish communities are believed to be a hostile entity, a class enemy.”
Not “a single day” goes by when antisemite slanders are not uttered in Labour spaces online or in meetings, with allegations that concerns are made up or at the command of Israel.
“Rightly or wrongly, those who push this offensive material regard Corbyn as their figurehead. They display an obsessive hater of Israel alongside conspiracy theories and fake news. These repeated actions do serious harm to Jews and the Labour Party.
“Corbyn is the only person with the standing to demand that all this stops. Enough is enough.”
Read the full letter here: