Year in review: Politics in 2018

Arranged with the assistance of the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies at just 24 hours notice, in protest at Mr Corbyn’s “systematic failure”, the demo — held just before Pesach — showed the strength of anger within the community.

“Antisemitism is very real and alive in the Labour Party,” Berger told the crowd. “It pains me to have to say that today.” The viciously antisemitic and misogynistic abuse suffered by her and other Jewish parliamentary colleagues was a recurring theme of the year.

In the weeks leading up to the Westminster demo, the community’s frustration had grown.

First came the Palestine Live Facebook group. Comments posted there — exposed by the excellent work of tireless researcher David Collier — included conspiracy theories about the Rothschild family, Israel’s supposed involvement in the 9/11 attacks, and links to material produced by neo-Nazi groups.

It emerged that Mr Corbyn was a member of the group until he was elected leader — even posting several times after being tagged in posts.

But, as was often the case when questioned, the Labour leader claimed he had not seen the antisemitic postings elsewhere in the group.

Next came the furore over Mr Corbyn’s support for graffiti artist Mear One, whose mural, featuring blatantly antisemitic tropes, had been removed several years ago from a wall in Tower Hamlets after complaints. In 2012, Mr Corbyn supported the artist thus: “Why? You are in good company. Rockefeller [sic] destroyed Diego Viera’s [sic] mural because it includes a picture of Lenin.”

Bravely, Luciana Berger raised the issue with Mr Corbyn’s office after screenshots of the Facebook post emerged. And on the afternoon of March 26 she said she was not satisfied with the statement issued by the Labour press office.

Labour MP Ian Austin said the mural was one of the worst antisemitic images he had seen. “Jeremy would never have defended racist imagery aimed at any other group.”

It took three attempts for the Labour leader to offer anything like a genuine sounding apology — he once again claimed not have noticed the blatant antisemitism — but few within the Jewish community were convinced by his words.

As April arrived, the Labour leader seemed to be doing everything he could to fan the flames of the antisemitism row.

He accepted an invitation to attend a Seder — which on the face of it seemed a sign of his attempt to re-engage with a community that had become increasingly enraged with him.

But the anger increased once it emerged that the Seder had been organised by the self-declared “non-Zionist” Jewdas group who relish confrontation with mainstream British Jewry and engage in satirical stunts on social media.

If Mr Corbyn wished to fix things with the majority of British Jews, Jewdas were the last people to celebrate the Seder with.

This cack-handed approach carried on. An article he wrote for London’s Evening Standard went further than ever before in admitting he may have overlooked aspects of an antisemitic nature. But then came Mr Corbyn’s two hour long meeting with Jewish Leadership Council CEO Simon Johnson, chair Jonathan Goldstein, then Board of Deputies president Jonathan Arkush and CEO Gillian Merron and representatives from the Community Security Trust.

As the communal leaders briefed the assembled national media in Westminster following the meeting on April 24, it was clear that the antisemitism scandal was a big story. But what also emerged was how little had been achieved during the talks — and how ultimately Mr Corbyn’s clash with Anglo-Jewry was a result of his own far-left anti-Zionist ideological background with its utter disdain for the state of Israel.

It was clear that yet another row was brewing about the Labour leader, and his closest adviser Seamus Milne’s wish to oppose Labour’s adoption of the internationally recognised IHRA definition of antisemitism.

In May it became clear that the antisemitism row was hurting Labour’s electoral chances in areas where large numbers of Jews lived. In Barnet, with a Jewish population of around 15 percent, turnouts were as high as 70 per cent in some areas, as Jewish voters backed the Tories — who won back control of the council.

May also brought the resignation of former London Mayor Ken Livingstone from Labour — he had been suspended from the Party since 2016 over his claims that Hitler was a Zionist. The fact that he had not been expelled earlier for his repeated remarks underlined once again the depth of Labour’s Jew-hate crisis .

In June, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Theresa May in Downing Street at a time of renewed violent clashes with Palestinian protesters in Gaza.She emphasised the right of Israel to self-defence but expressed concern over the use of live ammunition and the growing number of fatalities amongst Palestinian demonstrators.

Meanwhile JLC chair Jonathan Goldstein issued a new plea for Mr Corbyn to “engage with mainstream Jewry.” And in an unprecedented move, the JC and the two other main communal newspapers, the Jewish News and the Jewish Telegraph, published the same front page.

Under the headline “United We Stand” the front pages warned of the “existential threat” to the community posed by a Corbyn government.

As the mainstream community stood up and spoke out, the Jewish Voice For Labour group sought to counter the claim that Mr Corbyn’s Party was riddled with antisemtism.

Led by anti-Zionist campaigners such as Jenny Manson and Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, JVL attracted support from many of the Labour activists claiming the antisemtism crisis was a “smear.”

And the Labour leadership appointed a hard-left QC, Gordon Nardell — a committed anti-Zionist — as the Party’s first ever in-house counsel on disciplinary issues, including antisemitism.

The JC published a leaked tape recording of Pete Willsman, one of the leader’s closest allies on Labour’s ruling national executive committee (NEC), claiming that Jewish “Trump fanatics” were making false claims of antisemitism in the party.

Referring to a cross-community group of rabbis who had written a letter setting out their concerns, Willsman said: “We should ask the 70 rabbis, ‘Where is your evidence of severe and widespread antisemitism in this Party?’”

He then demanded that those at the NEC meeting raise their hands if they had “seen” antisemitism in Labour — and suggested he was “amazed” that some had.

The story led TV news bulletins the next day, as did the astonishing confrontation in the House of Commons between veteran Jewish Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge and her party leader. She approached Mr Corbyn behind the Speaker’s chair as MPs took part in a series of knife-edge votes on Brexit on July 17, branding him an “antisemite” and a “racist.”

“I chose to confront Jeremy directly and personally to express my anger and outrage. I stand by my action as well as my words,” Dame Margaret later said.

Her anger was fuelled by the party’s plan to implement a code of conduct on antisemitism, omitting key parts of the internationally recognised International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of Jew hate. The omissions, crucially, included an explanation of how criticism of Israel can be antisemitic.

“The party could have adopted the international definition in full and it could have launched an inclusive consultation, involving Palestinians and Jews to add to that definition if further clarification of the right to criticise the Israeli government was needed. Instead it chose to offend Jews,” said Hodge.

The Prime Minister — who made her own support for the Jewish community very apparent during 2018 — attacked Labour directly in the Commons, accusing it of “trying to redefine antisemitism to allow people to say that Israel is a racist endeavour.”

Labour MP Ian Austin also expressed his anger at the party’s stance on antisemitism and, like Dame Margaret, was threatened with disciplinary action.

As the summer sun blazed, the charges of antisemitism against Mr Corbyn hotted up. In August photographs emerged of him taking part in a wreath laying ceremony in 2014, honouring individuals behind the group that carried out the Black September Munich Olympic massacre of Israeli athletes. Asked about it, he replied that the memorial event was for the victims of the 1985 Israeli airstrike in Tunis. What about the Black September leaders? He said, “A wreath was indeed laid” for “some of those who were killed in Paris in 1992” and added in response to a question: “I was present at that wreath-laying, I don’t think I was actually involved in it.”

He added: “I was there because I wanted to see a fitting memorial to everyone who has died in every terrorist incident everywhere because we have to end it. You cannot pursue peace by a cycle of violence; the only way you can pursue peace [is] by a cycle of dialogue.”

Later that month a video emerged showing Mr Corbyn in 2013 accusing British “Zionists” of having “no sense of English irony”. The people concerned, he remarked, “clearly have two problems”.

“One is they don’t want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don’t understand English irony either.”

He added: “They needed two lessons, which we could perhaps help them with.”

As so often in 2018, Luciana Berger spoke out, condemning the comments as “inexcusable” and saying that she felt “unwelcome” in his party.

For many, this was the final insult which led to them resigning from Labour.

Next, details emerged of an event Corbyn had hosted in 2010 where a Holocaust survivor compared Israel to Nazism. After The Times broke the story, the Labour leader said he had “on occasion appeared on platforms with people whose views I completely reject.” He was sorry for the “concerns and anxiety that this has caused”.

In a landmark intervention, the former Chief Rabbi, Lord Sacks called Mr Corbyn an antisemite, saying his comments about British Zionists were the “most offensive” by a senior UK politician since Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech.

Labour would eventually adopt the IHRA definition with most of its examples but, tellingly, with a caveat allowing criticism of the state of Israel that far exceeded criticism allowed for any other country.
 In the summer, Board of Deputies president Jonathan Arkush was succeeded by Marie van der Zyl. Under her leadership the Board has sought to engage with Labour’s leadership.

A decision to invite shadow education secretary Angela Rayner to address the Board’s annual Chanukah reception in Westminster drew criticism from some in the community.

As 2018 reached its exhausting climax, with Brexitdominating, it became clear that this year also threw up many heroes. Labour MPs John Mann and Joan Ryan, chair of the Labour Friends of Israel organisation stood strong in the defence of the community.

Jewish Labour MPs like Dame Louise Ellman, Dame Margaret Hodge, Ruth Smeeth and, of course, Luciana Berger, shone in an often dark world. The spirit and talent of Danny Stone of the Antisemitism Policy Trust was desplayed when he was responsible, alongside an impressive team, for the first Sara Conference, held in Westminster.

MPs from all parties, and leaders and activists from the Jewish community attended the one-day event highlighting the twin evils of antisemitism and misogyny and its impact on our female leaders.

In Prime Minister Theresa May — so often subjected to brutal criticism over her handling of Brexit — the Jewish community has a genuine ally.

It says much that Mrs May went ahead with a Downing Street reception honouring attendees at the Sara Conference on a day when she had faced a barrage of criticism in the Commons for her Brexit deal.

At the reception, Labour’s John Mann praised her efforts to stand up for British Jewry.

Political differences could be put aside, he rightly argued, because the fight against antisemitism was one that could not be lost.

His words must not be forgotten as we enter 2019.

Lee Harpin is the JC's Political Editor