John McDonnell has said he backs Jeremy Corbyn's statement that calling Israel's policies and creation "racist" is not antisemitic, and refused to rule out this being added to the party's definition of Jew-hate.
Jeremy Corbyn told the Tuesday meeting of the party's governing body that it should “not be regarded as antisemitic to describe Israel, its policies or the circumstances around its foundation as racist,” amid a furious row between the party and the Jewish community over the international definition of antisemitism and whether it damaged the freedom to criticise Israel.
In an interview with the Jewish News, the shadow chancellor said he "quite liked" the statement Mr Corbyn gave, and did not rule out it being added to the party's Jew-hate definition.
At the meeting where Mr Corbyn gave his statement, the party finally adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition with all its examples that set out how criticising Israel can be antisemitic.
But it added its own "free speech" clause on Israel and has said there will be further consultation on the definition.
Mr McDonnell told the paper: "I quite like the extra text because it was absolutely explicit and what I heard during the period there was a consultation [was that] people hadn’t got that message so they needed to have it more explicit.
“It is antisemitic to oppose a Jewish state. But it is not antisemitic to call a state racist. I call the British state racist on a regular basis.”
When Labour’s national executive committee adopted the IHRA definition of antisemitism in full, it added a caveat saying it will not "in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of the Palestinians.”
Mr McDonnell declined to give any guarantee that there would not be any attempts to put Mr Corbyn's statement in any further caveat to the IHRA, saying that he was "not in control of the process but my understanding is the NEC will undertake a consultation."
Mr Corbyn's spokesperson has since claimed the statement Mr Corbyn gave was only meant to be given to the committee, rather than one he wanted the committee to issue.
This is despite sources telling the JC Mr Corbyn wanted to include his statement in what was agreed and withdrew in the face of opposition from the NEC.
The shadow chancellor also said he did not think it was enough that NEC member Pete Willsman had apologised for a rant, revealed by the JC, in which Mr Willsman shouted about Jewish "Trump fanatics" who were "making up" claims of Labour antisemitism.
But Mr McDonnell also dodged an opportunity to state unequivocally that he was uncomfortable with Mr Willsman being re-elected to the NEC despite the rant.
“The democratic principles of our party override everything”, Mr McDonnell told the Jewish News.
“With Pete Willsman, I’ve given him the benefit that he didn’t know what he was doing.”
