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Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge: I was right to call Jeremy Corbyn an antisemite
She says her party 'weakened' definition of Jew hate
July 18, 2018 16:28
She says her party 'weakened' definition of Jew hate
July 18, 2018 16:28Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge has said she was right to call Jeremy Corbyn an antisemite to his face - and set out why she thinks the party's definition of Jew hate is merely a "weakened" version of the alternative.
Breaking her silence after the dramatic confrontation in the House of Commons on Tuesday evening, Dame Margaret wrote that her party's refusal to adopt an internationally recognised of Jew hate, in the face of huge opposition, meant it had chosen "to make the party a hostile environment for Jews. It chose to entrench antisemitism".
She faces disciplinary proceedings over the incident, in which she called Mr Corbyn "an antisemite and a racist" behind the Speaker's Chair after a series of votes on Brexit.
She said nothing during Wednesday, as Labour MPs came to her defence, until an article she wrote for the Guardian was published at 5pm.
"I chose to confront Jeremy directly and personally to express my anger and outrage. I stand by my action as well as my words," she writes.
"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."
Labour agreed a code of conduct on antisemitism that omits key parts of the internationally recognised International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of Jew hate, including how criticism of Israel can be antisemitic.
The definition has triggered a huge row and outrage among British Jews, whose representatives have decried they were not consulted.
In her Guardian article, Dame Margaret said Labour's approach showed "arrogance... that takes one's breath away", adding: "A definition on sexual harassment agreed without the explicit endorsement of women would be unconscionable."
She wrote of Labour's own code of conduct: "A Labour party member who calls Zionists 'Nazis' will merely find themselves admonished with a “yellow card” warning, but will not face the “red card” expulsion that the original definition would have entailed.
"This means that in 2018 a party member can call a Jew a Nazi and face little consequence."
Dame Margaret describes joining Labour in the 1960s to fight racism and recounts her famous 2010 election fight in Barking against BNP leader Nick Griffin.
But she writes: "Under Jeremy’s leadership, the Palestinian/Israeli conflict has been allowed to infect the party’s approach to growing antisemitism."
