Labour conference was a four-day reminder that antisemitism is alive and well under Corbyn

Mr Corbyn responded that he would “simply say this: I am an anti-racist and will die an anti-racist. Antisemitism is a scourge in any society and… I will continue to oppose it all my life.”

But on the same day, a photo emerged on social media of Mr Corbyn rubbing shoulders with Miko Peled, an anti-Israel activist who has said “free speech” meant Labour members should be able to ask: “Holocaust: yes or no”.

He tweeted that it was “brilliant to see the courageous Jeremy Corbyn, accessible, gracious & generous”.

Meanwhile, Labour MP Luciana Berger was seen with police protection following Home Office advice regarding the antisemitic threats made against her.

Press shots of Ms Berger flanked by police only served to boost the determination of pro-Corbyn fanatics to dish out further insults to her, including the false accusation that the body guards were a publicity stunt.

When asked if the Labour leader was doing enough to tackle antisemitism in the Party, Ms Berger told a Holocaust Educational Trust fringe event on Tuesday night: “I unfortunately don’t share Jeremy Corbyn’s view that everything has been done.”

At the emotionally charged event, the MP added: “I think we are only going in the wrong direction and it is incumbent on all of us in this room, whether you are Jewish or not, to stand up very loudly and say this is not okay and we need to do something very urgently about it.”

Ms Berger looked visibly moved — along with others in the audience — as Holocaust survivor Susan Pollack, 88, who lost more than 50 relatives during the Shoah, said Mr Corbyn should say that “unfounded” attacks against Israel are “not acceptable” in his keynote speech on Wednesday.

In an interview with Channel 4 News, Mr Corbyn was shown pictures of the Liverpool Wavertree MP and asked whether he felt concerned that she felt under threat attending her own party’s conference.

He replied: “There is no threat being made in this conference to anybody.”

But the JC has learned that Jewish MPs were repeatedly subjected to taunts of “shame on you” from pro-Corbyn activists throughout the conference.

During the debate on Palestine, Palestinian flags were a feature of the conference hall, and were waved with particular vigour when speakers launched one-sided attacks on Israel — with Mr Corbyn repeatedly leading the applause.

But earlier, party stewards had stopped delegates from flying the EU flag — while then allowing Palestinian flags to be openly flown.

At the entrance to the Liverpool arena, the JC saw scores of Palestinian flags being handed out to delegates ahead of the afternoon debate from a stall set up by the Labour Against The Witchhunt group — which has defended expelled far-left antisemites such as Tony Greenstein.

As passions threatened to boil over at the start of a three-hour session in the main hall — in which Brexit and Windrush were also discussed — the Labour member who moved the motion to condemn Israel and support the Palestinians refused to leave the stage when his allotted time was up. “My time is not up, I’m speaking for the Palestinian people,” claimed Harlow Labour branch member Colin Monehen to loud applause. “If you want me off, you better send an army because EastEnders, like Palestinians, don’t go down easy.”

With screams of “Free, free Palestine” echoing around the arena, Mr Monehen claimed the “majority” of Palestinians had been forced out of their homeland in 1948 as a result of the creation of Israel.

Notorious anti-Zionist campaigner Hilary Wise, from Labour’s Ealing branch, then claimed: “If you want to know how that orchestration [of alleged antisemitism smears] works you need to watch that Al Jazeera documentary The Lobby.”

With applause ringing out in the auditorium, chair Rhea Wolfson warned the speaker that she was straying into “dangerous territory”.

Ms Wise responded that she would “be very careful” before adding: “Just watch that programme so we can see what we are against.”

The Lobby was an attempt to demonstrate that the Israeli Embassy is behind plots to interfere with UK democracy.

In the only intervention that questioned why the main floor of the Labour conference was debating Israel-Palestine but not other conflicts, Jewish Labour Movement member Steve Lapsley took to the stage wearing a large kippah.

He initially drew wild cheers from the members as he suggested he backed the motions being debated. But Mr Lapsley then said: “There are many in the Jewish community asking: why only Israel? And why had it taken so long to recognise the fears of the British Jewish community? The motions give a one-sided narrative.

"This isn’t helped by members of our PLP who are actively supporting suspended antisemites.”

A small section of the crowd rose to applaud Mr Lapsley at this point.

An intervention by Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, also provided some relief from the prevailing atmosphere of pro-Palestinian jingoism. She told delegates: “There are sickening individuals on the fringes of our movement who use our legitimate support for Palestine as a cloak and a cover for their despicable hatred of Jewish people and their desire to see Israel destroyed.

“Those people stand for everything that we have always stood against and they must be kicked out of our party.”

Another speaker in Tuesday’s debate on the main floor had to be reprimanded by Ms Wolfson after she made false allegations that a “campaign of slurs and accusations of antisemitism” against the leader had been “orchestrated” by Israel.

Peter Mason, JLM chair, who was in the arena, immediately wrote on Twitter: “The only people you’re showing solidarity for, when you take to the stage in the middle of a debate on Israel/Palestine, to accuse Jews of making up antisemitism, are antisemites.”

Meanwhile, it is understood that senior Labour figures including general secretary Jennie Formby and Unite leader Len McCluskey deliberately talked up the Palestinian cause at the conference.

In a speech to the conference floor on Monday, Mr McCluskey was loudly applauded for saying that anyone labelling Mr Corbyn a racist “has lost every sense of moral proportion”.

Responding to Mr McCluskey’s speech, Dame Margaret Hodge said: “It isn’t immoral or indecent to point out that too little has been done to eradicate antisemitism in the Labour Party. It is immoral and indecent to ignore it and to attack those who call it out.”

Mr McCluskey attended a pro-Palestinian event on Tuesday evening alongside Mick Whelan, chair of the Aslef union, and Mark Serwotka, the PCS union leader who two weeks ago claimed Israel sparked the antisemitism row as a distraction from its own “atrocities”.

A JVL meeting saw Tony Greenstein —  expelled by Labour in February over his use of antisemitic  slurs, including the offensive term “Zio” — deliver a speech in which he said: “We need to be quite clear, the purpose of the witch hunt is not to get rid of individuals. It’s purpose is to topple Jeremy Corbyn.” He added:

“Antisemitism is a stick to beat the left with.” At the JVL meeting was Marc Wadsworth, who was also expelled from Labour after disrupting the launch of Shami Chakrabarti’s inquiry into antisemitism in the party. 

Meanwhile JLM activists erected a sukkah inside the Labour conference zone on Monday.  Mayor of London Sadiq Khan expressed his support for the “important move” to commemorate the Jewish holiday.

However, Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, told of his pride at speaking out in support of Israel and warned of the “moral obligation” to rid his party of antisemitism.

Speaking at the Labour Friends of Israel reception on Tuesday night, Mr Watson received loud cheers as he said: “I am genuinely proud of each and every one of you for attending this event.”

Speaking alongside LFI chair Joan Ryan, Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev and Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin from Israel’s Labour Party, Mr Watson attacked those on the far-left who had “only just joined” Labour, accusing them of attempting to “hound out” Ms Ryan from her Enfield North constituency over her support for LFI.

Ms Ryan, who was close to tears as she spoke, said there was “incomprehension that our party could have treated a minority community in this country with such disregard, arrogance and contempt.”

Ms Ryan, who narrowly lost a vote of no confidence forced by hard-left anti-Zionist activists in her constituency, added: “We must stand up for the Middle East’s only democracy and free society.”