Corbyn, Releasing Anti-Semitism in Labour

"While Corbyn was speaking there was a large scuffle when someone trying to grab my placard.
It involved about ten people: one person tried to grab my placard, some tried to help him, some tried to separate us, some tried to defend me."
“We ran into the city council building because there we were fearful for our safety. I reported the assault to the police and I have a meeting with them on Sunday."
“I knew there was an issue with anti-Semitism in Labour – but it was absolutely shocking that shouldn’t happen at a mainstream British political event."
Seb Sultan, politics finalist, Bristol University

"The first instance I saw was someone came up to us and said, ‘You’re all puppets of the Zionist media’ and then stormed off. From then on in, people started yelling abuse at us, people wearing Labour party stickers."

"[Jewish students were accused of being] Tory operatives', selfish for only caring about anti-Semitism [and told] I bet the Israeli government has paid you to be here."
Sabrina Miller,  second year English Literature student, Bristol University

Demonstrators take part in a protest against anti-Semitism outside Labour Party headquarters in central London on April 8, 2018.   Simon Dawson / Reuters

"At no point in post-World War II British history has anti-Semitism seen the prominence in national politics that it has in the lead-up to Thursday’s general election. The British Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn is now widely considered to be, in the words of some of its own former members of Parliament, 'institutionally anti-Semitic', thrusting the issue of anti-Semitism into the spotlight and leaving Jews questioning their future if the party wins."
"However, even if Corbyn loses and is ultimately replaced, Labour has been transformed under his leadership: Its radical left wing now dominates the party machinery, significant numbers of moderates have left, and anti-Semitic attitudes have been unleashed. Some of his devotees will surely blame any loss on a conspiracy by the media, financial interests and, yes, British Jews."
Toby Greene, Marie Skłodowska-Curie research fellow, School of Politics and International Relations, Queen Mary University of London

"Our party and me do not accept anti-Semitism in any form. Obviously I am very sorry for everything that has happened, but I want to make this clear - I am dealing with it, I have dealt with it."
"Other parties are also affected by anti-Semitism. Candidates have been withdrawn by the Liberal Democrats, the Conservatives, and by us, because of it. We just do not accept it in any form whatsoever."
British Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn

Accusations and denials fly about in the United Kingdom as December 12, the date of its general election draws near. And right on the cusp of the election a just-released poll sees forty-seven percent of Britain's Jewish community, established over a thousand years of citizenship, considering abandoning the country which they feel has abandoned them. Should the Opposition Labour Party win this election, it can be expected that a good number of British Jews will evacuate the premises and seek haven elsewhere, leaving their British-Jewish heritage however reluctantly, behind.

Since Jeremy Corbyn won the Labour leadership in 2015, Jews have been faced with an unending and still growing litany of harassment in meetings of the party, which the majority of British Jews have always considered their party of choice. Ant-Semitic material has been posted on social media by officials and politicians representing the Labour Party. Hatred of a virulent, ancient variety has been unleashed and it has been the presence of its leader that has had that undeniable effect.

This is a man who has repeatedly met with -- sympathized with, invited to Parliament, seen fit to defend and to honour -- terrorists. He was himself honoured to share public space with Holocaust deniers along with Jew-haters who espouse a new Holocaust to finish what Nazi Germany left undone. The planners of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre were memorialized by him in a wreath-laying ceremony among his 'friends' in the Middle East, lying that he was not present until a photograph emerged and then he claimed not to have been 'involved'.

He may object 'till the cows come home that criticism of Israel is legitimate without being anti-Semitic but it's a stale, outworn, rancid and false defence as he very well knows. Irrational obsession with Israel; holding Israel to standards no other country is held to; shifting historic anti-Semitic images to Israel of Jews as secret manipulators of the world or inhuman parasites leeching off the world's oppressed; or comparing Israel to Nazi Germany has been defined as anti-Semitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, recognized globally for having identified racist tropes for what they are.

Britain\'s chief rabbi:the "very soul of our nation is at stake" .Simon Dawson

In Parliament he referred to Dame Ellman, a staunch Labour MP for 23 years, and a Jew, as "the Honourable Member for Tel Aviv". Nine Labour MPs left the party, all uttering scathingly pointed observations about the party leader, earning them in exchange, attacks by Corbyn supporters, along with threats to their safety. Labour disputes department whistleblowers spoke of staggering incidents of anti-Semitism they received for investigation and how Corbyn's office interfered with them.

No fewer than sixty-seven House of Lords Labour members spoke of Corbyn's time as leader as "the most shaming period in Labour's history". Old footage of hateful rants directed toward Israel from Corbyn keep emerging to the light of day. Corbyn's supporters were shown by a recent poll to be more likely to agree with anti-Semitic statements than are other groups; with those strongest in support of Corbyn the likelier to respond 'Yes!' to sentiments of anti-Semitism.

All of which have served to make British Jews feel vulnerable and unsupported by their fellow countrymen. That there has been no robust push-back from the general population to the vibrantly poisonous emissions of Anti-Semitism emanating from its leader and from his inner circle has been a disappointment to the British Jewish community, feeling estranged and abandoned by their countrymen with whom they once and so recently felt they had so much in common in their love for the country of their birth.

Britain's Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in an interview with the BBC's Andrew Neil on Nov. 26. -

Copyright    Jeff Overs

Identifying Anti-Semites

"Anti-Zonism is unique because its view is that the Zionist enterprise, that is to say, the state of Israel, is misconceived, it's wrong, and at the end of the day, it isn't simply Israeli policy that has to change, but it is Israel itself that has to go."
"This is unique when you think about other countries around the world. Many of us are critics of China's occupation of Tibet, or Russia's occupation of parts of Ukraine. Some people are aware that Turkey is occupying norther Cypress, in violation of international law and putting down settlements there too. But none of those critiques extend to calls that are now increasingly pervasive around the world, not only for Russia, China, or Turkey to change their policies but for the states themselves to disappear, to be eliminated. So even if you accepted the premise for one second that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism, you have to come to grips with the eliminationist ideology that is at the heart of anti-Zionism."
Bret Stephens, New York Times columnist, Munk Debates 

"[Anti-Semitism is a] poison [within the British Labour party led by Jeremy Corbyn aspiring to the Prime Ministership of Great Britain, raising deep concerns about Britain's] moral compass [should Labour win the scheduled December 12 election]."
"It is a failure to see this [the place of Jewish life in Britain under a Labour government] as a human problem rather than a political one."
"It is a failure of culture. It is a failure of leadership. A new poison -- sanctioned from the top has taken root in the Labour party."
"It is not my place to tell any person how they should vote. I regret being in this situation at all. I simply pose the question: What will the result of this election say about the moral compass of our country?"
Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth

"I'm looking forward to having a discussion with him [Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis] because I want to hear why he would say such a thing [a 'mendacious fiction' to say Labour was doing everything possible to tackle anti-Semitism]."
"He's not right. Because he would have to produce the evidence to say that's mendacious. [Anti-Semitism] didn't rise after I became leader."
"I am determined that our society will be safe for people of all faiths. I don't want anyone to be feeling insecure in our society. Racism in our society is a total poison."
Labour leader Jeremy Corbin

Jeremy Corbyn has said he was present but not involved at a wreath-laying for individuals behind the group that carried out the Munich Olympic massacre    Photo posted on the Facebook page of the Embassy of Palestine in Tunisia, in October 2014, of Jeremy Corbyn’s visit to the Cemetery of the Martyrs of Palestine, Tunis. Photograph: Embassy of the State of Palestine in Tunisia

London's Times newspaper published a highly unusual opinion piece, a reluctant one, to be sure, but one the author, the chief rabbi in Britain, felt constrained to write and to find a public space for, to make certain that if there were any lingering doubts that the fewer than 300,000 Jews who are British subjects feel themselves under the oppressive and frightening re-introduction of anti-Semitic fire, those doubts should be put to rest. Labour, once the natural-gravitational-political-pull of Jews, has become a comfortable home under Corbyn for a renaissance of anti-Semitism.

Because the Labour leader is seen to be quite at home among Jew-haters and -baiters, Labour has attracted the new membership of formerly closet-anti-Semites whose rancid hatred and expressions leaving no question of their toxic sympathies having caused staunch former Labour supporters to remove themselves from the once-trusted umbrella of Labour. Prominent Jewish Labour members have denounced the starkly obvious turn the party has taken, have stepped down and the situation has become so dire British Jews feel their future in the country of their birth untenable.

This is not a situation where uber-sensitive Jews whose anti-Semitism feelers are always on high alert have overplayed the situation. It is clear enough to anyone the direction that Labour has taken. In the wake of Rabbi Mirvis's published sentiments, the Reverend Justin Welby, archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the Church of England, endorsed those views, himself remarking on the "deep sense of insecurity and fear felt by many British Jews", a fear and insecurity that does not emanate from nowhere, with no just cause.


Corbyn's sensitive empathy for the 'plight' of the Palestinians under 'occupation' by Israel has resulted in ample public statements to clarify his sympathies: "We cannot stand by or stay silent at the continuing denial of rights and justice to the Palestinian people. The Labour Party is united in condemning the ongoing human rights abuses by Israeli forces, including the shooting of hundreds of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza - most of them refugees or families of refugees - demanding their rights." In a gross, one-sided view of a complex issue of self-defence by the IDF against the violent intentions of Hamas-inspired threats to Israeli lives.

And his very public actions in attending 'Nakba Day' events in memory of the creation of the modern State of Israel, returning as a people to their historical homeland and re-establishing its permanent presence, a contrary devastating blow for Palestinians who refused the United Nation's Partition Plan, has endeared him to the very Palestinian groups that most Western democracies classify as terrorists: "We have received with great respect and appreciation the solidarity message sent by the British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn to the participants in the mass rally", Hamas stated. "We also salute Mr Jeremy Corbyn for his principled position in rejecting the so-called Trump plan for the Middle East."

Mr. Corbyn's support and affection for --  and affiliation with violent Palestinian groups whose actions have earned them the identifying terrorist stamp, is certainly not new; his leftist 'progressive' activism puts him squarely in the camp of any number of brutal tyrants on the left, in support of the former USSR, Cuba's Castro, Venezuela's Chavez among others. He attended a 2012 conference in Qatar whose featured speakers were Palestinian militants released by Israel in exchange for a captured Israeli soldier.

UK Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn (second right) attends a 2012 conference in Doha along with several Palestinian terrorists convicted of murdering Israelis. (Screen capture: Twitter)

Among those speakers was Abdul Aziz Umar, convicted in Israel for his active participation in a 2003 suicide bombing that took place in Jerusalem killing seven people. Along with Husam Badran, a former head of Hamas’s military operations who had engaged in the planning of suicide bombings that destroyed the lives of over one hundred people. Corbyn thought their contributions to the conference to be "fascinating and electrifying".

The kind of 'fascination' that lends ready support to slanderous descriptions of Israel and proposals in support of delegitimizing the state's right to exist. Yet as a result of all the damning publicity that has come Labour's way,  Corbyn stated last year a review undertaken of online posts Labour members were responsible for, revealed "examples of Holocaust denial, crude stereotypes of Jewish bankers, conspiracy theories blaming 9/11 on Israel, and even one individual who appeared to believe that Hitler had been misunderstood."



He himself hosted a panel in 2010 where Israelis were described in comparison to Nazis, while in 2012 he spoke of an artist's "freedom of speech", in defending that artist's London mural depicting Jewish bankers playing a game of monopoly with a board balanced on the bent backs of workers. That ages-old accusations of Jews ruling the world of finance, of oppressing ordinary working people, as though the plot for world domination pace The Protocols of the Elders of Zion represented Labour's working manual on addressing the Jewish menace.

The 'Freedom for Humanity' mural by artist Kalen Ockerman in London in 2012. Photographer: Mike Kemp/In Pictures Ltd./Corbis via Getty Images

 

Implausible Denials of Festering Anti-Semitism

"I was in Tunisia at a Palestinian conference. I laid a wreath to all those that had died in the air attack that took place on Tunis, on the headquarters of the Palestinian organizations there. And I was accompanied by very many other people who were at a conference searching for peace."
"A wreath [in memory of Atef Bseiso, planner of the PLO Black September assassins of eleven Israeli athletes and coaches at the 1972 Munich Olympics] was indeed laid by some of those who were at the conference for those who were killed in Paris in 1992. I was present when it was laid."
"I don't think I was involved in it."
"I do acknowledge there is a real problem that Labour is working to overcome."
Anthony Corbyn, leader, Labour Party, Britain

Jeremy Corbyn was pictured at a wreath-laying ceremony in 2014  
Palestinian embassy in Tunis/Facebook

"Being present is the same as being involved."
"When I attend a memorial, my presence alone, whether I lay a wreath or not, demonstrates my association and support."
"There can also never be a 'fitting memorial' for terrorists. Where is the apology?"
Luciana Berger, Jewish Labour MP

"The laying of a wreath by Jeremy Corbyn on the graves of the terrorists who carried out the Munich massacre and the comparison he made between Israel and Nazis deserves unequivocal condemnation from everyone – from the left, the right and across the entire political spectrum."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

In responding to Israel's Prime Minister's condemnation of the Labour leader's blatant anti-Semitism and his links with Palestinian terrorist groups whom he has referred to as 'friends', Corbyn lashed back with a condemnation of his own: "What deserves unequivocal condemnation is the killing of over 160 Palestinian protesters in Gaza by Israeli forces since March, including dozens of children", a typical interpretation by Israel-bashers and Jew-haters, taking Israel's efforts at defence against a Hamas-driven martyrdom program referred to as a 'protest' to accuse Israel, as usual, of killing innocent Palestinian Arabs.

A year ago, it became known to the public that Corbyn had attended a ceremony to honour the leaders of the Black September terrorist group responsible for the abduction, torture, mutilation and murder of eleven Israeli athletes and coaches participating in the 1972 Olympics held that year in Munich, Germany. Corbyn has steadfastly denied any conceivable involvement in such an event, perish the very thought. And then, incriminating photographs of the event came to light, clearly illustrating not only his presence but his active participation in memorial wreath-laying in memory of the murderers.

Jeremy Corbyn making the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Symbol ‘Rab’aa’.

Yet, in the political interests of presenting himself as a champion of peace, dedicated to justice for all, completely neutral and objective in his outlook, favouring none and presenting himself as a moderate, balanced leader of the British Labour Party, he is now in no position to deny the obvious. It was, indeed, obvious for quite a long time that Corbyn's toleration for anti-Semitism and his own state of comfort with it, has enabled other members of the leading British political party to release their own symptoms of the pathology with ease, knowing their leader would never seek to still their views.

He still equivocates, and cavils at the wording, hoping to elude the severity of the accusations against him, by commenting he didn't "think" he was "involved", photographs notwithstanding in their damning reality. There is Corbyn, with a large wreath in his hands standing beside the grave of Munich mastermind Aalah Khalaf and another photo standing beside that grave and and that of three others, all considered the massacre's ringleaders.

Many members of the Israeli Munich Olympic team had directly suffered from Nazi atrocities. They visited Dachau concentration camp as a symbol of their everlasting mourning.

Labour went on overdrive in support of their leader, denying everything; simply a matter of distorted perception, a tempest in a teapot soon to be forgotten, totally irrelevant and misunderstood. The public has been "misled" to believe that Corbyn would lend himself to such an alliance with murderous terrorists since in fact he "did not honour those responsible for the Munich killings". He had simply attended a "peace conference" that took place in Tunisia.

Where he was indeed present, according to his aides, was a ceremony commemorating the deaths of 47 people when an Israeli air force strike hit a PLO base in 1985 in Tunisia. Not all in British politics have remained on the sidelines over these revelations. British Home Secretary Sajid Javid spoke of the need for Corbyn to resign for having led a proud old British party to become a fount of anti-Semitic sentiment. The "leader of any other major political party" pointed out Javid, would have been sacked for responsibility of any similar disgrace.

A line of thought with respect to honour in politics that might have been appropriate back in 2010 when a panel he hosted compared Israelis to Nazis, all the while denying a scintilla of anti-Semitism resides in his heart of hearts.

Freedom for World Jewry

"Today, leaders of British Jewry tell Jeremy Corbyn that enough is enough."
"We have had enough of hearing that Jeremy Corbyn opposes antisemitism, whilst the mainstream majority of British Jews, and their concerns, are ignored by him and those he leads."
"Jeremy Corbyn did not invent this form of politics, but he has had a lifetime within it, and now personifies its problems and dangers."
"He issues empty statements about opposing antisemitism, but does nothing to understand or address it. We conclude that he cannot seriously contemplate antisemitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far-left worldview that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities."
"Again and again, Jeremy Corbyn has sided with antisemites rather than Jews. At best, this derives 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."
Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council.

"I recognize that antisemitism has surfaced within the Labour Party, and has too often been dismissed as simply a matter of a few bad apples. This has caused pain and hurt to Jewish members of our party and to the wider Jewish community in Britain. I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused, and pledge to redouble my efforts to bring this anxiety to an end."
"Newer forms of antisemitism have been woven into criticism of Israeli governments."
"[While criticism of Israel], particularly in relation to the continuing dispossession of the Palestinian people [cannot be avoided, comparing Israel to the Nazis, attributing criticisms of Israel to Jewish characteristics or using abusive language such as 'Zio' to describe supporters of Israel all constitute aspects of antisemitism."
"Jewish people must not be held responsible or accountable for the actions of the Israeli government."
"I will never be anything other than a militant opponent of antisemitism. In this fight, I am your ally and always will be."
Jeremy Corbyn, leader, opposition Labour Party, United Kingdom

Luciana Berger MP joined a demonstration in London against anti-Semitism in Labour   BBC

Jews worldwide and historically have known very close up and personally what it is like to endure charges of libelous anti-Semitic tropes and caricatures of Jews as the living embodiments of enemies of humankind, plotting endlessly to conquer world capitals, economies, news. As a persecuted minority group Jews have often feebly defended themselves, and often simply acceded to the reality that they will always be regarded as outsiders in a world that seems at times, overwhelmingly hostile to a Jewish presence.

With the end of the World War Two ad the recognition that a significant proportion of world Jewry, a majority of Jews distributed throughout Europe, were systematically murdered in a genocidal atrocity engineered and carried out as a Final Solution to the 'problem' of pollution that a Jewish presence represented to the German Social-Democratic Party and its fascist leader, the creation of the State of Israel on the ashes of ancient Judea in the Middle East allowed world Jews a breath of relief, that a nation of Jews now existed once again reversing the Exodus and inviting a return of the diaspora.

Where Israel exists, there is a haven for Jews, where they can be free from oppression, from racist-  and religion-inspired threats and violence. Free to be themselves, to be responsible for themselves, to govern themselves, to be an honoured member of the world community. On the way to achieving this Utopian dream Israel has had to defend itself from the military attacks of combined Arab armies. And though Middle East nations no longer send their armies to destroy the country, some among them have proxy militias to attempt to do so through a death-of-a-thousand-cuts.

Time and again Europe has regrown its subconscious anti-Semitism, more latterly camouflaged by criticism of Israel, for ostensible oppression of the Palestinians, despite that Palestinian Arabs have never stopped attempting to "resist" the "occupation" of land they claim is theirs, upon which Israel legally settled. Their leaders have always and continue to persuade those they rule and misrule to dedicate themselves to the martyrdom of jihad, to murder Jews and force the government of Israel to defend itself. When all attempts at  pacification have failed, what is left is defence, characterized as "occupation".

Since 2015, a defender of the Palestinians and a harsh critic of Israel has been leader of Great Britain's major opposition political party in Parliament. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has never made any secret about his defence of the Palestinians and harsh criticism of Israel. He has masked his anti-Semitism with the claim that it is Zionism that he abhors, not Jews; an attestation of innocence repeated frequently not only by this man but by many who have no wish to be identified as anti-Semites, even as they display all the symptoms of such.

Time and again Corbyn has made statements that identify him for what he is, from his acknowledged 'friendship' with the Hamas leadership, to his condemnation of Israel at every turn, and his links with racists. As former British Prime Minister Tony Blair put it when asked if he was conflating legitimate criticism of Israeli policy with anti-Semitism, he stated that activists could oppose the actions of individual governments but "that's different from being anti the state of Israel and its existence - and when people are in that position it very quickly trends across into anti-Semitism".

The graffiti artist Kalen Ockerman, painted a mural on the side of a house near Brick Lane showing bankers sitting round a monopoly board resting on the backs of suffering humanity. This obviously anti-Semitic and very visible, very meaningful cartoon that could happily have decorated Hitler's "Mein Kampf" had the enthusiastic approval of Jeremy Corbyn. His past association with various anti-Semitic groups have been noted, but this connection with the politician and the message imparted by the mural simply wore down the patience of British Jews.

Freedom for Humanity by Kalen Ockerman

After countless complaints of the venom of anti-Semitism infecting the Labour Party under the leadership influence of Jeremy Corbyn and equally numerous response attestations of agreement that anti-Semitism is despicable and Corbyn would not stand for it having a representative place in the party he leads, the leaders of Britain's Jewish community decided that a strenuous demand-and-confrontation through a demonstration before Parliament was long overdue.

The Facebook post with the Labour leader supporting the artist's rendition of a Goebbels-like cartoon of blood-sucking Jews and suffering humanity held in thrall to their greed has finally earned Corbyn a global denunciation he has worked so long and diligently to eventuate. But all is well. "Jews should not be held responsible for the actions of the Israeli government", says a great deal about this man's mind-set. And his mind is set on portraying the government of Israel as the dreadful apartheid, human-rights-denying, atrocities-committing threat to Palestinians that the PA claims it to be.