You are here: Home > Archives for British Labour Party

U.K. has record 892 antisemitic incidents for first half of 2019

By :

(JTA) – A record number of nearly 900 antisemitic incidents have been recorded in the United Kingdom for the first six months of 2019.

The Community Security Trust, or CST, which is British Jewry’s largest watchdog on antisemitism, released its January-June 2019 Antisemitic Incidents Report, on Thursday. The 892 incidents reported in the first half of 2019 is the highest number recorded in that six-month period and is a 10 per cent increase from the 810 incidents recorded during the same period in 2018. [Read more…]

Comment

Jeremy Corbyn says British Labour Party must recognize the antisemitism in its midst

By :

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, shown speaking at a London mosque in May 2019, wrote an email to party members saying antisemitism must be driven out of the movement. (Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)
British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, shown speaking at a London mosque in May 2019, wrote an email to party members saying antisemitism must be driven out of the movement. (Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, shown speaking at a London mosque in May 2019, wrote an email to party members saying antisemitism must be driven out of the movement. (Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)

(JTA) – British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said party must recognize that anti-Jewish bigotry has become part of the movement and drive out antisemitism.

“The evidence is clear enough. The worst cases of antisemitism in our party have included Holocaust denial, crude Jewish-banker stereotypes, conspiracy theories blaming Israel for 9/11 or every war on the Rothschild family, and even one member who appeared to believe that Hitler had been misunderstood,” Corbyn said in an email to party members announcing the launch of an educational website on antisemitism. [Read more…]

Comment

67 Labour Party members of U.K. House of Lords accuse Corbyn of giving the party a legacy of antisemitism

By :

Jeremy Corbyn addresses the Labour Party conference at the Arena and Convention Centre in Liverpool, England, Sept. 26, 2018 in Liverpool, England. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Jeremy Corbyn addresses the Labour Party conference at the Arena and Convention Centre in Liverpool, England, Sept. 26, 2018 in Liverpool, England. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

(JTA) – Amid growing external pressure on the British Labour Party over its antisemitism problem, more than a third of the British party’s upper house members signed an ad criticizing their leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

“The Labour Party welcomes everyone* irrespective of race, creed, age, gender identity, or sexual orientation. (*except, it seems, Jews),” reads the ad published Wednesday in The Guardian. “This is your legacy, Mr. Corbyn,” adds the text, which was co-signed by 67 of Labour’s 179 members of the House of Lords. [Read more…]

Comment

BBC exposé accuses Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party team of shielding antisemites

By :

Jeremy Corbyn leads the British Labour Party. (Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)

Jeremy Corbyn leads the British Labour Party. (Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)

(JTA) – Leaders of Britain’s Labour Party shielded members from accusations of antisemitism, the BBC reported.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn repeatedly interfered in disciplinary cases, several Labour whistleblowers told the makers of the BBC program titled “Is Labour antisemitic?” which aired July 10. Thousands of hate speech complaints led to only 15 expulsions, the flagship investigative television program “Panorama” reported. [Read more…]

Comment

The U.K. is finally taking the Labour Party’s anti-Semitism seriously. Here’s why Jews everywhere should care.

By :

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaking during a visit to the Regents Park Mosque in London, May 19, 2019. (Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaking during a visit to the Regents Park Mosque in London, May 19, 2019. (Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaking during a visit to the Regents Park Mosque in London, May 19, 2019. (Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)

(JTA) – On a recent speaking tour in North America, I was asked repeatedly about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn.

Corbyn’s Labour has become an existential threat to British Jews, and audiences smartly inquired what could be done to stop growing anti-Semitism in U.K. politics from endangering Britain’s Jews.

We hear from members of our community constantly that they are preparing to leave the country should Corbyn become prime minister. [Read more…]

Comment

British Labour Party official suspended for saying Israeli embassy ‘whips up’ anti-Semitism claims

By :

Jeremy Corbyn leads the British Labour Party. (Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)

Jeremy Corbyn leads the British Labour Party. (Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)

(JTA) – Britain’s Labour Party suspended one of its top officials after he was recorded accusing the Israeli embassy of “whipping up” anti-Semitism claims against the movement’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn.

Peter Willsman, a member of the party’s National Executive Committee, was suspended Friday morning, the Jewish News of London reported. [Read more…]

Comment

Labour anti-Semitism probe is punishment for party’s pro-Palestinian stance, U.K. ex-minister says

By :

(JTA) – A former Labour Party cabinet minister suggested that a British government watchdog’s inquiry into anti-Semitism in her party is meant to punish supporters of the Palestinian struggle.

Clare Short, who served under former prime minister Tony Blair, said Tuesday on the BBC that the inquiry by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, or EHRC, owes to how “anyone who is sympathetic to the plight of the Palestinians is called anti-Semitic” and “a widening of the definition of anti-Semitism to include criticism of Israel.” [Read more…]

Comment

British government watchdog launches Labour Party anti-Semitism probe

By :

A van transports a billboard about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party on London's Parliament Square, April 17, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)
A van transports a billboard about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party on London's Parliament Square, April 17, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

A van transports a billboard about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party on London’s Parliament Square, April 17, 2018. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

(JTA) – The United Kingdom’s foremost government watchdog on racism has officially launched an investigation into the Labour Party’s anti-Semitism problem.

The move, announced Tuesday, is unprecedented in that it focuses an official government inquiry on racism and hate speech into one of the county’s oldest parties, which used to be regarded as mainstream and moderate. [Read more…]

Comment

British Jewish group demands investigation into Labour Party’s ‘endemic anti-Jewish’ behaviour

By :

Jeremy Corbyn addresses the crowd in Trafalgar Square in London, England, July 13, 2018. (NIKLAS HALLEN/AFP/Getty Images)

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn addresses the crowd in Trafalgar Square in London, England, July 13, 2018. (NIKLAS HALLEN/AFP/Getty Images)

(JTA) – A Jewish advocacy group in London has accused the British Labour Party of “endemic anti-Jewish behaviour” and wants the government to investigate.

The report by Labour Against Anti-Semitism contains “15,000 screenshots taken from hundreds of Labour members ‘and officials’ promoting anti-Semitic views.” It was submitted to the British Equality and Human Rights Commission and seeks a “full-scale anti-Semitism probe.” [Read more…]

Comment

Jeremy Corbyn wrote foreword praising book that says Jews control banks and press

By :

Jeremy Corbyn leads the British Labour Party. (Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)

Jeremy Corbyn leads the British Labour Party. (Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)

(JTA) – British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn wrote a foreword to a book that says that banks and the press were controlled by Jews.

Corbyn wrote the foreword praising the new edition of JA Hobson’s 1902 book Imperialism: A Study, for a new edition issued in 2011. He wrote the foreword four years before he became head of the Labour Party, whose leaders have been accused of tolerating anti-Semitism in the party’s ranks and even encouraging it with anti-Israel as well as what some have deemed anti-Semitic rhetoric. [Read more…]

Comment