A force for constructive communal consciousness
Luciana Berger (Twitter)
(JTA) – Luciana Berger, a British-Jewish lawmaker, has quit the Labour Party over its anti-Semitism problem, along with six other members of the House of Commons.
Berger, who frequently has spoken out about anti-Semitic hate speech directed at her and other Jews by Labour members, and the others announced their resignation on Monday, dealing a major blow to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters. [Read more…]
Luciana Berger is one of the British Labour Party MPs who want the part to account for its progress in combatting anti-Semitism. (Twitter)
(JTA) – Several lawmakers from Britain’s Labour Party are demanding that party leaders provide detailed data on the handling of complaints about anti-Semitism – and they want it in writing.
On Monday, the lawmakers submitted a draft motion on alleged anti-Semitism in Labour during the party’s weekly parliamentary meeting in the lower house, escalating internal rifts over the issue. The motion was tabled at the House of Commons meeting. [Read more…]
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez celebrarting with supporters at a victory party in the Bronx, New York, June 26, 2018. (Scott Heins/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) – U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who is emerging as a leader of Democratic progressives, told a Jewish writer that she would reach out to discuss allegations that Jeremy Corbyn, the British opposition leader, is anti-Semitic.
Corbyn, the leader of the Labour Party, wrote Monday on Twitter that he had spoken with Ocasio-Cortez. [Read more…]
Rachel Riley poses with campaigners outside parliament in London before delivering a petition to Downing Street, Oct. 8, 2018. Riley has spoken out in recent months about her Jewish identity and the anti-Semitic abuse she has received online. (Handout/Tom Nicholson for Bauer Media via Getty Images)
(JTA) – For most of her adult life, Rachel Riley was only vaguely aware of her Jewish ancestry.
A moderately famous daytime game show television host, Riley, 33, is one of countless unaffiliated Jews in the United Kingdom – a country with 250,000 Jewish citizens and where synagogue attendance is at a historic low. [Read more…]
British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn addresses the crowd in Trafalgar Square in London, England, July 13, 2018. (NIKLAS HALLEN/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) – Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, was in 2011 filmed applauding a speaker at a conference who called for the dismantlement of Israel, which he also said “kidnapped” Judaism.
The footage published Thursday was taken at a pro-Palestinian conference that Corbyn, a far-left politician, attended in 2011 alongside several anti-Israel activists who have been accused of anti-Semitism. [Read more…]
(JTA) – Britain’s Labour Party will not discipline a lawmaker who is the adopted son of a Holocaust survivor, for “screaming abuse” at party officials during an argument over how the party is dealing with anti-Semitism.
Labour lawmaker Ian Austin said he had a “heated discussion” with Labour officials during the debate in July about the way the party defines anti-Semitism but denies their claim that he “screamed abuse” at party chair Ian Lavery. [Read more…]
(JTA) – Dutch prosecutors ended a police investigation into the alleged assault of a Jewish community leader, explaining that it would be too expensive to follow through.
The Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague announced its decision last month about a complaint filed in July by the chair of the Hague-based CiJo Jewish group, Hidde van Koningsveld, against Paul Mason, a British journalist, over an incident at a political rally that featured British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. [Read more…]
(JTA) – A British Labour politician supportive of party leader Jeremy Corbyn questioned the need for bolstered security for Jewish communities, saying some of the threat may be “in their own heads.”
Jenny Rathbone, who is a lawmaker in the regional National Assembly for Wales, made the statement last year, The Jewish Chronicle reported Wednesday after obtaining a recording of a Q&A discussion where Rathbone was asked whether she agreed with Jewish community leaders’ demand for bolstered security at synagogues. [Read more…]
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 draft motion condemning the murder of 11 Jews at a synagogue in Pittsburgh was voted down in a branch of Britain’s Labour Party in a small constituency in the country’s north.
Steve Cooke, the secretary of the Norton West branch in the Stockton North constituency of about 67,000 people near Scotland submitted the motion for a vote following the Oct. 27 shooting attack. [Read more…]
British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn addresses the crowd in Trafalgar Square in London, England, July 13, 2018. (NIKLAS HALLEN/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) – Police in the London area initiated a criminal investigation into allegations of anti-Semitic hate speech within the British Labour Party.
The probe is a significant development because until now, hate speech within Labour had been handled mostly internally or, in rare occasions, by broader ethics panels. [Read more…]