A force for constructive communal consciousness
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) – Jewish journalists and activists against anti-Semitism were banned from attending an event organized by leading members of Britain’s Labour party.
The event Thursday in London featured a speech by John McDonnell, a shadow chancellor of Labour and confidant of party leader Jeremy Corbyn. [Read more…]
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) – Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, said that he would immediately recognize a Palestinian state if elected to lead the United Kingdom.
In his keynote speech to the fourth day of the party’s annual conference on Wednesday in Liverpool, Corbyn criticized Israel’s “ongoing denial of justice and rights to the Palestinian people” and what he called its “discriminatory nation-state law” before affirming that he is for a two-state solution to the conflict. [Read more…]
J.K. Rowling attends the 70th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) at Royal Albert Hall in London, Feb. 12, 2017. (John Phillips/Getty Images)
(JTA) – For months author J.K. Rowling has been warning about the dangers of anti-Semitism in England, sparring on Twitter with critics who either downplay the phenomenon or say its proponents are confusing criticism of Israel with Jew hatred.
Now, in her newest book, she includes a character whose obsessive anti-Zionism morphs into anti-Semitism. [Read more…]
Theresa May preparing to speak to members of the media at The St Stephen’s entrance to the Palace of Westminster in London about becoming the United Kingdom’s next prime minister, July 11, 2016. (Chris Ratcliffe/AFP/Getty Images)
(JTA) – A recent poll that found nearly 40 per cent of British Jews would leave the country if Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn came to power “sickens me,” British Prime Minister Theresa May said.
“I do not underestimate the threat posed by those who promote anti-Semitism, or hatred in any form. Nor the pernicious nature of what those people say and what they stand for,” May said Monday at a United Jewish Israel Appeal dinner in central London. [Read more…]
(JTA) – More than 2,500 people demonstrated in Manchester, England against increasing anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom and the problem of anti-Semitism in the British Labour Party.
Some 32 different Jewish groups ranging from Orthodox to Progressive Reform came together to sponsor Sunday’s rally during a rainstorm in Britain’s second-largest Jewish community. [Read more…]
Michael Regenstreif, Editor
The final production day for an issue of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin is always a busy day.
This final production day – Friday, September 7 – was the busiest I can remember. Normally, we go to press sometime between 1 and 3 pm, but today we held off so that we could cover the visit of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to the Jewish Community Campus for a pre-Rosh Hashanah event at the Bess and Moe Greenberg Family Hillel Lodge organized by the Jewish Federation of Ottawa. Trudeau joined Lodge residents and Ottawa Jewish Community School Grade 3 students as they braided challahs to be donated to the Ottawa Kosher Food Bank and dipped apples in honey as they wished each other a sweet New Year. Trudeau’s 45-minute visit was at 2:30 pm. [Read more…]
Jeremy Corbyn (right) standing next to Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine chief Maher al Taher at a commemoration ceremony for the Black September terrorists who took part in the 1972 massacre of 11 Israelis at the Munich Olympics. (Twitter)
AMSTERSDAM (JTA) – The Labour Party of the Netherlands labelled as “worrisome” some of the actions of Jeremy Corbyn, the leader of its British counterpart who is accused of fanning anti-Semitic hatred.
A statement to JTA on Wednesday by the senior-most spokesperson of Dutch Labour, or PvdA, is the sharpest rebuke to date by a European sister movement of the British party over its anti-Semitism problem. [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) – Britain’s Labour Party adopted the internationally accepted definition of anti-Semitism, along with a statement that would allow “freedom of expression” on Israel.
The party’s National Executive Committee approved the full International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition and all its examples, as well as the additional clause on Israel, in a vote Tuesday that had been deferred since earlier in the summer. [Read more…]
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks (United Synagogue-UK)
(JTA) – Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, the former British chief rabbi, warned in an interview that Jewish people are making plans to leave Britain over fears of an anti-Semitic backlash precipitated by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Sacks said Sunday on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show that “when people hear the kind of language that has been coming out of Labour, that’s been brought to the surface among Jeremy Corbyn’s earlier speeches, they cannot but feel an existential threat.” [Read more…]
Jeremy Corbyn (right) standing next to Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine chief Maher al Taher at a commemoration ceremony for the Black September terrorists who took part in the 1972 massacre of 11 Israelis at the Munich Olympics. (Twitter)
(JTA) – A veteran British Labour Party MP resigned from parliament, saying the party’s leadership is becoming “a force for anti-Semitism in British politics.”
Frank Field, the Labour whip – he was charged with maintaining parliamentary discipline among the party’s members – is the most senior Labour member to resign over the party’s ballooning anti-Semitism problem. But he will not leave the party, according to reports. [Read more…]