A force for constructive communal consciousness
(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…]
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 demonstrator protesting the British Labour Party’s handling of its anti-Semitism problem was kicked in the face outside a meeting of pro-Palestinian supporters of the party in London, witnesses said.
The incident, which left the protester moderately injured, occurred on Tuesday night outside the Mayton Street venue for an event titled “Corbyn, Anti-Semitism and Justice for Palestine – North London.” It was attended by the U.K. leader of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and anti-Israel activists. [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) – 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…]