Jewish delegates to Labour conference to get bodyguards
NEW YORK (JTA) – Jewish delegates to the upcoming British Labour Party conference will be given bodyguards over fears for their safety from supporters of party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
The protection also will be offered to Jewish Labour Party lawmakers, the Daily Mail reported late Saturday.
The newspaper reported the Jewish Labour Movement has held talks with the Community Security Trust, which oversees security for the Jewish community in Britain, about providing security for next month’s conference, which will be held in Liverpool.
Jewish Labour lawmaker Luciana Berger, who serves as Parliamentary chair for the Jewish Labour Movement, on Saturday slammed Corbyn for statements made in 2013 which surfaced last week on video, in which he said “Zionists” were unable to understand British ways of thinking, despite growing up in the country.
Berger said she felt “unwelcome” in her own party after Corbyn’s “inexcusable comments.”
The Daily Mail quoted an unnamed source as saying that “CST are reporting back with a full assessment of the security requirements. There is a real concern about safety.”
Labour members who questioned the loyalty of British Jews have been investigated as part of Labour Party internal inquiries into antisemitism, the party told the newspaper.
A party spokesman also told the Mail that the party “is committed to the security and well-being of all Jewish people.”
“Jeremy is determined to tackle antisemitism, both within the Labour Party and wider society, and the party is committed to rebuilding trust with the Jewish community,” the party said in a statement on Saturday night.
Writer and activist Adam Ma’anit in a series of tweets accused Labour of sinking “into an antisemitic cesspit of its own making.”
Ma’anit said his 16-year-old cousin Orly Ofir was killed by terrorists linked to ex-Hamas military leader Husam Badran, who appeared at a 2012 conference in Doha with Corbyn, and tweeted that “Recently revealed details of Corbyn’s troubling past associations means I can no longer remain silent. This is personal.”
“At the ‘remarkable’ Doha conference, this supposed ‘man of peace’ Corbyn described contributions from recently released ‘brothers’ like Badran as ‘fascinating and electrifying,’” Ma’anit tweeted. “I felt sick to my stomach at these words.”