British public figures issue public letter against Corbyn’s ‘antisemitism’
Signers including John le Carré and head of Muslims Against Antisemitism
A diverse group of British intellectuals and campaigners against racism have urged voters in a public letter to reject Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in December’s election because of his contribution to stoking Jew hatred.
“The coming election is momentous for every voter, but for British Jews it contains a particular anguish: the prospect of a prime minister steeped in association with antisemitism,” said the letter, which was endorsed by British spy novelist John le Carré, along with distinguished historians Antony Beevor and Tom Holland, Ghanem Nuseibeh, the head of Muslims Against Antisemitism, and other notable English figures.
“Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, Labour has come under formal investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission for institutional racism against Jews,” continued the letter, which was published on Thursday in The Guardian newspaper. “Two Jewish MPs have been bullied out of the party. Mr. Corbyn has a long record of embracing antisemites as comrades.”
“We listen to our Jewish friends and see how their pain has been relegated as an issue, pushed aside by arguments about Britain’s European future,” according to the letter. “For those who insist that Labour is the only alternative to Boris Johnson’s hard Brexit, now, it seems, is not the time for Jewish anxiety. But antisemitism is central to a wider debate about the kind of country we want to be. To ignore it because
Brexit looms larger is to declare that anti-Jewish prejudice is a price worth paying for a Labour government. Which other community’s concerns are disposable in this way? Who would be next?”
The letter concluded that “Opposition to racism cannot include surrender in the fight against antisemitism. Yet that is what it would mean to back Labour and endorse Mr. Corbyn for Downing Street. The path to a more tolerant society must encompass Britain’s Jews with unwavering solidarity. We endorse no party. However, we cannot in all conscience urge others to support a political party we ourselves will not. We refuse to vote Labour on 12 December.”
Stephen Pollard, the editor-inchief of the London-based Jewish Chronicle, wrote on Twitter in connection with the public letter: “Whatever the collective noun for a group of mensches is, this is it.”