British Jewish leaders slam Corbyn for ‘siding with anti-Semites’

LONDON: Leaders of British Jewry blasted opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in an extraordinary letter on Monday, saying he had sided with antiSemites “again and again” and now “enough is enough”.

The open letter from the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council said the veteran leftist was “repeatedly found alongside people with blatantly anti-Semitic views” but “claims never to hear or read them”.

The organisations were set to protest outside parliament in London before delivering the letter to a meeting of Labour lawmakers.

“Today, leaders of British Jewry tell Jeremy Corbyn that enough is enough,” the letter says.

“We conclude that he cannot seriously contemplate antiSemitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a farleft worldview that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities.

“Corbyn did not invent this form of politics, but he has had a lifetime within it, and now personifies its problems and dangers.”

The final straw that triggered the letter was a Facebook comment from 2012 that recently came to light.

Corbyn had offered support to a street artist whose mural in east London depicting bankers playing Monopoly on the backs of the poor was about to be swiftly removed.

Labour deputy leader Tom Watson on Sunday branded the image a “horrible anti- Semitic mural that was rightly taken down”. — AFP