JEWISH LEADERS’ FURY AT CORBYN’S LABOUR
JEREMY Corbyn said last night he was “sincerely sorry” for the pain caused by “pockets” of anti-Semitism within Labour as he faced a backlash from Jewish leaders.
Labour has suspended a number of members for alleged anti-Jewish outbursts in recent months.
The Party leader was also engulfed in a fresh row last week after admitting he had been wrong to support the painter of an allegedly anti-Semitic mural in a Facebook post in 2012.
The work, entitled Freedom for Humanity, was scrubbed from a wall in Tower Hamlets, east London, after complaints. Mr Corbyn has now said the image was “deeply disturbing”.
Jewish groups are due to protest against Mr Corbyn outside the Houses of Parliament this evening. Last night he did not refer to the complaints he faced in a statement aimed at building bridges with the Jewish community.
But he acknowledged Labour must demonstrate a “total commitment to excising pockets of anti-Semitism that exist in and around our party”.
Mr Corbyn said he would meet Jewish community leaders, adding: “Labour is an anti-racist party and I condemn anti-Semitism. We must stamp this out from our party and movement. We recognise that antiSemitism has occurred in pockets within the Labour Party, causing pain and hurt to our Jewish community in the Labour Party and the rest of the country. I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused.”
Members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council will deliver a letter to Labour MPs and peers today about their concerns ahead of the protest. The letter condemns Mr Corbyn’s “systematic failure to understand and deal with anti-Semitism”.
Both groups said in a statement yesterday: “Day in day out, we the Jewish community face increasing antiSemitism. Enough is enough.”
Labour deputy leader Tom Watson called the picture a “horrible antiSemitic mural rightly taken down. That is why Jeremy has expressed deep regret and apologised for that”.
But Labour MP Luciana Berger, head of Jewish Labour, said the response was “wholly inadequate” and failed to understand “the hurt and anguish felt about anti-Semitism”.