Peers’ letter to Met chief urging probe on anti-Semitic abuse
ELEVEN peers last night demanded an urgent police investigation into anti-Semitic online abuse peddled by hard-Left supporters of Jeremy Corbyn.
In a letter to Scotland Yard the group of lords claim a series of violent, anti-Jewish comments breach the Public Order Act.
It is the first time the Met has received such a complaint in response to anti-Semitic abuse on sites like Facebook.
Mr Corbyn faces growing pressure to distance himself from hard-Left activist groups that have been critical of Israel.
Lord Sugar, star of TV’s The Apprentice, is one of the signatories urging Commissioner Cressida Dick to intervene and protect the safety of 300,000 British Jews.
He said: “I am happy to put my name to this letter. If I didn’t know better I would say Corbyn has deliberately aggravated the situation by associating himself with known haters.
“If you didn’t condone it you would keep away from it. If this was about Muslims there would be merry hell to pay, there would be riots in the streets.”
Facebook and other internet forums have been criticised for allowing anti-Semitic messages in internet postings, including replacing the Star of David on the Israeli flag with the Nazi swastika and praising Adolf Hitler.
One post on a Facebook group claiming to support Mr Corbyn said: “Adolph [sic], you should have finished the job.” Another said: “I am not antisemitic but tell the Jews go and get f*****.”
The letter was drafted by Lord Polak, honorary president of the Conservative Friends of Israel, and signed by high-profile members of the House of Lords including Lord Carlile QC, the son of Polish Jewish immigrants.
It says: “These messages seem to go well beyond what can reasonably be considered as free speech. Those which incite violence should urgently be investigated to establish whether they were made with serious intent.”
Last night the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: “This is an important letter, from Peers from right across the House of Lords. We have long pressed the case for the police and social media companies to take firm action against hate speech.”
Lord Carlile said: “The great majority of Labour politicians I know are horrified that Corbyn’s high command is infected by anti-Semitism. There must be zero tolerance.”
This week Mr Corbyn was accused of “deliberately baiting” the mainstream Jewish community by attending a meeting of a Left-wing Jewish group who blame criticism of anti-Semitism in Labour on Right-wing enemies of the party leader.
He defended his decision to attend a Passover dinner with Jewdas, whose Twitter feed last year included a supporter posting that Israel “is a steaming pile of sewage which needs to be disposed of”.
Jewdas described claims linking Mr Corbyn to anti-Semitism as “cynical manipulations by people whose express loyalty is to the Conservative Party and the Right wing of the Labour Party”. But Lord Sugar added: “There is no smoke without fire. His silence tells the whole story. “Certain factions of the Labour Party are using Israel as a way of justifying anti-Semitism. What we are hearing is the same old rhetoric – Jews control the media, banks and big business. It’s all just nonsense and propaganda. “Jeremy Corbyn’s job is to stop inciting this type of rubbish. “A lot of people in the Labour Party want to get rid of him but I don’t see how he’s ever going to be toppled. This is a country mile away from the Labour Party I got involved with in 1997. He’s dangerous.” A Labour spokesman said: “These groups are not run by the Labour Party or officially connected to the party in any way. The Labour Party is committed to challenging and campaigning against antiSemitism in all its forms.”
THE huge amount of anti-Semitic vitriol poured out online by hard-Left acolytes of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has to be tackled with the full force of the law. As such, the letter to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick signed by 11 peers demanding social media posts be investigated under the Public Order Act must be acted upon immediately.
If we are serious about stamping out anti-Semitism and indeed all forms of race hate, then the police must take it as seriously as everything else. We know police resources have been stretched tightly already but it is essential to monitor the internet and when hate crime is detected the perpetrators should be swiftly punished.
As the horrific gang-related murders in London have all too graphically illustrated, social media plays a role in exacerbating a situation and inflaming passions to brutal effect. It is also very likely that social media will be playing a more prominent role in all forms of hate crime, which means it must be tackled. Wherever abuses of this kind are found they must be wiped out.