Rabbi calls Corbyn ‘as offensive as Powell’
A FORMER chief rabbi has branded Jeremy Corbyn an “antiSemite” and claimed his remarks on Zionists are the most offensive by a senior politician since Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech.
Lord Jonathan Sacks accused the Labour leader of giving support to “racists, terrorists and dealers of hate” as claims of anti-Semitism continued to rock the party.
He spoke out after footage from 2013 emerged of Mr Corbyn criticising a group of Zionists.
Mr Corbyn said: “They clearly have two problems. One is they don’t want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all of their lives, they don’t understand English irony either.”
But Lord Sacks described the remarks as “divisive, hateful and, like Powell’s speech, it undermines the existence of an entire group of British citizens by depicting them as essentially alien”.
He said: “We can only judge Jeremy Corbyn by his words and his actions.
“He has given support to racists, terrorists and dealers of hate who want to kill Jews and remove Israel from the map.
“When he implies that, however long they have lived here, Jews are not fully British, he is using the language of classic pre-war European anti-Semitism.
“When challenged with such facts, the evidence for which is before our eyes, first he denies, then he equivocates, then he obfuscates.
“This is low, dishonest and dangerous.”
The crossbencher peer told New Statesman: “He has legitimised the public expression of hate, and where he leads, others will follow.
“Now, within living memory of the Holocaust, and while Jews are being murdered elsewhere in Europe for being Jews, we have an anti-Semite as the leader of the Labour Party and Her Majesty’s Opposition.
“That is why Jews feel so threatened by Mr Corbyn and those who support him.”
Mr Corbyn has said that he would be more careful in future on use of the word ‘Zionist’ as it has become a term hijacked by anti-Semites.