Rattled Corbyn on brink of climbdown over anti-Semitism
JEREMY Corbyn was last night preparing to compromise over the way his party defines anti-Semitism.
On another day of chaos, it emerged Labour could propose to adopt three of the internationally accepted definitions it had previously rejected.
But Mr Corbyn is understood to be unwilling to move on the Jewish community’s demand that he accepts that defining Israel as a ‘racist endeavour’ is anti-Semitic. It means the partial climbdown is likely to be rejected by groups such as the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
It came as Mr Corbyn made another botched apology in his bid to quell the growing row with Britain’s Jewish community. He said sorry for the hurt caused by Labour’s anti-Semitism crisis, but failed to apologise for any of his own past actions which have insulted Jewish people.
On another day of turmoil, it also emerged that attendees at an event chaired by Mr Corbyn in 2010 were told Jews believe they have a ‘monopoly on suffering’. The crisis erupted last month after Labour’s ruling NEC – dominated by Corbynistas – refused to adopt the full internationally-accepted definition of anti-Semitism.
It meant that the party’s code of conduct only accepts seven of the 11 exam- ples of anti-Semitism as defined by the International Holocaust remembrance Alliance. The Jewish News has reported that Mr Corbyn now plans to incorporate another three examples.
They include the idea that it is antiSemitic to compare contemporary Israeli policies to those of the Nazis, and holding Israel to different standards to other democratic countries.
But it is understood Mr Corbyn is still unwilling to move on the final example, of denying Jewish people have a right to self-determination – for example by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a ‘racist endeavour’.
Labour did not dismiss the report last night. Jewish community leaders have demanded the party incorporate all 11 examples.
Yesterday, in a new video, Mr Corbyn said driving out anti-Semitism and working with the Jewish community were ‘vital priorities’.
He apologised for the hurt caused by the crisis, but made no mention, for example, of his decision to host an event in Parliament where Israel was compared to the Nazis. He was also filmed at a rally in 2010 comparing the plight of the Palestinians with those who suffered the Nazi sieges of Leningrad and Stalingrad.
Last night Labour Friends of Israel said Mr Corbyn’s words would continue to lack credibility so long as he refused to apologise ‘for the many occasions on which he himself has offended the Jewish community’. Gideon Falter of the Campaign Against Anti- Semitism said: ‘ It is just another contradictory, hypocritical, insincere attempt to whitewash his own role as the author of this nightmare.’
Tal Ofer, member of the Board of Deputies, tweeted: ‘You had three years, you did nothing. Time to go.’ Karen Pollock, of the Holocaust Education Trust, said: ‘False equivocations, denial and distortion of the Holocaust are incorrect, inappropriate, hurtful and wrong. Why in 2018 do we still find ourselves having to explain the offence this causes to not only Holocaust survivors, but to the Jewish community? To do it once is a mistake, twice perhaps careless, but multiple times? Deliberate.’
In a joint statement, the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council said: ‘He should remember that inaction in the face of racism is complicity.’
‘Hypocritical and insincere’