CORBYN IN THE DOCK
Excoriating dossier highlights NINE incidents it says undermine leader’s claim he’s stamping out anti-Semitism
JEREMY Corbyn was personally accused of ‘engaging in’ antiSemitism yesterday in an explosive dossier from Labour’s Jewish wing.
The document detailed nine incidents which the group said showed Mr Corbyn signalling that antiSemitism was acceptable.
The examples cited by the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) included the Labour leader’s defence of an antiSemitic mural and his descriptions of Zionists as lacking ‘English irony’.
The JLM also included the Daily Mail’s revelations about Mr Corbyn holding a wreath just feet away from the graves of terror leaders linked to the 1972 Munich Olympics killings.
The dossier said that his failure to call out anti-Semitic abuse had been ‘interpreted both by perpetrators and victims as undermining his general statements that he opposes anti-Semitism’.
It went on: ‘The party’s attitude to antiSemitism is inevitably influenced by signals from its leader.
‘Mr Corbyn himself has repeatedly associated with, sympathised with and engaged in anti-Semitism.’
The document said that prior to his election as leader, Mr Corbyn defended controversial Anglican vicar Stephen Sizer, who posted anti-Semitic material online for which he was disciplined by church authorities. Mr Sizer has since retired.
It pointed out that Mr Corbyn had written the foreword to a book which argued that banks and the Press were controlled by Jews. The foreword praised the book’s ‘brilliant’ analysis.
It said the Labour leader had also supported Paul Eisen, a self-professed Holocaust denier, including attending several events by a group led by him, Deir Yassin
‘Repeatedly engaged in anti-Semitism’
Remembered. As a backbencher, he supported the artist Mear One who painted an anti-Semitic mural in the East End of London showing hook-nosed bankers playing Monopoly on the backs of the world’s poor.
After the public exposure of Mr Corbyn’s support for the artist, it took him four days to apologise.
Mr Corbyn also had to apologise for attending an event in 2010 on Holocaust Memorial Day entitled ‘Auschwitz to Gaza: Never Again for Anyone’, during which Israel was compared to the Nazis.
After the Mail’s photograph of Mr Corbyn holding the wreath was published, the Labour leader at first claimed he ‘was present, but not involved’.
On another occasion, Mr Corbyn commented that ‘Zionists… don’t understand English irony despite having lived in the country for a long time perhaps all of their lives’.
He has since denied he was using the term ‘Zionists’ as an offensive words for Jews, although he acknowledges the existence of this ‘code’.
The JLM said: ‘It is submitted that this sentence simply does not make sense if he was referring to people who support the right of the Jews to have a state in Israel.
‘He was describing a group of people who share a cultural characteristic (an alleged lack of irony), rather than a group who share a political viewpoint (Zionism).
‘In any event it should have been entirely foreseeable to him that those who do use this code would see his comments as supporting and encouraging their behaviour. ‘In this context, Mr Corbyn’s failure to call out anti-Semitic abuse is interpreted both by perpetrators and victims as undermining his general statements that he opposes anti- Semitism. The impact of these signals is reported to have filtered into the team of staff dealing with anti-Semitism complaints.’
The document goes on to cite Mr Corbyn’s resistance to the party adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism, saying it is ‘a further encouraging signal to those exhibiting antiSemitic behaviour’.
And it pointed out that the Labour leader defended former MP Chris Williamson against allegations of anti- Semitism just weeks before he was suspended, saying, ‘He is not anti-Semitic in any way’.
Last night Mr Corbyn told ITV’s Julie Etchingham: ‘I am not a racist in any form. I have spent my life opposing racism. Where there have been delays by my party, of course I apologise to those that have suffered because of it.’