Issue blown out of proportion

Sir, – Bob Taylor claims Jeremy Corbyn must change the culture of the Labour Party to avoid charges of anti-semitism (letters, August 4).

I have been a member of the party for 49 years, although only a paper member in recent years.

I have never heard any expression of antiSemitic views by party members in that time.

Mary Lockhart’s comments about Mossad were perhaps ill founded, but they were no more anti-Semitic than suggesting that the Russian security services interfered in British and American elections was an example of antiRussian racism.

On the general point, surely the Labour Party has the right to draw up its own rule book without having it dictated by an unelected international body such as the IHRA.

While the actual definition of antiSemitism has been adopted, the party has rightly amended some of the list of examples which seem clearly intended to stifle criticism of Israel.

One example is that it is regarded as antiSemitic to describe the Israeli state as racist.

The state of Israel from its beginning has operated on the basis of the misnamed “right of return” – that anyone of Jewish origin from anywhere in the world is allowed to emigrate to Israel.

At the same time these Palestinians driven from their homes by Israeli paramilitaries in the 1940s are denied the right to return to the country of their birth, and indeed mercilessly gunned down by Israeli soldiers when they attempt to exercise that right.

It is beyond my understanding that anyone could fail to describe that as fundamentally racist.

Indeed that perception has very recently been reinforced by recent legislation in the Knesset which takes away more of the few rights of Israeli Arabs.

The IHRA definition in general is a serious attack on freedom of speech on an issue of great significance for world peace.

I have never supported Jeremy Corbyn and believe he has not been an effective leader of the Labour Party, but it is clear that this issue has been blown out of all proportion to attack him and his supporters. Robert Cairns. Eastergate Cottage, Harrietfield, Perth.

Someone should do a poll on visitors to this country and ask how many are visiting to see the royals – the biggest tourist attraction in England is Legoland