Act now — or this will be meaningless
Survivor’s impromptu plea at Shoah memorial exhibition
A HOLOCAUST survivor has attacked Labour over its antisemitism crisis, as Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry stood metres away at the launch of a public exhibition of the designs of a Shoah memorial.
In an impromptu speech, Agnes Grunwald-Spier stood to speak after politicians, including Ms Thornberry, gave their speeches.
She said: “Members of the Labour Party have to do something, otherwise this memorial is a waste of money.”
Emily Thornberry: Our duty to speak up She spoke from the podium, saying she felt “bitterly disappointed at what’s happened in the Labour Party,” particularly at the results of Labour’s National Executive Committee elections. These saw Pete Willsman re-elected, despite the fact the JC revealed a rant in which he said Jewish “Trump fanatics” were making false allegations of antisemitism in the party.
In her speech, Ms Thornberry said: “This memorial will teach the millions who visit it that whatever hatred flourishes in this world, it starts with a concept of “them” and “us”, and depends on the demonisation of the other. And that is a lie. There is no “other”, there is only us.
“Whenever we see such hatred, whenever we see members of any community facing abuse, prejudice, discrimination, let alone in a community that has suffered as much as our Jewish friends, and our brothers and our sisters, there is a responsibility on all of us to speak up.”
When the JC tried to ask Ms Thornberry as she was leaving the event about Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s association with a group known