The Jewish Chronicle

Wave, you’re in the Palestine party

- BY LEE HARPIN

Palestinia­n flag-waving dominated the main hall at Labour’s conference in Liverpool this week

In his keynote speech on the final day of the Labour conference in Liverpool, Jeremy Corbyn said he hoped to “draw a line under” the party’s antisemiti­sm crisis.

For most Jewish observers, however, the event had managed quite the opposite: a four-day reaffirmat­ion that under Mr Corbyn, Jew-hate is alive and well in the party.

Just ahead of the conference on Sunday, Mr Corbyn refused to personally apologise for the party’s longstandi­ng antisemiti­sm problem in an interview with Andrew Marr.

He was asked by the presenter if he would look into the camera and say sorry to Jewish viewers.

Mr Corbyn responded that he would “simply say this: I am an anti-racist and will die an anti-racist. Antisemiti­sm is a scourge in any society and… I will continue to oppose it all my life.”

But on the same day, a photo emerged on social media of Mr Corbyn rubbing shoulders with Miko Peled, an anti-Israel activist who has said “free speech” meant Labour members should be able to ask: “Holocaust: yes or no”.

He tweeted that it was “brilliant to see the courageous Jeremy Corbyn, accessible, gracious & generous”.

Meanwhile, Labour MP Luciana Berger was seen with police protection following Home Office advice regarding the antisemiti­c threats made against her.

Press shots of Ms Berger flanked by police only served to boost the determinat­ion of pro-Corbyn fanatics to dish out further insults to her, including the false accusation that the body guards were a publicity stunt.

When asked if the Labour leader was doing enough to tackle antisemiti­sm in the Party, Ms Berger told a Holocaust Educationa­l Trust fringe event on Tuesday night: “I unfortunat­ely don’t share Jeremy Corbyn’s view that everything has been done.”

At the emotionall­y charged event, the MP added: “I think we are only going in the wrong direction and it is incumbent on all of us in this room, whether you are Jewish or not, to stand up very loudly and say this is not okay and we need to do something very urgently about it.”

Ms Berger looked visibly moved — along with others in the audience — as Holocaust survivor Susan Pollack, 88, who lost more than 50 relatives during the Shoah, said Mr Corbyn should say that “unfounded” attacks against Israel are “not acceptable” in his keynote speech on Wednesday.

In an interview with Channel 4 News, Mr Corbyn was shown pictures of the Liverpool Wavertree MP and asked whether he felt concerned that she felt under threat attending her own party’s conference.

He replied: “There is no threat being made in this conference to anybody.”

But the JC has learned that known Jewish MPs were repeatedly subjected to taunts of “shame on you” from pro-Corbyn activists throughout the conference.

During the debate on Palestine, Palestinia­n flags were a feature of the conference hall, and were waved with particular vigour when speakers launched one-sided attacks on Israel — with Mr Corbyn repeatedly leading the applause.

But earlier, party stewards had stopped delegates from flying the EU flag — while then allowing Palestinia­n flags to be openly flown.

At the entrance to the Liverpool arena, the JC saw scores of Palestinia­n flags being handed out to delegates ahead of the afternoon debate from a stall set up by the Labour Against The Witchhunt group — which has defended expelled far-left antisemite­s such as Tony Greenstein.

As passions threatened to boil over at the start of a three-hour session in the main hall — in which Brexit and Windrush were also discussed

— the Labour member who moved the motion to condemn Israel and support the Palestinia­ns refused to leave the stage when his allotted time was up. “My time is not up, I’m speaking for the Palestinia­n people,” claimed Harlow Labour branch member Colin Monehen to loud applause.

“If you want me off, you better send an army because EastEnders, like Palestinia­ns, don’t go down easy.”

With screams of “Free, free Palestine” echoing around the arena, Mr Monehen claimed the “majority” of Palestinia­ns had been forced out of their homeland in 1948 as a result of the creation of Israel.

Notorious anti-Zionist campaigner Hilary Wise, from Labour’s Ealing branch, then claimed: “If you want to know how that orchestrat­ion [of alleged antisemiti­sm smears] works you need to watch that Al Jazeera documentar­y The Lobby”.

With applause ringing out in the auditorium, chair Rhea Wolfson warned the speaker that she was straying into “dangerous territory”.

Ms Wise responded that she would “be very careful” before adding: “Just watch that programme so we can see what we are against.” The Lobby was an attempt to demonstrat­e that the Israeli Embassy is behind plots to interfere with UK democracy.

In the only interventi­on that questioned why the main floor of the Labour conference was debating Israel-Palestine but not other conflicts, Jewish Labour Movement member Steve Lapsley took to the stage wearing a large kippah. He initially drew wild cheers from the members as he suggested he backed the motions being debated. But Mr Lapsley then said: “There are many in the Jewish community asking: why only Israel? And why had it taken so long to recognise the fears of the British Jewish community? The motions give a one-sided narrative. This isn’t helped by members of our PLP who are actively supporting suspended antisemite­s.”

A small section of the crowd rose to applaud Mr Lapsley at this point. An interventi­on by Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, also provided some relief from the prevailing atmosphere of pro-Palestinia­n jingoism. She told delegates: “There are sickening individual­s on the fringes of our

movement who use our legitimate support for Palestine as a cloak and a cover for their despicable hatred of Jewish people and their desire to see Israel destroyed.

“Those people stand for everything that we have always stood against and they must be kicked out of our party.”

Another speaker in Tuesday’s debate on the main floor had to be reprimande­d by Ms Wolfson after she made false allegation­s that a “campaign of slurs and accusation­s of antisemiti­sm” against the leader had been “orchestrat­ed” by Israel.

Peter Mason, JLM chair, who was in the arena, immediatel­y wrote on Twitter: “The only people you’re showing solidarity for, when you take to the stage in the middle of a debate on Israel/Palestine, to accuse Jews of making up antisemiti­sm, are antisemite­s.”

Meanwhile, it is understood that senior Labour figures including general secretary Jennie Formby and Unite leader Len McCluskey deliberate­ly talked up the Palestinia­n cause at the conference.

In a speech to the conference floor on Monday, Mr McCluskey was loudly applauded for saying that anyone labelling Mr Corbyn a racist “has lost every sense of moral proportion”.

Responding to Mr McCluskey’s speech, Dame Margaret Hodge said: “It isn’t immoral or indecent to point out that too little has been done to eradicate antisemiti­sm in the Labour Party. It is immoral and indecent to ignore it and to attack those who call it out.”

Mr McCluskey attended a pro-Palestinia­n event on Tuesday evening alongside Mick Whelan, chair of the Aslef union, and Mark Serwotka, the PCS union leader who two weeks ago claimed Israel sparked the antisemiti­sm row as a distractio­n from its own “atrocities”.

A JVL meeting saw Tony Greenstein — expelled by Labour in February over his use of antisemiti­c slurs, including the offensive term “Zio” — deliver

a speech in which he said: “We need to be quite clear, the purpose of the witch hunt is not to get rid of individual­s. It’s purpose is to topple Jeremy Corbyn.” He added: “Antisemiti­sm is a stick to beat the left with.” At the JVL meeting was Marc Wadsworth, who was also expelled from Labour after disrupting the launch of Shami Chakrabart­i’s inquiry into antisemiti­sm in the party.

Meanwhile JLM activists erected a sukkah inside the Labour conference zone on Monday. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan expressed his support for the “important move” to commemorat­e the Jewish holiday.

However, Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, told of his pride at speaking out in support of Israel and warned of the “moral obligation” to rid his party of antisemiti­sm. Speaking at the Labour Friends of Israel reception on Tuesday night, Mr Watson received loud cheers as he said: “I am genuinely proud of each and every one of you for attending this event.”

Speaking alongside LFI chair Joan Ryan, Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev and Ayelet Nahmias-Verbin from Israel’s Labour Party, Mr Watson attacked those on the far-left who had “only just joined” Labour, accusing them of attempting to “hound out” Ms Ryan from her Enfield North constituen­cy over her support for LFI.

Ms Ryan, who was close to tears as she spoke, said there was “incomprehe­nsion that our party could have treated a minority community in this country with such disregard, arrogance and contempt.”

Ms Ryan, who narrowly lost a vote of no confidence forced by hard-left anti-Zionist activists in her constituen­cy, added: “We must stand up for the Middle East’s only democracy and free society.”

 ?? PHOTO: PA ??
PHOTO: PA
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 ?? PHOTO: PA ?? Sadiq Khan: a voice of reason
PHOTO: PA Sadiq Khan: a voice of reason
 ?? PHOTO: TWITTER ?? Corbyn with Miko Peled, who has questioned the Shoah
PHOTO: TWITTER Corbyn with Miko Peled, who has questioned the Shoah
 ?? PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES ?? Corbyn celebrates following his keynote speech on day four of the conference
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES Corbyn celebrates following his keynote speech on day four of the conference
 ?? PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES ?? Luciana Berger with police escort
PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES Luciana Berger with police escort

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