Corbyn: We do have an anti-Semitism problem
Jewish leaders to hold protest against ‘hostile’ Labour leader
JEREMY Corbyn last night admitted that Labour has a problem with anti-Semitism – but refused to apologise for his own behaviour.
Jewish community leaders will today take the unprecedented step of holding a protest against the Labour leader outside Parliament.
In a letter to be presented to Labour MPs, the Board of Deputies of British Jews will accuse him of repeatedly ignoring their concerns, which they said suggested shows he sees Jews as a ‘hostile enemy’.
Mr Corbyn last night issued a statement in which he said he was ‘sincerely sorry’ for the pain caused by ‘pockets of antiSemitism that exist in and around the party’. But he did not make any reference to criticism aimed at him personally.
Mr Corbyn has faced a backlash since it emerged last week that he defended an artist who painted an anti-Semitic mural depicting a group of ‘hook-nosed’ men around a Monopoly board on a wall in East London.
When the artist complained on Facebook in 2012 that it was being painted over, the Labour leader replied: ‘Why?’, before going on to condemn previous destruction of controversial political art.
Mr Corbyn has refused to apologise for his comment, saying he only regretted not ‘looking more closely’ at the mural, which he conceded was ‘deeply disturbing and anti-Semitic’.
Last night Labour former Cabinet minister Yvette Cooper told Channel 4 News: ‘I think that it would be right for Jeremy to give a full apology for the comments that he made.’
Mr Corbyn has been asked to address a meeting of Labour MPs today to explain his behaviour but has rejected their invitation.
The Jewish Leadership Council and Board of Deputies of British Jews will lead a protest in Parliament Square this evening over ‘Mr Corbyn’s systematic failure to understand and deal with antiSemitism’, before delivering a letter to the Parliamentary Labour Party warning ‘enough is enough’. The letter – signed by Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies, which comprises 300 representatives from the country’s synagogues, and Jonathan Goldstein, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council – condemns Mr Corbyn for repeatedly siding with anti-Semites rather than Jewish people. They write: ‘Today, leaders of British Jewry tell Jeremy Corbyn that enough is enough. We have had enough of hearing that Jeremy Corbyn “opposes anti-Semitism”, whilst the mainstream majority of British Jews, and their concerns, are ignored by him and those he leads.’ They add: ‘We conclude that he cannot seriously contemplate anti-Semitism, because he is so ideologically fixed within a far-Left worldview that is instinctively hostile to mainstream Jewish communities.’
The Campaign Against AntiSemitism yesterday filed a disciplinary complaint to Labour accusing Mr Corbyn of bringing the party into disrepute by failing to tackle anti-Semitism.
Gideon Falter, its chairman, said: ‘Under Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party has been seized by racists.’
Last night, as he sought to contain the row, Mr Corbyn pledged to meet representatives from the Jewish community in the coming days.
In a statement, he said: ‘Labour is an anti-racist party and I utterly condemn anti-Semitism, which is why as leader of the Labour Party I want to be clear that I will not tolerate any form of anti-Semitism that exists in and around our movement. We must stamp this out from our party and movement.
‘We recognise that anti-Semitism has occurred in pockets within the Labour Party, causing pain and hurt to our Jewish community in the Labour Party and the rest of the country.
‘I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused... we must demonstrate our total commitment to excising pockets of antiSemitism that exist in and around our party.’
COUNTING their money, a group of caricatured Jewish men sit around a Monopoly board balanced on the backs of the oppressed poor. It is an image, once daubed on a wall in London’s East End, which wouldn’t look out of place in a 1930s Nazi propaganda leaflet.
With considerable reluctance, the Mail today reprints this grotesque piece of anti-Semitic propaganda so readers can judge for themselves what it says about the man who postures as this country’s next Prime Minister.
For in 2012 – just three years before he became Labour leader – Mr Corbyn questioned in an online post why the mural should be painted over.
Facing criticism from Jewish Labour MPs last week, he issued a pathetic statement expressing ‘regret’ that he hadn’t looked closely enough at the image. The Mail gives little credence to his explanation, when even the most casual glance would have revealed its repugnant anti-Semitic tropes. Would he have been so blasé about racist images of black people or Muslims?
No, in truth this is yet more evidence of Mr Corbyn’s shameful tolerance of vile racist hatred when it comes to Britain’s Jewish community.
Indeed, for years he has given succour to known anti-Semites. As a backbench MP, he and members of his inner circle inhabited dark corners of the internet where virulent abuse of Jews was rife. As Labour leader, he has allowed a virulent strain of intolerance to infect the party, failed to act when Jewish Labour groups were demonised at conference, and presided over a disgraceful whitewash of anti-Semitism.
Last night, while failing to take any personal responsibility, Mr Corbyn finally apologised for ‘pockets of anti-Semitism’ within Labour. But given his appalling behaviour to date – and his refusal to say sorry for his shameful comment about the mural – why should anyone believe him?
Just two days after the Mail launched its petition to keep in Britain the manufacture of the new blue passport, and already more than 118,000 people (and counting) have signed up. As ministers face being hauled to the Commons to answer for this thoughtless and unpatriotic decision, do they now realise what a terrible mistake they’ve made?