Murphy: The Labour Party has turned its back on Jews
JIM MURPHY has made a dramatic return to the political fray to accuse his party of “deliberately” turning its back on British Jews.
The former Scottish Labour leader has taken out a full page advert in this week’s Jewish Telegraph to apologise for the actions of the Labour leadership.
It comes amid a continuing row over anti-semitism in the Labour Party, with critics accusing Jeremy Corbyn of failing to address the problem.
Mr Corbyn faced fresh condemnation yesterday after footage emerged of him apparently drawing comparisons between the Nazi occupation of wartime Europe and Israeli actions in the West Bank.
At an event in 2013, the Labour leader said the area was under “occupation of the very sort” that would be recognised by many people in Europe during the Second World War. Labour denied this was a reference to the Nazis.
Mr Murphy previously represented East Renfrewshire, the constituency with the largest Jewish population in Scotland, before losing his seat in 2015.
In his advert, he writes: “My party now appears to have deliberately turned its back on British Jewry. It’s as
inexplicable as it is destructive. And when in a hole of its own making, rather than stopping digging, Labour’s leadership has asked for a bigger shovel.
“British Labour’s top team has shown itself to be intellectually arrogant, emotionally inept and politically maladroit.
“There’s no other way to explain why Labour has provoked and sustained a row with Jews about the best way to challenge the racism that Jews face.”
He said there was a “small, but growing minority, of anti-semitic conspiracy theorists amongst the membership of the Labour Party”.
He added: “Jeremy Corbyn is not doing nearly enough to throw out the anti-semites found within grassroots and online Labour.”
Last weekend, Labour’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, warned the party could “disappear into a vortex of eternal shame” if it did not tackle the issue.
Mr Corbyn has apologised for the hurt caused to Jewish people by antisemitism within his party.
But critics have highlighted Labour’s failure to adopt the widely recognised International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-semitism in its entirety. Mr Murphy said he had never spoken out against Mr Corbyn on other issues, despite not backing his leadership bid.
He wrote: “Jeremy Corbyn is the elected leader and, along with the shadow cabinet, has the opportunity to shape party policy.
“But no party leader has the right to shatter the relationship between British Labour and British Jewry.
“The Jewish community and everyone else who is offended by Labour’s stance are being asked to accept quarter-baked, platitudinous Labour apologies for the ‘upset that has been caused’.
“Instead, what’s needed urgently is Labour action against the sickening anti-jewish racism that is the actual cause of the offence in the first place.”
Labour declined to respond to his attack., but a source said it was being taken with a “large portion of salt”, and referenced claims Mr Murphy blocked the only Jewish candidate standing for a seat on Labour’s ruling body in 2016.
Referring to the footage of Mr Corbyn from 2013, a Labour spokeswoman said: “Jeremy was describing conditions of occupations in World War Two in Europe, of which there are multiple examples, not comparing the Israeli State to Nazis.”