Fury over JVL ‘anti-racism training’

THE PRO-CORBYN Jewish Voice for Labour has triggered fury by asking members to help it give antisemitism training to Labour members.

JVL, a fringe group accused of trying to downplay Labour’s antisemitism crisis, messaged its members, saying it was “receiving a growing number of requests” for such training and, having done two “very successful exploratory” sessions, it was aiming to “expand the programme in the Autumn”.

The Jewish Labour Movement, the party’s Jewish affiliate, responded by saying JVL was “seeking every opportunity to undermine attempts to rid our party of antisemitism and to slander our Jewish community ”.

“They are the problem,” a JLM spokesperson said, pointing out that Labour had asked JLM to build and run a programme of antisemitism training in 2016. They added: “To our knowledge this has not changed.”

JVL said: “As we have made clear, JVL endorses the recommendations in the Chakrabarti Report that education and training about antisemitism and other forms of racism should be delivered in a non-partisan manner. Where asked to provide speakers or to lead training sessions, we respond — as in everything we do — in accordance with the antiracist principles on our website.”