Hate the key election issue for 28% of Jews
TWENTY EIGHT per cent of British Jews say that antisemitism is now the single most important issue in deciding which party to vote for — nearly double the next issue, Brexit, on 15 per cent with the economy on 13 per cent.
The JC poll, conducted by Survation, also found that 96 per cent say antisemitism is “important” in deciding which party to support.
Despite claims by Labour to be making progress on dealing with antisemitism, the poll shows that attitudes among British Jews have solidified and are effectively unchanged since a similar JC poll last August.
In that poll, nearly 40 per cent said they would “seriously consider” emigrating if Jeremy Corbyn became Prime Minister. That number has now risen to 42 per cent.
In this latest JC poll, of 757 British Jews conducted between February 18 and March 15, 86 per cent say they believe there are significant levels of antisemitism among Labour’s members and representatives — the same figure as in August 2018.
Similarly, 87 per cent of the Jewish community believe Jeremy Corbyn is himself antisemitic, up from 86 per cent in August 2018.
Only one per cent believe the Conservative leader, Theresa May, is antisemitic.
A Survation poll of the general UK
population last year found that 39 per cent of voters believed the Labour leader was antisemitic, with 28 per cent saying he was not.
A YouGov poll last month showed a smaller percentage (33 per cent) of the general population viewing Mr Corbyn as antisemitic, with 24 per cent saying he is not.
Claudia Mendoza, head of policy and research at the Jewish Leadership Council, said: “Twelve months after we protested that enough was enough in Parliament Square, this poll demonstrates that in the eyes of the Jewish community, nothing has changed.
“The Labour party has presided over a culture of anti-Jewish racism that now has them being subject to an investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. We hope that these figures will serve as a fierce reminder of the need to deal with the issue without further delay.”
While the relationship between Labour and the Jewish community has been steadily deteriorating since Mr Corbyn became leader in 2015, the JC polling shows that the major shift in communal attitudes towards the party took place between May 2017 and August 2018.
In a 2017 JC poll, 69 per cent believed Labour had a significant antisemitism problem among its members and elected officials.
Fifteen months later, after numerous antisemitism scandals within the party, the row over the Interna- tional Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, the Enough is Enough demonstration and revelations about Mr Corbyn laying a wreath to honour the terrorists who masterminded the 1972 Munich Olympic attack, that number had risen to 86 per cent, where it has stayed.