The Labour Party's problem with anti-Semitism

We should pray to have enemies who makes us worthy of ourselves

-          John Stuart Mill

As the UK gets ready for yet another election, some fascinating points are worth rehashing. I’ve previously written about the moral and liberal reasons why leaving the EU is a good idea for the UK, despite some potential short-term setbacks, which, despite the dire forecasts by pro-remain elitist institutions, banks, academics, politicians and activists, have largely failed to materialise.

But in the eve of the election, another perhaps even more pressing question for the Brits, ironically, is the question of anti-Semitism.

This is ironic for two reasons – the first is that this age-old bigotry is allowed to rear its ugly head in the UK, one of the two countries that has done more to eradicate the most powerful, anti-Semitic and deadly ideology, in the Nazi Reich, than any other; and secondly, that this recrudescence is happening in the Labour party, the side of politics traditionally associated with egalitarianism and anti-racism.

British troops from the 11th armoured division and survivors at Bergen Belsen concentration camp in 1945, where the troops were confronted with 60,000 prisoners and over 13,000 unburied corpses of Jews, Poles, Czechs and homosexuals

To trace the foment of this apparently paradoxical phenomenon, and indeed the special place anti-Semitism has in the field of racisms, will require more space. Though anyone interested can read some previous essays where this is touched upon.  Here, I will simply demonstrate the evidence that, as the old adage goes, the fish rots from the head. And Labour’s descent into anti-Semitism has a lot to do with the man that leads the party, Jeremy Corbyn.

As far as I know, Corbyn has been on the side of every extremist state or group antagonistic towards the UK. He is friendly with various extreme Islamicists, like the Sunni fundamentalist militant organisation Hamas, who thanked Corbyn for his message of solidarity at a pro-Palestine rally in London. He also referred to people from the Shia Islamicist Hezbollah as his friends. Hezbollah is designated as a terrorist organization by the US, UK, Canada, Australia, the Arab League, and many other countries. Both Hamas and Hezbollah are also highly anti-Semitic.

He has praised Fidel Castro, Cuba’s Socialist dictator, whom Forbes estimated to be worth around US$900 million, whereas the average Cuban earns around US$30 a month. He praised Hugo Chavez as a hero, who managed to preside the country with the largest oil reserves into the dirt, where now poverty rate is at 90%. He has been a supporter of the IRA and Sinn Fein, despite the movement’s violent and deadly conduct.

With this history, it is perhaps not surprising to see Corbyn and his party to be bedfellows with those who, for one reason or another, dislikes the Jews. It must be said that the bed has been made by those who preceded Corbyn, like the former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, whose history of anti-Semitic remarks finally forced him to quit the party in 2018.

And Naz Shah, who was suspended for anti-Semitic comments on social media, but who has been reinstated and promoted to be shadow minister under Corbyn. She is now Shadow Minister of the State for Women and Equality. This is a woman who, in 2017, in response to the Rotherham sex ring, where an estimated 1,500 young girls were systematically groomed for sexual exploitation and abuse by largely Pakistani men, attacked her fellow Labour MP Sarah Champion for speaking out on the issue. Shah also liked and retweeted a tweet from a parody account of the left wing commentator Owen Jones, clearly thinking it was the real Jones, which said that the girl victims of the Rotherham sex ring should keep quiet "for the good of #diversity!". She is now Shadow Minister in the Labour Party. Sarah Champion? Forced to resign by Corbyn.

For himself, the Labour leader has been accused of 11 specific anti-Semitic acts as stated in a dossier compiled by the Jewish Labour Movement, and submitted to the Equality and Human Rights Commission. The leaked and redacted document can be read here.

Some highlights are:

1.       Writing a foreword to a new 2011 edition of the 1902 book, Imperialism: A Study, by J.A. Hobson, calling it “a great tome”, “very powerful”, “correct and prescient” and “brilliant”. In his entire eight page foreword, Corbyn did not even touch in passing on the conspiratorial antisemitism in the book, which Hobson has also expressed in his other books.

2.       Shaking hands with, praising and inviting to tea in the House of Commons, Sheikh Raed Salah, a man banned from the UK for ‘virulent anti-Semitism’.

3.       Having a decade long relationship with an anti-Israel group Deir Yassin Remembered, which was founded by Holocaust-denier Paul Eisen and is riddled with Holocaust-deniers, like the former Labour councillor Gill Kaffash and the Holocause-revisionist musician Gilad Atzmon. In 2018, anther Labour MP, Chris Williamson was also forced to apologise for defending Atzmon. Williamson was forced to quit Labour earlier this year, despite Corbyn’s defence of him.

4.       Helping laying a wreath in Tunisia for Black September terrorists who murdered Israeli athletes at the 1974 Munich Olympic Games. When challenged on this, he said he was “present but not involved.”

Corbyn 'not being involved'

One of the terrorists Corbyn was laying flowers for, and the 11 killed

Despite his attempt at coyness, other more open anti-Semites have seen through his pretence and embraced him as a brother. The former BNP leader Nick Griffin, and former KKK chief David Duke have both endorsed him. The Daily Stormer, a famous Neo-Nazi website, has endorsed Jeremy Corbyn during the last election as well as this one. The American far-right publication the Occidental Observer has also been defending Corbyn.

In fact, a YouGov poll analysed by King’s College London saw that Corbyn is the most popular leader for those with anti-Jewish sentiments. Another poll of over 2,500 British Jews found more than 40% had considered leaving the UK, with 85% of those citing anti-Semitism in politics, and two-thirds citing Mr Corbyn as potential PM being a major factor.

So without even beginning to criticise his policies, or the faults of the Tories, it is my opinion that you truly need the stomach of a concrete elephant to unhesitatingly vote for Labour. Luckily the polls all suggest that most British voters agree with me. Good on them. 

A critical register of the general health of a civilization is the status of ‘the Jewish question.’ No insurance policy has ever been devised that can or will cover this risk.”

-          Christopher Hitchens, Hitch-22

“Caution in handling generally accepted opinions that claim to explain whole trends of history is especially important for the historian of modern times, because the last century has produced an abundance of ideologies that pretend to be keys to history but are actually nothing but desperate efforts to escape responsibility.”

                                                                      -            Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism