Cross-party report charges Corbyn with “lack of consistent leadership” on issue.
A British cross-party report released Sunday accused the Labour party of consistently failing to deal with anti-Semitic incidents, a failure which it says is “lending force to allegations that elements of the Labour movement are institutionally anti-Semitic.”
The 70-page-document, entitled the “Anti-Semitism in the UK Report” was published by the Home Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons. The parliamentarians charged that Labor Leader Jeremy Corbyn’s “lack of consistent leadership on this issue has created what some have referred to as a ‘safe space’ for those with vile attitudes towards Jewish people, exacerbated by the Party’s demonstrable incompetence at dealing with members accused of antisemitism.”
Noting Corbyn’s ties to individuals accused of anti-Semitism and his 2009 expression of support for Hamas and Hezbollah – a gesture he in July said he regretted – the lawmakers said that “despite his proud record on fighting racism, the Committee is not persuaded that Mr Corbyn fully appreciates the distinct nature of contemporary antisemitism, and the fact that it is perfectly possible for an ‘anti-racist campaigner’ to express anti-Semitic views.”
The report comes toward the end of a year in which the Labour party suffered from an “anti-Semitism crisis,” resulting in the suspension of prominent party members and culminating in the Shami Chakrabarti Inquiry. Sunday’s report called the results of this inquiry into question, saying it failed to deliver a comprehensive set of recommendations, to provide a definition of antisemitism, or to suggest effective ways of dealing with anti-Semitic incidents. The report also raised Chakrabarti’s decision to join the Labour party and accept a peerage soon after concluding the inquiry — which cleared Labour of institutional anti-Semitism — as well as her recent appointment to Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet. These developments, according to the parliamentarians, have “thrown into question the independence of the Labour Party’s inquiry.”
Though much emphasis was placed on the Labour party, drawing Corbyn’s accusation that the report was “disproportionate,” it also called on all parties to examine whether the Committee’s recommended reforms should be applied to their own processes for training and disciplining their members and activists.
The Committee expressed concern over the use of the Internet to disseminate anti-Semitism, particularly highlighting Twitter as an “inert host for vast swathes of anti-Semitic hate speech and abuse.” A spokesman for Twitter said that hateful conduct had no place on the social media platform and the company would “continue to tackle this issue head on alongside our partners in industry and civil society.”
The report’s authors also flagged tendencies to use the word “Zionist” as a term of abuse, advising that the “use of the word in an accusatory context should be considered inflammatory and potentially anti-Semitic by law enforcement and political party officials.”
President of the National Union of Students, Malia Bouattia also came under fire for a lack of action on the issue of anti-Semitism on university campuses. The Committee called on Bouattia and the Union of Jewish Students to “mend their broken relationship.”
Tim Loughton MP, Acting Chair of the Committee, said, “history shows that anti-Semitism is a virus that is too easily spread, through subtly pernicious discourse, ignorance and collusion. We call on all leaders of political parties to lead by example to tackle the growing prevalence of this insidious form of hate, opposing racism and religious hate in all its forms and working harder to promote inclusion and understanding among party members and the wider public, as befits the UK’s status as a multicultural, multi-ethnic, multi-religious society.”
As reported by The Jerusalem Post