Allegations of anti-Semitism in the UK's Labour Party

[Hermit]

The thing is they weren't antisemitic. It was a beat up to destabilise Corbyn.

It depends what you mean by "they". Certainly not the Labour Party as a whole, but I'll stand by my reading of reports from the time, where some branches strayed from legitimate criticism of Israel into anti-semitism, and Corbyn did himself no favours by appearing not to reprimand the shift...

Can you quote any statements where some branches strayed from legitimate criticism of Israel into anti-Semitism? I ask because I agree with pErvinalia's opinion that they weren't antisemitic - that it was a beat up to destabilise Corbyn instead - but I must admit that I have never had a close look at the issue.

[Svartalf]

Anti semitic? the party that opposed Disraeli? please, tell me that was a joke.

[JimC]

I suppose I was only going on a series of newspaper reports quite a few years ago now, which from memory were not all from the conservative press. It could be the case where there were some actions or words from branches with strong links to the Palestinian cause which crossed the line into anti-Jewish rather than anti-Zionist, and that was seized on by critics of Corbyn and the party. So, I suspect there was something in it originally, but it may well have been exaggerated, and would certainly be used by the Tories at the time. I really don't know how to dredge up such old reports...

[Brian Peacock]

The Labour party commissioned a number of reports and studies into anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish sentiment in the party, including to the 2019 report which was to contribute to the investigation of the Labour Party by the Human Rights Commission - which is a body with statutory powers in the UK. The latter report was shelved by Starmer when he became leader, but it still found its way into the press...

In devastating interviews given to the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme last year, staff in Labour’s disputes team said they did their best to tackle a rising tide of antisemitism complaints but were continually dragged down by interference from Jeremy Corbyn’s team.

However an internal party report now claims they were part of an embittered, anti-Corbyn faction, who ignored antisemitism complaints, sometimes for months, and blamed their own failings on the leftwing leadership.

...

The 860-page document – which even includes the staggering allegation that members of Labour’s senior management team “openly worked against the aims and objectives of the leadership” and “the party’s core objective of winning elections” – offers evidence that casts doubt on some of the damning claims made by whistleblowers on the programme.

It alleges, among other things, that one of the programme’s key whistleblowers repeatedly ignored serious antisemitism complaints and was fixated on undermining the leftwing leadership.

The documentary Is Labour Anti-Semitic? led many to believe Corbyn did not want to tackle antisemitism in the party, and even implied he might be racist.

A senior Labour party source told Novara Media they believed the programme “was undoubtedly one of the biggest factors in destroying our chances” in that year’s election.

“Its misrepresentations severed any remaining goodwill we had fought for with the Jewish community, and were broadcast to millions of members of the public who hadn’t formed an opinion on the issue. It was devastating,” they added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

...

The report also raises uncomfortable questions for the BBC, Panorama and its veteran reporter, John Ware.

Some of the most powerful testimony was given by Sam Matthews, a former head of the disputes team.

Matthews told BBC reporter John Ware “the mental health of me and my team went through the floor” after he was accused of working to undermine Corbyn and failing to investigate complaints.

But Matthews was deeply involved in attempts to undermine Corbyn, according to emails and messages cited in the report, even leading a secret project to divert funds away from marginals to support centrist MPs instead. The report claims that he failed to deal with multiple serious antisemitism complaints.

While the documentary suggests Corbyn and his allies obstructed the team’s efforts to deal with antisemitism, the report highlights several incidents where Corbyn’s aides pushed for tougher action against antisemites and the disputes team failed to act.

...

The report also argues the disputes department was failing before Corbyn became leader and consistently worked against him after he won in 2015.

It adds that Matthews and others did not need permission from Corbyn’s team to take disciplinary action.

...

The leaked report was compiled for the Equality and Human Rights Commission investigation into Labour antisemitism [...] alleges that Matthews and his team:

– Gave false information to Corbyn’s office, including “highly inaccurate” statistics on antisemitism complaints that obscured the scale of the problem

– Repeatedly ignored emails for months requesting action against members who expressed heinous views, including sympathy for Nazis and Holocaust denial

– Suggested no action besides a “stern warning” for a member who said Jews “harp back to the Holocaust to curry sympathy”

– Consistently worked against the leadership, and yet gave Panorama an inaccurate account of being “fearful” of Corbyn’s allies

(very long article) : https://novaramedia.com/2020/05/19/did- ... on-corbyn/

The idea that Corbyn, who during SA apartheid ran a committee smuggling text books into township schools and funding overseas scholarships for black SA students, was a racist is ridiculous - but his support for Palestinian self-determination and a two-state solution was easily framed as being essentially anti-Israel, and therefore anti-Jewish. This was ramped up after the 2017 generally election in which there was a 10%+ swing to Labour's 'For the many not the few' campaign. Labour gained 41.9% of the vote to the Tories 45.4% and the conservatives only secured their minority government by brokering a so-called 'supply and demand' arrangement with the ideological wing of the Old Testament (DUP).

In the five years to 2015 under Ed Miliband Labour's brand of compassionate centrism failed to make a dent in the Tories appeal, even given the massive self-inflicted headshot their Austerity agenda was having on the nation. Perpetual backbencher Corbyn was elected leader in 2015 by an overwhelming majority of the memberships - which was a surprise all round, not least to Corbyn himself - and then again a year later when his leadership was challenged, and he began garnering considerable public support for focusing on core issues like jobs and working conditions, local services, healthcare, education etc. This brought an additional 100,000 members to the party. And yet the Blairite old-guard of 'New Labour', the very people who had failed so comprehensively under Miliband, still considered his leadership a disaster - and in particular were sceptical of Corbyn's move to develop systems which allowed members and local constituency parties to feed into process which would ultimately define policy and manifesto commitments.

So although for the first couple of years there was a steady stream of ad homs from the Labour right about how Corbyn was a horrible lefty, and from the Tory press about how he wanted to nationalise your granny and make everybody cycle to work like chairman Mao, that didn't really start to gain traction until Labour ran the Tories a close 2nd in 2017 after May called the snap election in order to quell the hard Brexitarians in her own party - something which ended up being massively counter-productive. The swing to Labour was obviously troubling for the right, and troubling for the old 'New Labour' lot to. If Labour maintained it's popularity under Corbyn, and maybe were even able to grow the Corbyn Labour 'brand', then not only would the Tories soon be out of power but those people embedded in the Labour party since the Blair-Brown years would probably find themselves out of a job and/or without influence. This is when allegations of anti-Semitism were really ramped up in the press and from the Labour right and the avowed anti-racist Corbyn, a man who has stated on a number of occasions that anti-Semitism is a form of racism, was consistently branded a racist.`

As Fredrick Nietzsche pointed out, hypocrisy is often considered to be the highest of all moral crimes, and a torrent of allegations of hypocrisy are difficult to combat because the hypocrite never admits to hypocrisy, and therefore appears indistinguishable from the non-hypocrite. What we saw with Corbyn and anti-Semitism is what Edward Said described as “power repeating untruths until they have the force of truth”.

One might argue that the weaponising of Jews and Jewishness as a means of asserting political power over others, through the repetition of overblown or spurious allegations of anti-Semitism, is something which in itself is anti-Semitic; or put plainly, racist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antisemit ... bour_Party

[Hermit]

[JimC]

Good post, Brian. But it does seem to be true that some branches did veer from pro-Palestinian into anti-semitism:

It alleges, among other things, that one of the programme’s key whistleblowers repeatedly ignored serious antisemitism complaints and was fixated on undermining the leftwing leadership.

So, the implication is that reports of anti-semitism in certain branches were true. It appears that the issue became entwined with anti-Corbyn factions, to the detriment of the Labour Party's electoral chances and wrongly giving the impression that Corbyn himself was racist, but my original take on this still seems reasonable. It simply illustrates the slippery slope that can occur when a political critique becomes tinged with emotion, and racism can creep in...

[pErvinalia]

Let's hear some examples. All the one's I read at the time were anti-Israel, not anti-Semetic.

[JimC]

Let's hear some examples. All the one's I read at the time were anti-Israel, not anti-Semetic.

If you look at the quote above, from Hermit's article, a party review said that certain people had ignored "serious antisemitic complaints" - the smearing of Corbyn is a separate issue. So, given that is not from the Tory press, but from the Labour Party itself, I take that as showing that at least some antisemitic statements occurred. Clearly it was later weaponised to attack Corbyn and the party in general, but it seems unlikely it didn't happen at all. All it really takes is to make a political attack (on behalf of the Palestinian cause) blaming "the Jews" rather than "zionists in the Israeli government" and you have crossed the line...

[Brian Peacock]

Good post, Brian. But it does seem to be true that some branches did veer from pro-Palestinian into anti-semitism:

It alleges, among other things, that one of the programme’s key whistleblowers repeatedly ignored serious antisemitism complaints and was fixated on undermining the leftwing leadership.

So, the implication is that reports of anti-semitism in certain branches were true. It appears that the issue became entwined with anti-Corbyn factions, to the detriment of the Labour Party's electoral chances and wrongly giving the impression that Corbyn himself was racist, but my original take on this still seems reasonable. It simply illustrates the slippery slope that can occur when a political critique becomes tinged with emotion, and racism can creep in...

Yeah. There are anti-Semites in the Labour Party because there's anti-Semites in society. The question has always been about the scale or extent of the problem.

The role of the Labour disputes team is to act as an independent body to deal with complaints about members, from both within and outside of the organisation. In the Panorama programme the head of the disputes team claimed the leader's office were breaching it's independent role and interfering in the process to shield and/or to secure special, softer treatment for anti-Semite members and/or friends of Corbyn. This was not the case. Where the leader's office was in contact it was to ask why things were taking so long. The internal report also noted that while the disputes team was dragging its feet over some complaints it was also quickly suspending some leftwing members and telling the press before the member themselves.

https://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/ ... th-threat/


A 2017 poll for the Antisemitic Barometer (PDF) suggested that Labour party members/supporters are generally less racist than the general public - although there's some questions about the validity or usefulness of the data there...



... Nonetheless, there was, and there still remains, a feeling among the UK public, and among UK Jews in particular, that the Labour Party are too tolerant of anti-Semitism, and more tolerant of it than other political parties. Due to a combination of party infighting and incompetence, and an increasing frequency of news reports, articles, and think pieces before the 2019 election criticising Corbyn and Labour for being anti-Jewish, the general perception is that Labour has a serious anti-Semitism problem - which has led the current leadership to be very sensitive about the issue.