UK: Jewish Voice for Labour secretary Glyn Secker tells pro-Palestine rally that Jews are ‘in the gutter’

Via Jewish Chronicle:

A leading member of the fringe pro-Corbyn Jewish Voice for Labour group has been filmed by the JC issuing a chilling “warning” to Jewish leaders opposing antisemitism in Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party suggesting: “You are part of the problem.”

Accusing the same “Jewish leaders” of “turning a blind eye to the extreme right”, Glyn Secker, JVL's secretary, told a Labour-backed pro-Palestinian march in central London at the weekend: “What on earth are Jews doing in the gutter?”

Dulwich and West Norwood Constituency Labour Party (CLP) member Mr Secker was loudly cheered by around 3,500 pro-Palestinian activists as he delivered his inflammatory speech at the start of the National Demonstration for Palestine in Portland Place, central London.

He said: “Here's a warning to the Jewish leadership.

“While you foment your campaign of allegations of antisemitism against Corbyn and the left to silence Israel's critics while you cry wolf, month after month, year after year in the Labour Party and remain blind to the explosion of the far-right and Islamophobia, you are not part of the solution - you are part of the problem.”

Mr Corbyn and his shadow chancellor John McDonnell had openly supported the march on which there were regular calls for the destruction of Israel, the “right of return” for “seven million Palestinian refugees” and claims by one speaker that Israel, America, Australia and India are “despicable settler colonial states.”

Three counter-demonstrators - two of whom raised an Israeli flag while another professed “love for both Israel and Palestinian - needed protection from around ten Metropolitan Police officers on Regent Street after a succession of visibly seething activists attempted to lunge at them.

(...)

When confronted later by the JC over his remarks, Mr Secker claimed not to have spoken of “Jews”.

In a statement on Twitter, JVL suggested he had directed his comments towards “these Jews” - those who had allegedly aligned themselves with the far-right. The audio recording however shows no use of the word “these”.

Mr Secker - a former member of the far-left anti-Zionist Socialist Workers Party - has previously been the subject of complaints from Jewish members of his local Labour Party about his hostile comments.

He was also a member of the Palestine Live Facebook group which was littered with antisemitic remarks.

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UK: Brighton Labour member urges party to 'march' on local synagogue to protest suspension of fellow member

Via Jewish Chronicle:

A Labour member in Brighton suggested that the local party “march to" a local Synagogue to protest against the suspension of a fellow Labour party member over alleged antisemitism, with an MP calling on the police to investigate her for "incitement".

Amanda Bishop was writing in the Brighton and Hove Labour party forum Facebook group in response to news that local council candidate Alex Braithwaite had been suspended from the party.

Miss Braithwaite was suspended two weeks ago over her posts to social media.

One such post claimed that Israel was “giving African migrants 90 days to leave the country so they don’t effect [sic] Israeli bloodline. They must leave or they will be jailed or murdered.”

Another showed a cartoon with BBC and CNN news cameras pointing at a crying Israeli child while ignoring dead Palestinian bodies.

The image’s caption accused “the media” of being “nothing more than an accessory to the police/terror state”. In another post written by Ms Braithwaite herself, she accused “IsraHell” of carrying out a “genocide” against the Palestinians.

...

Brighton MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle tweeted on Tuesday evening, after the news broke, that Ms Bishop had been suspended after he reported the comments.

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UK: Labour deputy flags tweets by party members accusing Jews of murdering kids

Via Times of Israel:

Lawmakers in Britain’s Labour opposition party have reportedly flagged social media posts from members accusing Jews of murdering children and questioning whether Jewish parliamentarians have “human blood.”

MP Tom Watson, the deputy chief of Labour, said he received 50 complaints of anti-Semitism last week from Labour colleagues, and called on leader Jeremy Corbyn to personally take them before the party’s top governing body.

According to a Sunday report in the Guardian, the complaints received by Watson included a number of anti-Semitic posts on Twitter by Labour members, such as one alleging “Jews murder people and children.”

“Wonder why Jewish people are hated wherever they’ve settled over last 2000 years. Their double dealing, back stabbing, cheating chilling coldness has always only one outcome. I wonder what the average period of time is before people fed up with the anti-social Jews kick em out,” read one of the tweets, according to the report.

Another tweet said Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler was an “illegitimate Rothschild,” the Jewish banking family at the center of numerous anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, while another questioned whether Jewish officials in Labour have “human blood.”

“Their hearts and brains totally devoid of humanity,” the Twitter post reportedly said.

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UK: Seven Labour MPs resign citing ‘institutional’, ‘sickening’ antisemitism

Via Jewish Chronicle:

Seven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party citing institutional antisemitism as among the main reasons for their departure.

At a press conference in London, Liverpool Wavertree MP Luciana Berger said she was "embarrassed and ashamed" to be a member of the Labour Party which she said was "institutionally antisemitic" and had "a culture of bullying, bigotry and intimidation". Ms Berger has long been a target for antisemitic Labour activists who have plied her with abuse and death threats.

The other MPs to speak cited antisemitism as their reason for leaving but added several other reasons, primary among which was Labour’s direction over Brexit.

The second MP to speak, Chris Leslie, who represents Nottingham East, said: "It has not been an easy decision for any of us" adding that the party had been "hijacked by the machine politics of the extreme left".

Ilford South MP Mike Gapes said: "I am sickened that Labour is now a racist, antisemitic party" and "furious that the Labour leadership is complicit in this".

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UK: Bringing up antisemitism ‘is upsetting Labour staff’

Via Times:

Labour’s general secretary has warned MPs that public criticism of the way antisemitism allegations have been handled is “distressing” for party staff.

Jennie Formby, a key ally of Jeremy Corbyn, said that the party had received nearly 700 complaints linked to antisemitic abuse by party members since April last year and had expelled 12 people.

Dame Margaret Hodge, the MP for Barking, disputed this, saying that she alone had made complaints about 200 members. Ms Formby said this was not correct, claiming that Dame Margaret’s complaints related to 111 individuals, 20 of whom were Labour members.

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UK: Survey of left-wing Twitter accounts shows nearly a fifth promote or engage in antisemitism

Via Jewish Chronicle:

A survey of thousands of left-wing social media accounts by Hope Not Hate found that nearly a fifth promote or engage in antisemitism.

The anti-fascist group’s “State of Hate 2019” report into racism — to be published on Monday — analysed 27,000 Twitter profiles that follow a selection of UK-based left-wing accounts which “regularly spread antisemitic ideas”.

Of the 27,000 accounts, the charity found up to 5,000 of them — just under 19 per cent — have expressed antisemitic ideas twice or more on social media.

Some of the accounts posted over 100 tweets that could be clearly identified as antisemitic, featuring tropes such as Jewish control of the media or banking system. 

Hope Not Hate described the results as “worrying” and said urgent action needed to be taken against social media accounts disseminating antisemitic ideas.

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Denmark: Copenhagen mayor awards BDS activists for their courage

Via Mondoweiss:

The award was presented to BDS activists Ronnie Barkan, Majed Abusalama and Stavit Sinai (known as “Humboldt 3”) by Copenhagen’s Mayor for Technical and Environmental Affairs, Ninna Hedeager Olsen, at a ceremony in Copenhagen’s City Hall Thursday. It stated that

    Mr. Barkan and his colleagues have worked tirelessly to reveal the Apartheid-like nature of the Israeli regime and its systematic violation of international law. By doing so, the Copenhagen Courageous laureates have sown the seeds for a peaceful settlement between Israelis and Palestinians based on truth and justice.

(Full statement here).

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UK: Labour suspends Mohammed Yasin, who blamed ‘all wars in the world’ on Jewish people

The man shared antisemitic posts for more than two years, and the Labour party had no idea. What does that say about their rank-and-file?

Via Times:

A senior Labour Party official shared anti-semitic material blaming Jews for “all the wars in the world”.

Labour’s West Midlands regional organiser, Mohammed Yasin, was suspended last night after The Sunday Times approached the party with a dossier of his activity on social media. Labour has launched an investigation.

For more than two years Yasin, not to be confused with the Labour MP with a similar name, shared anti-semitic posts and 9/11 conspiracy theories, praised a homophobic preacher and described his former leader Tony Blair as a “child-killer”.

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UK: Labour AM 'deeply sorry' over comments on Cardiff's Jewish community

Via Wales Online:

Cardiff Central Labour AM Jenny Rathbone is facing a call for her to resign or be expelled in the wake of controversial reported comments about Jews and anti-Semitism.

She will meet with a local rabbi to apologise and will refer herself for “equalities training”.

The Jewish Chronicle released a recording in which she appears to link anti-Semitism to Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories and argue that Jews in this country have a responsibility to promote peace.

In the recording, she is told that a synagogue in the Cyncoed area of Cardiff has had to “install bulletproof glass” but she suggests that “siege mentalities are also a part of this”

The AM compares the Welsh synagogue to a “fortress” and says it is hard for her to judge “how much of it is for real and how much of it is in their own heads”.

Her comments, made in 2017, have triggered alarm among Jewish groups and a call for her to quit.

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Germany: NGO rescinds award to U.S. Women's March due to antisemitism

Via Jerusalem Post:

The think tank for the German social democratic party withdrew its Human Rights Award to the Women’s March USA in Washington, DC, on Thursday because doctoral students associated with the foundation accused the organizers of the march of hardcore antisemitism and support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign targeting the Jewish state.

“We believe that the Women’s March USA does not meet the criteria of this award, as its organizers have repeatedly attracted attention through antisemitic statements, the trivialization of antisemitism and the exclusion of Zionists and Jews since Women’s March USA’s establishment in 2017. Women’s March USA does not constitute an inclusive alliance,” wrote members of the scholarship working group, called Critique of Anti-Semitism and Jewish Studies, from the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in a public letter.

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UK: Hundreds contact JLM's new Antisemitism Monitoring Centre about Jew-hate in Corbyn's Labour

Via TheJC:

A new Antisemitism Monitoring Centre set up by the Jewish Labour Movement to record and process complaints relating to Jew-hate within Jeremy Corbyn’s party has received nearly 500 submissions just a week after it was launched.

An email sent by JLM to its 2,000 members suggested there was a urgent need for the service because the Labour Party had allowed complaints of antisemitism to be “dismissed when reported, obfuscated when they entered the national press, and dragged on because that was politically easier”.

The launch of the centre – which is accessible to all Labour members regardless of whether or not they subscribe to JLM – will allow the organisation to build up a clear picture of what is happening across all areas of Mr Corbyn’s party.

The move comes amid fears that Labour’s own compliance unit, which is meant to investigate allegations of inappropriate conduct, is now operating on threadbare staffing levels following several departures in recent months.

The request to hear experiences of antisemitism in Labour is directed at either “victim or third-party observer” according to the email and JLM website. The group is also keen to learn of alleged instances of antisemitism from both Jewish and non-Jewish members of the Labour Party.

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UK: Shocking film shows attendees of far-left 'antisemitism' talk making antisemitic statements

Via Jewish Chronicle:

Attendees of a far-left event on the subject of “Corbyn, antisemitism and justice for Palestine” were filmed making comments such as “the Jewish people do not exist”, and “if you walk around expecting to be treated like Jewish ‘scum’, that’s what’s going to happen to you.”

The event, which was held on Tuesday night at London’s Conway Hall, featured speakers such as Tariq Ali, Ben Jamal, the director of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign and Richard Kuper of Jewish Voice for Labour.

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UK: Corbyn's antisemitism isn't a scandal, it's a strategy

Via The Weekly Standard (Tamara Berens):

[…] an old video recently resurfaced of Jeremy Corbyn linking a terror attack in Egypt to “the hand of Israel.” The 2012 interview on Iranian-owned Press TV saw him pedal anti-Israel conspiracy theories in a discussion of a bombing where 16 Egyptian policemen were killed in the Sinai desert. His comments from 2012 were defended last week by a Labour party spokesperson, who asserted that his “speculation” had been factually based on previous Israeli actions in Egypt.  

Many focus on the question of whether Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite himself. He may or may not be. However, his deliberate actions to reject the Jewish community’s concerns, silence his moderate Labour detractors, and pedal anti-Zionism as central to his political image show that he is more than happy to utilize antisemitism for political purposes.

Anti-Zionism—and by extension, giving credence to antisemites—is fundamental to the worldview Corbyn has cultivated on his journey to political stardom. For most of his political career, Corbyn was a fringe socialist politician and supporter of the USSR, Syria’s Assad, the Iranian Ayatollahs and Maduro’s Venezuela. After becoming Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn toned down some of this support for radical anti-Western groups. Nonetheless, he has consistently maintained his support for anti-Zionist causes. What’s undoubtable is that throughout his career, his ultimate goal has remained the same; rejecting Western values and embracing the alliance between radical socialists and Islamists in a strategic bid to normalize and implement socialism in the UK.

Politically, Corbyn’s strategy is working: According to a recent YouGov poll, 61 percent of the party believes Corbyn is handling accusations of antisemitism well. And 80 percent of the party deems him a good leader overall. The events of the past few weeks indicate that the Labour leadership has been able to build on their apparent success to formally distance themselves from the overwhelmingly Zionist British-Jewish community. This perhaps became most apparent last Friday, when Jeremy Corbyn published another article in The Guardian disregarding his part in normalizing antisemitism in the party. The piece came out at 5pm, when the majority of Jews in the country were busy preparing for the Sabbath.

The reality is that support from the Jewish community is no longer an indispensable part of the Labour party. In fact, Corbyn’s foreign policy—a large aspect of his political differences to Blair’s Labour—rests on weakening UK-Israel relations. Corbyn has constructed a successful strategy for claiming the Labour party as his own socialist vehicle for disruption of the Western liberal order. Labeling recent events a “scandal” greatly underestimates the strategic nature of his leadership. 

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Holland: Extreme antisemitic tweet from municipal council member

Via Bad News from the Netherlands blog:

A member of the municipal council in the town of Heerenveen on behalf of the Frisian National Party [the FNP is a left-wing nationalist party] tweeted that Jews murder entire groups of populations.

read more @ De Dagelijkse Standaard (in Dutch)

UK: JVL chair sparks fury by comparing IHRA definition of antisemitism to homophobic Section 28

Via TheJC:

The chair of Jewish Voice For Labour has sparked fury by comparing the internationally recognised definition of antisemitism to controversial 1980s legislation that banned promoting homosexuality in schools.

Speaking at Wednesday's meeting of Finchley and Golders Green Labour Party, Jenny Manson claimed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition prevented support for Palestinians, in the same way Section 28 prevented support for gay pupils.

The comments infuriated many in the room.

Jack Lubner, 17, was said to have been left "upset and intimidated" after Ms Mason strode towards him after he said he objected to her remarks.

He tweeted: "Jenny should be ashamed of herself. How dare she."

Local Labour member Luisa Attfield, tweeted: "As a Jewish lesbian I am offended and as person with a brain its a baseless comparison."

(...)

JVL, a pro-Jeremy Corbyn group founded in September 2017, has backed a campaign to support the new antisemitism guidelines Labour's national body approved, which omit key examples from the IHRA Jew-hate definition about how criticising Israel can be antisemitic.

The issue has caused huge outrage among the Jewish community.

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UK: The Labour Party has officially become institutionally antisemitic

Via Archbishop Cranmer blog:

It has long been suspected that Jeremy Corbyn has a problem with Jews (if not known that he is antipathetic to Judaism, defends antisemitic conspiracy theorists, and accommodates Jew-hatred), but to learn that the Labour Party itself now inclines to its leader’s worldview is somewhat disturbing.

Yesterday Labour’s NEC approved its organisational sub-committee decision not to endorse the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism. So Labour does not accept:

Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.

The concern is that such a definition embraces the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, and would, for example, inhibit the expression or belief that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour. Labour doesn’t want to muddy the water between Jew-hatred (which is antisemitic and racist) and Israel-hatred (which is enlightened and progressive), so the IHRA definition has been rejected. Instead, Labour is going to consult on developing its own definition. […] 

You can’t imagine Labour adopting a definition of ‘Islamophobia‘ which Muslims could not accept, or a definition of ‘homophobia‘ which LGBT people could not accept. Jeremy Corbyn would be immensely concerned if Muslims and gays suddenly starting deserting his party of such an issue, and no doubt Labour MPs would act swiftly to stem the flow. So why single out the Jews for special treatment?

Unless…

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UK: Far-left paper pulls op-ed blaming Israel for anti-Semitism

Via JTA:

A far-left British newspaper that regularly features articles by Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn apologized for running an op-ed linking rising anti-Semitism to “Israel’s crimes.”

On Wednesday, The Morning Star pulled offline an article titled “Rising Anti-Semitism Cannot be Tackled without Addressing Israel’s Crimes.”

“This article has been removed from the website as it crossed a line in attributing anti-Semitism to the policies of the Israeli government and made demands on the ‘Jewish diaspora’ and ‘Jewish community’ as if these were responsible for Israeli policy or obliged to account for it,” the paper said in explanation.

John Elder, which some Labour activists said is a nom de plume, wrote the op-ed.

“The Morning Star deeply regrets publication of the article, which was submitted by an external contributor and which we failed to vet with the care necessary on a subject of such importance,” the paper said.

Once affiliated with Britain’s Communist Party, The Morning Star is popular with many members of Momentum, the movement within Labour of Corbyn.

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UK: Leftie lawyer hired by Labour to oversee anti-Semitism cases is ‘friends with anti-Jewish activists’

Via The Sun:

Labour bosses have been blasted for hiring a leftie lawyer who is friends with members accused of anti-Semitism to advise them.

Gordon Nardell QC was last week announced as the party’s new in-house legal counsel to help deal with the backlog of anti-Semitism cases - and will oversee the party’s disciplinary processes.

But critics claim his links to grassroots members accused of anti-Semitic comments undermines his independence, and it could be a conflict of interest if he rules on their cases. It has been revealed that the former councillor and wannabe-MP has a long history of links to the hard left and is friends on Facebook with suspended members.

Labour figures have demanded that the new General Secretary, Jennie Fornby, think again about her decision to hire him in the role. Jewish groups have demanded more progress on dealing with pockets of anti-Semitism in the party, and were left fuming after Jeremy Corbyn refused all of their demands. Labour has set an August deadline for resolving complaints relating to anti-Semitism.

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France: Posters show French president wearing Nazi uniform and Israeli flag

Via JTA:

Left-wing protesters against French President Emmanuel Macron paraded in Paris with a poster of him wearing a Nazi uniform and an Israeli flag — prompting legal action by a watchdog on anti-Semitism.

In the poster carried Friday by protesters against the centrist leader’s economic reform, he was wearing a black uniform emblazoned with his initials and two dollars signs instead of the SS symbol of the elite Nazi unit known by that acronym. The flag featured on the figure’s right-hand upper arm.

The National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, complained to police that the poster was incitement to hatred and violence.

“We consider this an unacceptable outrage against the head of state, the republic and all the victims of the Holocaust as well as to the State of Israel,” BNVCA wrote in a statement Monday about the complaint. The protest was organized by the French General Confederation of Labour trade union

and the far-left party of Jean-Luc Melenchon, a communist politician who has been accused of inciting hatred toward Jews.

CRIF, the umbrella group of French Jewish communities, said it considers both Melenchon’s Insuppressible France party and Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Front “movement based on hatred” and has refused to meet with officials of either party.

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UK: Prospective Labour councillor bows out of local elections over anti-Semitic tweet

Via Sun:  

A PROSPECTIVE Labour councillor who caused outrage with an anti-Semitic tweet has resigned from the party days before local elections.

Claire Udy has apologised for the 2013 post: “Got a barely used travel system for baby that’s worth over £500 for £100 today also. Not even a Jew. Amazing.”

She cited lack of support from her local party as her reason for leaving.

Ms Udy will now stand as an independent in Portsmouth, Hants.    

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