By David Sachs

“I never experienced direct anti-Semitism in the Labour Party until Jeremy Corbyn became its leader,” Dame Louise Ellman, a Labour MP for 23 years, told me.

In the lead-up to the United Kingdom’s Dec. 12 general election, a shocking poll has been released. Forty-seven per cent — almost half — of the U.K.’s thousand-year-old Jewish community would seriously consider leaving the country if the current opposition, the Corbyn-led Labour Party, were to come to power. The same poll found that 87 per cent of British Jews believe Corbyn to be anti-Semitic.

Just as white supremacists found tacit encouragement from Donald Trump’s campaign and victory, unleashing abusive attacks on “enemies,” so have the anti-Semites in Labour burst into public discourse with Corbyn’s leadership victory in 2015. Case after case has surfaced of Jews facing outright harassment in party meetings, and of anti-Semitic material posted on social media by Labour politicians or officials.

Eighty-seven per cent of British Jews believe Corbyn to be anti-Semitic

 

Corbyn’s long history while an unknown backbencher certainly foreshadowed this.

He met with, invited to Parliament, defended, and even honoured, terrorists with a shocking frequency. He shared stages with people who deny the Holocaust, or call for a new one. He laid a wreath at a memorial for planners of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, and lied about it for years. He called Hamas, which executes gays, and which regularly calls for the genocide of Jews worldwide, his “friends” dedicated to “social justice.” That Hamas explicitly rejects any peace with Israel puts the lie to Corbyn’s act. He is not pro peace, only anti-Israel.

This is often the hard part for non-Jews to understand. Modern anti-Semitism often targets the world’s only Jewish state. You wouldn’t expect anti-Semites to like Israel, right? A critical question is, how to differentiate “honest” criticism of Israel from racist? Guidelines on identifying anti-Semitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance are the most widely used, and have been adopted by the U.K., Canada and other countries. The guidelines point to irrational obsession with Israel; holding Israel to standards no other country is held to; shifting historic anti-Semitic images to Israel, of Jews as secret manipulators of the world, or inhuman parasites leeching off the world’s oppressed; or comparing Israel to Nazi Germany.

Of course Corbyn fought the adoption of these guidelines within the Labour Party. He checks every box.

He hosted an event comparing Israelis to Nazis on Holocaust Memorial Day, and has tried to rename Holocaust Memorial Day to make it less Jew-focused. His longtime secretary called for opposing any candidates who appeared in Jewish media.

In one speech, describing British Jews visiting Parliament in support of Israel, he said, “they don’t get English irony.” These words convey his thinking. Jews aren’t “one of us.” You have to watch his videos, though, to feel his contempt.

The outright racism of his supporters, and his unwillingness to rein them in, has poisoned the party. Rather than argue charges of anti-Semitism in good faith, as one would expect a non-racist to do, they attack anyone making the accusation, charging them with hidden (sneaky, Jewish) motives to take Corbyn down. To them, Jews don’t actually believe Corbyn is anti-Semitic, they’re just afraid Corbyn is coming for their billions, or will end their puppetering of British politicians. Seriously. That’s how they defend themselves against the accusation of anti-Semitism. Jews are frequently accused of being secret agents for Israel. As Corbyn did, according to multiple Labour sources, when he referred to the Jewish Dame Ellman as “the Honourable Member for Tel Aviv.” Hate crimes against Jews in the U.K. have risen to record levels, doubling in 2018.

The outright racism of his supporters, and his unwillingness to rein them in, has poisoned the party

 

This was the simmering backdrop, and in 2019 the pot boiled over. More and more high-profile individuals and groups went public with their conclusion that Corbyn was not fit to govern. Nine Labour MPs quit the party, with scathing remarks on their former leader. Attacks against them from Corbyn supporters, especially to female MPs Dame Ellman and Luciana Berger, were not only disgusting but threatening. Berger was given police protection. Dame Ellman told me of her local party meetings becoming hijacked with interrogations on Israel to the exclusion of any other national issue.

Next, the national racism watchdog opened an extraordinary formal probe of the party and received thousands of reports. Whistleblowers from the Labour disputes department told of staggering incidents of anti-Semitism sent for their investigation, and continued interference from Corbyn’s office. Sixty-seven of Labour’s own members of the House of Lords declared Corbyn’s reign “the most shaming period in Labour’s history.”

Jewish newspapers, and a litany of British public figures, including Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and author John le Carré, warned of Labour’s dark turn.

Which brings us to the eventful last week of November. Britain’s chief rabbi wrote an unprecedented plea in The Times, warning of this “new poison — sanctioned from the top” in the Labour Party. Both the Archbishop of Canterbury and Hindu Council UK wrote letters supporting the rabbi.

Corbyn tried to deflect the charges by launching an anti-racism manifesto, manifestos being his specialty. Among the several MPs and candidates standing behind him, three have been found to have stated or posted anti-Semitic material. Was this a joke? Did they not have enough non-racist candidates to fill a stage?

On BBC, Corbyn awkwardly resisted answering whether it was anti-Semitic to say “Rothschild Zionists control world affairs” — probably fearful they were his own words. They were actually the words of a Labour councillor, investigated by the party, with no sanction given. Corbyn was offered an opportunity to apologize to British Jews. Four times. Corbyn refused.

Was this a joke? Did they not have enough non-racist candidates to fill a stage?

 

That was one bad week, but it wasn’t over. As the campaign entered the December final sprint, revelations of anti-Semitic comments from Labour candidates continued to surface, along with old footage of unhinged rants against Israel from Corbyn. To no one’s surprise, a poll last week showed Corbyn supporters far more likely to agree with anti-Semitic statements than other groups. The stronger the support of Corbyn, the more likely to answer Yes to anti-Semitic statements.”

For British Jews, the worst may be to come. It is hard to say if retribution from Corbyn supporters will be worse in victory or defeat.

Already, British Jews feel as strangers in their own country, overcome by anxiety for their children’s future there. The lack of care or empathy from their neighbours frightens them even more than the minority of obvious racists. That they have allowed anti-Semitism to exist in the mainstream. Background noise. Banal.

That all reminds them of something.

David Sachs has been a communications adviser on campaigns for four Canadian cabinet ministers.