The Jewish Labour Movement’s closing submission to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHCR) has been leaked in full online and it reveals a devastating litany of antisemitic abuse going right to the top of the Labour Party.
The submission includes the testimonies of 77 serving and former Labour officials, who have given sworn statements. Party members have submitted more than 100 testimonies.
Here are some of its most important sections.
The submission illustrates anti-Jewish prejudice in the Labour party, irrespective of views on Israel: “This abuse sometimes takes the form of language relating to Israel (“e.g. “Dirty Zionist” and “Zio”). However, it is clear from the evidence that these words are now within the Party lexicon of insults for a Jewish person, regardless of that person’s views on Israel.”
Evidence points to wide-spread antisemitic abuse at local party meetings: “One respondent lists 22 examples of antisemitism abuse which have been directed at him at various CLP meetings. Examples of these include being called “a Tory Jew”, “a child killer”, “Zio scum”, being told that “[he’s] good with money”, to “shut the f*** up Jew”, “that Hitler was right”.”
And at the party’s annual conferences: in 2017, “one member describes how he was leafleting for an NEC-backed rule change that would prohibit all types of discrimination within the Labour Party. As a result of his open affiliation with JLM, members called him a racist and said that they would not support the change because JLM was “financed and controlled by the Israeli government”.”
The party’s disciplinary process appears to have been compromised by Corbyn’s personal historic links with antisemites and antisemitic thought: “The impact of these signals [Corbyn’s failure to apologise over the issue] is reported to have filtered into the team of staff dealing with antisemitism complaints, who commented that pressure on them from LOTO [leader of the opposition’s office] to take a lenient approach to antisemitism stemmed from a recognition that Mr Corbyn and his senior advisers were “guilty of similar behaviour”.”
The report then details what it calls a culture of “denial” at the top of the Labour party: “There is strong evidence that staff at LOTO deny the existence of the problem even internally.” Reporting on antisemitism was seen as part of a smear campaign. “One former LOTO staffer explains how this narrative has become dominant within LOTO. He describes how senior members of Mr Corbyn’s team expressed that calls for action in respect of Mr Livingstone were part of “a Jewish conspiracy” and a “political smear campaign”.”
The report concludes: “There is overwhelming evidence that antisemitic conduct is pervasive at all levels of the Party.”
The Jewish Labour Movement is one of the oldest socialist movements associated with the Labour Party. It was originally founded 1903 as Poale Zion (“The Workers of Zion”) before changing its name to the Jewish Labour Movement in 2004.
During the First World War, it was instrumental in getting the Labour party support Jewish “right to return” to Palestine as part of their War Aims Declaration that preceded the Balfour Declaration.
Poale Zion came to be seen as a model for other organisations representing ethnic minorities within the Labour party, including the Labour Party Black Sections.
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