The anti-Semitism row in the Labour party has resurfaced again, after Corbyn apologised for the “concerns and anxiety caused” for taking part in an event in 2010 where Israel was compared to the Nazis.
The opposition leader firmly stated that he had shared a platform with people “whose views I completely reject” while a backbench MP.
The event – ‘Never Again for Anyone — Auschwitz to Gaza’ – was held on Holocaust Memorial Day, and a talk was given by a Jewish holocaust survivor, who likened Israel’s actions in Gaza to Auschwitz.
This has brought to the fore yet again a two-year long discussion that has revolved around ‘Labour’s anti-Semitism problem,’ a pernicious hatred that has taken hold over the most important left-wing institution in this country.
Meanwhile, prominent left-wing commentariats and Corbyn supporters alike have tried to deflect the criticisms, with one tweeting:
‘The Tories have been meeting Steve Bannon, and today’s top story is Corbyn being anti-Semitic by proxy for hosting the views of an actual holocaust survivor….. 7 years ago. can’t do it. the whole thing is obscene.”
The deflection has found its feet in attacking the Right: ‘The Spectator gave column inches to Steve Bannon, Daniel Finkelstein sat on the board of an Islamophobic Institution (Gatestone), the Tory party is in fact institutionally Islamophobic.’
There are important conversations to be had, particularly on The Conservative Party exhibiting Islamophobic tendencies, but it is obvious that the far-Left cares more about point scoring than having a genuine discussion about where prejudice comes from and how it can be tackled.
It is certainly not an appropriate way for the left to frame a discussion about endemic anti-Semitism. Rather than engaging in genuine self-interrogation about the pernicious hatred that has in many ways come to define the far left of the party over recent years, the natural recourse has been to engage in what-aboutery. ‘We might have a problem, but look, you guys are bad too!’
It is demonstrating an intellectual disingenuousness that should never be so callously adopted while discussing such an evil as anti-Semitism. Two things can be bad at the same time; in fact there are instances of heinous ideology creeping into and taking hold of our most sacrosanct political institutions, on both sides. But, it is neither necessary, nor sufficient, to address one’s owns problems with simplistic reference to the other’s.
This intellectual framework is not new. When Ash Sarkar declared herself “literally a communist” on Good Morning Britain last week, debates about what that meant and what is at stake under communism were thrown into public discourse. Most importantly, the right wing commentariat were fast to point out that there is nothing cool – as Ash would have you believe – about being a communist, considering the millions that died under the brutal regimes of Maoism and Stalinism.
But, rather than having a self-reckoning with the ideology that led to certain atrocities, the left’s response was largely to point the finger back at the card carrying neo-liberals of British politics: ‘what about you? What about the crimes committed under capitalism?’
This goes nowhere near to the important conversations that need to be had about the ideology and how atrocity can manifest itself under it. And yes, as with Islamophobia on the right, capitalists need to have this conversation with themselves. Rapid liberalisation reforms in failed states can further undermine foundations for political order, and this can have devastating consequences. But just because that conversation needs to be had, it does not somehow absolve Ash “literally a communist” Sarkar from having a similar self-reckoning when it comes to communism.
So we’ve seen the framework before. And when it comes to anti-Semitism the finger pointing demonstrates a troubling unwillingness to address the phenomenon that is taking over the Labour party. Until Labour has this conversation with itself, we cannot expect anything meaningful to be done to stop it.
