Anti-Semitism in Labor: The dark side of the red Corbyn

Molly Bennets voice does not get Jeremy Corbyn. She can not choose the Labor leader, says the 86-year-old from the county of Hampshire. Why not? Well, because Corbyn - "the red man" - does not like Jews. And she did not agree with that.

Addressed by a camera crew of the station Sky News on the street, the pensioner from southern England recently delivered a spontaneous brief analysis of the different options in the parliamentary election. Corbyn's opponent, Conservative Prime Minister Boris Johnson, did not fare well: he was a "clown" cutting his own hair.

"I normally vote Conservative, but I can not bear the buffoon"

86-year-old Molly from Hampshire says she will not be voting for "The Red Man" (Jeremy Corbyn), but is not keen on voting for "The Buffoon" (Boris Johnson) either.

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Bennet's statement about Corbyn weighs a lot harder. The anti-Semitism charge against the Labor leader has been around for some time. Although Corbyn's friends vouch for him, he has no anti-Semitic fiber in his body. Nevertheless, the issue also became a problem for Corbyn in the election campaign.

He has looked away in anti-Semitic incidents in his party is the minimum charge. Corbyn's handling of the subject in recent months and years has meant that not a few critics go much further and meanwhile hold the 70-year-old left himself as an anti-Semite.

The United Kingdom Commission for Equality and Human Rights is currently investigating the charge of institutional anti-Semitism in the party. 70 current and former Labor officials recently reported on anti-Semitic incidents. He was berated at a meeting, among others, as "child murderer", "Zionistenabschaum" and "Tory Jew", so one of the staff. He alone described a total of 22 anti-Semitic hostilities, including the statement: "Hitler was right."

A little later, documents from the party's disciplinary committee were stabbed to the Sunday Times. Among other things, there is the complaint of an official, according to which there are more than 130 pending cases of anti-Semitism, to which the party has not yet adopted. And that, even though most of them were reported a year and a half ago. In addition, a case appears in the documents in which the party is said to have taken ten months to exclude a member who demanded a "complete extermination of all Jews".

A long list of allegations

And Corbyn? Has now acknowledged that his party has a problem with anti-Semitism, and apologizes. Nevertheless, the list of episodes that spark skepticism about the Labor leader is long:

• In 2009, he called the anti-Israel militias Hamas and Hezbollah "friends." In 2016, he said he regretted the statement in retrospect.
• British Zionists "do not understand English irony," Corbyn said in 2013. Last summer, he promised to be more cautious in using the word "Zionist" in the future because anti-Semites now use it as a codeword meant to refer to Jews in general.
• Seven Labor MPs left the party in February in protest against Corbyn. Background was its attitude to Brexit - but also dealing with anti-Semitic tendencies in the party. Among them was the Jewish deputy Luciana Berger. It was said to have been exposed for years to anti-Semitic threats within the party. The hostility would have "physically sick", said the politician.
• In a BBC documentary in July, high-ranking party members were accused of obstructing disciplinary measures in anti-Semitism cases within the party, deporting them, and creating a generally anti-Jewish climate. The allegations also affected members of the leadership circle around Corbyn. They are said to have intervened in the investigations, although they should actually be independent. Corbyn spoke of "many inaccuracies" in the documentation.
• Last August, Corbyn admitted that his party had a problem with anti-Semitism. "I admit that there is a real problem that Labor is working to solve," the party leader said at the time. Nevertheless, in a BBC interview in late November, he repeatedly refused to apologize for dealing with anti-Semitic incidents in his party at Britain's Jewish community. He did that only days later.

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Protesters in London (March 2018): "No to anti-Semitism"

John McDonnell, Finance Minister in Corbyn's Shadow Cabinet, apologized to the Jewish community for "the suffering we inflicted on her." Meanwhile, the party has done everything possible to tackle the problem. The number of outstanding anti-Semitic incidents, however, was "well below" the 130 wells reported by the Sunday Times.

Traditional allies turn in the election campaign

Despite apologies and protestations, former allies turned away from Labor during the election campaign. In a contribution to the Guardian, Mike Katz, head of the Jewish Labor Movement, recently outlined why his organization, which is traditionally close to the party, has not campaigned for its chairman this time. "Our members came to the conclusion a long time ago that Jeremy Corbyn is unfit for the post of prime minister," writes Katz. The Labor leader tolerates anti-Semitism and abandons Jewish party members.

Also in the "Guardian" published in mid-November, a group of 24 artists, intellectuals and celebrities - including the writer John le Carré and the actress Joanna Lumley - an open letter. To support Corbyn in the election campaign, they write, would be to capitulate in the fight against anti-Jewish prejudice. They could not vote for Labor therefore.

Among Britain's 280,000 Jews, Corbyn is particularly unpopular. According to a poll conducted earlier this year by Survation, 87 percent of them consider the Labor leader to be an anti-Semite. This figure is also high among the general population: 39 percent (according to a survey of the same institute from last year).

The anti-Semitism problem is certainly one reason why Corbyn is considered Britain's currently most unpopular politician - and can not even score with those voters who consider Boris Johnson a clown.