The Jewish Labour Movement on Sunday issued a no confidence resolution on Labour boss Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership over his failure to deal with anti-Semitism inside the party.
The Jewish Labour Movement, a.k.a. Po’aley Zion of Great Britain, established in 1903, is one of the oldest socialist associations affiliated with the Labour Party. It is also affiliated with the World Labour Zionist Movement Israel’s Labor Party as well as the Habonim Dror Labour Zionist youth movement. It views Zionism as the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, but also endorses the two-state solution. In short, it’s the red uncle with whom you’ll have a fight at the seder table in a couple of weeks.
On Sunday, the Sunday Times reported, based on leaked internal Labour party documents, that Corbyn’s office has been actively sabotaging inquiries into complaints of anti-Semitic behavior by party officials. According to the report, out of 863 complaints, 454 were never resolved, including 249 that were not even investigated; of the remaining 409 cases, 191 members faced no action, 145 were sent home with a warning and, only a little less than 30 were expelled.
The motion of no confidence in Corbyn, which suggested he is unfit to lead the UK should enough Brits vote Labor, passed unanimously, despite a plea by the shadow government’s attorney general, Shami Chakrabarti.
In 2016, Chakrabarti headed an inquiry into anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, which concluded that Labour was “not overrun by anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, or other forms of racism,” despite an “occasionally toxic atmosphere.” Of course, it helped that Jeremy Corbyn in 2016 also announced her as the only Labour appointment to the House of Lords.
“My plea to the Jewish Labour Movement is to stay in the Labour movement and to tackle racism together, not to personalize it and make it about Jeremy Corbyn, because he is one person and he won’t be leader forever,” Chakrabarti told Sky News on Sunday.
Emily Thornberry, the shadow government’s foreign secretary, told Politico on Sunday: “I’m completely disgusted this is continuing to happen. Some of the things that were said just turn my stomach, and the idea that these people are still in my Labour party disgusts me.”
Just to be clear, she didn’t mean the Jews, she meant the anti-Semites.
