Labour party linked to increase in anti-Semitic incidents, according to charity report

Anti-Semitic incidents within the Labour party contributed to a record rise in attacks on Jews in the UK last year, a charity report has found.

The Community Security Trust (CST) warned that anti-Semitism increased to “unprecedented” levels between 2014 and 2016 following a string of high-profile problems in Jeremy Corbyn’s party.

The charity revealed its highest monthly total for attacks came in May last year, just days after Naz Shah, a Labour MP, was suspended from the party alongside Ken Livingstone the former London mayor.

Working definition | Anti-semitism

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance hopes that providing a strict definition of antisemitism will help organisations to combat it. The definition is as follows:

“Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”
The IHRA gives examples such as:

• Accusing Jews as a people of being responsible for real or imagined wrongdoing committed by a single Jewish person or group, or even for acts committed by non-Jews.
  
  
• Accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.
  
  
• Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
  
  
• Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
  
  
• Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
  
  
• Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
  

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Source: International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

Tom Watson, the deputy Labour leader, vowed to fight against anti-Semitismin the party as a result of the findings, while MP John Mann said the report must act as a “stark warning that something must change”.

The Jewish community was targeted at a rate of more than three times a day last year, the CST found. It recorded 1,309 anti-Semitic incidents nationwide during 2016. This was a 36 per cent increase on 2015 and surpassed the previous highest annual tally of 1,182 in 2014.

There was no obvious single cause for the record total last year, the report found, but it added that problems within the Labour party “may have contributed in a more indirect way”. The party was forced to confront a series of incidents of anti-Semitism last year including remarks made by members on Twitter and at public meetings.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/02/labour-party-linked-increase-anti-semitic-incidents-according/



Labour under Corbyn, the new Far Right