British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has been warned by his own MPs that the ongoing failure to tackle high-profile cases of Jew-hate could leave the party seeming “institutionally antisemitic,” The Jewish Chronicle reported on Monday.
Corbyn was asked to reveal details of Labour’s disciplinary process that deals with allegations of anti-Semitism in the organization at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) on Monday night, where MPs tabled a 11-point motion.
The motion says MPs are “very concerned… that a number of cases of alleged antisemitic activity from high-profile members have been dropped.”
The criticism of the Labour leader comes on the heels of the decision to readmit ex-MP Jim Sheridan into the party, who was suspended last year for writing on Facebook that he no longer had “respect and empathy” for British Jews because they were working to undermine Corbyn’s leadership.
“The PLP is dismayed that there remains such a backlog of antisemitism cases that are still to be investigated and a decision reached,” the motion says.
“The PLP calls on the party leadership to adequately tackle cases of antisemitism, as a failure to do so seriously risks antisemitism in the party appearing normalised and the party seeming to be institutionally antisemitic.”
One MP told the JC the motion was “an attempt to show the leadership they are not off the hook – especially in light of this week’s appalling behaviour”. The PLP is set to debate the motion next Monday.
Jewish Leadership Council chair Jonathan Goldstein said it would “hopefully provide an opportunity for the Labour Party to give its MPs the transparency many have been seeking.”
He added: “The Jewish community met with the Labour leadership last April where we raised our concerns about the levels of antisemitism within the party.
“Ten months on and we are no closer to seeing the backlog of antisemitism cases resolved with some having been dropped all together.
“We cannot take the words ‘zero tolerance’ at face value until those words are met with action.”
On Sunday, Corbyn, his wife, and several members of his inner circle attended the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust commemoration event in Westminster, a decision that sparked outrage among his own MPs.
Labour officials and Holocaust survivors told the JC they were upset by the presence of such a large group of the Labour leadership – especially amid their failure to eradicate anti-Semitism in Labour’s ranks.
The impression that the Labour Party under Corbyn has been permissive of anti-Semitism was reinforced by comments made Sunday by Lord George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury.
Carey said of Corbyn, that he “can give the impression that he is, deep down, someone who doesn’t like Jewish people.”
Julie Lenarz, a Senior Fellow at The Israel Project, wrote in an op-ed published in The Tower on Monday, that Corbyn’s “participation in the service was offensive as it was hurtful to victims of anti-Jewish discrimination. Here was a man pretending to fight a vicious disease he himself has helped to spread.”
She added that “No other form of racism has disfigured the modern mainstream political landscape in Britain as has the rise of Corbynism.”
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