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Antisemitism in the UK Labour Party has been the subject of recent public controversy, leading party leader Jeremy Corbyn to establish the Chakrabarti Inquiry in 2016. A number of party activists and several more senior figures have either been expelled or suspended after Labour Party investigations concluded they had brought the party into disrepute; some were subsequently reinstated.

Incidents continued in 2017, and British Jews polled on the subject in 2017 have ranked Labour at 3.94 (from 5) for "degree of antisemitism among the political party’s members and elected representatives", and 83% stated that racist sentiments were not adequately challenged by Labour members of parliament, members of the party, or Labour Party supporters. Some in the party have disputed that the party is antisemitic and have accused critics of willfully exaggerating incidents. As well as some Jewish groups such as for Justice for Palestinians and the Jewish Socialists' Group who have blamed " right-wing political forces".

Just testing the code for edits (not done this in a long time or much at all really) (((פול הציוני))) PTZ 18:46, 11 January 2018 (UTC)

History
Historically, British Jews have supported the Labour movement and party, which, for most of its existence, has been regarded as uninvolved with antisemitism. The Jewish Labour Movement, the UK arm of Poale Zion, supported the Labour Party, affiliating to the party in 1920. The Labour Party had an historical affinity for Israel both because the labour movement was part of a broad, political left that historically supported national movements, and because it felt an affinity for Labor Zionism, which was the dominant movement within pre-state political Zionism, and the political identity of the founding government of Israel in 1948 and Israeli government until the election of Menachem Begin in 1967.

1980s; claimed origin of antisemitic attitudes
Although antisemitic attitudes were rare in the Party in the 1980s, in his 2016 book, The Left's Jewish Problem: Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and Anti‑Semitism, Dave Rich attributes what he believes to be the origin of antisemitism in the Labour Party to attitudes towards Jews and Israel that began to develop among young British political activists in the early 1970s. At that time, a coalition that included Peter Hain and Louis Eakes of the Young Liberals wing of the British Liberal Party "pioneered" the reframing of the Zionist movement as an imperialist project imposing apartheid on an indigenous people.

James R. Vaughn traces the origin of antisemitism within the party to the creation of the Labour Middle East Council in 1969 by Christopher Mayhew, laying a foundation of radical anti-Zionism that enabled the later growth of antisemitism within the Labour Party. Mayhew joined the Liberal Party in 1974 but, according to Vaughn, his rhetoric from the 1960s onwards, "blurred the boundaries between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism". According to Rich, Mayhew founded the Council in order to change the "pro-Israel" position of the Labour Party. Mayhew was one of the 15 Labour MP's who voted with the Conservatives in favour of imposing an arms embargo on Israel.

Dave Rich credits the British Anti-Zionist Organization (BAZO), established in 1975 to focus on university students, with "show(ing) how a highly ideological anti-Zionism can.... incubate anti-Semitic campaigns". Bazo distributed anti-Semitic leaflets and argued that Zionists encourage antisemitism to benefit Israel, and that Zionists collaborated with the Nazi regime during the second World War. According to the Labour MP Richard Burden, who was a member of the BAZO Executive in the 1970s, BAZO was funded by the government of Iraq. BAZO was banned by the National Union of Students by the early 1980s for distributing antisemitic material. Burden and George Galloway, then a Labour Party member, both first visited the Middle East on a 1977 tour sponsored by BAZO. Galloway credits the BAZO trip with igniting his enduring support for the Palestinians. Tony Greenstein, a Labour Party activist in the 1980s and a founder of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, was a BAZO member.

According to June Edmunds, University Lecturer in Sociology of the University of Sussex, the party's leadership shifted to an anti-Israel attitude in the early 1980s, though the membership did not. Noting that "fringe" Palestinian groups began operating at annual party conferences in the 1970s, Edmunds credits the shift to fading memories of the plight of Jews in the 1940s, together with agitation for party change by Arab and socialist groups. Paul Kelemen, in his 2012 book, The British Left and Zionism: History of a Divorce, explores the question of whether it was antisemitism, perhaps in new form, that caused the Labour Party to move away from its historic support for Israel in the 1980s, and concludes that Labour's shift to support for the Palestinian cause was purely political.

The Labour Committee on Palestine was formed in June 1982 to challenge the Labour Middle East Council, which supported a two-state solution, and to oppose the "Zionist state as racist, exclusivist, expansionist and a direct agency of imperialism." Labour politicians Ken Livingstone of the Greater London Council and Ted Knight of the Lambeth London Borough Council were early supporters; the chair was former BAZO activist Tony Greenstein. The new Committee backed a resolution at the party 1982 Party conference to recognise the PLO as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, which passed at conference, "embarrassing" the Party leadership. Knight and Livingstone established the Labour Herald newspaper with funding by the PLO and, in 1982, the Herald was accused by The Jewish Socialist Group of publishing a "blatantly anti-Semitic" book review. No apology was made.

2015
On 14 August 2015, as Jeremy Corbyn emerged as a front-runner for the position of Party Leader, The Jewish Chronicle devoted its "front page to seven questions regarding Corbyn's record on antisemitism" headlined: "The key questions Jeremy Corbyn must answer". The questions raised were about Corbyn's endorsements of individuals known for promoting antisemitic ideas; his relationship with the antisemitic and militant Islamist organisations Hezbollah and Hamas, organizations that Corbyn called "friends" (although he has stated he disagrees with their views); and about his failure to object to many antisemitic banners and posters that "dominate" the London Quds Day rallies sponsored by an organization, Stop the War Coalition of which Corbyn was national chair form 2011-2015. MP Diane Abbott defended Corbyn by calling his critics part of a "Westminster elite" afraid of Corbyn's anti-austerity agenda. MP Alan Johnson, a socialistand supporter of Palestinian statehood, published a "Letter" criticizing Corbyn's support for Hamas and Hezbollah, Stephen Sizer and Raed Salah, all known for antisemitic statements and policies.

2016 inquiries
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn launched an internal inquiry on 29 April 2016 following the publication of comments made by Naz Shah and Ken Livingstone, for comments that were widely called antisemitic, both of whom were suspended pending investigation. The report was criticised by many and described as a 'whitewash', and as a "whitewash for peerage scandal"   Shami Chakrabarti led the inquiry and joined the Labour Party on the same day she was appointed to chair the investigation. The inquiry had two deputy chairs: Jan Royall, who was at the time holding an investigation into antisemitism at Oxford University’s Labour club (OULC), and Director of the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism David Feldman, whom Chakrabarti had to defend due to his being a signatory to Independent Jewish Voices, which has claimed that some of the allegations of antisemitism within Labour were “baseless and disingenuous”.

Livingstone was suspended for a year after a hearing over 3 days by the National Constitutional Committee, for breaching rule 2.1.8, . Shah was reinstated after accepting a number of conditions (such as apologising for bringing the party into disrepute and to carryout engagement with the Jewish community).

British author Howard Jacobson called the Chakrabarti Inquiry "a brief and shoddy shuffling of superficies" that "spoke to very few of the people charging the party with anti-Semitism and understood even fewer of their arguments." Jacobson also suggested that Corbyn nominating Chakrabarti for a peerage was shown contempt for those who had raised issues over antisemitism in the party.

Following allegations of antisemitism from the Oxford University Labour Club, an inquiry was launched by the Labour party’s national student organisation, chaired by Jan Royall. The party's National Executive Committee accepted the report in May 2016. Some of the report was published, but the full report was deemed confidential until Royall leaked it. The report found that whilst there was a "cultural problem” in which “behaviour and language that would once have been intolerable is now tolerated” leading to some anti-Semitic behavior towards Jewish students there was also “no evidence the club is itself institutionally anti-Semitic".

In 2016, the Home Affairs Select Committee held an inquiry into antisemitism in the United Kingdom. The committee found “no reliable, empirical evidence to support the notion that there is a higher prevalence of antisemitic attitudes within the Labour party than any other political party”. However it was critical of Corbyn's response to antisemitic incidents against Labour MPs. The committee described the Chakrabarti inquiry as “ultimately compromised”. The report also found that "the failure of the Labour Party to deal consistently and effectively with anti-Semitic incidents in recent years risks lending force to allegations that elements of the Labour movement are institutionally anti-Semitic".

In May 2016 American political scientist Norman Finkelstein (whose map "Solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict – relocate Israel to into United States” was shared by MP Naz Shah leading to claims she was antisemitic) described the controversy as “obscene”, adding that he posted the map because he found it funny, claiming that such "jokes are commonplace in the US". Continuing, "What are they doing? Don’t they have any respect for the dead? … … All these desiccated Labour apparatchiks, dragging the Nazi holocaust through the mud for the sake of their petty jostling for power and position. Have they no shame?"

Public perceptions
Henry Bodkin wrote that according to a poll of 1,864 British Jewish adults carried out in 2017 an overwhelming majority of British Jews believed that the Labour Party was too tolerant of antisemitism. Of those surveyed for their opinion, 83% (in 2016 this was 87%) stated that racist sentiments were not adequately challenged by Labour members of parliament, members of the party, or Labour Party supporters. The poll was held for the group Campaign Against Antisemitism (who said of the poll "It is important to note that there is no evidence that parties’ supporters favour a soft approach to antisemitism. The failure to deal robustly with antisemitism is more likely to be a result of a failure to recognise and understand the many guises of modern antisemitism."), and followed increasing criticism of Corbyn’s attempts to fight anti-Jewish sentiment within the party. A poll by The Jewish Chronicle prior to the 2017 found that just 13% of Jews intended to vote for Labour, and that when asked to rank the degree of "antisemitism among the political party’s members and elected representatives" between 1 (low) to 5 (high), Jews ranked Labour at 3.94, compared with 3.64 for UKIP, 2.7 for Liberal Democrates, and 1.96 for Conservatives.

According to journalist Stephan Daisley, the Labour Party had previously been quick to take a stance against groups where racism, sexism, and homophobia had been tolerated. However, according to Daisley, antisemitism is now routine within the party, and that by its own definition, the party is now "institutionally anti-Semitic".

According to Jonathan Freedland, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn supported the pro-Palestinian group Deir Yassin Remembered, founded by Holocaust denier Paul Eisen, and had attended one of the group's events. Corbyn also praised Raed Salah, in 2012, Salah had had been found guilty of using the antisemitic trope of the blood libel in 2013. In Freedland's view, while under Corbyn the Labour party is increasing its membership, it is attracting those on the left who would previously have rejected the party, or would not have been accepted by it. A party spokesman said "Jeremy has consistently spoken out against all forms of antisemitism and condemned Holocaust denial as vile and wrong." Corbyn said had he known of Eisen's Holocaust denial, he would have had nothing to do with the group.

In November 2017, leading UK authors Howard Jacobson, Simon Schama, and Simon Sebag Montefiore condemned Labour's failure to address anti-semitism in a letter to The Times saying "We are alarmed that during the past few years, constructive criticism of Israeli governments has morphed into something closer to antisemitism under the cloak of so-called anti-Zionism", further stating "Although anti-Zionists claim innocence of any antisemitic intent, anti-Zionism frequently borrows the libels of classical Jew-hating," and adding "Accusations of international Jewish conspiracy and control of the media have resurfaced to support false equations of Zionism with colonialism and imperialism, and the promotion of vicious, fictitious parallels with genocide and Nazism".

In December 2017, senior Israeli minister Gilad Erdan said that "We recognise and we see that there are antisemitic views in many of the leadership of the current Labour party". A Labour party spokesperson said in response "Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party campaign against and condemn all forms of antisemitism and the Labour party conference recently adopted new tough rules on antisemitism.".

In a December 2017 Jewish Labour Movement Chanukah party, after Jeremy Corbyn said that the Labour party has "zero tolerance" for antisemitism within the party, Corbyn was heckled by a crowd member who shouted "Corbyn, you’re a liar", and "What about Ken?".She was subsequently ejected from the event.

Election
During the 2017 election campaign Jeremy Newmark, the chairman of the Jewish Labour Movement, said that "Jeremy Corbyn appears to have failed to understand the nature of contemporary anti-Semitism in the same way that it's understood by most of its target group". Labour MP Wes Streeting also criticised the party's record on antisemitism, saying "I don't think many Jewish voters in my constituency have been very impressed with the way the Labour party as a whole have responded". Corbyn has in the past said that the party will not tolerate anti-Semitism in any form. Streeting also said he did not believe Corbyn was antisemitic.

In the Epilogue (pp. 273–280) to his 2017 book Contemporary Left Antisemitism, written after the 8 June 2017 general election, sociologist David Hirsh points out that Corbyn's "antisemitic... politics" (275) "did not seem to be an issue" with voters, with the possible exception of four constituencies with significant Jewish populations,(277) and discusses the impact of the near win by a Labour Party led by man who has a "decades-long association with antisemitic politics" (274) who has "for his whole career, embraced or tolerated certain kinds of antisemitic.. politics," (275) and "long been connected to antisemitic ways of thinking and antisemitic movements."(279)

Conference
During the 2017 Labour party conference, new rules were introduced to combat antisemitism or other “conduct prejudicial to the Party” by members. Some party activists made the accusation that Labour were policing “thought crime” and claimed that the rule was "an attempt to stifle criticism of Israel". 98% of members supported the rules change. Deputy leader Tom Watson promised there would be an investigation into how the party provided a platform at a conference fringe event to Miko Peled, who was reported as saying that people should be allowed to question whether the Holocaust happened. Watson responded that “it is nothing to do with the official Labour party conference. And if there was Holocaust denial there, these people have no right to be in the Labour party, and if they are they should be expelled”. Delegates at the fringe event demanded that the Jewish Labour Movement be expelled from the party over their support for the state of Israel.

Incidents
In November 2017, a labour party member was suspended following the posting of what Adam Langleben called antisemitic comments. The party member was only suspended after councillor Adam Langleben reposted the material, saying that the Labour party had failed to take action prior to publication.

In another incident, a Labour council candidate was removed from the Labour candidate list in Bradford after making allegedly antisemitic remarks such as "teachers are brainwashing us and our children into thinking the bad guy was Hitler" and "What have the Jews done good in this world?"

In December 2017 A Brighton and Hove Labour housing campaigner was suspended after posting a "spoof" Hanukkah video featuring 3 dancing Orthodox Jews with the faces of local councillors superimposed on Facebook. The campaigner denied allegations of anti-semitism, stating that he condemned "all forms of racism" and stated that the posts were meant to be "a bit of fun, not racist"

Attracting Muslim voters
According to Baroness Deech "Too many Labour politicians cravenly adopted the anti-Semitic tropes and anti-Israel demonization they think will get them British Muslim votes, rather than standing up to the prejudice that exists in the community". According to anti-Semitism scholar Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld while not all of the most extreme anti-Semitic slurs were made by Muslim representatives of Labour, they represent a disproportionately large proportion of anti-Semitic perpetrators. According to Gerstenfeld, Labour's anti-Semitic issues "demonstrate what happens when a party bends over backwards to attract Muslim voters".

Rebuttals
In September 2017 Len McCluskey said that the antisemitism row was nothing more than an attempt to undermine Jeremy Corbyn by his political opponents saying "No, I've never recognised that. I believe it was mood music that was created by people who were trying to undermine Jeremy Corbyn". He stated that in 47 years as a labour member he had never heard any antisemitic language at any meeting he had attended. Adding "Unfortunately at the time there were lots of people playing games, everybody wanted to create this image that Jeremy Corbyn's leadership had become misogynist, had become racist, had become anti-Semitic and it was wrong".

In a piece for Channel 4 News, Georgina Lee pointed out that Labour is the only UK party that explicitly bans antisemitism by its members.

In April 2016 the Jewish Socialists' Group put out a statement which expressed the view that anti-semitism accusations were being 'weaponised' in order to "attack the Jeremy Corbyn-led Labour party with claims that Labour has a “problem” of antisemitism". It went on to say "A very small number of such cases seem to be real instances of antisemitism. Others represent genuine criticism of Israeli policy and support for Palestinian rights, but expressed in clumsy and ambiguous language, which may unknowingly cross a line into antisemitism. Further cases are simply forthright expressions of support for Palestinian rights, which condemn Israeli government policy and aspects of Zionist ideology, and have nothing whatsoever to do with antisemitism." The statement summarised "The Jewish Socialists’ Group sees the current fearmongering about antisemitism in the Labour Party for what it is – a conscious and concerted effort by right-wing political forces to undermine the growing support among Jews and non-Jews alike for the Labour Party leadership of Jeremy Corbyn, and a measure of the desperation of his opponents."

Richard Kuper, spokesperson for the group Jews for Justice for Palestinians, expressed the view that while “there is some antisemitism in and around the Labour party – as there is in the wider society in Britain”, “there is clearly also a coordinated, willed and malign campaign to exaggerate the nature and extent of antisemitism as a stick to beat the Labour party”

Momentum founder Jon Lansman said that he believed that antisemitism in the Conservative party is as widespread as in the Labour party. According to Lansman antisemitism in Labour falls into three categories: petty xenophobic remarks, old school blood libel type antisemtism, and antisemtism that arises from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. According to Lansman the latter cause, Israeli-Palestinian conflict related antisemitsm, is the main source of antisemitism in the Labour party.

Survey evidence
A major study into contemporary antisemitism in Britain was published by the Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) in September 2017. The study found that those on the political left were no more likely than average to hold antisemtic attitudes, but were more likely than average to hold anti-Israel attitudes, especially those on the far-left.

The study stated that in general "levels of antisemitism in Great Britain are among the lowest in the world.". However it noted that among British adults a "relatively small group of about 5% of the general population can justifiably be described as antisemites: people who hold a wide range of negative attitudes towards Jews." while a larger group comprising about 30% of the population agreed with at least one antisemitic attitude. However the study noted that this "does not mean that 30% of the population of Great Britain is antisemitic. A majority of people who agreed with just one negative statement about Jews in this survey also agreed with one or more positive statements about Jews, suggesting that the existence of one antisemitic or stereotypical belief in a person’s thinking need not indicate a broader, deeper prejudice towards Jews."

When discussing the link between political views and antisemitism, the study found that "Levels of antisemitism among those on the left-wing of the political spectrum, including the far-left, are indistinguishable from those found in the general population. Yet, all parts of those on the left of the political spectrum – including the ‘slightly left-of-centre,’ the ‘fairly left-wing’ and the ‘very left-wing’ – exhibit higher levels of anti Israelism than average. The most antisemitic group on the political spectrum consists of those who identify as very right-wing: the presence of antisemitic attitudes in this group is 2 to 4 times higher compared to the general population."

Later it went on: "When it comes to antisemitism, the very right-wing lead: 52% (46-58%) in this group hold at least one antisemitic attitude, in contrast to 30% in the general population; and 13% (10-17%) of the very right-wing hold 5-8 antisemitic attitudes, in contrast to 3.6% in the general population. Among those who identify as fairly right-wing or slightly right-of-centre, the maximal diffusion of antisemitic attitudes (the percentage of people with at least one attitude) is slightly elevated but not the stronger forms of antisemitism. The very left-wing is indistinguishable from the general population and from the political centre in this regard. In general, it should be said that, with the exception of the very right-wing, there is little differentiation across the political spectrum in relation to the prevalence of antisemitic attitudes. However, in relation to anti-Israel attitudes, the very left-wing lead: 78% (75-82%) in this group endorse at least one anti-Israel attitude, in contrast to 56% in the general population, and 23% (19-26%) hold 6-9 attitudes, in contrast to 9% in the general population. Elevated levels of anti-Israel attitudes are also observed in other groups on the political left: the fairly left-wing and those slightly left-of-centre. The lowest level of anti-Israel attitudes is observed in the political centre and among those who are slightly right-of-centre or fairly right-wing."