Israel’s new ambassador to Britain has waded into the row engulfing Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party, saying elements of the left are “in denial” about the “disease” of anti-semitism.
Mark Regev said it was “a cop-out” for leftwingers to say they do not have a problem with anti-Jewish sentiment. In remarks that are likely be interpreted as an attack on Corbyn, he said those who failed to stamp out anti-semitism deserved to be “condemned”.
Regev spoke out as Isaac Herzog, the leader of Labour’s sister party in Israel, said he was “appalled and outraged” by the outburst of anti-semitism from senior Labour figures and challenged Corbyn to visit Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem. Their criticism came as:
•An unrepentant Ken Livingstone refused 20 times yesterday to apologise for saying last week that Adolf Hitler was a Zionist
•John Mann, the Labour MP who confronted Livingstone on Thursday, said he is going to the police after receiving “specific threats of physical violence” from leftwingers
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•It emerged that Corbyn once denounced the “truly phenomenal” Israel lobby while speaking at a fundraiser for an organisation linked to Hamas which was banned by the US government for financing terrorism
•Experts said Labour faces losing 150 council seats in elections on Thursday
•Members of the shadow cabinet warned that a failure to kick Livingstone out of the party would lead to a coup against Corbyn
Labour slipped eight points behind the Conservatives in a new poll released last night.
The Labour leader announced an independent inquiry into anti- semitism to be run by Shami Chakrabarti, the former head of Liberty, on Friday, a day after suspending Livingstone from the party. Naz Shah, the Labour MP for Bradford West, who had backed calls for Israel to be moved to America as a “solution” to the Palestinian conflict was suspended on Wednesday.
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Regev, the son of a Holocaust survivor, said: “I have no doubt that part of the left is in denial. They say ‘anti-semitism, that’s the right, that’s the fascists’. That’s a cop-out. It doesn’t stand up to serious historical examination.”
Asked if Corbyn had done enough, Regev indicated that the Labour leader could do much more: “Anti-semitism should concern everyone. When it does raise its ugly head, it should be condemned across the board. And failure to condemn has to be in itself condemned.” The ambassador praised David Cameron and earlier governments for being “outspoken and unequivocal” in combating anti-semitism. “That’s leadership,” he added.
Regev pointed to a “long tradition of friendship” between Israel and the UK’s Labour movement. However, with Corbyn’s own record of support for the likes of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas now under scrutiny, he added: “If someone wouldn’t dream of sharing a platform with an anti-black racist or an anti-female sexist, shouldn’t one be equally concerned about the possibility of sharing a platform with an anti-Jewish racist?”
Corbyn’s hopes that the independent inquiry would draw a line under the affair were also dealt a blow when Herzog, Israel’s opposition leader, published an open letter condemning Livingstone and Shah.
He said: “I have been appalled and outraged by the recent examples of anti-semitism by senior Labour party officials in the United Kingdom.”
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Herzog said Shah’s suggestion that Jews should be “transported” from Israel “sickens all those of moral conscience to the core” and Livingstone “is surely anti-semitic beyond hope of redemption”.
He said Corbyn should visit Yad Vashem “in order to witness that the last time the Jews were forcibly ‘transported’ it was not to Israel but to their deaths”.
Corbyn faced fresh questions about his own attitude towards anti-semitism last night when it emerged that in March 2010 he condemned supporters of Israel at a dinner to raise funds for Interpal, a charity for Palestinians that has been accused of funnelling cash to Hamas, the terrorist group that Corbyn has described as “friends”.
At the dinner Corbyn claimed that “the power of the Israel lobby is truly phenomenal”. He described Interpal as a “wholly reputable” and “fantastic” organisation and revealed that he had lobbied government ministers in vain to get the Bank of England to act as its bankers after several financial institutions refused to work with the charity.
The American government categorised Interpal in 2003 as a “specially designated global terrorist organisation”, listing it as one of five “charities that provide support to Hamas and form part of its funding network in Europe”.
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Interpal is not banned in Britain. But when the Charity Commission last investigated its links to terrorism in 2009, the watchdog’s chief executive, Andrew Hind, said: “Our report does not give the charity a clean bill of health.”
A photograph has also emerged of Corbyn that was taken only two weeks ago with a critic of Israel.
Alex Scott-Samuel — a lecturer in public health at Liverpool University — tweeted an image of himself and the Labour leader on April 17 saying “had great pleasure of chatting with Jeremy Corbyn this afternoon re . . . victimisation of anti-Zionists”.
In July 2013 Scott-Samuel had made a reference to “Rothschild’s”, the bank run by the Jewish family of the same name, adding the derogatory hashtag “#usury”.
The Labour leader of Brent council in north London, Muhammed Butt, also faces criticism after sharing a post on Facebook describing Israel as “a terrorist state”.
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With Labour descending into civil war over anti-semitism, Mann revealed that he was going to the police after his office had been bombarded with abuse. Mann said between “30 and 40” members of the party would have to be kicked out for making anti-semitic statements in emails and phone calls to him.
He said: “I’ve had a number of highly precise threats of violence. I’m going to report this to the police. They are threatening me with physical assault — ‘when I see you I will be punching you’ and worse than that. This shows the mind-set of the mob.”
Members of the shadow cabinet said Corbyn would face a leadership challenge if he allowed Livingstone to be readmitted to the party. One senior shadow cabinet minister warned that any attempt at a fix to get Livingstone back in would trigger frontbench resignations and leave Corbyn “utterly f*****”.
Labour’s internal polling shows that it will lose 100 council seats in Thursday’s election and a study by the election experts Colin Rallings and Michael Thrasher says they could lose 150.
Last night a new poll of national voting intention by Opinium for the Observer newspaper showed Labour falling to 30%, while the Conservatives had risen to 38%.
The Labour leader’s spokesman said: “Jeremy Corbyn has supported the Palestinian humanitarian work of the charity Interpal, most recently to raise funds for a hospital burns unit in Gaza. Interpal is recognised by the United Nations relief agency as an integral part of the charity relief effort in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Jordan.”
He insisted there was “absolutely no way” Corbyn would have had a conversation about “victimisation of anti-Zionists”. Scott-Samuel declined to comment.
Anti-semitism is affecting Labour, Diane Abbott admits
Diane Abbott admitted today that the Labour party has probably been affected by anti-semitism, acknowledging that “it would be strange if [it] didn’t affect the party at all”.
Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show this morning, the shadow international development secretary described anti-semitism as a part of British culture.
“Anti-semitism is an issue in British society going back to the 19th century,” she said. “It would be strange if it didn’t affect the Labour party at all.”
She hit back, however, at allegations that the party was “intrinsically anti-semitic”, calling the claim “something of a smear against ordinary party members”.
“Anti-semitism is a problem across Europe”, she added. “There is no basis for arguing that the Labour party is riddled with anti-semitism.”
Ms Abbott was being interviewed in the aftermath of the suspension from the party of Ken Livingstone, who said during an interview on Thursday that Hitler had been a proponent of Zionism.
She called Mr Livingstone’s remarks extremely offensive, pointing out that the former mayor of London “was suspended within hours and there’s going to be an investigation.
“Ken will have due process, just like anyone else,” she said.
The suspension came after a series of media appearances on Thursday during which Mr Livingstone claimed that Hitler had supported Zionism “before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews”.
He was trying to defend Naz Shah, Labour MP for Bradford West, who had shared a post on Facebook calling for Israeli Jews to be “transported” to America.
She was dismissed as a parliamentary aide to the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, on Tuesday, but was not suspended by Jeremy Corbyn, the party leader, until next day.
Responding to claims that Labour’s descent into turmoil over the anti-semitism claims would lead to an attempt to oust Mr Corbyn, Ms Abbott said that the arguments in favour of another leadership ballot were put forward by “people who did not accept the result of last summer’s leadership election”.
By implication she was referring to supporters of Liz Kendall, who came last in the ballot in September with 4.5 per cent of the popular vote.
“We’re talking about people whose candidate got 4.5 per cent,” she said. “Jeremy got 60 per cent.”
Ultimately, she conceded, “if people are intent on having a leadership election, then we may have one. But I have to say to you, if Jeremy’s on the ballot, then Jeremy wins.
On the same programme, the Israeli ambassador Mark Regev, who was appointed last month, responded to the question of whether antisemitism was present in the Labour party by saying: “We’ve seen some language over the last two to three weeks that is very concerning.”
He described Mr Livingstone’s comments as “a horrendous and perverted perversion of history”.
