Britain’s Labour party is responsible for “unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination” against Jews, according to the most exhaustive and significant report published to date about Labour’s antisemitism problem.
The report was published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the British government’s watchdog on racism. It has been worked on since May 2019 and it is the first time the commission has focused on a mainstream political party.
It said that Labour under its previous leader, the left-wing politician Jeremy Corbyn, failed to address and resolve antisemitic behavior in its ranks. Among its recommendations, which are legally binding, was that Labour “must live up to its commitment to be a political party with zero tolerance of antisemitism” and give anti-racism training to its staff and members.
“Our investigation found that the Labour Party breached the Equality Act 2010 by committing unlawful harassment through the acts of its agents in two of the complaints we investigated,” said the report, which is based on hundreds of testimonies and cases. There have been “serious failings in leadership and an inadequate process for handling antisemitism complaints across the Labour Party, and we have identified multiple failures in the systems it uses to resolve them,” the report said.
The report may be a significant development in the internal struggle within Labour between Corbyn loyalists and centrist allies of the movement’s new leader, Keir Starmer, who was elected in April.
Today’s report is not the first of its kind: In 2016, an inter-parliamentary review produced a damning report on Corbyn, who among other actions has praised a mural of Jewish bankers playing Monopoly on the backs of Black men; placed a wreath on a monument commemorating Palestinian terrorists and endorsed a blanket boycott of Israel.
Corbyn had vowed to kick out anyone caught making anti-Semitic statements and indeed some members of the party were expelled for this under Corbyn. But others were not disciplined, including former London mayor Ken Livingston, who said Adolf Hitler was in cahoots with Zionists.
Starmer, a centrist politician, has apologized to British Jews for the growth of anti-Semitic sentiment in the party’s ranks under his predecessor, calling it “a stain” and vowing to “demonstrate a change of leadership” to “restore the trust of the Jewish community.”
Marie Van der Zyl, President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, addressed this point in a joint statement with the Jewish Leadership Council and the Community Security Trust:
“This report is a damning verdict on what Labour did to Jews under Jeremy Corbyn and his allies. It proves why British Jews were so distressed and it disgraces those who attacked us for speaking out against anti-Jewish racism”.
“Our Jewish community never wanted this fight, but we had to defend ourselves and are proud to have done so. We thank all those who stood with us, despite the abuse they received as a result.”
“Jeremy Corbyn will rightly be blamed for what he has done to Jews and Labour, but the truth is more disturbing, as he was little more than a figurehead for old and new anti-Jewish attitudes. All of this was enabled by those who deliberately turned a blind eye.”
“Now, the task of cleaning out the problem lies with the current leadership. We welcome the start that Keir Starmer has made, but the scale of the challenge that lies ahead should not be underestimated. ”
“We will continue to give our support to all who work to drive racism out of our politics and out of our society.”
