The Democratic Party in the U.S. and the Labour party in the U.K. both remain at the center of scandals involving antisemitism. In the U.K., Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has been subject to years of accusations of antisemitism, with the latest controversial episode occurring last week when yet another Member of Parliament was removed from office for expressing anti-Jewish sentiment.
In the U.S., freshman Democratic Rep. Ilhan Oman created a firestorm earlier this year when she posted a series of tweets suggesting the government portrayed Israel in a positive light because of the money lawmakers received from the pro-Israel lobby. Despite her largely accurate assessment, the Democratic establishment came down hard on Omar – and the mainstream media lapped it up.
Meanwhile in the U.K., the Jewish Labour Movement took to Twitter to decry the U.K. Labour party for allowing a “culture of antisemitism, obfuscation and denial to take hold.” On March 27, Labour MP Jackie Walker was expelled from the party after a series of incidents that included Facebook posts, in which she wrote that Jews were “chief financiers of the sugar and slave trade” and “the Jewish Holocaust does not allow Zionists to do what they want.”
“Despite a clear and unambiguous case of prejudicial and grossly detrimental behavior against the party, this expulsion comes two and a half years too late,” said the Jewish Labour Movement in a statement. Describing Walker, the statement continued:
“She was free to make a mockery of the party’s processes because she was a political ally of the leadership, NEC members and had support from MPs. Our members will be expected to be grateful. Instead, they’ll be angry it took so long, and angry that many people will want to say this is ‘job done’ on antisemitism in the party… On the anniversary of the ‘Enough is Enough’ protest in Parliament Square, this is a timely reminder that despite the warm words, very little action has followed in terms of truly addressing the scale and impact of antisemitism within the Labour party.”
Pro-Palestine campaigners in both the U.S. and the U.K. remain convinced, however, that the issue is being blown out of proportion. “There are some similar aspects to both the situation in the US and the situation in the U.K.,” Ben Jamal, Director of the U.K.’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign, told Occupy.com.
“In the U.K., however, there is definitely an element of non-socialist members of the party wanting to find ways to oppose Corbyn. Unfortunately one of the ways to undermine his authority is to equate anti-Zionism with antisemitism. But the framework is the same: a global attack on Palestine solidarity and activism, and in particular an attack on the BDS (Boycott, Divest and Sanctions) movement that has a number of components.”
Jamal sees a perceived increase in legal cases against pro-Palestine activists as one of the key issues driving the political crisis. “Part of the overarching process is an attempt to reframe pro-Palestinian activism from being about human rights activism, founded on an opposition to Israel’s violation of human rights, to being something else, something sinister, something extreme,” he said.
“One of the tools is the promulgation of the Human Rights Act (HRA) definition of antisemitism. In the accompanying documents to the definition are a number of examples that relate directly to criticism of Israel, but two in particular that have been used to create a chill around Palestinian activism. If you describe Israel as an ‘apartheid state’, for instance, then that is considered a form of antisemitism.”
He cited the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s 2018 list of the 10 worst incidents of antisemitism in the world as an example of the increasing strictness surrounding accusations of antisemitism. “Last year, it featured Airbnb’s decision to no longer advertise properties in illegal settlements on the West Bank, which was simply Airbnb acting on the guiding principles of international law. Criticizing Israel’s laws in any way can be reframed as antisemitism.”
Peter Miller of Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights (AUPHR) told Occupy.com that he sees a similar situation evolving across the ocean in the U.S. “One of the main weapons used by pro-Israel supporters to silence criticism of Israel is the use of the charge of antisemitism," he said. "I remember going to my county's Democratic Party organization to try and introduce a resolution condemning Israel’s relentless attack on Gaza during operation Cast Lead. Someone warned me that, as a last resort, supporters of Israel would use the charge of antisemitism against me – which wasn’t quite right, [because] it was the first resort! Fortunately, I had Jewish colleagues with me to tackle this spurious but all too common objection.”
Unlike Jamal, however, Miller said he believes “criticism of Israel is becoming more acceptable,” though the focus on Jewish “Zionists” appears unfair.
“There does need to be a realization that this policy of support for Israel has a number of factors, and focusing solely on Jewish Zionists is a mistake. There is a strong thread of right-wing Christian Zionism that creates support for Israel. There is a strong impetus from the military-security industrial complex to support contracts with Israel. And there is the role of U.S. imperialism and the need for global influence and domination, and Israel plays an important partner at times for the US in this arena,” he said.
Summing up its stance, the Jewish Labour Movement said in a press release earlier last month that the Labour party "can either address the concerns of its Jewish affiliate and those of the Jewish community," or alternatively, "they can continue to act in a reckless and damaging way." The statement was issued shortly after the decision to pass over antisemitism “training” from the JLM to Birkbeck University, a supposedly neutral body. “We cannot accept,” said the JLW, “the suggestion that the party knows better than its Jewish affiliate, or the Jewish community, what constitutes antisemitism.”
