Labour Anti-Semitism Affecting Jewish Students in the United Kingdom

Anti-Labour Demonstration (Getty)

As recently reported by the Algemeiner, Jewish students in the United Kingdom are blaming the British Labour Party’s recent spate of anti-Semitic statements and actions on the rise in campus anti-Jewish discrimination in the England. The British Labour Party, who recently promised to settle the “vast majority” of their outstanding anti-Semitism accusations by July, has been embroiled in controversy over anti-Jewish sentiment from all levels of their party’s leadership. Jeremy Corbyn, the head of the Labour party, recently deleted his Facebook page in response to accusations that he had been a member of at least five Facebook groups which regularly post anti-Semitic content. The prevalence of anti-Semitism in mainstream British politics has led Jewish students to now question which schools they can apply to and still feel safe.

Jewish high school students in Manchester relayed to the “Newsbeat” radio show that they are avoiding applying to certain universities after hearing of anti-Semitic incidents on their campuses. The president of the Union of Jewish Students, Josh Holt, stated that the increased hostility some Jewish students have reported feeling on campus was clearly linked to antisemitism in the Labour party. “You are seeing more anti-Semitic incidents,” he said, “because it is more permissible.” Corbyn’s leadership in the party has been marred for the last several years by accusations of anti-Israelism and anti-Semitism, however recently the accusations have multiplied significantly. Several Labour council candidates and potential candidates were found to have made anti-Semitic comments relating to Israel and Jews, as well as homophobic and racist tweets.  These comments included referring to Israeli soldiers as “ZioNazi storm troopers,” as well as assertions that “Hitler was Jewish.” Adding fuel to the fire, Corbyn recently announced that, if elected, his government would recognize a Palestinian State.

Labour and its leadership are aware of the crisis of anti-Semitism within their ranks, but have thus far failed to address it adequately. Corbyn’s attempts to initially stymie the bad press blew up in his face when he attended a Passover Seder hosted by Jewdas, a fringe anti-Israel Jewish group, whose haggadah implored the attending guests to “take a moment to consider how sh*t the State of Israel is in general and particularly at the moment.” The haggadah is a traditional Jewish text recited at the Seder on the first two nights of Passover. More recently, the British Labour Party employed Gordan Nardell to probe the anti-Semitism cases within the party. Nardell, however, has been showed to have links to the party’s hard left anti-Israel elements.

Not all elements of the Labour party are exacerbating this situation. Melantha Chittenden, the outgoing national chair of Labour students, begged the party to reflect on these accusations, asking that there be a “active condemnation and also action plans coming from the party of what we’re going to do.” Corbyn and the party leadership have thus far only demonstrated that they are capable of making the situation worse.