CAA rejects Jeremy Corbyn’s apology, saying he is “taking the public for fools” and it is “too late”
In response to our earlier disciplinary complaint and call for a national demonstration, Jeremy Corbyn has issued a statement of apology.
Mr Corbyn said: “Labour is an anti-racist party and I utterly condemn antisemitism, which is why as leader of the Labour Party I want to be clear that I will not tolerate any form of antisemitism that exists in and around our movement. We must stamp this out from our party and movement.
“We recognise that antisemitism has occurred in pockets within the Labour Party, causing pain and hurt to our Jewish community in the Labour Party and the rest of the country. I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused.
“Our party has deep roots in the Jewish community and is actively engaged with Jewish organisations across the country. We are campaigning to increase support and confidence in Labour among Jewish people in the UK. I know that to do so, we must demonstrate our total commitment to excising pockets of antisemitism that exist in and around our party.
I will be meeting representatives from the Jewish community over the coming days, weeks and months to rebuild that confidence in Labour as a party which gives effective voice to Jewish concerns and is implacably opposed to antisemitism in all its forms. Labour will work to unite communities to achieve social justice in our society.”
In response, Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Having been caught red-handed three times in the past two weeks, Jeremy Corbyn must take the public for fools if he thinks that he can now start talking about ‘stamping out’ antisemitism in the Labour Party and saying sorry. It is too late. He has squandered every opportunity to address this issue, including by commissioning a whitewash inquiry into antisemitism whose author he then made the only person he has ever elevated to the peerage.
“Mr Corbyn has spent his political life seeking out and actively defending vile antisemites as well as terrorists whose aspiration is the extermination of Jews worldwide. It is little wonder that contrary to his claims, we are not witnessing ‘pockets of antisemitism’ in the Labour Party, but instead a spreading racist rot is taking hold and it is coming from Mr Corbyn’s hard-left supporters.
“Mr Corbyn says that the solution is for him to pacify the Jewish community and that he will be meeting with us. The telephone has not rung and frankly nor do we want it to. Two years ago we proposed a transparent disciplinary process for Labour to implement: the adoption of that process is the only sign that we will accept that the Labour Party is serious about freeing itself from the grip of antisemites, and the first disciplinary case to be heard under that process should be the complaint we have made against Mr Corbyn himself.”
On 8th April at 2pm, the British public will take a national stand against antisemitism in London. Join us – please register for updates on the venue and speakers at antisemitism.org/jaccuse and use our Facebook event to invite friends.
