British publishing giant, Penguin UK, has published an English translation of a Spanish book by antisemitic conspiracy theorist, Colonel Pedro Banos, called “How they rule the world” but has reportedly removed passages about the Rothschild family.

Antisemitic conspiracy myths have long placed the predominantly Jewish Rothschild family of bankers and philanthropists behind the world’s ills, accusing them of leading a global Jewish conspiracy. The myth gained widespread currency when the Nazis recognised its potency for turning Germans against the supposed hidden hand of the Jews, who their propaganda claimed were ruining Germany’s national future.

Author Jeremy Duns has exposed Penguin’s amendments to the antisemitic book and suggested that the publisher can only have done so “knowingly.” He purchased the e-book in Spanish which featured the Rothschilds. Yet, he explained that the section on the Rothschilds was missing in the English edition: “That entire section is missing from the English version of the book. Perhaps because British readers would cry foul?” There is also no mention of the Rothschilds in the book summary on the Penguin UK website.

The book cover depicts an octopus which was an antisemitic caricature used by the Nazis as a euphemism for Jewish tentacles trying to control the world.

Mr Duns researched Colonel Banos’ views and uncovered other antisemitic conspiracy theories, including that the Jews killed President John Kennedy, supposedly because he did not want Israel to have nuclear weapons.

It appears that the publisher removed the clearly antisemitic references to “Rothschilds” in the book to protect their reputation. Mr Duns described this as “very dodgy non-fiction practices.” While Colonel Banos, it seems, will still get the proceeds of the book.

Conspiracy theories are often the vector for antisemitism and should not be perpetuated by reputable publishers. Campaign Against Antisemitism calls for Penguin UK to withdraw the title and investigate who is responsible for the decision to publish and translate it.

Andrew Murray, a close adviser to Jeremy Corbyn and Chief of Staff to the Unite union, reportedly offered advice on stopping the investigation into Labour activist, Max Tasker, using his e-mail address belonging to the Unite union, meaning that his message was not sent through the Labour Party’s e-mail system.

The e-mail, obtained by the JC, exposed Mr Murray intervening in a case in which Mr Tasker, who is listed as a councillor for Welsh Labour on Bay of Colwyn Town Council and a member of the antisemitism denial group, the sham Jewish Voice For Labour (JVL), faced suspension after denying that an antisemitic mural defended by Jeremy Corbyn was in fact antisemitic.

Between 24th September 2014 and 13th October 2014, Mr Tasker posted YouTube videos to his Facebook page with the titles: “Is ISIS good for the Jews?”, “The whole story of Zionist conspiracy: the filthy history of pedophilia, murder and bigotry”, “Not for the immature! Zionist Antichrist will rule the [New World Order]” and “Ukraine’s anti-Russian stance is a Zionist masterplan — Sheikh Imran Hosein.”

In September 2017, Mr Tasker contacted Campaign Against Antisemitism and told us that he watched the YouTube videos that he posted to his Facebook page in order to “understand what was behind all these Jewish/Zionist conspiracy theories”. However he did not explain why in addition to watching the videos, he also posted them without comment, nor did he explain his other comments. He also told us that: “My beef is with the policies of Israel’s government due to its breaking of international law and human rights abuses, and not in any way with Jews”.

The e-mail revealed by the JC was sent to Mr Murray’s daughter, Laura, as well as Karie Murphy, Mr Corbyn’s Chief of Staff and Seumas Milne, Labour’s Director of Communications and Strategy. Ms Murray is the disgraced senior parliamentary aide to Mr Corbyn who was formally appointed to lead the Labour Party’s disciplinary process. She was exposed for intervening to prevent the suspension of alleged antisemite Pat Sheerin from the Labour Party. In leaked e-mails, she said that she intervened on behalf of Mr Corbyn himself.

Mr Murray was reportedly “not sure” about a decision reached by staffer Sam Matthews to suspend Mr Tasker and argued that disagreeing about the nature of the mural was not antisemitic. He wrote that: “people disagree about the mural in a way that is not in itself antisemitic.” He added that: “I would think that investigation without suspension at this stage may be sufficient.”

In October 2012, Los Angeles-based street artist Mear One, painted a wall in London’s East End which featured apparently-Jewish bankers beneath a pyramid often used by conspiracy theorists playing Monopoly on a board carried by straining, oppressed workers. It emerged that Mr Corbyn defended the public display of a huge mural on the “grounds of freedom of speech.”

One senior Labour source told the JC that: “It would appear that discussions of many Labour antisemitism cases have taken place on e-mail addresses linked to Unite union [sic]. While some included open engagement with Labour members on e-mail addresses linked to the Party, there is obviously concern that some cases may have been discussed privately outside of Labour’s e-mail trail among Party members who also retained the use of Unite e-mail addresses.” They added that: “From what I can ascertain, we may be talking about a whole raft, rather than a few single e-mails.”

Last month, it emerged that in 2005, Mr Murray authored an article in which he claimed that the roots of the 9/11 terror attacks lay in “Zionist colonialism” of the Balfour Declaration.

In 2017, Len McCluskey, General Secretary of the Unite union, told the BBC that claims of antisemitism in the Labour Party are “mood music” to “undermine Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership” and that people who allege it have been “playing games”.

Last Tuesday, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 55,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

Activists from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) and its Scottish equivalent (SPSC) have reportedly forced Jewish shops to close with a “campaign of intimidation.”

The Daily Mail reported that the activists targeted shops in Aberdeen, Belfast, Brighton, Glasgow, London and Manchester, and held aggressive rallies outside them, forcing all but one of the businesses to close. The shop in Manchester remained open following efforts by North West Friends of Israel who worked with police to expose the antisemitism and thuggery of some of the PSC activists.

A new documentary called “Hounded” was released last week by Jewish Human Rights Watch (JHRW), to draw attention to this harassment of Jews who sell goods from Israel, highlighting a “campaign of intimidation” that has been going on for years.

It focused on the story of Nissan Ayalon, a British Jewish businessman who ran a business called Jericho Skin Care and who relocated three times, from Belfast to Glasgow and then to Aberdeen, saying that he did so to escape activists from the SPSC and Republican Network for Unity. Each time, however, they found him and attacked his shop, including with paint bombs because he sold Israeli cosmetics. He said that many other shops not run by Jews also sold Israeli products, but that they were not targeted.

Mr Ayalon, who emigrated to Britain from Krygystan, eventually fled the UK with his family after he was hounded for five years by the SPSC and Republican Network for Unity.

Just this Sunday, Mick Napier the Secretary of the SPCC told protesters at the “Al Quds Day” parade that Peter Willsman should not have been suspended for saying that the Israeli embassy was behind allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party. He declared that not only was the Israeli embassy behind “phoney” antisemitism “smears”, but that it also held workshops around the UK where “Zios” (an antisemitic slur word) plotted to orchestrate the “smears”.

In 2017, Mr Napier was found guilty of aggravated trespass at a protest outside the Jericho Skin Care cosmetics store in Glasgow during the 2014 Gaza war. The SPCC has previously been exposed over many of its supporters’ extremely antisemitic views.

A similar campaign by the PSC targeted shops in Brighton, London and Manchester, forcing two of them to close.

An investigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism in 2017 exposed extensive antisemitic bigotry amongst supporters of the PSC. A recent Evening Standard investigation uncovered supporters of the PSC sharing antisemitic posts comparing Israelis to Nazis. The shocking antisemitic posts reportedly included a cartoon comparing Israeli Jews with white power neo-Nazis and an image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bathing in Palestinian blood, posing with Adolf Hitler.

Mr Corbyn is a patron of the PSC. He gave the “National Demonstration for Palestine” march in central London on 2nd June, which saw open antisemitism from attendees and was organised by the PSC, his ringing endorsement. Hamas, the terrorist organisation which seeks the murder of all Jews worldwide, issued a statement in which it “salutes” Jeremy Corbyn for supporting the march. It said that it had “great respect and appreciation [sic] the solidarity message sent by the British Labor [sic] Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn.”

British Jewish shopkeepers are being hounded by a movement that is rife with antisemitism and uses thuggery to get its way. Businesses selling Israeli products are given scant attention if they are owned by non-Jews, but if they are owned by Jews they are relentlessly harassed day after day. It is no wonder that British Jews feel intimidated and it is outrageous that the Labour Party leader refuses to cut his ties to the groups that carry out this bullying.

Witnesses are being sought over antisemitic remarks that were made during the “Al Quds Day” parade in central London on Sunday afternoon.

A member of the public has provided Campaign Against Antisemitism with a recording of a group standing and watching the parade. As anti-terrorist activists waving Israeli flags walked by, a man whose face cannot be seen, can be heard saying: “I’m feeling very dirty with all that [sic] Jewish flags, feel like I need a shower”, referring to some of the gas chambers at concentration camps which were disguised as shower rooms and used to massacre Jews in large groups.

Separately, another member of the public, Councillor Stephen Canning, told Campaign Against Antisemitism that they had heard men saying: “Jews everywhere, I need a shower” and “Lads, let’s do a sieg heil.” “Sieg heil” was a common chant at political rallies in Nazi Germany, meaning “hail victory”. He also provided a photograph of the group that he bravely took and tweeted at the time.

The comments were made on Sunday at around 17:30 outside the Red Lion pub at 48 Parliament Street in Westminster. Anybody with information about the group described should contact Campaign Against Antisemitism at [email protected].

In an e-mail rushed to all Labour MPs as the Equality and Human Rights Commission announced its statutory investigation into Labour antisemitism and seen by Campaign Against Antisemitism, the Party’s General Secretary, Jennie Formby, tried deflecting attention by briefing MPs on budget cuts to the Commission.

The briefing was rushed out minutes after the Equality and Human Rights Commission announced that it would be launching a statutory investigation into antisemitic discrimination, harassment and victimisation within the Labour Party, following a referral and legal arguments from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

The e-mail told MPs that “Labour is fully committed to the support, defence and celebration of the Jewish community and is implacably opposed to antisemitism in any form”, going on to tell MPs to “reject any suggestion that the Party does not handle antisemitism complaints fairly and robustly, or that the Party has acted unlawfully”.

Bizarrely, Ms Formby tried to deflect attention onto the Commission’s budget, telling MPs that it has suffered “a 70% budget cut since 2010” and that “Labour is the party of equality and in government we will strengthen the powers and functions of the Commission.”

Ms Formby then went on to try to direct attention at “the Conservatives and other political parties”, which she said must do more to tackle racism.

She then ended by thanking Party staff “who have worked tirelessly to combat this issue”, despite the fact that they have in fact been embroiled in numerous efforts to protect antisemites.

The letter is yet further evidence that the Labour Party is not accepting responsibility for its antisemitism crisis, even now that it is under statutory investigation by the very Equality and Human Rights Commission it created in 2006. Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, the once fiercely anti-racist Labour Party has become institutionally antisemitic and an existential threat to British Jews.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 55,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair has called Jeremy Corbyn an antisemite in an interview at a panel event at Bar Ilan University in Israel.

Mr Blair said: “To be frank, this antisemitism row, it’s a shameful thing.” When asked if he believed Corbyn himself was antisemitic, he said yes, explaining: “Some of the remarks are not explicable in any other way, I’m afraid, and that is sad.”

When the question was posed if Mr Corbyn thinks that he is an antisemite, he replied: “No, he doesn’t think he is at all.”

In May, Mr Blair said that the the “poison” of antisemitism has returned in a rebuke of Mr Corbyn and the Labour Party. In powerful comments in a video in support of the new National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, Mr Blair said that: “Antisemitism and hate did not end in 1945. Unfortunately today some of this poison is back from the political fringe to parts of the political mainstream.”

Last Tuesday, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

At the Bar Ilan University event, Mr Blair lamented that: “When I established [the EHRC], I never dreamed it would be investigating the Labour Party.”

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 55,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

A placard claiming that “They all work for Rothschild” was held at the anti-Trump protest in central London today, apparently drawing no condemnation from protesters. It was not clear who “all” referred to, but it was underlined for emphasis.

Antisemitic conspiracy myths have long placed the predominantly Jewish Rothschild family of bankers and philanthropists behind the world’s ills, accusing them of leading a global Jewish conspiracy. The myth gained widespread currency when the Nazis recognised its potency for turning Germans against the supposed hidden hand of the Jews, who their propaganda claimed was ruining Germany’s national future.

One of the themes of the protest was supposed to be anti-racism.

The placard featured a cartoon of Charles Montgomery “Monty” Burns from The Simpsons. The character is the notoriously wealthy, greedy and stingy owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant. It also featured a graphic of the “Flower Thrower” by English street artist and political activist, Banksy. The graffiti of a masked rioter throwing a bunch of flowers first appeared on a wall in Jerusalem in 2003 and then featured on the front cover of his book “Wall and Piece” in 2005.

After we received a report about the placard, members of Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit were sent to the protest to investigate, but by then the protester had left.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is making a professional standards complaint with regard to the manner in which a complaint relating to antisemitic hate speech has been handled by an officer from Dyfed-Powys police.

When discussing an allegation against Daniel Davies, the owner of Tribestan UK, for the antisemitic e-mails sent to an Israeli man who attempted to order items from the company, Campaign Against Antisemitism was told that the matter would merely be recorded as a hate incident rather than a hate crime. When pressed on this, the officer said that he had reviewed the complaint, and that it would be recorded as the less serious matter, as the e-mails were simply “stating an opinion”.

One of the e-mails sent by Tribestan UK stated: “Unfortunately Jews have negativity on our businesses. Do you know why? Because Jews rip us off! Jews f*** us up!”

A second e-mail sent a short while later stated: “We don’t ship to Israel because the Jews rob us! Sorry but that’s a fact. They scam the world.”

Mr Davies has claimed that “our e-mail got hacked via wifi over a business phone”, which is a common excuse that we have heard from other companies that have sent antisemitic messages, who later claimed were the work of hackers.

At a time when British Jews are threatened by levels of antisemitism that are unprecedented in the UK since the Second World War, it is alarming and unacceptable that a police officer is incapable of distinguishing between the legitimate expression of a point of view and antisemitic hate speech that has been at the root of much of the persecution suffered by the Jewish people.

TalkRadio has sacked George Galloway from his role as a radio host following comments in which he conflated Tottenham Hotspur’s many Jewish fans with Israeli citizens. In a clearly antisemitic tweet, Mr Galloway stated: “Congratulations to the great people of #Liverpool to the memory of the socialist miner #BillShankley [sic] to the fallen #96 to those who fought for justice for them and to the Liverpool dockers. No #Israël [sic] flags on the Cup!”

In announcing Mr Galloway’s dismissal, TalkRadio said: “TalkRadio has terminated George Galloway’s weekly show with immediate effect. As a fair and balanced news provider, TalkRadio does not tolerate anti-semitic views.”

The tweet had provoked considerable backlash on Twitter. Liverpool’s Head of Club and Supporter Liaison, Tony Barrett, tweeted: “Please don’t include Liverpool Football Club in this bulls***. It’s the club of Ronnie Rosenthal and Avi Cohen. It’s the club of Mo Salah and Sadio Mane. It’s the club of Parson Jackson and Bill Shankly (with no e). It’s a club of all flags, all religions, all nations and none.” David Wolfson QC responded angrily to Mr Galloway’s reference to Liverpool’s legendary manager Bill Shankly and the ninety-six victims of the Hillsborough tragedy, tweeting: “My Dad as a local solictor knew Bill Shankly. Offered a ticket, he told Shankly he couldn’t go on a Saturday as an orthodox Jew, so Shankly gave him a ticket to a midweek game — in the directors’ box. That’s who Shankly was. Don’t use his name or the 96 to promote your vile smears.”

Twitter however refused to take action.

George Galloway has a long history of baiting the Jewish community and he even blocked Campaign Against Antisemitism on Twitter after we highlighted an antisemitic tweet he had shared. In February of this year, he told Sky News that Luciana Berger, who was driven out of the Labour Party by antisemitic harassment, was complicit in a “Goebellian lie”, essentially accusing her of engaging in behaviour reminiscent of Josef Goebbels, the infamous Nazi propagandist. Mr Galloway’s use of the same language on his TalkRadio show was found to be in breach of broadcasting rules by Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator.

The tweet that caused George Galloway to block Campaign Against Antisemitism on Twitter

Jeremy Corbyn has continued to campaign with Lisa Forbes, Labour’s candidate in the Peterborough by-election, even after learning that she liked a Facebook post that said that Theresa May has a “Zionist slave master’s agenda” and commented that she “enjoyed reading” comments beneath a post claiming that ISIS and other extremists were created and funded by the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad.

When approached by the Peterborough Telegraph, she apologised and pledged to “deepen my understanding of antisemitism so I can act as an ally, challenging antisemitism wherever it occurs.”

Ms Forbes was joined by Jeremy Corbyn for campaigning on Saturday ahead of the by-election. Mr Corbyn refused to answer a journalist’s question if Pete Willsman will be expelled from Labour after he was suspended for claiming in a recording that the “Israeli embassy” and an “agent” are “behind all this antisemitism against Jeremy.”

This latest revelation in the Labour antisemitic crisis was uncovered by investigative journalist Iggy Ostanin.

It is beyond disturbing that Ms Forbes has liked and commented positively on posts espousing antisemitic conspiracy theories, and that Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party continue to endorse her nonetheless, with no sign of even the façade of disciplinary proceedings. We will refer this incident to the Equality and Human Rights Commission for consideration during their statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party.

Ms Forbes was a signatory to an open letter in August last year to the Labour National Executive Committee (NEC) urging them not to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism in full.

Her co-signatories to the letter included Asa Winstanley and Rebecca Massey. Mr Winstanley called the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) an “Israeli Embassy proxy” and was reportedly suspended from Labour in March, pending an investigation. Ms Massey tweeted that “Israel has Tory & Labour parties under control.”

It also emerged that Ms Forbes posted in the Peterborough Palestine Solidarity Campaign Facebook group, a forum where one participant wrote about “Zionist rats” and another said that “Israel spends a fortune perverting our democracy.”

On Tuesday, the Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 55,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

Nearly 1,000 people have marched at the “Al Quds Day” parade in central London today. Volunteers from Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit went into the thick of the protest to gather evidence.

The march saw open antisemitism from attendees, who marched under banners declaring that it is a “crime” or “racism” to support Zionism, the movement to grant Jews the same right to self-determination as all peoples are granted under Article 1 of the United Nations Charter. Some compared Zionism to Nazism.

Mick Napier the Secretary of the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPCC) told protesters that Peter Willsman should not have been suspended for saying that the Israeli embassy was behind allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party. He declared that not only was the Israeli embassy behind “phoney” antisemitism “smears”, but that it also held workshops around the UK where “Zios” (an antisemitic slur word) plotted to orchestrate the “smears”. In 2017, Mr Napier was found guilty of aggravated trespass at a protest outside a cosmetics store in Glasgow during the 2014 Gaza war. The SPCC has previously been exposed over many of its supporters’ extremely antisemitic views.

The entire march was led by a banner calling for “Victory to the resistance”. “The resistance” is the name often used to refer to various terrorist organisations including Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hizballah, all of which seek the murder of every Jew worldwide.

Protesters frequently chanted the rhyme: “From the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea, Palestine will be free”, which only makes sense as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state and its replacement with a Palestinian state, and is thus an attempt to uniquely deny Jews the right to self-determination.

The “Al Quds Day” marchers did not have the streets to themselves, however. A group of anti-terrorism activists waving Israeli flags confronted the marchers and engulfed them in a cloud of blue and white smoke.

While in previous years the march has been a pro-Hizballah parade, with marchers festooned in Hizballah flags, no support for Hizballah was visible this year because in February this year Hizballah was completely proscribed by the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, with the support of the Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt. This followed a gruelling effort over several years by Campaign Against Antisemitism and our allies.

Until then, the British Government had distinguished between Hizballah’s “military wing” and “political wing”, even though Hizballah mocked the Government and said that no such distinction exists. The loophole enabled brazen shows of support for Hizballah, including at previous “Al Quds Day” parades where pro-Hizballah supporters marched through central London waving Hizballah flags and placards with “We Are All Hizballah.” The law has also now been changed to allow police officers to seize flags or clothing bearing the insignia of terrorist organisations, and also arrest anybody who publishes photographs of them.

Prior to today’s parade, Campaign Against Antisemitism and our allies met with the Metropolitan Police Service who vowed to “intervene to enforce the law” if Hizballah flags were flown.

The firm approach of the Metropolitan Police Service ensured that no shows of support for Hizballah were seen this year, and Campaign Against Antisemitism wishes to thank the police for upholding the law and defending the Jewish community.

We understand that at least one person from the “Al Quds Day” parade has been arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police officer. We have received reports that another person was arrested for allegedly assaulting an anti-terrorism activist.

Volunteers from Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstrations and Event Monitoring Unit gathered extensive evidence, which our Regulatory Enforcement Unit is considering, as the self-anointed Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC), which runs the event, is a charity. A report released this week by the Henry Jackson Society, found that the IHRC is permeated by “extreme antisemitism”.

Yasmine Dar, a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), has denied that antisemitism is an institutional problem in a blog post for Labour List.

The comments were in response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) announcement on Tuesday that they launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

She wrote that: “I’m in favour of radical reforms to Labour’s disciplinary procedures so that we can more swiftly kick out the small number of antisemites in our ranks. But as a member of the national executive committee, I haven’t seen any evidence that this prejudice among a minority of members is an institutional problem.”

Ms Dar, who is also a Manchester City councillor, minimised the problem of antisemitism in Labour, writing: “Before you rush to judgement, let’s revisit the facts. Recently published data showed that complaints received by the party about antisemitism related to just 0.1% of party members. There is a larger group of members who have dismissed or downplayed the existence of antisemitism.”

She defended Labour’s response to antisemitism, writing: “We launched an inquiry and we have introduced a wide range of measures to improve our procedures” and praising Jeremy Corbyn whom she claimed “has written e-mails to all members, appealed to supporters in video messages, written opinion pieces and spoken in interviews about the ways in which antisemitism has manifested on the left. He has clearly stated that anyone who spreads antisemitic poison does not do so in his or the party’s name.”

Ms Dar also accused the “Labour right” of being part of a conspiracy to undermine Mr Corbyn, claiming: “Our party’s bureaucracy was controlled by the Labour right until last year, who — recent leaked e-mails suggest — may have sat on antisemitism cases to destabilise Jeremy’s leadership.”

She also claimed that the EHRC is being party political for not holding an investigation into “racism and Islamophobia within the Conservative Party” at the same time, concluding that: “What the EHRC has missed is an opportunity to rise above party politics and address deep rooted inequalities within our society. Instead of separate investigations into Labour and the Tories, the EHRC could have launched a joint inquiry into both, and prejudice in politics more broadly. Instead, we will see political point scoring, which does nothing to protect the interests of minority communities.”

Peter Willsman, a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee (NEC), has been suspended after being recorded claiming that the “Israeli embassy” and an Israeli “agent” are “behind all this antisemitism against Jeremy.” The NEC presides over disciplinary cases.

Theo Usherwood, the Political Editor at radio station LBC, tweeted the recording of Mr Willsman speaking in January to Israeli author and journalist Tuvia Tenenbom who was in the UK to make a documentary about Brexit.

Last year, Mr Willsman was let off disciplinary charges following a tirade accusing Jewish “Trump fanatics” of “making up” antisemitism.

Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, refused to call for Willsman to be expelled then but accepted his apology, caveating it by saying that: “if he persists in those attitudes I think he should be standing down. But what I’m hoping is that he’s learnt a lesson.” Mr Willsman, within a couple of months, repeated his assertions that there was no antisemitism in the Party. No action was taken.

In a series of explosive comments in the recording, Mr Willsman said that: “One of these things about antisemitsm is that they’re using that to whip people up. They use anything. Any Lies. It’s all total lies and they just whip it up.”

He then said “off the record” that “It’s almost certain who is behind all this antisemitism against Jeremy. Almost certainly it was the Israeli Embassy. Because they caught somebody in the Labour Party. It turns out they were an agent in the Embassy.”

He continued that a letter in the Guardian last July signed by 68 rabbis calling on Labour to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism was “obviously organised by the Israeli Embassy.”

The accusation of Jews conspiring to subvert politics is one of the most well known antisemitic conspiracy theories. Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions” is antisemitic.

Mr Willsman also claimed to have close relations with Jeremy Corbyn. Calling himself “Red Pete”, he boasted that: “They call me Corbyn’s enforcer. But I said I don’t want to be called Corbyn’s enforcer because enforcers ain’t got no sense of humour. I’m more like Corbyn’s protector, ‘cos he never looks after himself. He never defends his back. Because he’s not interested in himself, he just wants to change the world.” He added that “it’s me who has to stop people stabbing him in the back” and claimed: “I spend 10 hours a day working for Jeremy Bernard Corbyn. Voluntary, 10 hours a day.”

Mr Willsman also made a claim that: “Jeremy stuck up for me and told them to p*** off” when he was previously caught making antisemitic comments.

On Tuesday, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 55,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office”.

The University of Essex has reportedly dismissed a computer science and electronics lecturer, Dr Maaruf Ali, over antisemitic Facebook posts opposing the creation of a Jewish society at the university. In one post, Dr Ali wrote that “the Zionists next want to create a society here at our university” on a Facebook page for new students.

We commend the university for its handling of this incident.

In February, Dr Ali openly and vociferously opposed the establishment of a student Jewish society at the university, which was formed after the initial vote had received opposition from hundreds of students.

Dr Ali also posted conspiracy theories alleging “Zionist” control of the media, and shared far-right content alleging Mossad involvement in the 2015 terror attack in Paris. He also shared a post claiming that the Jewish population of Europe actually rose during the Holocaust, and equated Israel with Nazi Germany.

In response to his sacking, Dr Ali said that he was disappointed to be dismissed and did not “hate Jews, their religion, people or their culture. I believe that everyone should be allowed to form any society. This is what I’m thinking now, which is what I didn’t think at the time.”

A University of Essex statement confirmed that a member of staff had been dismissed following a tribunal hearing. The statement said: “The university has now completed an independent investigation into the serious allegations made against a member of university staff.”

Daniel Kosky, Union of Jewish Students campaigns organiser, welcomed the dismissal and said that it was the correct decision for “severely antisemitic” social media comments.

Earlier this month, Chris Skidmore, the Minister of State for Universities, urged all of the UK’s higher education institutions to formally adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism.

If any students are concerned about antisemitism on campus or need assistance, they can call us on 0330 822 0321, or e-mail [email protected].

As soon as the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) launched its statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party on Tuesday, supporters of the Party proved how urgent the investigation was by declaring that there is no antisemitism within Labour, and additionally that the Commission was controlled by Jews or Zionists or even the Israeli government.

Threats have been made by a “Corbyn supporter”, who we can name as David Lindsay, against the Commission’s staff and Campaign Against Antisemitism’s legal team. We have reported the matter to the police and expect him to feel the full force of the law.

Adam Wagner is one of the barristers representing Campaign Against Antisemitism as the complainant in the Commission’s investigation. Mr Wagner has been the subject of calls for violence by Mr Lindsay, who seems to be a prolific writer of abusive letters and social media posts. So far, Mr Lindsay has written a blog post and he has tweeted links to the blog post as well as explicit calls for violence against Mr Wagner.

Mr Lindsay tweeted: “Does @jeremycorbyn really have those Irish, Middle Eastern and other connections [referring to his connections to the IRA, Hamas and Hizballah]? If so, then the members and the senior staff of @EHRC need to be visited at home. The Boys might usefully begin with @AdamWagner1. #EHRC #Antisemitism #LabourAntisemitism” followed by a link to the blog post. Another tweet said: “Here comes @EHRC on the orders of the Israeli Embassy, by which it is controlled. Against @jeremycorbyn, with whom one of its members, @AdamWagner1, is completely obsessed. #Antisemitism #LabourAntisemitism” also followed by a link to the blog post.

Other activists have stopped short of making threats, but have been taking to Twitter to suggest that the Commission is made up of Jews who would be biased. One tweet read: “EHRC is Chaired by David Isaac he is jewish, most EHRC are. Sky News just reported EHRC said they can’t report on Islamophobia because of funding issues. So how can they find funding to investigate labour antisemitism.” Another said: “To be honest, I am more concerned about the roles of Isaac and Hilsenrath (Chairman and CEO of EHRC), both establishment Jews I believe, in taking the decision to investigate, and during the investigation itself. Standard corporate governance would suggest they should step aside.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism has reported the matter to the police. Twitter has so far refused to remove the tweets.

This response from supporters of Jeremy Corbyn amply demonstrates why the Commission’s investigation is so urgent.

https://twitter.com/davidaslindsay/status/1133395803194777600
https://twitter.com/RowlandsOliver/status/1133453165913878528

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

The Commission’s investigation will evaluate the Labour Party’s handling of the many acts of antisemitic discrimination and victimisation detailed in the dossiers that Campaign Against Antisemitism has provided in a number of submissions since July 2018.

The Commission, which was created by a Labour government in 2006, is vested with tough powers designed to force organisations to comply with equality and human rights laws.

The decision to launch a statutory investigation under section 20 of the Equality Act 2006 unlocks the Commission’s full range of enforcement powers, allowing it to compel the Labour Party to reveal details of its handling of antisemitism in recent years, including internal communications such as text messages and e-mails. The Commission can also seek court injunctions against the Labour Party to prevent further antisemitic discrimination, harassment and victimisation, and it can also impose an action plan on the Party and enforce compliance through the courts.

The Commission has made the move following a pre-enforcement engagement process with the Labour Party that left it convinced that the Party could not be trusted to resolve its antisemitism problem on its own. During the pre-enforcement engagement process, numerous senior Labour figures called for the Commission to investigate, including Deputy Labour Leader Tom Watson, Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry and former Justice Secretary Lord Falconer.

Gideon Falter, Chief Executive of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “There are only two reasons that the Commission has taken this extraordinary step. The first is that the Labour Party has repeatedly failed to address its own antisemitism problem. The second is that when the Commission approached the Labour leadership, they still failed to offer to action sufficient to reassure the Commission that the antisemitic discrimination and victimisation would stop.

“Jeremy Corbyn, Jennie Formby and Labour’s National Executive Committee have refused to listen to British Jews nor even to the MPs, MEPs, councillors and activists who have quit Labour because the Party which for decades was a great anti-racist Party has now become a home for hatred in British politics. In just four chilling years, Jeremy Corbyn has turned the Party which pioneered anti-racism into the Party that now finds itself in the company of the BNP, being investigated by the very equality and human rights regulator it once fought so hard to establish. Over the course of his leadership we have seen enough to convince us that Jeremy Corbyn himself is an antisemite and unfit for any public office and though few have acted, most Labour MPs seem to agree with us.

“We are pleased that the Commission’s terms of reference closely follow our recommendations and will see a root and branch investigation of the Labour Party’s antisemitic discrimination, victimisation and harassment, as well as how the Party’s processes and decisions contributed. We commend the Commission for acting on our referral and we have full confidence in its resolve to investigate thoroughly and deliver justice.”

A spokesperson for the Commission said: “The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is today launching a formal investigation to determine whether The Labour Party has unlawfully discriminated against, harassed or victimised people because they are Jewish. The EHRC is pleased that The Labour Party has committed to co-operate fully with its investigation…The EHRC has carefully considered the response it has received from the Party and has now opened a formal investigation under section 20 of the Equality Act 2006 to further examine the concerns. The investigation will seek to determine whether unlawful acts have been committed by the Party and/or its employees and/or its agents; and whether the Party has responded to complaints of unlawful acts in a lawful, efficient and effective manner.”

The terms of reference for the investigation can be found below.

Background

Campaign Against Antisemitism first contacted the Equality and Human Rights Commission during the Labour Party Conference in Brighton in 2017. The conference was so rife with antisemitism that Brighton and Hove City Council’s Labour leader, Warren Morgan, told his own party that he would not permit use of Council premises for the conference again. Mr Morgan has since resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism. At the time, the Chief Executive of the Commission issued a statement demanding that the Labour Party prove “that it is not a racist party”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism made a number of disciplinary complaints to the Labour Party between 2016 and 2018 about Jeremy Corbyn, including about his defence of the antisemitic Tower Hamlets mural in 2012, his Holocaust Memorial Day event in 2010, and his Press TV interview in 2012 (Press TV is an Iranian state broadcaster which Ofcom banned from broadcasting in Britain).

The Labour Party refused to open an investigation into our complaints, and consequently on 31st July 2018, Campaign Against Antisemitism referred the Labour Party to the Commission over its institutional antisemitism. Other organisations, including two groups of Jewish Labour activists, have since written to the Commission to support our referral.

At the Commission’s request, Campaign Against Antisemitism submitted detailed legal arguments in November 2018. We have continued to provide additional legal arguments to the Commission based on developments since November, resulting in the Commission’s announcement on 7th March that it was starting pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party.

During the pre-enforcement period, the Labour Party had an opportunity to make representations to the Commission agreeing a plan of action that would remove the need for a statutory investigation by offering to implement certain measures against antisemitism that the Commission could monitor compliance with.

The Labour Party failed to satisfy the Commission that it could be trusted to address the issue itself, leading to today’s announcement of a full statutory investigation.

Enforcement process and powers

We asked the Commission to open a statutory investigation under section 20 of the Equality Act 2006 into antisemitic discrimination and victimisation in the Labour Party.

Now that a statutory investigation has been launched, the Commission can use its powers to compel the Labour Party to reveal details of its handling of antisemitism in recent years, including internal communications such as text messages and e-mails. It can also seek court injunctions against the Labour Party to prevent further antisemitic discrimination and victimisation, and it can also impose an action plan on the Party and enforce compliance with the plan. Previous statutory investigations include an investigation into unlawful harassment, discrimination and victimisation within the Metropolitan Police Service.

The only other political party to have been subject to a statutory investigation is the British National Party.

Before the Commission opened its statutory investigation, which is considered a form of enforcement action, the Commission entered into a pre-enforcement period of engagement with the Labour Party, allowing it to propose a plan of action and make representations to the Commission giving reasons why enforcement should not commence, and offering to take action voluntarily, under the Commission’s supervision. This is normal practice.

Due to the public and brazen nature of antisemitic discrimination and victimisation in the Labour Party, and due to the Labour Party’s failure to convince the Commission that it would take suitable action, the Commission has now launched a full investigation under section 20 of the Equality Act 2006.

Content of our legal submissions

Campaign Against Antisemitism has submitted four detailed legal submissions to the Commission, initially assisted by specialist human rights counsel Adam Wagner of Doughty Street Chambers and latterly also assisted by Derek Spitz of One Essex Court Chambers. The first was submitted on 9th November 2018.

We will not be releasing the submissions at this stage, however our submissions provided a substantial list of incidents for investigation, including incidents involving Mr Corbyn.

In summary, we made legal arguments that:

  • An unacceptable number of antisemitic incidents of unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation have occurred in Labour in recent years. These have occurred at all levels of the Party and continue to occur.
  • Under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, Labour’s disciplinary mechanisms for dealing with antisemitism have been significantly weakened, and the machinery of the Party has been used to victimise those who stand up against antisemitism. 
  • A culture of denial and victimisation has developed in some sections of Labour in relation to antisemitism. For example, antisemitism allegations are often described as “smears”.
  • The result of the toxic culture which surrounds the issue of antisemitism in Labour is that people who suffer discrimination are subjected to victimisation when they raise complaints or are reluctant to bring complaints in the first place.
  • Antisemitism in Labour should be judged according to the International Definition of Antisemitism, which Labour has itself adopted alongside the government and other major political parties.
  • Labour has failed to put in place a fair and effective complaints and disciplinary process to deal with antisemitism.
  • There is substantial evidence that the problem of antisemitism in Labour has become institutional.
  • Labour appears incapable of resolving this issue of antisemitism itself.
  • There is sufficient evidence to warrant a section 20 statutory investigation by the Commission into whether systemic unlawful acts have occurred in the handling of complaints of antisemitism in relation to Labour officials, members and other representatives, and whether Labour is now institutionally racist.

Terms of reference

The investigation’s finalised terms of reference as issued by the Commission are as follows:

In accordance with paragraph 3 of Schedule 2 to the Equality Act 2006.
Statutory Investigation under section 20 and Schedule 2 of the Equality Act 2006 into The Labour Party by the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Background

1. The Commission suspects that The Labour Party (‘the Party’) may have itself, and/or through its employees and/or agents, committed unlawful acts in relation to its members and/or applicants for membership and/or associates.

Scope of investigation

2. The investigation will consider whether the Party carried out such unlawful acts.

3. The investigation will need to be effective but proportionate. The investigation will focus on the Party’s response to a sample of complaints of alleged unlawful acts that have taken place since 11 March 2016. However, the investigation may consider the Party’s response to such complaints that have taken place prior to this date, if it is considered necessary and appropriate.

4. In examining the evidence the Commission will look at such issues as it considers appropriate, which may include any or all of the following:
a. Whether unlawful acts have been committed by the Party and/or its employees and/or its agents
b. The steps taken by the Party to implement the recommendations made in the reports on antisemitism by Baroness Royall, the Home Affairs Select Committee and in the Chakrabarti Report
c. Whether the Rule Book and the Party’s investigatory and disciplinary processes have enabled or could enable it to deal efficiently and effectively with complaints of race and/or religion or belief discrimination and racial harassment and/or victimisation, including whether appropriate sanctions have been and/or could be applied; and
d. Whether the Party has responded to complaints of unlawful acts in a lawful, efficient and effective manner.

5. The Commission will publish a report of its findings and may make recommendations in accordance with Schedule 2 paragraph 16 of the 2006 Act.

Communications concerning this investigation

6. Any communications concerning this investigation may be sent in confidence to [email protected]

Interpretation

7. For the purposes of these terms of reference the following definitions apply:
a. ‘The 2006 Act’ means the Equality Act 2006
b. ‘The 2010 Act’ means the Equality Act 2010
c. ‘The Labour Party’ means the unincorporated association called The Labour Party governed by the Rule Book including those component parts of its structure referred to at Paragraphs 1 and 2 of Clause II, and Clause IX of Chapter 1of the Rule Book 2019 (for the avoidance of doubt this includes the NEC, NCC, CLPs and BLPs) but excluding organisations affiliated to it
d. ‘The Rule Book’ means the Labour Party Rule Book operative at the material time
e. ‘The Commission’ means the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (commonly known as the Equality and Human Rights Commission)
f. ‘Agent’ has the same meaning as in the 2010 Act
g. ‘Associate’ has the same meaning as in the 2010 Act
h. ‘Association’ has the same meaning as in the 2010 Act
i. ‘BLP’ means a branch of a CLP as defined in the Rule Book
j. ‘CLP’ means a Constituency Labour Party as defined in the Rule Book
k. ‘Employee’ has the same meaning as in the 2010 Act
l. ‘Member’ has the same meaning as in the 2010 Act
m. ‘NCC’ means The Labour Party’s National Constitution Committee as defined in the Rule Book
n. ‘NEC’ means The Labour Party’s National Executive Committee as defined in the Rule Book
o. ‘Protected act’ has the same meaning as in the 2010 Act
p. ‘Protected racial characteristic’ means Jewish ethnicity
q. ‘Protected religion or belief characteristic’ means Judaism
r. ‘Racediscrimination’meansdirectdiscriminationor unjustified indirect race discrimination (as those terms are defined in the 2010 Act) because of the protected racial characteristic
s. ‘Religion or belief discrimination’ means direct discrimination or unjustified indirect religion or belief discrimination (as those terms are defined in the 2010 Act) because of the protected religious characteristic
t. ‘Harassment’ means harassment (as that term is defined in the 2010 Act) where the harassment relates to the protected racial characteristic
u. ‘Victimisation’ means victimisation (as that term is defined in the 2010 Act) where the protected act relates to the protected racial characteristic and/or the protected religious characteristic
v. ‘Unlawful acts’ means race discrimination and/or racial harassment and/or religion or belief discrimination and/or victimisation, as defined herein.


8. In the course of the investigation, the Commission may have regard to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism and associated examples, while recognising it is a non-legally binding definition.

How to help

Campaign Against Antisemitism has invested heavily in the legal work required to produce this result, and our volunteers have spent many hundreds of hours compiling evidence.

If you feel that antisemitism is a threat to Britain’s Jews and British society as a whole, please play your part by donating or volunteering to help us. Our success depends on your help.

An Israeli man has posted on Facebook an antisemitic e-mail he received from Tribestan UK when he attempted to order a product from them. Rather than shipping his order, he was sent a refund notice along with the message: “We don’t ship to Israel because the Jews rob us! Sorry but that’s a fact! They scam the world. No offence.”

When contacted by the man’s friends, the company claimed that “our e-mail got hacked via wifi over a business phone”, which is a common excuse that we have heard from other companies that have sent antisemitic messages that they later claimed were the work of hackers.

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “This is a brazen case of antisemitic abuse and discrimination. Tribestan’s Chief Executive, Daniel Davies, has now told us that they were ‘hacked via wifi over a business phone’ and that it was the hacker who issued the refund and sent an e-mail saying orders to Israel will not be fulfilled because ‘the Jews rob us’ and ‘scam the world’. We hear that excuse all too often from antisemites who get caught. We are in touch with the recipient of the e-mail and reviewing legal options with our lawyers.”

A dossier provided by Campaign Against Antisemitism has led to the arrest by Devon and Cornwall Police of a 67-year-old man from Camborne on Thursday as part of a pre-planned policing operation. The man was arrested on suspicion of producing a racist internet radio broadcast that could incite racial hatred under the Public Order Act 1986. He has since been released but remains under investigation pending further enquiries.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Director of Investigations and Enforcement, Stephen Silverman, said: “The ease with which the internet has been harnessed in recent years by extremists as a vehicle for hate speech is a growing cause for alarm. Campaign Against Antisemitism commends Devon and Cornwall Police for its prompt response and diligent handling of this matter, and will be watching developments with interest.”

A YouGov survey has found that only 19% of British voters say that Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party are not antisemitic.

Just 18 percent of voters say that the Labour Party does not have a problem with antisemitism, while 50 percent think that it does.

The polling shows that in the past year, approximately a further 5% of the public has lost confidence in Mr Corbyn over this matter, reducing those who support him on this issue to less than 20% of the population.

Some of the other key findings for all voters are that:

  • 80 percent say that they had seen either a little or a lot of news coverage about antisemitism in the Labour Party. Campaign Against Antisemitism has been at the forefront of exposing antisemitism in the Party in the national media.
  • 36 percent of all British voters say that Mr Corbyn is antisemitic and 28 percent say that the Labour Party is antisemitic. Only 19 percent say that neither are antisemitic.
  • 65 percent believe that Mr Corbyn’s handling of antisemitism accusations has been incompetent while only 16 per cent think that he has been competent.
  • 60 percent say that Mr Corbyn has been neither honest nor transparent in responding to accusations of antisemitism in the Labour Party, with only 18 percent thinking that he has been honest and transparent.
  • Only 27 percent agree that Labour MPs who are concerned about antisemitism in the Party should remain in the Party nonetheless. So far, just eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism. They have been joined by numerous councillors and members.

YouGov polled a very large sample of 5,180 British adults for the JC between 14th and 17th May for the survey.

In signs that views on antisemitism in politics have become increasingly biased, some of the responses from Labour Party voters are particularly disturbing and revealing:

  • Merely 8 percent say that Mr Corbyn and the Labour Party are antisemitic while 39 percent say that neither are antisemitic.
  • 37 percent say that Mr Corbyn has been honest and transparent in responding to accusations of antisemitism in the Labour Party, while 50 percent say that he has not been honest and transparent.
  • Only 12 percent think that Mr Corbyn is most to blame for the Labour’s antisemitism crisis, with 21 percent blaming Labour’s political opponents.
  • Just 20 percent think that the row over allegations of antisemitism within Labour has increased the amount of hostility Jewish people in Britain experience while 36 percent say that it has not made any difference to the level of hostility.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

Over 55,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office”.

Labour MEP, Mary Honeyball, has resigned from the Labour Party, slamming Jeremy Corbyn and the leadership’s “shameful” failure to tackle antisemitism.

Ms Honeyball is one of London’s longest serving MEPs. She has been a Labour member for 43 years, has served as a MEP from 2000 and retired at yesterday’s election.

Announcing her decision in the Evening Standard, she said: “The antisemitism currently infecting the Labour Party, I believe, derives from the Labour leadership’s animosity towards Israel primarily because the country is an ally of the United States. Although the State of Israel and the Jewish people are two completely different things, Corbyn and his allies appear to see fit to view them as virtually one and the same. Shamefully, the Labour leadership have done nothing like enough to purge the Labour Party of the racism shown towards its Jewish members.”

She also criticised Mr Corbyn for being “sympathetic” to Hizballah and Hamas.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

Over 55,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

The resignation today of British Prime Minister Theresa May has unleashed a wave of antisemitic posts on social media.

‘Syed Umar’ exclaimed “Good riddance Zionist bitch” on Twitter. Notorious antisemite, Gilad Atzmon, who humiliatingly capitulated in a libel case against Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Gideon Falter last year, predictably entered the fray and tweeted: “British Jews thank Theresa Je Suis Juif for being a dedicated Sabbos Goy [sic] and destroying Britain’s future for Israel.”

‘Melville Debyuss’ tweeted a claim that Theresa May’s departure heralded the end of the “greedy corrupt lying cheating racist Zionist terrorist war criminal Tories”, adding that he “loves” Jeremy Corbyn. In reference to the horrendous fires that have blazed in Israel, another Twitter user opined: “Israel is in flames and Theresa May is going to step down as PM??? it really is a month of blessings”.

A user named ‘Jay’ waded into a Twitter thread about her resignation: “Shuttup man, Israel is doing to the Palestinians what the Germans did to the Jews. Enough said.”

Over on Facebook, ‘Jefferson Webster’ warned: users wrote: “As one Zionist psychopathe [sic] leaves, another will take over, its [sic] all pantomine [sic] and theratre….! [sic]”

Another conspiratorial post by ‘Robert Broad’ added: “She does what she is told to do so she can achieve considerable wealth from her masters the zionist banksters we call the central bank or better the Bank of England which has nothing to do with England, is resident in a foreign country. It doesn’t even need to present accounts to the inland revenue and it is privately owned by 12 zionist families.”

The hatred was not reserved to the political left. ‘Sean Young’ of Tek Plastering Building Services claimed: “Israel is removing the right in politics, Theresa May is a Zionist and is doing her job to perfection in the destruction of those who wish to conserve the nation”

The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism applauds the decision which demonstrates the Church of Scotland’s solidarity with the Jewish community in Scotland at this worrying time.

Reverend Dr Richard Frazer, Convener of the Church and Society Council, put forward the proposal to adopt the definition and noted that “antisemitic incidents in the UK are at a record high for the third year in a row.” His motion said that adopting the definition would “aid the Church in challenging antisemitism.”

Britain was the first country in the world to adopt the Definition, something for which Campaign Against Antisemitism, Lord Eric Pickles and others worked hard for over many meetings with officials at Downing Street. The Church of Scotland’s move follows adoption of the definition by the Church of England in September last year.

It has emerged that Jeremy Corbyn authored an article in which he defended “salient points” which he felt were “overlooked” in former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech vowing to “wipe Israel off the map” at an event called “The world without Zionism”. Mr Ahmadinejad was also quoted as saying that: “Anybody who recognises Israel will burn in the fire of the [Iranian] Islamic nation’s fury.”

While the speech was widely condemned, Mr Corbyn wrote in 2005 for the extreme-left Morning Star: “The opportunity provided by Ahmadinejad’s speech should be used to build dialogue with and within Iran and, of course, on the issue of Palestine. The context overlooked by the sensationalist headlines was that his speech also pointed out what Israel is doing to Palestine. All the righteous indignation never mentioned a few salient points. Israel has illegal and undeclared nuclear weapons, has not signed the non proliferation treaty and continues to develop them.”

Mr Corbyn could not have been in any doubt about the antisemitic nature of the speech, delivered as it was from behind a lectern bearing the title of the event: “The world without Zionism”, however Mr Corbyn did not include any condemnation of the speech, despite it attracting opprobrium from around the world. Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, former US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and more than a dozen other civic and religious leaders joined with demonstrators outside Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York. Former British Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown also condemned the speech, using an address to the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, in 2008 to say: “To those who believe that threatening statements fall upon indifferent ears we say in one voice: it is totally abhorrent for the President of Iran to call for Israel to be wiped from the map of the world.”

Mr Corbyn’s article was unearthed by investigative journalist Iggy Ostanin.

In addition to seeking a new Holocaust by calling for the annihilation of the Jewish state, Mr Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was a “myth” and a “lie” and hosted a Holocaust denial conference in 2006 attended by David Duke, the former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.

The latest revelation of Mr Corbyn’s disturbing writings comes just a few days after Hamas, the terrorist organisation which seeks the murder of all Jews worldwide, issued a statement to “salute” Jeremy Corbyn for supporting last weekend’s antisemitic march through London. It said that it had “great respect and appreciation [sic] the solidarity message sent by the British Labor [sic] Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn.”

Mr Corbyn was formerly paid tens of thousands of pounds to appear on Press TV, the Iranian-run channel, even after it was banned in the UK.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 55,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

A swastika has been carved on a lift in the Norman Shaw North Building of the Parliamentary Estate in London.

The disturbing discovery was made by Oliver Denton Lieberman, the Office Manager for Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, Tulip Siddiq. Mr Lieberman tweeted: “Unbelievable but true — someone has scratched a swastika into the door of our lift in Parliament. Nazi graffiti in the Mother of Parliaments. A sickening act.” He added that he has reported the vandalism to the police.

A spokesperson for the House of Commons told the Jewish News: “We are aware of some highly offensive graffiti in a lift on the Estate and it will be removed as a matter of urgency.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism condemns this appalling act in the heart of British democracy and thanks the House of Commons staff for their swift response.

Jack Renshaw, the former spokesman for National Action, a neo-Nazi terrorist group with a deep rooted antisemitic ideology, has been sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 20 years, over his plot to kill his MP, Rosie Cooper.

Mr Renshaw denied being a member of National Action and a jury was unable to reach a verdict on that charge in April last year.

National Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in December 2016 following a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others. Under section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000, membership of a proscribed terrorist organisation is a criminal offence.

Mr Renshaw was sentenced at the Old Bailey for preparing acts of terrorism against Ms Cooper and for threatening to kill a police officer who had been investigating him. He pleaded guilty to both offences last year.

As he was led away in court, he reportedly made what appeared to be a Nazi salute. The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute, is grossly offensive to Jews and is a well-known fascist gesture.

In sentencing Mr Renshaw, Justice McGowan said that: “Your perverted view of history and current politics has caused you to believe it right to demonise groups simply because they are different from you. This is a case in which only a sentence of life imprisonment can meet the appalling seriousness of your offending.”

In 2017, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) decided to prosecute Mr Renshaw after lawyers for Campaign Against Antisemitism wrote to declare our intention to launch a private prosecution. Mr Renshaw was charged with two offences of incitement to racial hatred in relation to speeches made in 2016, as well as his tweets.

In a video of one of Renshaw’s speeches, he is heard to say: “Now, the refugee problem is part of a bigger problem. It’s a symptom of a disease. That disease is international Jewry. In World War Two, we took the wrong side. We should have been fighting the communists. Instead, we took the side of the communists, and fought the National Socialists who were there to remove Jewry from Europe once and for all. That’s what the Final Solution was. Instead, we let these parasites live among us, and they still do. They get into our councils, they get into our institutions, they get into our parliament, they run our banks, they run all of the companies we see around us. But we let these people, we let these people destroy us, and they are still destroying us now. And we’re pointing fingers at the symptoms and not the disease. Let’s cure the disease and then cure all of the symptoms by default…You can call me Nazi, you can call me fascist, that is what I am.”

Echoing his normal rhetoric, a Twitter account allegedly operated by Mr Renshaw was used to attack Jews, with one tweet declaring: “Jews are financial and cultural parasites, destroying Europe. Let’s actually start the ovens this time. #Holohoax #WithJewsWeLose #NSForever”. Another tweet claimed that the Holocaust was a hoax: “2.4 million Jews were living in Nazi territories, 3.8 million of those Jews applied for reparations and 6 million died? #BasicMath #Holohoax”.

Chris Skidmore, the Minister of State for Universities, has urged all of the UK’s higher education institutions to formally adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism.

In a letter to all universities, Mr Skidmore wrote that: “Institutions like King’s College London are already displaying leadership in this area but I expect our universities, as vehicles of change, to show moral leadership and adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which shows that an institution and its senior leaders are serious about ensuring their campuses are tolerant environments where ideas and debate can flourish but persecution can never take hold.”

The Department for Education (DfE) posted a video on Twitter reiterating the message and calling on universities to adopt the definition. Mr Skidmore met with Jewish students yesterday to hear about their concerns and experiences of antisemitism on campus.

Jewish students sometimes suffer appalling intimidation, abuse and even violence at British universities.

The National Union of Students has adopted the definition, but the University and College Union has rejected it.

Campaign Against Antisemitism applauds Mr Skidmore for taking this measure which demonstrates the Government’s support for Jewish students.

Students who would like advice or help can e-mail us at [email protected].

Britain was the first country in the world to adopt the Definition, something for which Campaign Against Antisemitism, Lord Eric Pickles and others worked hard for over many meetings with officials at Downing Street.

Hamas, the terrorist organisation which seeks the murder of all Jews worldwide, has issued a statement in which it “salutes” Jeremy Corbyn for supporting this weekend’s antisemitic march through London. It said that it had “great respect and appreciation [sic] the solidarity message sent by the British Labor [sic] Party Leader, Jeremy Corbyn”.

Only one leader of a British political party could expect to be “saluted” by Hamas, the genocidal antisemitic terrorist organisation. Clearly Hamas feels that when it comes to Jews, Jeremy Corbyn is a brother in arms. Who could say that they are wrong after he gave his fulsome backing to this weekend’s chilling antisemitic rally, attended by both the leader of the National Front and known members of the Muslim Brotherhood?

Almost 55,000 people have signed our petition stating that Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite and unfit for public office.

Hamas’ statement, which was first reported by Mail Online Global Editor Jake Wallis-Simons, comes in response to Mr Corbyn’s decision to warmly back an antisemitic march through London at the weekend. He sent a statement to be read out by Diane Abbott, which was received with cheers by the crowd, amongst which were Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon, National Front leader Tony Martin, and known members of the Muslim Brotherhood. The crowd began cheering at the mere mention of Mr Corbyn’s name and applause and cheering continued as his statement was read. The cheers were videoed by a Twitter user who is well-known to Campaign Against Antisemitism for sending Jews abuse online.

The march, entitled the “National Demonstration for Palestine: Exist! Resist! Return!”, was organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), of which Mr Corbyn is patron. Mr Corbyn has long championed the PSC, attending many of its events, including one of which at which he was filmed applauding antisemitic poetry.

Marchers also cheered as one speaker told them that American Rabbis fuelled the neo-Nazis who shot and killed worshippers at synagogues in the United States, and that Jewish organisations and leaders were “in the gutter with…rats” and “part of the problem”. The speaker was then put in charge of antisemitism training at an official Labour Party event.

Volunteers from Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit went into the thick of the protest to gather evidence which our Crime Unit is already reviewing.

Under a heavy police presence, protesters assembled outside the BBC headquarters and marched to Whitehall, the heart of British democracy, via iconic Regent Street. The BBC is just a short walk from Central Synagogue where many Jews were gathered for the Sabbath.

Various placards and badges on brazen display drew upon antisemitic conspiracy theories. One large placard declared that “Israel provokes antisemitism”. A badge emblazoned with a Star of David with a Nazi swastika in its midst proclaimed “Down with Zionism”. Another placard repeated the rhyme frequently chanted by the marchers; “From the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea, Palestine will be free”, which only makes sense as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state and its replacement with a Palestinian state, and is thus an attempt to uniquely deny Jews the right to self-determination. One marcher held aloft a placard suggesting that the BBC is controlled by the Israeli Prime Minister, whilst others hinted strongly at blood libels, carrying a coffin emblazoned with a claim that “Israelis execute Palestinian children” while another held a placard showing a diamond dripping with blood, stating that Israel exports “blood diamonds”, a phrase normally used to refer to diamonds mined by war criminals, usually using child slave labour.

The leader of the National Front, Tony Martin, attended the march, as did known Islamist extremists spotted by our volunteers, including one who was wearing the emblem of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Activists from “Labour Against Zionist Islamophobic Racism” or LAZIR, founded by Pete Gregson, who was reportedly expelled from the GMB Union over his claims that Israel “exaggerates” the Nazi Germany’s genocide of six million Jews “for political ends” and who seeks to drive “Zionism out of the Labour Party”, handed out leaflets claiming that Zionism, the movement to grant Jews self-determination, is “racism”.

Marching alongside them was the antisemitism-denial group, the sham Jewish Voice for Labour. Its Secretary, Glyn Secker, made a speech which was rapturously received, claiming that Jews were “in the gutter” and “part of the problem”.

Holding American Rabbis responsible for fuelling the neo-Nazis behind antisemitic terrorism, including the fatal terrorist attack on Poway synagogue, Mr Secker claimed that they were “unleashing the extreme-right to win key votes in marginal states which determine the presidency”.

He then called 119 Labour MPs who are “friends of Israel” a “fifth column in the Labour Party led by [Dame Margaret] Hodge and [Tom] Watson and the Jewish Labour Movement.” Upon hearing the name of the Jewish Labour Movement, the crowd booed loudly.

“What on earth are Jews doing in the gutter with these rats?” Mr Secker asked, after claiming that the “Zionist Federation embraces the [far-right] English Defence League”, which is a fabrication. The crowd responded with calls of “Ban then from the Labour Party”.

Mr Secker then asked when Jews would fight fascism, before building to a crescendo: “Here’s a warning to the [British] Jewish leadership, while you foment your campaign of allegations of antisemitism against Corbyn and the left to silence Israel’s critics, while you cry wolf month after month, year after year in the Labour Party and remain blind to the explosion of the far-right and Islamophobia, you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” The crowd cheered, by Mr Secker continued: “You serve to protect the poison that would destroy both our freedom and yours. Well brothers and sisters, we are on the side of the Palestinians. We are on the side of the freedom marchers of ghetto Gaza.”

Labour leaders previously intervened to stop Mr Secker from being punished under the Party’s disciplinary process.

Following his speech, Mr Secker has been put in charge of antisemitism training at an official Labour Party event.

Ahed Tamimi, who served almost eight months in prison in Israel for assault, was the star attraction and addressed the crowd briefly. She finished her speech by repeating the antisemitic chant: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit saw no attempt by stewards from the PSC to remonstrate with any of the speakers or marchers.

Richard Burgon, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, who previously claimed that “Zionism is the enemy of peace” having told a court under oath that he had said no such thing, also addressed the crowd. The fact that Mr Burgon and Ms Abbott, such senior Labour politicians, attended an event which saw widespread antisemitism should be a cause for considerable concern.

The marchers, however, did not have the streets of central London to themselves. A brave group of anti-terrorism activists waving Israeli flags confronted the marchers.

The protest was organised by the PSC, Stop the War Coalition, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Friends of Al- Aqsa and the Muslim Association of Britain. It was supported by the pro-Corbyn Momentum faction of the Labour Party as well as trade unions Unite, PCS, Unison, GMB, RMT, ASLEF, UCU, NEU, TSSA, CWU, and other organisations including the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Amos Trust charity.

An investigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism in 2017 exposed extensive antisemitic bigotry amongst supporters of the PSC. Just this week, an Evening Standard investigation uncovered supporters of the PSC sharing antisemitic posts comparing Israelis to Nazis. The shocking antisemitic posts reportedly included a cartoon comparing Israeli Jews with white power neo-Nazis and an image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bathing in Palestinian blood, posing with Adolf Hitler.

The march was a clear example of the coalition of antisemitism that British Jews now find themselves the target of. The far-left, the far-right and Islamist extremists clearly all share a common hatred of Jews.

We are now reviewing the evidence that we gathered at the march. Where crimes were committed, we will work with the authorities to ensure that there are arrests and prosecutions.

As for Jeremy Corbyn, his actions clearly show that he is an antisemite who is unfit for office.

Glyn Secker, the Secretary of the the antisemitism-denial group, the sham Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL), who said that Jewish organisations are “in the gutter” and “part of the problem”, will reportedly be giving training on antisemitism to Labour members at an official Labour Party event.

According to the JC, an advertisement on Labour’s official website confirms that Mr Secker will be giving a presentation to Reading and District Labour Party on 30th May. He will deliver the talk in his role as Secretary of JVL.

On Saturday, Mr Secker made a speech at the “National Demonstration for Palestine” in central London which was rapturously received, claiming that Jews were “in the gutter” and “part of the problem”.

Holding American Rabbis responsible for fuelling the neo-Nazis behind antisemitic terrorism, including the fatal terrorist attack on Poway synagogue, Mr Secker claimed that they were “unleashing the extreme-right to win key votes in marginal states which determine the presidency”.

He then called 119 Labour MPs who are “friends of Israel” a “fifth column in the Labour Party led by [Dame Margaret] Hodge and [Tom] Watson and the Jewish Labour Movement.” Upon hearing the name of the Jewish Labour Movement, the crowd booed loudly.

“What on earth are Jews doing in the gutter with these rats?” Mr Secker asked, after claiming that the “Zionist Federation embraces the [far-right] English Defence League”, which is a fabrication. The crowd responded with calls of “Ban then from the Labour Party”.

Mr Secker then asked when Jews would fight fascism, before building to a crescendo: “Here’s a warning to the [British] Jewish leadership, while you foment your campaign of allegations of antisemitism against Corbyn and the left to silence Israel’s critics, while you cry wolf month after month, year after year in the Labour Party and remain blind to the explosion of the far-right and Islamophobia, you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” The crowd cheered, by Mr Secker continued: “You serve to protect the poison that would destroy both our freedom and yours. Well brothers and sisters, we are on the side of the Palestinians. We are on the side of the freedom marchers of ghetto Gaza.”

The protest saw open antisemitism from attendees. Numerous antisemitic banners and placards were carried through the streets, including one declaring that “Israel provokes antisemitism.” In attendance were senior Labour MPs, known members of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Tony Martin, the leader of the neo-Nazi National Front.

Labour leaders previously intervened to stop Mr Secker from being punished under the Party’s disciplinary process.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Almost 55,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

On six separate occasions during a programme commissioned by the BBC to mark last year’s riots on Gaza’s border with Israel, the Arabic word for ‘Jew’ was translated as ‘Israeli’ in an apparent attempt to sanitise the rioters’ hatred of Jews. During the programme, entitled One Day in Gaza, the rioters spoke about their involvement in the riots, the protestors referred to ‘Yahudi’, or its plural ‘Yahud’. The only correct translation of this is ‘Jew’ or ‘Jews’, however, the BBC made the editorial decision to substitute ‘Israeli’ or ‘Israelis’ in its subtitled translation, in an apparent attempt to give the impression that Hamas supporters want to kill Israeli Jews but not Jews elsewhere.

In one interview, a young Palestinian man describes in Arabic how “The revolutionary songs excite you, they encourage you rip a Jew’s head off.” The translation provided by the BBC replaced “Jew” with “Israeli”.

In another clip, a Palestinian woman tells the interviewer, “When we wanted to cross the fence, some of us distracted the Jews with stones and Molotov Cocktails.” Again, the translation was shown as “Israeli” instead of “Jew”.

The population of Israel includes Jews, Christians, Muslims and people of other faiths. The BBC’s substitution of ‘Israeli’ for ‘Jew’ appears to be a deliberate attempt to whitewash the murderous antisemitism of Hamas supporters. Hamas is proscribed as a terrorist organisation and seeks the genocide of all Jews worldwide.

Campaign Against Antisemitism will be making a formal complaint to Ofcom about the BBC’s misleading reporting of this highly sensitive issue.

A white nationalist and neo-Nazi online discussion forum received 80,000 visits from people in the UK, Prime Minister Theresa May has revealed.

According to The Times, the work by the Home Office’s Office for Security and Counter Terrorism shows that the white nationalist and neo-Nazi discussion forum had 12 million posts during its lifetime. In one month it had 800,000 visits, with 80,000 appearing to originate from the UK.

The Prime Minister joined world leaders at the Online Extremism Summit in Paris to focus on international efforts to stop social media being used to organise and promote terrorism. The summit was prompted by the terrorist attack at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in March, in which 51 people died during an attack that was live streamed on Facebook.

At the summit, the Prime Minister signed up to the “Christchurch Call To Action” pledge to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online. She called for consistent standards to keep internet users safe from harm and said that it is time to confront the growing threat from the far-right. Home Office figures published last year showed that the number of people referred to Prevent, the counter-extremism programme, for concerns over extreme right-wing activity rose by more than a third to 1,312 out of 7,318 referrals in 2017-2018, up from 968 in the previous year.

The summit was also attended by Justin Trudeau, the Canadian Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s Chief Executive and Sir Nick Clegg, Head of Global Affairs at Facebook.

National Action, a neo-Nazi group with deep rooted antisemitic ideologies, was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in December 2016 following a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others. Under section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000, membership of a proscribed terrorist organisation is a criminal offence.

Bridget Prentice, the former Labour minister and MP for Lewisham East, has resigned from the Party over its failure to tackle antisemitism.

In a letter posted on Twitter, Ms Prentice wrote: “Over the past three years I have watched in horror as Jewish members have begged for support against the growth of antisemitism both within and out with the Party. Mealy-mouthed words have replaced what should have been strong and determined condemnation of bigots and bullies. The response was slow, reluctant and inadequate…For a pregnant woman MP [Luciana Berger, who is Jewish] to be bullied out of the Party is shameful and embarrassing.”

In response, a Labour Party spokesperson issued the hackneyed and meaningless lie that: “The Labour Party is absolutely committed to challenging and campaigning against antisemitism in all its forms and wherever it occurs.”

Ms Prentice, a Labour Party member for 45 years, served as a Labour MP for Lewisham East from 1992 to 2010 as well as serving as a government whip and a junior minister.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

Almost 55,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

Witness are being sought over two antisemitic attacks by the same perpetrator on Saturday 4th May as Jews returned home from synagogue in St John’s Wood, in London.

The first attack took place at approximately 12:10 directly outside St John’s Wood Synagogue on Grove End Road. Two men, one of them elderly and walking very slowly with a stick, were accosted by a man walking in the opposite direction. As he approached them, he turned and said “You f***ing Jews”, following up with a torrent of antisemitic abuse. The Jewish men were concerned that their abuser might become violent, so they walked away, at which point the younger Jewish man was kicked hard from behind. He called for security from the synagogue who spoke to the abuser, who they think they might have seen before in the area, whilst the Jewish men walked away.

Approximately five minutes later, the same man perpetrated a second attack, this time on Hall Road against a Jewish father walking home with his two young sons. The man chased after the family, shouting: “You’re scum! You’re all scum! Your people are scum! Disgusting people. F*** you! F*** your sons!” The father, concerned for his children grabbed their hands and crossed the road, but the man followed them, shouting: “Take that revolting thing off your head!” The father instructed his children to run home ahead of him as fast as they could.

The assailant then became distracted by the driver of a white saloon car that was waiting at the traffic lights on Hall Road, giving the father time to catch up with his children and run home with them.

The perpetrator of both attacks has been described to Campaign Against Antisemitism as a lean black man aged around 30 and 191 centimetres (6 feet and 3 inches) tall. At the time of the attacks, he was attired in a track suit with a red and grey top, and a black baseball cap emblazoned with the logo of the Los Angeles Raiders in white outline.

These attacks were committed in broad daylight against people walking with very young children and an elderly man. The perpetrator was violent and persistently abusive, in each case continuing his abuse while his victims tried to get away from him. It is important that he is brought to justice.

Anybody with information about the man described should call the police by dialling 101 and citing crime number 6531054/19, or e-mail Campaign Against Antisemitism at [email protected]. It would be especially helpful to hear from anyone who thinks that they may have seen this man before, was walking or driving in the area, or may have a CCTV system that may have recorded the roads between Grove End Road and Hall Road that afternoon.

BuzzFeed News has obtained hundreds of internal Labour Party e-mails revealing that Labour’s Compliance Unit took took months to act over antisemitism cases, including procrastinating for a year before eventually launching a formal investigation into comments by the disgraced former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.

The e-mails were passed to BuzzFeed News by a former Labour Party official and a member of the Labour International group, who both said that they wanted to expose failings in the Compliance Unit’s response to antisemitism complaints before Jennie Formby became General Secretary in April 2018.

According to BuzzFeed News, e-mails between two former senior members of the Labour Compliance Unit, Sam Matthews and John Stolliday, and other Party officials also show that the unit took more than a year to suspend a member who defended fascist participants in the 1936 Battle of Cable Street, and eight months to suspend a council candidate who posted an articleclaiming that the Holocaust was a “hoax”.

In the case of Mr Livingstone, BuzzFeed News revealed that Labour’s Compliance Unit failed to launch a formal investigation over comments he made while he was suspended.

According to the e-mails, in January 2018 concerns were raised with Laura Murray that Mr Livingstone was due to be readmitted to the Party in April that year, as his suspension for his comments claiming that Hitler supported Zionism was due to come to an end.

Ms Murray is the disgraced senior parliamentary aide to Mr Corbyn who was formally appointed to lead the Labour Party’s disciplinary process. She was exposed for intervening to prevent the suspension of alleged antisemite Pat Sheerin from the Labour Party. In leaked e-mails, she said that she intervened on behalf of Mr Corbyn himself.

The e-mails show that Labour’s Compliance Unit had received a number of further complaints about comments made by Mr Livingstone in interviews after his hearing at the Party’s National Constitutional Committee (NCC) in April 2017, but failed to order a formal investigation in the nine months that followed.

Compliance Unit official John Stolliday confirmed in an e-mail to Ms Murray that: “A second suspension was not applied, so he will come back into membership in April. The Party received a small number of complaints about his comments after the NCC hearing. We haven’t formally opened a new investigation yet, and that is a conversation we will have over here.” He added that the situation meant that Mr Livingstone was due to be “unsuspended shortly before the local elections.” He said that he recognised this was “not ideal in terms of campaigning.”

Ms Murray then asked Mr Stolliday if Mr Livingstone’s existing suspension could be extended. She wrote that it would be “disastrous for him to be reinstated as a member just two weeks before the local elections” and requested that the compliance unit inform her of its decision.

Yet Mr Livingstone faced no action until March when he eventually had his suspension extended, nearly a whole year after the new complaints were received and two months after Ms Murray’s request.

The former Labour official who passed BuzzFeed News the e-mails claimed: “Even after Laura Murray’s intervention, it still took the Compliance unit another two months to extend Ken Livingstone’s suspension, and that was nearly a year after they received the complaints. All the time the possibility of Livingstone being reinstated meant the party was being dragged through the mud in the press.”

In response to this expose, a Labour Party source told BuzzFeed News that since becoming General Secretary, Jennie Formby has sped up the process for dealing with antisemitism complaints. They claim that between April 2018 and January 2019, 96 members were handed suspensions and 12 were expelled.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

Central London was brought to a chaotic standstill today as thousands marched and rallied against Israel at the “National Demonstration for Palestine: Exist! Resist! Return!”

The march saw open antisemitism from attendees, many of whom cheered as one speaker told adoring crowds that Jewish organisations are “in the gutter” and “part of the problem”. Numerous antisemitic banners and placards were carried through the streets, including one declaring that “Israel provokes antisemitism.” In attendance were senior Labour MPs, known Islamist extremists, and Tony Martin, the leader of the neo-Nazi National Front.

Volunteers from Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit went into the thick of the protest to gather evidence which our Crime Unit is already reviewing.

Under a heavy police presence, protesters assembled outside the BBC headquarters and marched to Whitehall, the heart of British democracy, via iconic Regent Street. The BBC is just a short walk from Central Synagogue where many Jews were gathered for the Sabbath.

Various placards and badges on brazen display drew upon antisemitic conspiracy theories. One large placard declared that “Israel provokes antisemitism”. A badge emblazoned with a Star of David with a Nazi swastika in its midst proclaimed “Down with Zionism”. Another placard repeated the rhyme frequently chanted by the marchers; “From the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea, Palestine will be free”, which only makes sense as a call for the destruction of the Jewish state and its replacement with a Palestinian state, and is thus an attempt to uniquely deny Jews the right to self-determination. One marcher held aloft a placard suggesting that the BBC is controlled by the Israeli Prime Minister, whilst others hinted strongly at blood libels, carrying a coffin emblazoned with a claim that “Israelis execute Palestinian children” while another held a placard showing a diamond dripping with blood, stating that Israel exports “blood diamonds”, a phrase normally used to refer to diamonds mined by war criminals, usually using child slave labour.

Known Islamist extremists were also spotted by our volunteers, including one who was wearing the emblem of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Activists from “Labour Against Zionist Islamophobic Racism” or LAZIR, founded by Pete Gregson, who was reportedly expelled from the GMB Union over his claims that Israel “exaggerates” the Nazi Germany’s genocide of six million Jews “for political ends” and who seeks to drive “Zionism out of the Labour Party”, handed out leaflets claiming that Zionism, the movement to grant Jews self-determination, is “racism”.

Marching alongside them was the antisemitism-denial group, the sham Jewish Voice for Labour. Its Secretary, Glyn Secker, made a speech which was rapturously received, claiming that Jews were “in the gutter” and “part of the problem”.

Holding American Rabbis responsible for fuelling the neo-Nazis behind antisemitic terrorism, including the fatal terrorist attack on Poway synagogue, Mr Secker claimed that they were “unleashing the extreme-right to win key votes in marginal states which determine the presidency”.

He then called 119 Labour MPs who are “friends of Israel” a “fifth column in the Labour Party led by [Dame Margaret] Hodge and [Tom] Watson and the Jewish Labour Movement.” Upon hearing the name of the Jewish Labour Movement, the crowd booed loudly.

“What on earth are Jews doing in the gutter with these rats?” Mr Secker asked, after claiming that the “Zionist Federation embraces the [far-right] English Defence League”, which is a fabrication. The crowd responded with calls of “Ban then from the Labour Party”.

Mr Secker then asked when Jews would fight fascism, before building to a crescendo: “Here’s a warning to the [British] Jewish leadership, while you foment your campaign of allegations of antisemitism against Corbyn and the left to silence Israel’s critics, while you cry wolf month after month, year after year in the Labour Party and remain blind to the explosion of the far-right and Islamophobia, you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” The crowd cheered, by Mr Secker continued: “You serve to protect the poison that would destroy both our freedom and yours. Well brothers and sisters, we are on the side of the Palestinians. We are on the side of the freedom marchers of ghetto Gaza.”

Labour leaders previously intervened to stop Mr Secker from being punished under the Party’s disciplinary process.

Ahed Tamimi, who served almost eight months in prison in Israel for assault, was the star attraction and addressed the crowd briefly. She finished her speech by repeating the antisemitic chant: “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit saw no attempt by stewards from the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) to remonstrate with any of the speakers or marchers.

Jeremy Corbyn, who is patron of the PSC, gave the march his ringing endorsement. A statement from him was read out by Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott and videoed by a Twitter user who is well-known to us for sending Jews abuse online. The crowd began cheering at the mere mention of Mr Corbyn’s name and applause and cheering continued as his statement was read. Mr Corbyn has long championed the PSC, attending many of its events, including one of which at which he was filmed applauding antisemitic poetry.

Richard Burgon, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, who previously claimed that “Zionism is the enemy of peace” having told a court under oath that he had said no such thing, also addressed the crowd. The fact that Mr Burgon and Ms Abbott, such senior Labour politicians, attended an event which saw widespread antisemitism should be a cause for considerable concern.

The marchers, however, did not have the streets of central London to themselves. A brave group of anti-terrorism activists waving Israeli flags confronted the marchers.

The protest was organised by the PSC, Stop the War Coalition, Palestinian Forum in Britain, Friends of Al- Aqsa and the Muslim Association of Britain. It was supported by the pro-Corbyn Momentum faction of the Labour Party as well as trade unions Unite, PCS, Unison, GMB, RMT, ASLEF, UCU, NEU, TSSA, CWU, and other organisations including the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Amos Trust charity.

An investigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism in 2017 exposed extensive antisemitic bigotry amongst supporters of the PSC. Just this week, an Evening Standard investigation uncovered supporters of the PSC sharing antisemitic posts comparing Israelis to Nazis. The shocking antisemitic posts reportedly included a cartoon comparing Israeli Jews with white power neo-Nazis and an image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bathing in Palestinian blood, posing with Adolf Hitler.

The fact that this march saw such brazen displays of antisemitism, with warm support for and from the Labour Party and major trade unions, as well as with the attendance of Islamists and at least one neo-Nazi leader, clearly shows the coalition of antisemitism that British Jews now find themselves the target of. The far-left, the far-right and Islamist extremists clearly all share a common hatred of Jews, and they all attempt to conceal their antisemitism as opposition the world’s only Jewish state.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Crime Unit is now reviewing the evidence gathered today by the volunteers of our Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit. Where crimes have been committed, we will pursue prosecutions.

Today The Times published an article on its front page claiming that children who attend private schools in the UK face discrimination akin to Nazi propaganda.

In the article, Dr Anthony Wallersteiner, headmaster at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire, complained that the universities of Oxford and Cambridge had been reducing the number of places that they offered to pupils from private schools.

However, without a trace of disagreement, The Times then wrote: “Dr Wallersteiner, who is of Jewish descent, also likened criticism of private schools and the elite to antisemitic abuse, saying: ‘The rise of populists and polemicists has created a micro-industry in bashing private schools. Some of the criticisms echo the conspiratorial language of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. It was relatively easy for Hitler and his henchmen to suggest that the Jewish minority was over-represented in key professions: medicine, law, teaching and the creative industries. Privately educated pupils in the UK are also being accused of dominating the top jobs and stifling social mobility…it is all too facile to stereotype groups and ignore the fact that lawyers, doctors, writers and politicians are individuals.’”

Nazi propaganda against Jews was used to generate public support not only for exclusion from education but also for brutal beatings, boycotts, degradation and eventually the mass murder of six million Jewish men, women and children.

Tasteless Holocaust analogies do not belong in the debate about education in this country. Moreover, they do not belong on the front page of respected national newspapers.

Campaign Against Antisemitism calls on The Times to apologise for publishing Dr Wallersteiner’s remarks without editorial indication of their absurdity, and investigate how such an offensive comparison came to pass all of the many levels of editorial supervision to be published on the front page. It is clear that senior members of the editorial team responsible for this decision are in dire need of history lessons.

It has emerged that in 2005, Andrew Murray, a close adviser to Jeremy Corbyn, authored an article in which he claimed that the roots of the 9/11 terror attacks lay in “Zionist colonialism” of the Balfour Declaration.

The comments, which appeared in an article that he wrote for the extreme-left Morning Star newspaper, have been exposed by investigative journalist Iggy Ostanin.

Mr Murray, who is the Unite union’s Chief of Staff, suggested that the 9/11 attacks were a criminal act rather than an act of war. He continued: “Even if one considers it a war, only the most Anglo-Saxon-centric commentator could consider it the start of the war. For millions around the world, the ‘war’ began with the Anglo-French seizure of Arab lands as the Ottoman empire rotted, with the Balfour declaration in 1917 giving the green light to Zionist colonialism.”

In March this year, The Times reported that Mr Murray remarked in a 2008 book that: “Hitler is uniquely excoriated because his victims were almost all white Europeans.”

Mr Murray sparked controversy when he reportedly linked the 2017 Manchester Arena bombing to UK foreign policy. He said that he condemned attack “without reservation” but argued British action abroad had “contributed to the environment in which these sorts of atrocities take place.”

Mr Murray also reportedly took an interest in lifting the suspension of activist, Glyn Secker, who was accused of antisemitism, according to leaked e-mails. According to The Sunday Times, Mr Secker was being investigated for joining the antisemitism-infested Palestine Live Facebook group, whose members had posted conspiracy theories about supposed Israeli involvement in the 9/11 terror attacks, but Mr Corbyn’s Director of Strategy and Communications, Seamus Milne, told Party officials to reinstate Mr Secker. Mr Murray said that Mr Corbyn himself was “interested in this one.”

Mr Murray’s daughter, Laura, is the disgraced senior parliamentary aide to Mr Corbyn who was formally appointed to lead the Labour Party’s disciplinary process. She was exposed for intervening to prevent the suspension of alleged antisemite Pat Sheerin from the Labour Party. In leaked e-mails, she said that she intervened on behalf of Mr Corbyn himself.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

The Asian Image has exposed a conspiracy-theory laden antisemitic video that blames Jews for deliberately increasing the gas content in carbonated drinks during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Campaign Against Antisemitism thanks and commends The Asian Image for reporting this story and for bravely calling out antisemitism. The Asian Image is the “North West’s biggest and most widely read Asian Newspaper.”

The newspaper voices concerns about the dissemination of antisemitic videos, stating: “One of the most alarming features is how people are now sharing videos without realising the antisemitic nature of the content. Some of these are in English but a growing number are in other languages.”

It concludes with: “If a video was being shared which supported anti-Muslim conspiracy theories there would indeed be understandable uproar. So, why are we so irresponsible when it comes to such content?”

In the video, a man speaking Urdu states that it is important not to begin fasting with carbonated drinks, claiming that cold and carbonated drinks can even cause death. He then claims that many carbonated drinks companies are owned and run by Jews who have “purposely planned” to increase the carbonation of some soft drinks, and that according to the Quran, Muslims are not permitted to have relations or friendships with Jews in any way.

This is one of the most bizarre antisemitic conspiracy theories that we have come across and we applaud The Asian Image for bringing this to the attention of their large readership. The persecution of Jews has often been underpinned by the idea that Jews participate in secret and sinister plots to exert wide-ranging control throughout the world.

The Labour Party has succeeded in standing Rachel Abbotts as a councillor in Derbyshire amid claims that the Party totally ignored a complaint that she had posted on Facebook that “the Jews declared war on Germany in 1933.” Despite the complaint being passed to the local MP, Ruth George, the national Labour Party said that it had no record of a complaint and the local Labour Party said that the post was not antisemitic because Cllr Abbotts had shared it without commenting on it.

According to the JC, Cllr Abbotts posted the neo-Nazi material in 2016 as she took part in a discussion on Facebook with her partner, Mark Abbotts. He had told another person that: “people seem to forget that it was the Jews who declared war on Germany”, before attempting to share a link to back up his claim. When he could not share it, he wrote that: “Hitler stated that no-one will ever ask the victors if they told the truth…and its [sic] probably isn’t available, the truth apparently rarely is, but its [sic] still true…”

Cllr Abbotts then reportedly shared a screenshot of the article that her partner appeared to be referring to, an article republished on a website called “Wintersonnenwende”, which attempts to rehabilitate the image of Hitler and the Nazi regime.

According to Wintersonnewende, the article was originally published on The Barnes Review, a website the Southern Poverty Law Center calls “one of the most virulent antisemitic organisations around…dedicated to historical revisionism and Holocaust denial.” The article put the words “The Holocaust” in quotation marks and claimed that “Jewish leaders, in combination with powerful international Jewish financial interests” boycotted Germany “for the express purpose” of crippling the economy to bring down the Nazis. It added that Jewish people “effectively fired the first shot in the Second World War.”

It also claimed that the Nazis never planned to exterminate Jews and that the deportation of German Jews to the East was in response to “the leadership of the world Jewish community [having] formally declared war on Germany…the German authorities thus deemed Jews to be potential enemy agents.”

Complaints about the material Cllr Abbotts shared online were sent to local Labour MP Ruth George and in February she said that she had passed it on to the local and national Labour Party, according to the JC. The Party’s complaints unit, however, claimed to have no record of receiving the material and is now investigating “urgently”. Ms George herself was implicated in antisemitism and was forced to apologise in February after she suggested that the MPs who quit Labour to set up Change UK due to antisemitism may have been “financially backed” by Israel.

Fiona Sloman, who chairs the High Peak Constituency Labour Party, told the JC that the local Party became aware of the matter in February but stressed that “sole responsibility for investigating such matters lies with the national Labour Party.” The local Party met to re-examine Cllr Abbotts’ nomination for the council but found “no evidence of antisemitism on Rachel’s part”, she added, saying Cllr Abbotts had shared the article without commenting on it.

Cllr Abbotts was elected a Labour councillor on High Peak Borough Council in Derbyshire in the local elections last week, giving Labour a majority of just one seat.

In response to the exposé, Cllr Abbotts posted on Facebook that she was “deeply and sincerely sorry” for what happened. She claimed that she shared the article to dispute and not support her partner’s argument, saying there were “serious health issues” affecting both her and her partner, who “after talking it through, realised [his argument] was wrong.” Cllr Abbotts said this “in no way excuses what happened but I hope it provides some degree of context.” She said the suggestion Jewish people “declared war” on the Nazis was “an obviously wrong and clearly antisemitic claim.”

This is further proof that the Labour Party is institutionally antisemitic.

Another Derbyshire activist was implicated in the Labour antisemitic crisis recently. The Jewish News reported that Kasey Carver, who was photographed with convicted Holocaust denier Alison Chabloz, stood for Labour for the St John’s Ward in High Peak but failed to win a seat.

Ms Chabloz was convicted of criminal offences in relation to songs mocking Holocaust survivors and claiming that the Holocaust was a Jewish fraud. She was convicted in the first case of its kind, following a private prosecution by Campaign Against Antisemitism, which the Crown eventually agreed to take over. She appealed the decision in the Crown Court and the conviction was upheld in February this year, setting a new precedent. Ms Carver, a committee member of Glossop Labour Club, was reported to the Party’s Governance and Legal Unit, as confirmed by local MP Ruth George a year ago. Ms Carver reportedly organised fundraising events with the group Glossop for Kids in Gaza which were attended by Ms Chabloz. A photograph from 2014 shared by Glossop for Kids in Gaza shows Ms Carver with Ms Chabloz and other activists holding up a Palestinian flag at an event. The photograph appears on Ms Chabloz’s Facebook page. Ms Carver told the Jewish News that: “I ran those benefits and [Chabloz] sang in one of them and that’s the photograph you refer to. She came to those benefits often. Then she left the area and then it came to our attention [in 2016] that some of the stuff she was putting out was outrageous antisemitism.”

Screenshots of deleted Facebook posts sent from Carver’s personal account have been widely circulated online. A Facebook post from 2015 linked back to a blog post published on the website “Semitic Controversies”, above which Ms Carver commented: “Just looked at the potentially Zionist influence of the BBC.” Another deleted post linked to a story published in “Global Research CA”, which suggested that Israel backs ISIS. The post read that: “Various indications of Israel support for ISIS in the past but this is looking more convincing. If true, just shows what a mixed up and morally reprehensible mess that has been created in Syria.” Ms Carver told the Jewish News: “I regret that and I have been to antisemitism training then and I am very much more aware of the sensitivity of the [BBC] post and I have apologised.” She added that she had not intended to promote the view that Israel backs ISIS. She added “Our branch has been put on antisemitism training to make people more aware.”

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.

Disgraced Labour activist Greg Hadfield, has reportedly been caught supporting Labour candidate Alex Braithwaite, who was suspended from the Party for a series of tweets which included conspiracy theories about Israel and the Rothschild family.

According to the Brighton and Hove News, Mr Hadfield, who has twice been suspended from the Labour Party, posted a series of tweets endorsing Ms Braithwaite in the local council elections after her suspension.

Mr Hadfield was first suspended in 2014 for 11 months over claims he had bullied fellow members, including jumping out at Labour’s South East Regional Director from behind a bin. He was suspended again in October 2016 for alleged intimidating behaviour, and only reinstated in February this year.

During this time, the paper wrote that he remained a member of Momentum, the pro-Corbyn campaign group, even serving on its steering committee and helping to draw up its slates when candidates for this year’s elections were selected.

Ms Braithwaite was suspended for a series of allegedly antisemitic tweets which included conspiracy theories about Israel and the Rothschilds.

The Daily Telegraph revealed that she shared a video which claimed that Israel was deporting “African migrants” to protect the “Israeli bloodline”. She also circulated an article which claimed that German police officers had marched against a “Rothschild European Central Bank”. It went on to claim the Rothschild family had been “responsible for almost every war on earth”, and were not “Jewish” but rather “satanist” and “the Illuminati.”

Amanda Bishop, another Labour member in the area, was suspended last week when she responded to Ms Braithwaite’s suspension by calling for a march on Hove synagogue. The Labour Party reportedly took ten days to launch an investigation into Ms Bishop’s comments.

Mr Hadfield, a former Daily Mail and Telegraph journalist, told Brighton and Hove News: “I was proud and privileged to support Labour Party candidates across Brighton and Hove, including in Wish. Alex Braithwaite is a black, feminist socialist — and one of the kindest, most gentle comrades I have ever met.” He added that charges of antisemitism “should not be used as casual abuse — for self-serving reasons — by often-anonymous, anti-Corbyn supporters of Peter Kyle, the MP for Hove.”

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.

Michael McGough, the former treasurer of the Brexit Party who reportedly left over social media posts, including posts accusing some Jewish politicians of having “shallow UK roots”, is still listed as a director of the organisation.

Mr McGough was reportedly removed as treasurer a month ago after posting what the Party called “unacceptable statements.” A Party statement at the time said that he would no longer have any role in the organisation.

According to The Guardian, which exposed the posts, in some messages, Mr McGough referred to Ed and David Miliband and Peter Mandelson as having “shallow UK roots” or being “devoid of UK roots.”

To portray Jews as being foreign to Britain or their home country is a common antisemitic trope. It has echoes of Jeremy Corbyn’s comment that Zionists “don’t understand English irony.”

The Guardian reported that one post from Mr McGough in 2017 called David Miliband the “son of an east European communist now milking it from a charity in New York and devoid of UK roots.” Another message said that: “The Miliband dudes and Mandelson have the shortest of roots. Transient folk they have no loyalty to the UK.”

One reply by another user reportedly told Mr McGough that he was on “slightly dangerous ground”. McGough replied that: “True, but there is a valid point to be made even if it seems offensive. It is not dissimilar to Lord Tebbit’s cricket test.” A post about Mandelson read that: “I resent being called racist by an old queen with shallow UK roots.”

Another senior member, Catherine Blaiklock, the first leader of the Party, reportedly resigned over a series of anti-Islam messages but also remains listed as a director.

Both Mr McGough and Ms Blaiklock were longtime UKIP members and moved to the Brexit Party with Nigel Farage, the Party leader and fellow director.

An Evening Standard investigation has uncovered supporters of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) sharing antisemitic posts comparing Israelis to Nazis.

The shocking antisemitic posts reportedly included:

  • A cartoon comparing Israeli Jews with white power neo-Nazis.
  • An image of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bathing in Palestinian blood posing with Adolf Hitler.
  • A photo of Palestinians queuing next to a border wall with the words: “21st century concentrations camp? No, just Palestinians coming home from their Israeli slave jobs.”
  • A cartoon in which neo-Nazis with swastikas are likened to Jewish men with an Israeli flag screaming “Kill all Arabs.”
  • A graphic comparing Israel and the Nazi regime, with a swastika flag.
  • A graphic meme that compared victims in Buchenwald concentration camp to an image of a West Bank checkpoint.

Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.

Another post attacked Deputy Labour leader Tom Watson and labelled him an “agent” of the Israeli state.

An investigation by Campaign Against Antisemitism in 2017 also exposed extensive antisemitic bigotry amongst supporters of the PSC.

The PSC told the Evening Standard that it: “takes accusations of antisemitism very seriously and has procedures in place to address such allegations…including the implementation of disciplinary sanctions”. It said its “values of anti-racism and anti-discrimination” are reflected in its guidance for members.”

Jeremy Corbyn is an honorary patron of the PSC and has even applauded antisemitic poetry at one of their events.

The PSC has called a demonstration in London this weekend which will be monitored by Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit.

A ten-metre high swastika has been daubed on the factory of H. Forman & Sons, established by Aaron ‘Harry’ Forman, who fled pogroms, and his son, a Holocaust survivor. Lance Forman, the third generation in the business, is the current proprietor.

The Metropolitan Police Service is investigating. The crime is believed to have been committed at around 23:30 last night. Witnesses should call the police on 101, or contact [email protected] and we will pass any information on. Officers are currently reviewing CCTV surveillance images.

Mr Forman tweeted: “Just returned from a business trip in the US to a call from my factory, that someone had done this!! A totally sick act. My father is a Holocaust survivor who fled the Nazis and came to the UK after the war. My great grandad and founder of Formans fled Antisemitic pogroms too.” He told the JC: “My dad fled the Nazis in Poland and is a Holocaust survivor who spent the war years as a child in a Siberian prison camp. He has worked with HET [the Holocaust Educational Trust] to teach children about the horrors of antisemitism. So the fact that we have been targeted in this antisemitic way is quite horrific and sick. The police have images of the culprits on CCTV and I sincerely hope they are tracked down.”

Mr Forman is currently a candidate for the Brexit Party and there has been some speculation that this antisemitic hate crime might have a political dimension.

Campaign Against Antisemitism condemns this appalling act of Jew-hatred committed at a time of increasing danger for Jews in Britain. We call on anybody who may have information about the incident or the perpetrators to do the right thing and contact the police.

In an apparent rebuke of Jeremy Corbyn, former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair said that the the “poison” of antisemitism has returned in a rebuke of Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party.

In powerful comments in a video in support of the new National Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre, Mr Blair said that: “Antisemitism and hate did not end in 1945. Unfortunately today some of this poison is back from the political fringe to parts of the political mainstream.”

He added that: “So, it’s absolutely right that this new national memorial is situated right next to Parliament. So we can show what happens when racism and prejudice go unchecked.”

Prime Minister Theresa May appeared alongside Mr Blair and the three other living former UK Prime Ministers, Sir John Major, Gordon Brown and David Cameron, in the video.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.

Following meetings between the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and Campaign Against Antisemitism and our allies, police have vowed to “intervene to enforce the law” if Hizballah flags are flown, as they have been at previous “Al Quds Day” demonstrations, which have traditionally been a rally for supporters of the genocidal antisemitic terrorist organisation.

In February this year, Hizballah was completely proscribed by the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, with the support of the Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt. This followed a gruelling effort over several years by Campaign Against Antisemitism and our allies.

Until then, the British Government had distinguished between Hizballah’s “military wing” and “political wing”, even though Hizballah mocked the Government and said that no such distinction exists. 

The loophole enabled brazen shows of support for Hizballah, including the pro-Hizballah “Al Quds Day” parade which is organised by a registered charity. Hizballah supporters marched through the heart of London, heard from antisemitic speakers and even draped babies in Hizballah flags.

The law has now also been changed to allow police officers to seize flags or clothing bearing the insignia of terrorist organisations, and also arrest anybody who publishes photographs of them.

Writing to Campaign Against Antisemitism and our allies, and also to the organisers of the “Al Quds Day” parade, following a number of meetings, Superintendent Nick Collins noted: “In previous years we have seen support for the group Hizballah, including flags, banners and chanting…The MPS is aware of the significant impact that the support for a terrorist organisation can have on the communities of London. It fully intends to intervene to enforce the law, where possible, should any offences be disclosed.”

Stephen Silverman, Director of Investigations and Enforcement at Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Hizballah seeks the murder of Jews worldwide and it has made good on its threats, slaughtering Jews from Burgas to Buenos Aires. It was outrageous that Hizballah supporters were allowed to march through the streets of our capital and we fought long and hard as a community to stop terrorist supporters from being allowed to brazenly flaunt their hatred. We are pleased that the police have put in place robust plans to enforce the law and our Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit will be out in force as well to capture evidence should any crimes relating to supporting banned terrorist organisations be committed.”

The BBC has removed a World Service programme from its International Question Time series entitled “Isn’t it time we stopped using the Jewish Holocaust as propaganda for the Jewish cause?”.

The programme, which was broadcast on the BBC World Service in August 1998, was resurrected and has been available online since 21st March 2016. It was highlighted by a Twitter user, who used the BBC Sounds app to look for programmes about Jewish topics and was shocked to find the title among the top results.

The programme itself covered various topics and included on its panel the distinguished late Professor David Ceserani, but it appears that the programme was named purely for its first ten minutes, which were spent discussing the question of whether the Holocaust is Jewish propaganda in response to a question from a caller from Lebanon.

The panel in fact dealt with the antisemitic question intelligently and firmly, but the decision to use such an antisemitic title on BBC apps beggars belief.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is pleased that the BBC has now withdrawn the programme, but it is utterly outrageous that it was posted in the first place with such an antisemitic title. We are asking the BBC to explain how this happened and what action it will take once it has identified the staff responsible.

Kamran Ishtiaq, who has been President of British Pakistani Youth Council since 2009, said in 2014 that he would “salute” Hitler for killing Jews, and has now reportedly reaffirmed his views.

After posting a picture of Hitler on his Facebook page, which received 40 likes, he was admonished by another Facebook user who wrote: “Hitler was a racist bro”. Mr Ishtiaq responded: “I know that and to be honest he would have killed Muslims too if he got a chance. But you know what, I would salute him still if he killed 90 Muslims and 92 Jews.” He then followed up with another comment, adding: “Now why he is my hero cuz, he just killed Jews, didn’t get a chance to kill Muslims… lol.”

In a long telephone interview with BirminghamLive, he confirmed that he stood by his statements, whilst also questioning whether six million Jews really died in the Holocaust, suggesting that the figure might have been “exaggerated” in order to justify Jewish “revenge”. He also suggested that the Jews may have done something “to the Germans” to cause the Holocaust.

Asked by BirminghamLive whether he still felt that Jews deserved to be massacred, Mr Ishtiaq said: “To be honest with you, I feel that about the Jews who are killing the Palestinians now. Not the Jews who are leaving Israel — there are Jews who support Palestine. I was reading today in the media that there are Jews leaving Israel because Israel didn’t live up to their expectations. OK, but Jews, American Jews, yes I feel like that about them. The ones who are murdering the Palestinians. I do feel that about them. And what I wrote there, it’s about the Jews.”

He added: “When I say Jews, it’s not the Jews fighting the Jewish killers of Palestinians, the Jews who are with Muslims, but the Jews which are killing the Palestinians, yes. The murderers. I mean if anything happened to any Jewish community here my youths would be there frontline to support them. Jewish people here are not Palestinian-killing like the Jews over there. They’re peaceful like us Muslims here. They don’t want nothing to do with that. It’s like the terrorists. You can’t hate all Muslims because you hate terrorists. You can’t hate all Jews because you hate the killing Jews.”

Asked about Jews killed by the Nazis, Mr Ishtiaq said he did not believe that six million Jews were killed in the Holocaust: “To be honest, I don’t believe that. Every attack, anything on Jews is exaggerated. Yeah. I think that was an exaggeration too. He killed Jews, yeah. He did kill Jews, there’s no doubt in that. He killed Jews. But that figure is a question mark for me.”

Asked why he thought the Nazis killed Jews, he replied: “We don’t know what happened then. If they were doing this now, killing Palestinians, we don’t know what they done to the Germans at that time.”

Asked why the figure would be exaggerated, Mr Ishtiaq said: “It gives the Jewish people a reason, you know retaliation — ‘Look what’s happened to us? We were nearly being ethnic cleansed and have to stick together’. It gives them a point of unity, it gives them a reason to retaliate, revenge, you know, empathy, whatever, you could say.”

Asked if he thought Hitler was wrong to kill the Jews, he said: “Er, no, I can’t think for Hitler. I can’t think why Hitler killed them. I just made that statement [on Facebook]. So why and how, I couldn’t tell you. I stand by the statement I made, yes.”

Mr Ishtiaq said his views about Jews were shared by young people he worked with: “They feel ten times worse. My job is to get that feeling out of them, but I need positives to erase that feeling out of them. The Jews, the Israel [sic], have not given me a positive. Them feelings are getting day by day worse after what the Israelis are doing.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism is reporting Mr Ishtiaq to West Midlands Police, as well as to Birmingham City Council as he absolutely should not be anywhere near children if he holds such views.

Omar Chowdhury, the University of Bristol Students’ Union’s Black and Minority Ethnic officer has been allowed to remain in his post after making antisemitic comments online.

Mr Chowdhury told Izzy Posen, a Jewish student, that he should “be like Israel and cease to exist.” He also said to Mr Posen that his comments were like “Israeli settlements: always popping up where they’re not wanted.”

The comments which have been deleted were made on the university’s student “confessions” Facebook page, called Bristruths, which is publicly accessible.

Mr Posen complained to Bristol Students’ Union, which launched an independent inquiry. It concluded that Mr Chowdhury’s comments were antisemitic but stopped at giving him him a formal warning. The Union also made “recommendations” that Mr Chowdhury make an unqualified apology, educate himself on antisemitism and work with Jewish students to rebuild their trust.

In a statement, the Union said: “Omar’s comments were found to be antisemitic, and in addition to receiving an official warning about his future conduct, a series of recommendations have been made for Omar.”

Mr Chowdhury issued a statement “wholeheartedly” apologising to Mr Posen. He extended his apology to “Jewish students at the university, and the wider Jewish community for these ignorant and offensive comments.” He acknowledged that his remarks were “antisemitic and unacceptable, adding: “I regret my words and I am disappointed in myself for contributing to the hostile environment that is faced by Jewish people at university and in society.”

Mr Chowdhury said that Jewish students had good reason to be concerned about his ability to work as Bristol Students’ Union’s ethnic minority officer, acknowledging: “I take responsibility for my words and actions, and now it is my job to show that I can and will work with Jewish students to represent them at this university and regain their confidence before I begin my role in June. Over the last two weeks, I have already begun efforts to educate myself on antisemitism and I have learned a lot just in this small timeframe. I want to continue to grow my understanding of antisemitism and the different forms it takes and will undertake antisemitism training as part of this. I will do everything I can to show that these comments do not represent my character and commit to creating a more welcoming environment for minorities in the work I do next year, starting with myself.”

Mr Posen accepted his apology in a post on Facebook. “Apology accepted. I’m glad that Omar could stay in his elected role and that he has expressed remorse. I wish him the best of luck in his future work on campus.”

Bristol’s Jewish Society said in a statement that they “recognise that there are a variety of views surrounding the controversial decision in response to the antisemitic breach of conduct by BME Officer elect Omar Chowdhury, all of which are valid. Although Chowdhury’s apology appears genuine and we look forward to seeing the actions that he takes to combat antisemitism, Jewish students may still rightly be concerned.”

A petition calling for Mr Chowdhury’s resignation has already received nearly 1,000 signatures. It demands that he resigns as the BME officer after his “antisemitic abuse”, stating that an official warning is “not enough”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism considers it to be extremely important that Mr Chowdhury apologise, as he has done, and take steps to educate himself so that he can overcome his vile antisemitism. However, we do not agree with the University of Bristol Students’ Union that he is a suitable champion for students from minorities and should not remain in that role.

A new campaign group, “Labour Against Zionist Islamophobic Racism”, or LAZIR, has been set up to support Jeremy Corbyn and campaign for the International Definition of Antisemitism to be dropped and for the Jewish Labour Movement to be thrown out of the Labour Party. The group’s logo is a laser beam smashing the logo of a Jewish Labour group.

The founder appears to be Pete Gregson, who was reportedly expelled by the GMB Union after he claimed that Israel was a “racist endeavour” that “exaggerates” the Nazi Germany’s genocide of six million Jews “for political ends.” According to a post on his Facebook page, Labour Against the Witch Hunt, are seeking to expel him from their group. If he is expelled, Mr Gregson has vowed to hold a launch event for LAZIR outside Labour Headquarters in London.

Interestingly, this is the second time that Labour Against the Witch Hunt has split, the first time being when Gerry Downing was expelled and founded Labour Against the Witch Hunt Within Labour Against the Witch Hunt, both of which met at opposite sides of the same pub at the same time. Mr Downing, who was himself expelled from the Labour Party due to his views on the Holocaust, now appears to be advising Mr Gregson on policy for LAZIR.

LAZIR, which is not to be confused with the villages of Lazir in Iran and Azerbaijan, the popular Lazir karaoke bar in Mexico, or the very catchy Lazir Lazir song, has already attracted thousands of supporters, according to a petition which was launched to support the group on April Fools’ Day.

Due to the timing of the petition and farcical policies of the group, Campaign Against Antisemitism initially wondered whether it had been launched as some kind of satirical joke or a prank. Indeed the petition includes a call “to get Zionism out of the Labour Party, because Zionism is racism” and declares its dedication to one “Jeremy Corbynto”, whom we could not identify despite an exhaustive online search, including in Italian and Maltese.

Another policy of LAZIR has caused controversy even amongst antisemitism deniers within Labour. LAZIR called for the Jewish Labour Movement to “be disaffiliated from the Labour Party and replaced with Jewish Voice for Labour” but even the sham Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) group has distanced itself from them, posting on Facebook that they have “become aware of an initiative called Labour Against Zionist Islamophobic Racism (LAZIR) which has made reference to the role of JVL. We wish to make clear that we were not consulted on the use of our name and are not associated with this venture.”

However, British Jews can rest assured that LAZIR has also pledged to fight antisemitism, just not the “fraudulent” kind.

In what seems to be a major shift in policy, instead of his usual protestations of innocence when challenged with examples of his own antisemitism, Jeremy Corbyn has now gone a step further claimed to be the victim of a “mischievous” political attack orchestrated by Jewish peer Lord Finkelstein, plotted secretly with media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Mr Corbyn was referring to the furore over his 3,500 detailed foreword to Imperialism: A Study penned by economist John Atkinson Hobson in 1902. The book contains numerous attacks on the supposed wrongdoing of Jews, who are described as a “single and peculiar race” accused of plotting to subjugate mankind through financial control, but Mr Corbyn did not once criticise these antisemitic conspiracy theories, instead lavishing glowing praise on the book, describing it as “great”, “remarkable”, “brilliant”, “very powerful”, “valid”, “correct” and “very prescient”.

In defending himself against the accusation that he had yet again praised an antisemite, Mr Corbyn went far beyond his usual protestations of innocence, writing in a letter: “This accusation is the latest in a series of equally ill-founded accusations of anti-Jewish racism that Labour’s political opponents have made against me. I note that the Hobson [foreword] story was written by a Conservative Party peer [Lord Finkelstein] in a newspaper whose editorial policy, and owner [Rupert Murdoch], have long been hostile to Labour. At a time when Jewish communities in the UK, and indeed across Europe, feel under attack, it is a matter of great regret that the issue of antisemitism is often politicised in this way.”

This statement is a clear sign that Mr Corbyn has decided to join in with his most rabid supporters in claiming that British Jews are wilfully playing a part in a political plot to smear him as a racist. In the past, when under pressure, he would occasionally rebuke his supporters for claiming that antisemitism allegations were merely political smears. Now he joins in with them.

Just in the past week, in addition to learning of his foreword to Mr Hobson’s antisemitic book, it has also come to light that Mr Corbyn claimed that Israel has “control” over US foreign policy and has secret “unbelievably high levels of influence” over the British media. These revelations merely add to the already considerable weight of evidence that Mr Corbyn himself is an antisemite.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.

Two academics paid up to £10,000 each to advise the Commission for Countering Extremism have posted antisemitic material online, including that Israel is in an “alliance with Al Qaeda”, according to The Sunday Times.

Professor Tahir Abbas, who holds a post at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University in the Netherlands, reportedly tweeted that Labour’s problem with antisemitism had been exaggerated, and that the “fear of antisemitism is greater than the reality”, and that the issue had been used to “target” Jeremy Corbyn.

The second academic, Dr Sadek Hamid, retweeted an article claiming that the “Israel lobby” had “manufactured” the Labour Party’s antisemitism crisis. His account claims that his retweets are “not endorsements”.

The academics both edited Political Muslims, and recently spoke together at an event organised by the notorious Islamic Human Rights Commission, which organises the annual “Al Quds Day” parade through London, which has traditionally been a show of support for Hizballah, the genocidal antisemitic terrorist organisation, support for which has now been made illegal in the UK following years of campaigning by Campaign Against Antisemitism and our allies.

Speaking at the event, Dr Hamid said that he had taken his role with the Commission to help “dismantle” Prevent, the Government’s counter-extremism programme. Speaking alongside Dr Hamid, Professor Abbas reportedly said that Muslim radicalisation was “natural”, given the “widening inequality” facing British Muslims and that “being radical by itself is not necessarily a problem”, although violent radicalisation was.

The Sunday Times claims that an official at the Commission, Euan Neill, said that the academics’ opinions were “inevitable among some of the people” that the Commission worked with.

Sara Khan, the Commissioner told the newspaper: “Having been made aware of these abhorrent tweets, I have already challenged the academics. They both stated they rejected antisemitism…”

Professor Abbas told The Sunday Times that he was not an anti-semite and had deleted the tweet, which he said was “sloppily worded”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has confidence in Sara Khan and the weak response to this matter is uncharacteristic. We are seeking clarification from her as to why she has not responded more forcefully.

In an outrageous statement, Labour has claimed that it if you point out an antisemitic trope, that is reinforcing antisemitism. This statement sets a new low in Labour Party responses to accusations of antisemitism.

Labour was responding to the revelation yesterday that in 2009 Jeremy Corbyn authored an article in which he claimed that a decision by the BBC not to broadcast a 2009 appeal to send money to Gaza demonstrated the “unbelievably high levels of influence that Israel’s government appears to have in the upper echelons of parts of the media.” He also wrote that Israel has “control of US foreign policy.” The comments which appeared in an article that he wrote for the extreme-left Morning Star were exposed by investigative journalist Iggy Ostanin.

Responding to Mr Corbyn’s comments about media control, a spokesperson for the Labour Party said that: “The suggestion that Jeremy was talking about Jewish people, when he commented on the greater level of media influence the Israeli government has than the Palestinian leadership, is entirely false, and itself relies on a damaging antisemitic trope.”

The accusation of Jews controlling foreign policy and the media is one of the most well known antisemitic conspiracy theories. Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions” is antisemitic.

It is very clear to us that Mr Corbyn was deploying an antisemitic trope, and the Labour Party’s attempt to blame us for calling him out on it is appalling.

The notion that the Israeli government has “control of US foreign policy” and “unbelievably high levels of influence” over the media is a conspiracy theory drawn straight from racist myths about Jewish power. Mr Corbyn has a history of endorsing such conspiracy theories, whether he is accusing “the hand of Israel” of being behind Islamist attacks in Egypt, or writing his glowing foreword to a tome alleging that a “peculiar race” has successfully plotted to control Europe. Due to the weight of evidence, we have had no option other than to conclude that the reason Mr Corbyn promotes these views is that he himself is an antisemite.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

It has emerged that in 2009, Jeremy Corbyn authored an article in which he claimed that a decision by the BBC not to broadcast a 2009 appeal to send money to Gaza demonstrated the “unbelievably high levels of influence that Israel’s government appears to have in the upper echelons of parts of the media.” He also believed that Israel has “control of US foreign policy”.

The comments which appeared in an article that he wrote for the extreme-left Morning Star have been exposed by investigative journalist Iggy Ostanin.

The accusation of Jews controlling foreign policy and the media is one of the most well known antisemitic conspiracy theories. Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, Making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions is antisemitic.

The notion that the Israeli government has “control of US foreign policy” and “unbelievably high levels of influence” over the media is a conspiracy theory drawn straight from racist myths about Jewish power. Jeremy Corbyn has a history of endorsing such conspiracy theories, whether he is accusing “the hand of Israel” of being behind Islamist attacks in Egypt, or writing his glowing foreword to a tome alleging that a “peculiar race” has successfully plotted to control Europe. Due to the weight of evidence, we have had no option other than to conclude that the reason Mr Corbyn promotes these views is that he himself is an antisemite.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been caught posing in a photo last night with Nisar Malik, a Labour Councillor in Hounslow, whom he criticised for antisemitic posts on Facebook, including blaming “Zionist Jews” for 9/11.

Mr Khan officially opened Hounslow House, the local council’s new headquarters, and posed next to Cllr Malik and his colleagues. The photo is still on the Mayor’s Twitter account.

Cllr Malik, a Labour Councillor in Hounslow since 2014 and the former Mayor from 2015 to 2016, has breached the International Definition of Antisemitism on numerous occasions.

On 29th April 2016, he shared a post on his Facebook page entitled ‘Ex London Mayor Ken Livingstone now accused of being anti-semitic’ [sic] which contains the following comment attributed to Ken Livingstone: “There’s been a very well-orchestrated campaign by the Israel Lobby to smear anyone who criticizes Israeli policy as anti-Semitic [sic].”

On 12th April 2018, he shared a video featuring a tweet which asserted that a captured ISIS commander was in fact a Mossad agent. He stated: [a] “Israeli and American created ISIS”, and added: [b] “How do we know if they are not the same countries dropping chemical bombs and blaming Asad [sic]??”

Cllr Malik posted on Facebook expressing his doubts over events surrounding a chemical attack in Syria and claiming that America’s agenda was to “split Syria to please the Zaniest [Zionist] government of Israel.”

On 16th April 2018, he shared a post on Facebook alleging that “America, France and the UK don’t want to talk about Palestine [sic] hardship…every week we go through the remembrance of Holocaust and we should. But why there is no debate on Israel and Palestine? The Zaniest [Zionist] Lobby controls all the media and they don’t allow anyone to discuss the big elephant in the room.”

On 7th August 2018, he commented on his Facebook page: ”The Labour Party or Corbin [sic] are absolutely not ani-semantic [sic]. This is all propaganda incase [sic] if the general election is called soon because the prime minister is in [sic] big mess.”

On 29th August 2018, it was reported that, in August 2017, Cllr Malik had shared a video by the preacher, nationalist and leader of the Nation of Islam, Mr Louis Farrakhan, in which Mr Farrakhan is reported as saying: “It is now becoming apparent that there were many Israelis and Zionist Jews in key roles in the 9/11 attacks”. It was also reported that Cllr Malik had written above this post: “Is this true, do you think?”

Cllr Malik reportedly removed the Facebook posts and was “reported through the Labour Party disciplinary process.”

After seeing some of the Facebook posts, Mayor Khan told LBC that: “Some of those remarks are clearly antisemitic. I think the Labour Party should be investigating those comments speedily and if those complaints are upheld then anybody with those views should be kicked out of the Labour Party.”

It is appalling to see that Cllr Malik is still enjoying an active political life.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

Lord Prescott, the former Deputy Prime Minister from 1997 to 2007 and Labour MP for Hull East, has reportedly ranted aggressively at a Jewish journalist when asked about Labour antisemitism, claiming that Labour’s antisemitism crisis under Jeremy Corbyn was all “about Israel” and demanded to know what she “can do about Israel”.

Following an interview to promote Channel 5’s new series, British Made With John Prescott, a well-established reporter who wishes to remain anonymous, reportedly asked for Lord Prescott’s opinion on how best to resolve Labour antisemitism. She reportedly told him that she was a British Jew and that she was very concerned by the issue.

However according to reports in the JC, Lord Prescott responded: “Is there anything you can do about Israel and its behaviour?” He continued, in what the journalist and witnesses described to the JC as an aggressive tone: “All of this is about Israel — dead children — settlers on someone else’s land.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism considers Lord Prescott’s outburst to be antisemitic. Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, which the Labour Party has adopted, “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” is antisemitic.

Shocked and upset, the journalist reportedly left the room at Channel 5’s head office in Camden, north London, and was consoled by colleagues. The exchange took place in front of other Channel 5 staff and it is not said whether they intervened.

Channel 5 declined to comment to the JC but sources at the channel said Lord Prescott’s comments were “a private exchange” with the journalist, after the interview had been completed and did not represent the views of the channel. When asked for a comment, Lord Prescott said: “F*** off.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism is utterly disgusted by Lord Prescott’s antisemitic outburst, which comes as further proof that the Labour Party is rotting from the head. Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, antisemitism has become rife in the Party, with the disciplinary process that is supposed to punish antisemitism and keep it out of the Party going into meltdown. Lord Prescott should doubtless have little fear of repercussions from within the Party. That is why it is so crucial that the Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

It has emerged that Jeremy Corbyn wrote a glowing foreword to a book which argued that the banks and the press are controlled by “a single and peculiar race.” Mr Corbyn praised the book as “brilliant”, “correct and prescient” and a “great tome.”

The foreword written by Mr Corbyn was uncovered by The Times columnist Daniel Finkelstein. In 2011, Mr Corbyn agreed to endorse a new edition of Imperialism: A Study which was written by economist John Atkinson Hobson in 1902.

In the book, Mr Hobson asked: “Does anyone seriously suppose that a great war could be undertaken by any European state, or a great state loan subscribed, if the house of Rothschild and its connections set their face against it?” This clearly invokes the antisemitic Rothschild conspiracy theory. The Rothschilds established themselves as a wealthy family of bankers in the early nineteenth century. They appear in many anti-Jewish conspiracy theories as a sinister, controlling force.

In another tract, he wrote that: “United by the strongest bonds of organisation, always in closest and quickest touch with one as other, situated in the very heart of the business capital of every state, controlled, so far as Europe is concerned, by men of a single and peculiar race, who have behind them many centuries of financial experience, they are in a unique position to control the policy of nations.”

Mr Hobson went on to say that: “there is not a war, a revolution, an anarchist assassination, or any other public shock, which is not gainful to these men; they are harpies who suck their gains from every new forced expenditure and every sudden disturbance of public credit”.

He also argued that: “the direct influence exercised by great financial houses in ‘high politics’ is supported by the control which they exercise over the body of public opinion through the press”.

According to The Times, Mr Corbyn wrote in his foreword: “what is brilliant, and very controversial at the time, is his [Hobson’s] analysis of the pressures that were hard at work in pushing for a vast national effort, in grabbing new outposts of Empire on distant islands and shores.” He added that: “Hobson’s railing against the commercial interests that fuel the role of the popular press with tales of imperial might, that then lead on to racist caricatures of African and Asian peoples, was both correct and prescient”.

Central to Mr Hobson’s analysis of the “pressures that were hard at work” were the finance houses supposedly controlled by Jews. Mr Hobson wrote that “These great businesses — banking, booking, bill discounting, loan floating, company promoting — form the central ganglion of international capitalism.”

Henry Zeffman, also writing in The Times, pointed out that Mr Hobson’s antisemitism was well-known and central to his theories, for example in another book, The War in South Africa: Its Causes and Effects, released two years earlier in 1900, Mr Hobson blamed “a small group of international financiers, chiefly German in origin and Jewish in race” for the Boer War. He added that “the rich and powerful liquor trade…is entirely in the hands of Jews…the stock exchange is needless to say, mostly Jewish…the press of Johannesburg is chiefly their property.”

It has also emerged that Mr Corbyn was a guest speaker at a launch for the republication of Mr Hobson’s book.

Wes Streeting, Labour MP for Ilford North tweeted that: “My advice to any Labour MP today: refuse to defend Jeremy Corbyn lauding a book containing classic antisemitic tropes. If he wants to defend the indefensible he should go on the airwaves and defend himself. He has a responsibility to explain himself.” He was responding to the fact that Rebecca Long-Bailey had responded to a question about whether Mr Corbyn is an antisemite on BBC Radio 4 by laughing.

A Labour Party spokesman told The Times that: “Jeremy praised the Liberal Hobson’s century-old classic study of imperialism in Africa and Asia. Similarly to other books of its era, Hobson’s work contains outdated and offensive references and observations, and Jeremy completely rejects the antisemitic elements of his analysis.”

This latest revelation is yet further proof that Mr Corbyn is an antisemite.

Under his leadership, the once fiercely anti-racist Labour Party has become an existential threat to British Jews. Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Mr Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

A fourth arrest has been made after Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Chairman, Gideon Falter, called into an LBC phone-in with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick and made a live-on-air police report of the antisemitic hate crimes detailed in a secret Labour Party dossier which had been leaked to LBC and reviewed by a former police Commander responsible for obsessing hate crime, Mak Chishty.

The latest arrest is of a 44-year-old man from Newham who was arrested this morning on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred, which is a very serious criminal offence.

This fourth arrest follows the arrest of two men in their 50s as well as a woman in her 70s, at the end of March, all also on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred. Those three are understood to have been expelled from the Labour Party after the Party learned on LBC that its secret dossier had been reported to the police by Campaign Against Antisemitism live on air.

The secret internal dossier contains over eighty pages of antisemitic hatred by Labour Party members, including numerous admissions of guilt, but the Labour Party kept the dossier secret, not even telling Jewish Labour MPs who were directly threatened within it. This is despite police considering threats to their safety to be so severe as to warrant special police protection.

Some of the perpetrators admitted to the Party that they were behind some of the hatred chronicled in the dossier, which is just one of many dossiers compiled by the Party’s internal Compliance Unit for consideration by the Party’s Disputes Panel. The original researchers who compiled the dossier have now left the Party, with at least one of them publicly voicing their disgust at attitudes towards antisemitism.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has called for the Metropolitan Police Service to demand that the Labour Party hands over its further secret internal dossiers detailing antisemitic hate crimes by Party members, and for police officers to seize the dossiers if they are not provided willingly. We have also called for the Labour Party to be investigated for keeping its evidence of the crimes secret.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

The Labour Party reportedly took ten days to launch an investigation into a Party member, Amanda Bishop, who called for fellow activists to “march” on her local synagogue.

Ms Bishop wrote in the Brighton and Hove Labour Party Facebook forum that: “We can’t allow this to go on. We need to march about this on the Synagogue in Hove, all of us members in Brighton.” Her call for direct action against the synagogue was in response to the suspension of Alexandrina Braithwaite, from the Brighton and Hove Labour branch, for sharing allegedly antisemitic posts on social media, which Ms Bishop felt was “bulls***”.

The Telegraph reported that Labour was forced to suspend Ms Braithwaite, who was also a council candidate in the upcoming elections, after the newspaper revealed that she had posted a web of online Rothschild and Israel conspiracy theories.

After Ms Bishop’s comments were uncovered, Labour sources reportedly confirmed that she had been suspended pending an investigation.

However, according to PoliticsHome, a local Party member reported the comments to Labour’s Compliance Unit on 16th April. On 25th April, the member emailed the Party again asking why no action had yet been taken, copying in General Secretary Jennie Formby. The following day, the complainer reportedly received an e-mail from Ms Formby’s office informing them that the case had been passed to the Compliance Unit “as a matter of urgency.”

PoliticsHome reports that Brighton and Hove Council’s community safety team was also informed of the comments which led to increased security outside local synagogues during Passover.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

Letters to the editor have been published in the Swindon Advertiser accusing the Jewish community of appropriating “ill feeling toward Semites”, and attacking the “pro-Israel lobby and their bogus campaign against antisemitism.”

The letters appeared under the headline “The perpetrators need to be opposed and condemned, not pandered to” and were in response to an article in the Swindon Advertiser about Kate Linnegar. Campaign Against Antisemitism had condemned Ms Linnegar in a BBC exposé. Ms Linnegar, Labour’s candidate for Swindon Borough Council, as well as its prospective parliamentary candidate for the North Swindon seat at the next general election, had shared articles arguing that false allegations of antisemitism were being manufactured or “weaponised” to discredit Jeremy Corbyn.

In a statement, she told the BBC that: “I sincerely apologise for having liked or shared these posts in the past and for the offence this has caused” adding that she has since “developed a deeper understanding about the issue”. Labour said the posts were published in 2016, before the UK government and the Party adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism and that Ms Linnegar was “committed to tackling antisemitism within her own party and society” but regardless of when the definition was formally adopted, it pointedly failed to apologise or commit to taking any kind of disciplinary action.

In one letter to the editor titled “Antisemite or anti-Zion,” the writer said that: “The original definition of antisemitism has been amended to such a degree that the original concept of ill feeling toward Semites (people who speak a Semitic language, which would include Jews and Arabs) has been appropriated by the Jewish community and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (in 2016) to include criticism of the State of Israel.”

In another letter to the editor titled “Political cave-in,” the writer said that: “How sad to see my local Labour Party parliamentary candidate caving in to the pro-Israel lobby and their bogus campaign against antisemitism.” They added that: “Palestinians have suffered 70 years of ethnic cleansing, expropriation, assassination, brutal military aggression and daily harassment and humiliation. The perpetrators need to be opposed and condemned, not pandered to.”

One has to question the editorial process at the Swindon Advertiser that would allow these letters to be published. The editors should never have allowed these letters to be published in the first place. We call on them to remove the letters from the website and apologise for it.

George McManus, who was briefly suspended from the Labour Party after posting a Facebook comment about Tom Watson likening him to “Judas” for accepting donations from Jewish businessman Sir Trevor Chinn, has reportedly been made Labour spokesman in the East Riding of Yorkshire. He is also a local election candidate for Labour in the Minster and Woodmansey Ward in the East Riding of Yorkshire Council.

Mr McManus, who sat on Labour’s National Policy Forum as a Momentum-backed member, wrote that: “Apparently [the] Electoral Commission states that Watson received £50,000+ from Jewish donors. At least Judas only got 30 pieces of silver.” Judas was supposedly a disciple of Jesus who betrayed him for money, and for centuries was used as a means of inciting hatred and even murder by portraying Jews as money-obsessed and disloyal.

Mr McManus deleted the post and apologised, calling his comments “crass”, “wrong”, “inappropriate and hurtful.” Labour reportedly reinstated Mr McManus after just eight weeks.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

Footballer Wayne Hennessey has been cleared by the Football Association’s (FA) Independent Regulatory Commission of the accusation of performing a Nazi salute because it was ruled that he did not know what a Nazi salute was.

The Nazi salute, also known as the Hitler salute, is grossly offensive to Jews and is a well-known fascist gesture. It was the gesture of adoration for Adolf Hitler performed by massed German mobs who attacked and killed Jews, as well as by Nazi Germany’s armed forces as they murdered millions of Jews during the Holocaust.

Mr Hennessey, the Crystal Palace goalkeeper and Wales international player, was pictured with his right arm in the air and left hand above his mouth in a photograph posted on Instagram by German team-mate Max Meyer on 5th January. The gesture is often used as an attempt to mimic Hitler, with the left hand used to imitate a moustache.

Mr Hennessey denied the charge and said that any resemblance to the Nazi gesture was “absolutely coincidental”. His defence stated that he did not know what a Nazi salute was, according to the FA’s written reasons after the charge was found not proven.

Mr Hennessey said that he “waved and shouted at the person taking the picture to get on with it” and “put my hand over my mouth to make the sound carry”. He reportedly submitted photographs to the panel of him making similar gestures during matches to attract the attention of team-mates.

The panel said Mr Hennessey was “able to corroborate” his explanation with a series of photographs, including one that showed his right arm raised and left hand across his mouth in a “similar way” to the photo posted on Instagram. They said that he showed a “lamentable degree of ignorance” about Adolf Hitler, fascism and the Nazi regime.

The charge was found not proven after two members of the three-man panel believed the photograph had been “misinterpreted”. The other said the “only plausible explanation” was that Hennessey performed the salute.

A group of men allegedly approached an orthodox Jewish man on a London train and threatened to use a knife and scissors to cut off his sidelocks.

Stamford Hill Shomrim, a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch, are looking into the incident. They said that the incident took place on a train in the London Underground near Oxford Circus Station in central London on Sunday.

If you have any more information, please contact Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123 or British Transport Police on 0800405040 and quote reference 253.

We are following this case with interest.

The law has been tightened to grant police stronger powers to stop the display of proscribed organisation’s flags prior to the annual “Al Quds Day” parade, which has traditionally been a pro-Hizballah event at which numerous supporters of the genocidal antisemitic terrorist organisation marched through London waving the organisation’s flag, wearing clothing emblazoned with its emblem, and carrying placards stating “We are all Hizballah”.

In February this year, Hizballah was completely proscribed by the Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, with the support of the Foreign Secretary, Jeremy Hunt. This followed a gruelling effort over several years by Campaign Against Antisemitism and our allies.

Until then, the British Government had distinguished between Hizballah’s “military wing” and “political wing”, even though Hizballah mocked the Government and said that no such distinction exists.

The loophole enabled brazen shows of support for Hizballah, including the pro-Hizballah “Al Quds Day” parade which is organised by a registered charity. Hizballah supporters marched through the heart of London, heard from antisemitic speakers and even draped babies in Hizballah flags.

In addition to the total proscription of Hizballah, the law has now been changed to enable police officers to take much firmer action.

The Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019 has changed the Terrorism Act 2000’s provision against wearing the uniform of banned terrorist organisations, which also included waving terrorist flags.

Under section 13 of the Terrorism Act, “A person in a public place commits an offence if he wears an item of clothing — or wears, carries or displays an article [including a flag] — in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation.”

The law has now been amended, to allow police officers to seize flags or other articles as evidence, stating: “A constable may seize an item of clothing or any other article if the constable reasonably suspects that it is evidence in relation to an offence under subsection (1), and is satisfied that it is necessary to seize it in order to prevent the evidence being concealed, lost, altered or destroyed.” The law further states that officers may require individuals to remove any terrorist-branded clothing, with certain exceptions, such as underwear.

Additionally, the law has been changed to make it an offence to publish images or videos of clothing or other articles that would “arouse reasonable suspicion that the person is a member or supporter of a proscribed organisation”.

These amendments will ensure that Hizballah supporters will no longer be able to display the Hizballah flag and intimidate British Jews with impunity as they have done for years at successive “Al Quds Day” parades.

This year’s parade is scheduled for 2nd June in central London and Campaign Against Antisemitism, along with other Jewish community organisations, have been in discussion with the Metropolitan Police Service to ensure that any shows of support for Hizballah are firmly punished.

Jeremy Corbyn’s close parliamentary aide, the daughter of one of his major allies, has now been formally appointed to lead the Labour Party’s disciplinary process.

According to the Labour Party, Ms Murray is “the best person for the job”, despite the fact that she has been publicly disgraced after being caught preventing the suspension of Pat Sheerin, an alleged antisemite who has now been arrested on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred, the most serious non-violent form of hate crime.

Ms Sheerin is one of three former Labour activists who have been arrested on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred. The arrests were made after Campaign Against Antisemitism reported a secret Labour Party dossier to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick live on air, after it was exposed on LBC radio.

Ms Sheerin is alleged to have posted material claiming that there are links between Israel and Isis, and promoting the idea that Jewish groups fomented the Ukrainian revolution.

Leaked e-mails have also shown that Ms Murray intervened to stop the suspension of a Labour member who praised the antisemitic mural, which Mr Corbyn also defended.

Ms Murray has also accused television star and antisemitism campaigner Rachel Riley of endorsing physical attacks on Mr Corbyn over his handling of antisemitism in the Party, leading to Ms Riley launching a libel claim.

Campaign Against Antisemitism considers the brazen appointment of Ms Murray as yet further evidence that the Labour Party cannot be trusted to tackle its antisemitism problem.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

The Labour Party has selected six candidates for the upcoming local council and European Parliament elections who have been engulfed in the Party’s antisemitism crisis, including a former ally of Alison Chabloz, the convicted Holocaust denier.

Martin Mayer

Martin Mayer, a Labour Party activist who reportedly claimed that the Israeli lobby had “manufactured” the Labour’s antisemitism crisis has been selected as a candidate for the upcoming European Parliament election. According to the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Mayer, a former member of Labour’s National Executive Committee and a Unite union activist, has been chosen to stand as the Member of European Parliament (MEP) for Yorkshire and Humber.

Mr Mayer, who is a retired transport worker, has also reportedly been active in Labour Against the Witchhunt (LAW), a group set up to protest the expulsion of Labour members for alleged antisemitism. A report of a meeting of LAW in Sheffield last May said Mr Mayer had “shared fascinating stories from his time on the Labour Party NEC and the many ‘bogus’ claims of antisemitism he witnessed first hand.” According to the newspaper, in 2016 Mr Mayer sent an e-mail entitled “How Israel lobby manufactured UK Labour party’s antisemitism crisis.” In the e-mail he allegedly complained that “Labour’s Blairite right wing have used the smear of antisemitism to undermine Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.” Mr Mayer also reportedly circulated an e-mail from Tony Greenstein, who was expelled from the Labour Party for abusive conduct including calling Jews “Zios” on social media, in which Mr Greenstein accused Mr Corbyn’s critics of “a dirty tricks operation” worthy of the CIA.

In a statement to the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Mayer said that: “When I was on the NEC I was shocked and appalled to see cases of antisemitism within our Party. I said back then and I say again now: it does exist within our Party, it is a problem, and we must not tolerate it. I was also concerned about factionalism undermining the integrity of the disciplinary processes and the fight against antisemitism. I regret the language I used to express this and I would not use it today. Since then, I have learnt a lot more about this subject and I realise that words like ‘smear’ have the effect of downplaying and dismissing this very serious issue.” He added that: “I did not deny the problem exists within our Party, and I believe anyone who denies it is contributing to the problem. As we’ve seen from the figures that the Party recently released, this is a small minority in our Party, but they must be kicked out.”

David Sheard

The Sunday Telegraph also revealed that three more Labour councillors and candidates for the local elections have recently posted material appearing to endorse the claim that accusations of antisemitism have been exploited by the “Israel lobby” and Jewish groups in the UK.

In a tweet responding to concerns raised by Wes Streeting MP about voters being put off Labour by claims of antisemitism, David Sheard, the Deputy Leader of Kirklees Council, reportedly responded that: “Jewish organisations run a concerted campaign against JC [Jeremy Corbyn] and Wea [sic] Streeting is not surprised that it is working.” Mr Sheard did not respond to a request for a comment from the Sunday Telegraph.

Eleanor Tristram

Eleanor Tristram, a candidate for Stafford Borough Council, reportedly shared a claim on Facebook that the Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth was funded by the “Israel lobby” and also described the Labour antisemitism crisis as a “smear” organised by “pro-Israel Labour MPs”. Ms Tristram also reportedly shared a Facebook post that stated that: “The current antisemitism witch-hunt against Chris Williamson, Jackie Walker and others, and against our own Labour Party constituencies is a fraud…The attacks, orchestrated by the right-wing of the Labour Party led by Tom Watson, reinforced by the MSM [mainstream media], are not really about antisemitism. They are a cover for sabotage…These pro-Israel Labour MPs know that such a government would oppose attacks on the Palestinian people.” Responding to claims that she was helping to spread antisemitic comments, Ms Tristram told the Sunday Telegraph that: “The current row over antisemitism is a witch hunt against Jeremy Corbyn. There is no problem with antisemitism in the party. I’ve not seen any examples of it at meetings or at party conference. It’s part of a campaign in the mainstream media to discredit the leadership.” She added that: “The majority of antisemitism directed at [Jewish members] has not come from Labour members and if it has they have been expelled.”

Mick Bone

Another Labour candidate, Mick Bone, who is seeking election to Middlesbrough Council, reportedly shared a graphic suggesting that the Israeli Embassy controls BBC News, and that Jewish employees such as the BBC’s former Director of Television, Danny Cohen had dual loyalty to Israel. Mr Bone also reportedly shared Facebook memes calling for Israeli diplomats to be expelled from Britain and accused the “Israeli lobby” of leading a witch hunt against Mr Corbyn. He refused to comment when contacted by the paper.

In relation to Mr Sheard, Ms Tristram and Mr Bone, a Labour Party spokesperson told the Sunday Telegraph that: “The Labour Party takes all complaints of antisemitism extremely seriously and we are committed to challenging and campaigning against it in all its forms. All complaints about antisemitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.”

These latest revelations came after The Telegraph reported on 15th April that Labour was forced to suspend Alexandrina Braithwaite, a council candidate, after the newspaper revealed that she had posted a web of online Rothschild and Israel conspiracy theories.

Frances Naggs

Separately, The Independent has reported that the author of an open letter that claimed that a Jewish community protest in Parliament Square last March was the work of a “very powerful special interest group” has been selected as a Labour council candidate. Frances Naggs, a Labour activist in Staffordshire, is standing for Labour as a councillor in Staffordshire Moorlands. Ms Naggs’ letter was reportedly shared widely on social media and received thousands of likes. She reportedly wrote: “Yesterday we witnessed the full onslaught of a very powerful special interest group mobilising its apparent, immense strength against you. It is clear this group can employ the full might of the BBC to make sure its voice is heard very loudly and clearly. It is a shame not every special interest group can get the same coverage.” She added: “But, and it is a very big but, we live in a democracy, a one member one vote democracy and no special interest group, regardless of their history or influence, can be allowed to dictate who the rest of us can vote for or how we vote.” Ms Naggs told Independent that the letter was a “naïve mistake” and that she had not been referring to Jewish groups.

Kasey Carver

Additionally, The Jewish News reports that Kasey Carver, who was photographed with convicted Holocaust denier Alison Chabloz, is standing for Labour for the St John’s Ward in High Peak. Ms Chabloz was convicted of criminal offences in relation to songs mocking Holocaust survivors and claiming that the Holocaust was a Jewish fraud. She was convicted in the first case of its kind, following a private prosecution by Campaign Against Antisemitism, which the Crown eventually agreed to take over. She appealed the decision in the Crown Court and the conviction was upheld in February this year, setting a new precedent. Ms Carver, a committee member of Glossop Labour Club, was reported to the Party’s Governance and Legal Unit, as confirmed by local MP Ruth George a year ago. Ms Carver reportedly organised fundraising events with the group Glossop for Kids in Gaza which were attended by Ms Chabloz. A photo from 2014 shared by Glossop for Kids in Gaza shows Ms Carver with Ms Chabloz and other activists holding up a Palestinian flag at an event. The photo appears on Ms Chabloz’s Facebook page. Ms Carver told the Jewish News that: “I ran those benefits and [Chabloz] sang in one of them and that’s the photograph you refer to. She came to those benefits often. Then she left the area and then it came to our attention [in 2016] that some of the stuff she was putting out was outrageous antisemitism.”

Screenshots of deleted Facebook posts sent from Carver’s personal account have been widely circulated online. A Facebook post from 2015 linked back to a blog post published on the website “Semitic Controversies”, above which Ms Carver commented: “Just looked at the potentially Zionist influence of the BBC.” Another deleted post linked to a story published in “Global Research CA”, which suggested that Israel backs ISIS. The post read that: “Various indications of Israel support for ISIS in the past but this is looking more convincing. If true, just shows what a mixed up and morally reprehensible mess that has been created in Syria.” Ms Carver told The Jewish News: “I regret that and I have been to antisemitism training then and I am very much more aware of the sensitivity of the [BBC] post and I have apologised.” She added that she had not intended to promote the view that Israel backs ISIS. “Our branch has been put on antisemitism training to make people more aware.”

Kate Linnegar

The BBC has also reported that Kate Linnegar, Labour’s candidate for Swindon Borough Council, as well as its prospective parliamentary candidate for the North Swindon seat at the next general election, has shared articles arguing that false allegations of antisemitism were being manufactured or “weaponised” to discredit Jeremy Corbyn. In a statement, she told the BBC: “I sincerely apologise for having liked or shared these posts in the past and for the offence this has caused” adding that she has since “developed a deeper understanding about the issue”. Labour said the posts were published in 2016, before the UK government and the Party adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism and that Ms Linnegar was “committed to tackling anti-Semitism within her own party and society” but regardless of when the definition was formally adopted, it pointedly failed to apologise or commit to taking any kind of disciplinary action.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Over 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

Leeds-based Esteem Magazine, which boldly claims to be “the North’s biggest lifestyle magazine and the number one free publication in the UK” appears to be imploding after its farcical handling of a tweet from its account on Saturday that stridently blamed Jews for antisemitism. The tweet, in response to another Twitter user who was complaining about antisemitism said: “Omg — why oh why throughout history do Jewish people get verbally and physically attacked? Maybe if it’s happened for millennia Jewish people should look in there [sic] own doorstep. Ask — why is all the time [sic]”.

Esteem Magazine subsequently claimed that its social media had been hacked and complained about the backlash to the earlier tweet, tweeting anew: “Wow. We have been hacked.who we don’t know [sic]. The terrible comments we have received have been shocking.” However the supposed hacker also seems to have been keen to defend the magazine’s reputation after posting vile commentary about Jews, tweeting: “Biggest publication in the N [North] of UK. HOWEVER NOT RACIST. We were pointing out that if there is a problem maybe look at why and address the source. We do not condone any form of racism — you have taken this out of context”. The supposed hacker even allegedly sent a direct message to a Twitter user claiming that they “were simply starting what they hoped would be a healthy debate”.

After a tweet complaining that the backlash on Twitter had “spolit my holiday quite frankly”, the magazine then tweeted that its director and major shareholder, Neil Saville, will be resigning: “A formal investigation will be taking place as to the origin of the comments made. Due to the upset caused by these comments, and the ill health which has since taken him, Neil Saville will be resigning as a director of both Esteem Media and Coppertop Digital Ltd today.” This was followed by another tweet saying that: “On behalf of everyone at Esteem Magazine, we apologise for any upset caused by tweets posted on our twitter.”

However the magazine then took its Facebook and Twitter accounts offline.

When Campaign Against Antisemitism called the magazine on its main number, 0113 258 0752, to request a statement, the person who answered claimed that she was “the cleaner” and that nobody else was in the office. When asked when someone other than “the cleaner” might be available to speak, we were told “maybe tomorrow”.

The antisemitic tweet which has been widely condemned by Twitter users was deleted, but not before Campaign Against Antisemitism had archived it.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s volunteers in Leeds will be looking for copies of the magazine so that advertisers can be contacted, and we have already begun contacting companies which advertise on the magazine’s website.

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an “antisemite” who is “unfit to hold any public office” has passed 50,000 signatures.

The petition notes that Mr Corbyn has “lied, distracted, tried to twist the definition of antisemitism to exclude his past conduct, and issued false apologies when pressure mounted” and that “his actions have been consistent with those of an ideological antisemite”. It concludes: “For as long as the Labour Party is in Jeremy Corbyn’s grip, it cannot be a force for good. His past demonstrates that he should never have been elected to the leadership of the Labour Party and he is unfit to hold any public office. Antisemites must not hold positions of power.”

The petition has already made headlines in newspapers such as The Times and The Sun and the petition continues to spread virally through Facebook, Twitter and e-mail.

Those signing have done so despite an attempt by Change.org to disparage them by posting a notice at the top of the petition warning that its facts are contested. You may wish to tell Change.org what you think about their warning notice by e-mailing [email protected].

Pressure is mounting on the Labour Party as a poll showed that 55% of the British public agrees with the petition’s sentiment that Mr Corbyn is unfit for office over antisemitism.

Meanwhile, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

Since the Commission began its pre-enforcement proceedings against Labour, further appalling evidence has come to light, including revelations that Jeremy Corbyn’s own staffers and senior allies were interceding on behalf of antisemites. Senior figures in the Labour Party have said they would welcome the Commission pursuing our complaint, including two Shadow Cabinet members — Emily Thornberry and Tom Watson — as well as Labour peers and MPs including Dame Louise Ellman, Lord Falconer, Dame Margaret Hodge, Cath McKinnell, Ruth Smeeth, Alex Sobel and Wes Streeting.

In light of the evidence that Campaign Against Antisemitism has presented, and these calls for help from within Labour, we expect the Commission to announce a statutory investigation so that it can avail itself of its full legal powers to compel the Labour Party to act against the antisemites in its ranks.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

The actor Miriam Margolyes, best known for her portrayal of Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter film series, has attempted to diminish the scale and impact of the Labour antisemitism scandal by characterising it as a plot to undermine Jeremy Corbyn. In an interview given to the Radio Times, Ms Margolyes said: “I don’t think there is the extent of antisemitism in the Labour Party that people seem to imply” and stated that she believes “…it’s to do with trying to stop Corbyn from being Prime Minister.”

Accusing Jews of making accusations of antisemitism in bad faith in order to aid a hidden agenda is a well-established antisemitic slur.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

Ms Margolyes has a history of making appalling remarks about Jews. In 2016 she was caught on film, appearing to suggest that “Jews and blacks are stingy”. The previous year, in an interview in The Telegraph, she asserted that “nobody likes Jews” and claimed that “People understandably and correctly associate Israel with Jews and Jews are killing people. Innocent people.”

Elsewhere in the Radio Times interview, Ms Margolyes takes aim at her former friend, the actress Maureen Lipman, who has taken a brave and principled stand over antisemitism in Labour and the demonisation of Israel. Ms Margolyes refers to Ms Lipman as “a fool”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism calls on the Radio Times to apologise for providing Ms Margolyes with a platform from which to spread her repulsive views. If you think that the Radio Times should apologise, please e-mail them at [email protected], and make clear whether you would like them to publish your e-mail.


Actor and Labour Party activist John Davies has reportedly been suspended from the Labour Party after claiming that Jewish Labour MP’s loyalties “lie elsewhere”.

Mr Davies, who played the role of Les Hunter in the soap-opera Hollyoaks and appeared in Coronation Street, was chair of the St Michael’s branch of Liverpool Riverside Labour Party.

According to the JC, Mr Davies said that Jewish MP Ruth Smeeth’s loyalties lie elsewhere: “Her prime interests are neither socialism nor the Labour Party — they lie elsewhere.” The newspaper said that Mr Davies suggested that Jews who identify with Israel “have a big problem” and justified historical comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany.

Mr Davies, who is said by the JC to use the alias Johnny Beggs, also criticised his local MP Dame Louise Ellman and falsely claimed that she had used a parliamentary speech to express support for “Israel’s child prisoner policy.”

He is also reported to have suggested that Luciana Berger was not interested in challenging racism but “in damaging Corbyn and making Palestinian advocacy risky.”

When someone questioned linking those accusing Labour of antisemitism with Hitler, Mr Davies wrote that: “I think historical comparisons need to be made sometimes.”

Last month a letter titled “Hands Off the Left!” with the names of 53 Merseyside Labour activists, including John Davies, was posted on Johnny Beggs’ Facebook page. It said that: “The current antisemitism witch-hunt against Chris Williamson, Jackie Walker and others, and against our own Labour Party constituencies is a fraud. It is a continuation of a three-year-long campaign aimed at derailing the movement around Jeremy Corbyn. These pro-Israel Labour MPs know that such a government would oppose attacks on the Palestinian people. It is clear that they would prefer a pro-Israel Conservative government, to a socialist Labour government, critical of Israel.”

The JC has claimed that since the newspaper brought his behaviour to the Labour Party’s attention, Mr Davies has been suspended, but he claims, however, that his suspension is “only partial.” A statement was posted on Johnny Beggs’ Facebook page yesterday which said: “I’ve been suspended from the Labour Party, after a joint campaign by some hard right members of my CLP, our MP and the Jewish Chronicle. I will fight my suspension, which is only partial, and challenge the usual concoction of lies and distortions.”

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

Facebook has reportedly banned a number of far-right groups, including the British National Party (BNP) and English Defence League (EDL) from its platform.

The groups, as well as key members of their leadership, have been banned from both Facebook and Instagram for violating rules around promoting hate and violence.

Britain First, the National Front and Knights Templar International have also been removed, as well as convicted neo-Nazi Jack Renshaw, National Action’s former spokesman.

National Action was proscribed as a terrorist organisation in December 2016 following a long campaign by Campaign Against Antisemitism and others. Under section 11 of the Terrorism Act 2000, membership of a proscribed terrorist organisation is a criminal offence.

Other individuals reportedly banned include former BNP leader Nick Griffin, Britain First leaders Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen, EDL member Paul Ray, Knights Templar International’s Jim Dowson and the National Front’s Tony Martin.

Facebook said it used an extensive process to work out which people or groups to designate as dangerous. This includes whether they have used hate speech and called for or directly carried out acts of violence against others based on factors such as race, ethnicity or national origin.

A spokeswoman for Facebook explained that: “Individuals and organisations who spread hate, or attack or call for the exclusion of others on the basis of who they are, have no place on Facebook. Under our dangerous individuals and organisations policy, we ban those who proclaim a violent or hateful mission or are engaged in acts of hate or violence. The individuals and organisations we have banned today violate this policy, and they will no longer be allowed a presence on Facebook or Instagram. Posts and other content which expresses praise or support for these figures and groups will also be banned. Our work against organised hate is ongoing and we will continue to review individuals, organisations, pages, groups and content against our community standards.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes Facebook’s decision to take decisive action and proactively remove extremists from the platform, however we regret that Facebook remains amongst the worst offenders when it comes to removing antisemitic incitement.

A ComRes poll has found that 55% of the British public agreed with the statement that: “Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to tackle antisemitism within his own party shows he is unfit to be Prime Minister.” ComRes conducted the poll for the Jewish News.

Additionally, 51% believe that “The Labour Party has a serious antisemitism problem”, which represents a dramatic rise from the 34% who answered affirmatively when ComRes asked the same question in July last year.

Merely 22% “believe Jeremy Corbyn’s claim that he has an ‘absolute determination’ to stamp out antisemitism from the Labour Party.”

Disturbingly, however, 52% of the Labour voters surveyed agreed that Mr Corbyn is the target of “a concerted smear campaign by his political opponents to try to discredit him over antisemitism.”

According to the Jewish News, a Labour source said that: “This looks like a set of leading questions that anyone would expect to produce a negative result.”

Andrew Hawkins, Chair of ComRes, remarked that “Being seen as soft on racism must account for a major part of Labour’s malaise given that almost one in three of the Party’s own voters at the last election believe its leader is not fit to be Prime Minister because of the issue.”

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

A man who allegedly forced his way into a synagogue in Stamford Hill in north London screaming that “I want to kill all disbelievers” is once again being sought by police after failing to appear in court.

Following the incident last month, Stamford Hill Shomrim, a Jewish volunteer neighbourhood watch, were on the scene within 45 seconds. The suspect was subsequently arrested by the Metropolitan Police Service and charged with an offence of racially aggravated harassment, alarm and distress offence under section 5 of the Public Order Act.

However, the defendant failed to appear at Highbury Corner Magistrates yesterday. The court issued a warrant for his arrest and he is now wanted by police.

Campaign Against Antisemitism commend Stamford Hill Shomrim and the Metropolitan Police Service for their extremely fast response to this extremely disturbing incident. We are following the case with interest.

If you have any more information, please contact the police on 101 or Stamford Hill Shomrim on 0300 999 0123.

Shadow Justice Minister, Richard Burgon’s speech at a public meeting in 2014, video footage of which has now been brought to light, is nothing less than a diatribe, including the accusation that “Zionism is the enemy of peace.”

In the speech, uncovered and released by investigative journalist Iggy Ostanin, Mr Burgon, who would be Secretary of State for Justice in a Corbyn-led government, said that: “…the enemy — the enemy of the Palestinian People is not the Jewish people, the enemy of the Palestinian people are Zionists; and Zionism is the enemy of peace…”

Mr Burgon’s appalling comments evoke Stalin-era antisemitic propaganda. Targeted specifically at Jews in the Soviet Union who wished to emigrate to Israel and to curry favour in the Middle East, Stalin, and later other Soviet leaders in the 1970s and 1980s, were the originators of the antisemitic attempt to force Jews to denounce Israel by demonising Zionism and Zionists, and declaring the latter subversive traitors. At the Slansky trials in the former Czechoslovakia, Jewish leaders were executed for, among other things, the crime of being Zionists, as were hundreds of Jewish doctors in the so-called Doctor’s plot. This ‘othering’ of Jews, the vast majority of whom naturally believe that Jews should have the right to self-determination just like all other peoples, is the bedrock of modern far-left antisemitism, and was a technique absorbed by farleft groups in the West. Mr Burgon, along with Mr Corbyn are its modern flag-bearers, the latter berating British Zionists for their failure to grasp their own country’s sense of irony, while openly referring to a subversive “Zionist lobby.”

However Mr Burgon, the MP for Leeds East and also the Shadow Lord Chancellor, does not stop there: he said that all Labour Friends of Israel MPs should be asked to resign because of the military actions of Israel in Gaza. This would include Jewish MPs, and in making this request, he makes them complicit in the actions of the Israeli government. This is the kind of comment we associate with the far-right, but we now hear it from the mouth of the man aspiring to run Britain’s justice system. According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel” is antisemitic.

The closing line of Mr Burgon’s tirade is chilling. Not only, it is implied, should these Jewish MPs resign, for they are the “enemies of peace” but they must do it in the name of “all humanity”. For antisemites, a Jewish state — as Jewry formerly — constitutes a uniquely demonic blot on the world, a cancer that must be cut out to make the world healthy once again.

When asked about these comments by Andrew Neil on the BBC, Mr Burgon lied. When asked he said, by turns: “I didn’t say that”, “No”, “Well, I didn’t make those comments”, and “I would not have said it because it’s not my view.” We now learn that he was similarly evasive to the point of lying under oath in a court of law.

It is difficult to know whether Mr Burgon should be dismissed from his post immediately for his brazen lying or for his dissemination of antisemitic discourse in breach of his Party’s own chosen definition of antisemitism, but either way, he should have been dismissed immediately. In the view of Campaign Against Antisemitism, he should be suspended and subjected to a disciplinary process, but this is not a course of action available to a Party that has become institutionally antisemitic. In any case, Mr Burgon cannot be sacrificed, for to admit his own demonisation of Zionists was a fault, would be to expose Mr Corbyn’s own comments to the same judgement.

British Jewry is being subjected to an unexpected and unwelcome retrospective of Soviet antisemitism, demonisation, brazen lies and denials leaving other Labour MPs to look on, pausing only to wring their hands before returning to their seats in Parliament. Meanwhile, the shape of things to come for British Jewry should such a man become Justice Minister, a man who is subject to no justice himself, is ever more terrifying.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

A man has been found guilty of racially abusing Jewish security personnel outside of a synagogue in Hendon, North West London.  

The incident, which occurred in March 2018, began when Alkarim Versi approached CST security officers to ask them questions about the synagogue. Mr Versi then began making abusive gestures and threats, which included telling them that “he had been in the army and had no issue killing again.”

On Monday, Mr Versi was tried at Harrow Crown Court for racially aggravated intentional harassment where, after his plea of “not guilty,” he was nevertheless found guilty and sentenced to a three-month prison sentence, suspended for fifteen months. He has also been ordered to undertake rehabilitation activity and pay a £115 victim surcharge.

UPDATE: In December 2020, Mr Versi issued an apology to the CST for his actions.

Chris Jury, an actor on Lovejoy and now a Labour council candidate, has reportedly peddled antisemitic conspiracies and alleged that there is no evidence at all that the Labour Party has a particular problem with antisemitism.

Mr Jury who played the character Eric in Lovejoy, a popular British television comedy-drama-mystery series in the 1980s, has also appeared in Doctor Who and Grange Hill. He is running to be a Labour councillor on Stratford-On-Avon Council in the upcoming local elections.

According to MailOnline, in a blog entitled “I Am Not A Number”, Mr Jury posted antisemitic tropes.

In one post published in March, Mr Jury allegedly wrote: “My disgust at the cynical abuse of the memory of the 6 million [Jews murdered by the Nazis] by the right-wing of the Labour Party, aided and abetted by the Israeli Embassy, grows daily and has left me despairing for the future of the Labour Party. There is no evidence at all that the Labour Party has a particular problem with antisemitism.” He also defended Chris Williamson in that article.

The International Definition of Antisemitism adopted by the British Government and the Labour Party, states that “Manifestations [of antisemitism] might include the targeting of the State of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity…Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for ‘why things go wrong’.”

In another post from April 2017, Mr Jury concluded that: “70 years after the defeat of the Nazis their racist, colonial, Eurocentric, moral degeneracy is still playing out in the Middle-East.”

Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.

In a tweet from August last year, Mr Jury also said that British politics was being “subverted” and antisemitism was being “weaponised by the Right of the Labour Party…”

Mr Jury reportedly stood by his comments in a statement to the MailOnline. He also posted on Facebook, downplaying antisemitism in Labour, writing: “The Labour Party has 500,000 members and I know only a few hundred of them so I obviously cannot claim that there are literally no antisemites in the Labour Party, only that I have never seen any substantive evidence that it is a particularly prevalent problem in the Labour Party and certainly not a problem on a scale that could warrant the sustained level of attack on the party over the three years since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader.”

He continued that: “If the Israeli Embassy has played such a role, it is also perfectly legitimate to point that out as it may partly explain how and why this issue has come to such prominence since Corbyn was elected.”

He added that: “I do not oppose Israel or a Jewish state of Israel, I simply support the Palestinian cause. I believe that just as the Jewish people are entitled to live at peace in their traditional homeland so are the Palestinians.”

Mr Jury’s conspiracy theories about a secretive cabal of politicians in league with the Israeli government to use the Holocaust against Jeremy Corbyn and Chris Williamson are utterly repulsive. He seems to think that all of the Jewish Labour members calling for solidarity and help over the most vile antisemitic abuse are in fact part of a right-wing Israeli-run plot and worthy only of suspicion or even contempt. It is no surprise that he feels right at home in the Labour Party.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and Party members.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

The Police Service of Northern Ireland is investigating shocking antisemitic comments made in a pub, including that “Hitler didn’t kill enough f***ing Jews.”

Israeli author and journalist, Tuvia Tenenbom, filmed several men inside a pub in Derry’s Bogside, a predominantly nationalist area, as part of a documentary on Brexit. The clip has been widely circulated online.

After entering the pub and seeing Palestinian flags on display, Mr Tenenbom asked drinkers at the bar why they support Palestine. Some of the blatantly antisemitic responses were: “Because we hate the f***ing Jews” and “The Israelis are child-murdering scum.” A man in an orange high-visibility jacket then declared: “The only thing that Hitler didn’t do wrong. He didn’t kill enough f***ing Jews…Jews are the scourge of the Earth.” The comment was met with laughter from other patrons.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland confirmed that it is investigating the incident. Chief Inspector Gerard McLaughlin said: “Police have received a complaint in relation to a video on a social media site. Enquiries are ongoing into this incident.”

Condemnation from political leaders in Northern Ireland has been swift. The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Arlene Foster called it: “A disgusting comment. The small Jewish community in Northern Ireland will always have my support and that of all right thinking people.”

A Sinn Féin spokesperson said that: “There is no place for racism, sectarianism, antisemitism or discrimination of any kind in our society.”

Ulster Unionist MLA Doug Beattie said that he did not think it was reflective of “mainstream thinking in Londonderry or anywhere else in Northern Ireland.”

Alliance leader Naomi Long said that there was “no place” for antisemitism in society, and said she hoped action would be taken.”

Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader Colum Eastwood said that: “These comments are totally unacceptable; both the language and sentiment is not reflective of the people of Derry. I know the views expressed in the video will be widely and rightly rejected by the people of Derry.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes the investigation by the police and is following the case with interest.

Ronald Campbell, the Labour Party MP for Blyth Valley in Northumberland, has told the BBC that charges of antisemitism in the Labour Party are politically motivated and that “the Jewish issue” is being used “as a big stick to beat Corbyn and get rid of him.”

In an interview commencing at 05:25 minutes on The World This Weekend program on BBC Radio 4, Mr Campbell told presenter Mark Mardell that it was “deplorable” and “just unacceptable” that Jewish Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge secretly recorded her meeting with Jeremy Corbyn to discuss the Labour Party’s antisemitism crisis. The recording revealed that Mr Corbyn has been making assurances of firm action against antisemitism whilst in reality he believed that evidence of antisemitism was being “ignored”.

Mr Campbell said that: “The people in the Parliamentary Labour Party are using the Jewish issue, the antisemitic issue, as a big stick to beat Corbyn and get rid of him. It’s as simple as that as far as I can see. I’ve been in the Labour Party nearly — more than 50 years and I’ve never heard anything like this before. Now I understand there’s a lot of people have come in to the Party from the far-left and have these views. I would say to them, please leave, you’re not welcome in this Party.”

Mr Campbell, who has represented the constituency of Blyth Valley since 1987, appeared to downplay the antisemitism faced by Dame Margaret and others, declaring: “I know they’ve had some stick on their Facebook and whatnot and it shouldn’t be tolerated. But to use the Leader and get at the Leader because you want rid of the Leader — nobody wanted him in the first place, remember. The Parliamentary Labour Party put a no confidence vote in. When they didn’t get that, they started to say what issue can we get them on? Ah the Jewish issue. This is a good one. I feel sorry for the Jewish people…You’re being used by these people. Just to get rid of Corbyn that is.”

Mr Campbell reportedly made similar comments in April last year. According to ChronicleLive, which covers his constituency, he said that: “The latest row over the bizarre allegation that Jeremy is in any way anti-Jewish has been got up by the right-wing media. It is getting so bad that you cannot criticise Israel in its dealings with Palestine without being accused of racism or fascism. They are using it as a big stick to hit Jeremy with.” He added that the attacks were coming from inside Labour: “For once, it is not the Tories that are doing this; it is people on our side. Those career politicians in the Labour Party need to wind their necks in and fight the Tories. We have to remember who the enemy is – the Tories!”

To claim that allegations of antisemitism are being invented or exaggerated for political gain is to accuse Jews of complicity in a political conspiracy. Additionally, Mr Campbell’s clumsy use of the term “Jewish issue” will evoke historic language about the “Jewish problem” or the “Jewish question” which was central to European antisemitism in the 19th and 20th centuries, including that of the Nazis.

Campaign Against Antisemitism condemns Mr Campbell for his repulsive attempt to characterise Jews’ complaints about antisemitism in the Labour Party as some kind of political and media plot. Such claims against any other minority or in any other political party could be expected to end his career, but in the institutionally antisemitic Labour Party, we have come to expect that there will be no justice.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In the BBC interview, Mr Campbell seemed to support the Equality and Human Rights Commission investigating Labour, saying: “[It] might be a good idea for an independent body to look at these things. I’m not arguing that argument. I’m arguing that these people have come in to the Labour Party from the far-left and got these views, should leave. You’re in the wrong party.”

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with numerous councillors and members.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

The Labour Party has suspended the last remaining full-time employee from its Compliance Unit, which investigates disciplinary matters, leaving it run by staffers on secondment from Jeremy Corbyn’s office to the Unit.

According to a report in The Sunday Times, last Tuesday the staffer was stripped of their security pass and escorted out of Labour Party headquarters on suspicion of whistleblowing about the Party’s antisemitism crisis, leaving no permanent employees staffing the Compliance Unit, which is now being run by staffers seconded from Mr Corbyn’s office.

This week, senior Labour figures rushed to defend whistleblower, Julian Assange, with Diane Abbott stating that: “Whistleblowers do us all a service”.

A Labour spokesman said: “We don’t comment on staffing matters. Complaints are being handled in the usual way.” However, we know from a secret recording of Mr Corbyn himself, that “the usual way” could be to ignore and misplace critical evidence.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

Campaign Against Antisemitism declared the Labour Party to be “institutionally antisemitic” back in 2016, followed by other Jewish community charities two years later. In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

It has emerged today that in a secretly-recorded conversation with Jewish Labour MP Dame Margaret Hodge, Jeremy Corbyn admitted that Labour may have “ignored or misplaced or not used”.

The admission, in a recording released by The Sunday Times, shows that even as he consistently assured the nation that Labour “takes antisemitism very seriously”, he actually believed that “evidence [of antisemitism within the Party] was either being mislaid, ignored or not used”.

The admission adds to the evidence that the Labour Party cannot be trusted to deal with antisemitism and must be subject to a full statutory investigation.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

Campaign Against Antisemitism declared the Labour Party to be “institutionally antisemitic” back in 2016, followed by other Jewish community charities two years later. In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

West Ham United Football Club has said that it will ban for life any fans that it manages to identify from a video in which football thugs can be heard chanting on public transport: “We’ll be running around Tottenham with our willies hanging out, singing ‘I’ve got a foreskin, haven’t you, f***ing Jew’.” Tottenham Hotspur Football Club has traditionally enjoyed the support of a large number of Jewish football fans.

After footage of the incident was posted on Twitter, a West Ham United spokesperson said: “We are disgusted by the contents of the video. These people are not welcome at our club — they are not welcome in civilised society. We are taking immediate action to try to identify the offenders, whose details we will be handing over to the police and will be banned for life from London Stadium and from travelling with the club. West Ham United is unequivocal in its stance – there is no place for this kind of behaviour at our club.”

Greater Manchester Police praised the club for its firm stance appealed for witnesses with footage of the incident to contact them. Detective Chief Inspector Rebecca Boyce said: “Here in Manchester we pride ourselves on making sure fans from far and wide are welcomed and it is disappointing that a small few have brought shame on football in this way. Let me be really clear: racial abuse will not be tolerated and anyone that partakes in this kind of behaviour can be expected to be investigated by the police.”

Witnesses should contact Greater Manchester Police by calling 101, or e-mailing Campaign Against Antisemitism at [email protected] if there is any difficulty.

West Ham fans have been involved in a number of antisemitic incidents. Mark Harding was convicted for telling a Jewish fan to “stick your head in the oven like the Jew you are” in 2017, and in 2016 Richard Prendiville and a man identified only as R. Peacock were convicted over similar antisemitic chanting on public transport.

It has emerged that in 2011, Jeremy Corbyn defended eight schools’ plans to send children to a festival featuring a vandal who daubed “Free Gaza and Palestine” on the Warsaw ghetto.

Eight primary schools had intended to send children to the Tottenham Palestine Literary Festival, where speakers included Ewa Jasciewicz, who spray-painted “Free Gaza and Palestine” on the wall of the Warsaw Ghetto. According to a report in The Times, in 2002 Ms Jasciewicz called for “activists” to “do” the Israeli parliament or “a sophisticated politician bump-off” rather than targeting Israeli civilians.

The move was opposed by a Jewish charity, the Board of Deputies, but investigative journalist, Iggy Ostanin, has discovered that Mr Corbyn told the Islington Tribune that: “The Board of Deputies are hardly objective in this matter. Their record of denunciation of all things Palestinian is well known.” He added that he planned to attend the festival, saying that: “It’s a great opportunity for children to understand the wealth and joy of Palestinian literature and a little of the history of the region.”

Mr Corbyn added that the festival, which was organised by a branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign would be entirely neutral and educational, saying: “It’s not in any way biased, but a festival which will encourage children to broaden their horizons. The children were looking forward to it. I’d like to think there is still time to resolve the issue.”

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign, of which Mr Corbyn remains a Patron, has had its own antisemitism problems.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

The so-called Labour Representation Committee (LRC), a pro-Corbyn pressure group, has published an appalling blog post on their website attacking Jewish MP Luciana Berger, who quit the Labour Party over antisemitism, and the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) which she chaired. JLM, which has for almost 100 years been the collective body of Jewish Labour Party supporters, approved a motion on Sunday declaring that it has “no confidence” in Jeremy Corbyn and that he is “unfit to be Prime Minister.”

The LRC has a long history of belittling claims of antisemitism and publishing extremely disturbing articles. The Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, is its President.

In this latest blog post, entitled “JLM Stabs Labour in the Back”, the LRC’s Political Secretary, Mick Brooks, regurgitates conspiracy theories and claims that the antisemitism crisis in the Labour Party is a smear. Using the most loaded and offensive language, Mr Brooks wrote that: “They have declared war on Labour” and concluded that: “They are stabbing us in the back. That is insupportable. The JLM must be disaffiliated from Labour as soon as possible.” He then denied that Luciana Berger was forced out of the Party by antisemitism, declaring: “Let us be clear. Luciana Berger left the Party of her own accord.”

Mr Brooks also referred to an article alleging an Israeli conspiracy: “According to the Electronic Intifada the JLM was revived in 2015 specifically to combat Jeremy Corbyn, a longstanding supporter of the Palestinian cause. The article points the finger at Israeli intelligence in helping to refound the dormant JLM, an explanation confirmed by the Al Jazeera’s [sic] documentary The Lobby. It is not antisemitism in Britain, but opposition to policies carried out by the state of Israel that they see as the enemy. In response Asa Winstanley, the author of the article, has been suspended from the Labour Party.”

The International Definition of Antisemitism, states that “Manifestations [of antisemitism] might include the targeting of the State of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity. However, criticism of Israel similar to that levelled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic. Antisemitism frequently charges Jews with conspiring to harm humanity, and it is often used to blame Jews for ‘why things go wrong’.”

JLM issued a statement in response to Mr Brooks’ shocking comments stating that: “This article makes it clear that they will blame Jews for any failure at the ballot box, further enabling racism towards Jews. The language of ‘betray’ and ‘backstabbing’ are dogwhistles to antisemitism that Jews have experienced too many times to monstrous effect.”

Mr McDonnell appears to be actively involved with the LRC and is a regular contributor to its website. His most recent article was posted on 4th April.

Were he serious about stamping out antisemitism and making the Labour Party a safe place for Jews, he would step down from and condemn the LRC immediately.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

Zeid Truscott has been disqualified from standing as a candidate for the National Union of Students (NUS) Executive Council after complaints over antisemitic social media posts, including one claiming that Mossad trained the leader of ISIS.

Jules Mason, NUS Chief Returning Officer, tweeted a statement confirming: “As your Chief Returning Officer, I am responsible for ensuring that elections are not just fair, safe and accessible but with that they also follow the rules and abide with NUS rules and policy. As I mentioned in my accountability report yesterday, I have ruled on a complaint concerning antisemitism…Despite being informed of the potential of disqualification [Mr Truscott] has not complied with my ruling in respect to a complaint made about them concerning antisemitism whilst a candidate. As a result, I have disqualified that candidate from this year’s NUS NEC Block of 15 election.”

Mr Truscott has refused to apologise for reportedly sharing an article on Facebook claiming that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, was trained by Mossad.

Another post claimed that the International Definition of Antisemitism is “anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab.” Another message said that: “Some of the [definition’s] examples ([such as] Israel being a racist endeavour) aim to silence Arab lived experience and sideline oppression of Arabs.” He also allegedly tweeted: “Just your daily reminder that Israel is a racist, apartheid state. Founded on ‘divine right’ and created through terrorism and ethnic cleansing.”

A number of messages allegedly sent from his Facebook and Twitter accounts were uncovered by a Twitter user.

In a statement posted on social media, Mr Truscott, a University of Bath student, declined to apologise for the posts, instead saying that he rejected accusations of antisemitism. He wrote: “Since my involvement in the student movement, I have always tried to advocate for justice, liberation and amplifying the voices of the marginalised.”

In a statement posted on Twitter, the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) said that it is “deeply troubled” by “antisemitic” social media posts by Mr Truscott.

An NUS spokesman said that: “The National Union of Students believes that all forms of hate and prejudice are unacceptable. NUS will continue to engage with the Jewish students and the community to identify ways in which we can ensure our spaces are inclusive and accessible to all students.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism condemns Mr Truscott’s language and his refusal to back down. The International Definition of Antisemitism, which NUS has adopted, is clear that “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour)” is antisemitic, as are antisemitic conspiracy theories.

NUS still has a long way to go to repair its reputation with Jewish students, but Mr Truscott’s disqualification is a positive development and we commend Mr Mason for his principled decision.

Once a pioneer in fighting antisemitism, in past years NUS has been rocked by scandal, including under the leadership of the widely-criticised Malia Bouattia who called Birmingham University a “Zionist outpost in higher education” because it has “the largest JSoc (Jewish Society) in the country”. Campaign Against Antisemitism thanks Shakira Martin, the outgoing President, for her continued efforts to support Jewish students and rebuild relationships between NUS and the Jewish community.

An allegedly antisemitic comment apparently made by Matthew Scott, the former Head of Music at the National Theatre, is being investigated by police after a complaint was made, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Mr Scott was Head of Music at the National Theatre from 2006 until 2016 and remained there as a music consultant until the end of last month. He is currently Emeritus Professor of Composition in Music at the University of Southampton.

The Daily Telegraph reported that Mr Scott is believed to have made the comment under a BBC News article about yesterday’s Israeli elections which said: “The time for the erasure of Israel and the completion of the cleansing process is rapidly approaching. Can Netanyahu now see that his actions are feeding the furnace?”

It is hard to imagine how “the completion of the cleansing process” could be understood as anything other than a call for the genocide of Jews in Israel. Additionally, under the International Definition of Antisemitism adopted by the British Government, “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour)” is antisemitic.

The comment, posted over the weekend, was subsequently deleted. Neither Mr Scott nor his agent responded to requests for comment by the Telegraph.

Essex Police confirmed to The Daily Telegraph that it had received a complaint about the post which it was expected to transfer to another force. A spokeswoman said that “enquiries are ongoing.”

The complainant, who did not want to be identified, told The Daily Telegraph that he was “appalled” by the comments which he said would be career-ending for many.

Furthermore, Campaign Against Antisemitism has discovered that someone posting as Mr Scott shared a Nazi analogy on Facebook, which featured an image captioned: “The thought of Jewish children being at the complete mercy of of Nazis is just as repulsive as Palestinian children being at the completely mercy of Zionist Israelis.”

Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is also antisemitic.

Campaign Against Antisemitism welcomes the investigation by Essex Police and keenly awaits the outcome. If proven, it would be particularly disturbing for someone in a position of such seniority in the artistic community to hold such brazenly antisemitic views.

Labour peer Lord Falconer, who the Labour Party’s leaders had controversially considered putting in charge of another “independent” review of Labour’s handling of disciplinary cases of antisemitism, has joined the litany of current and former Labour figures saying that the Party’s actions on antisemitism could render it institutionally antisemitic.

Campaign Against Antisemitism declared the Labour Party to be “institutionally antisemitic” back in 2016, followed by other Jewish community charities two years later.

Invoking the words used by the landmark 1999 Macphereson into institutional racism in the Metropolitan Police Service, Lord Falconer told the Jewish News: “Can antisemitism be detected in the Party’s processes, attitudes or behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice, ignorance, thoughtlessness and racist stereotyping? Looks frighteningly like it as every day goes by.”

Lord Falconer’s warning came after the Sunday Times published pages of analysis and details of a leaked hard drive of e-mails and documents and a secret recording of a meeting between Jeremy Corbyn and Campaign Against Antisemitism’s honorary patron, Dame Margaret Hodge, which have proven once and for all that Mr Corbyn and his team have intervened in hundreds of antisemitism cases in the Labour Party whilst lying that they would “never” interfere.

Last month, Lord Falconer of Thoroton, who served as Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary from 2003 to 2007 and was a flatmate of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, said that he would not conduct a review of Labour’s handling of disciplinary cases of antisemitism after the Equalities and Human Rights Commission stepped in.

The Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

Yesterday, marked the one year anniversary since over 2,000 Jews and non-Jews alike converged from across the UK for a national demonstration outside Labour Party Head Office in London organised by Campaign Against Antisemitism. The rally demanded that the Labour Party hold Mr Corbyn to account over his failure to tackle antisemitism in the Party. We received 1,025 disciplinary complaints from the demonstrators which we handed over to the Labour Party. A year later, they have still not investigated these complaints.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office”.

Three more Labour councillors, Allan Barclay, Marilyn Davies and Jason Fojtik, have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

Mr Barclay, the Mayor of Hartlepool, said that he resigned from Labour because: “My fear has become a reality that the Labour Party has become a party of antisemites, racists and homophobes, it has indeed become the nasty party.” In his resignation letter to Jeremy Corbyn, as well as Deputy Leader Tom Watson and General Secretary Jennie Formby, he wrote that: “I feel that Jeremy Corbyn must resign and the Corbynites must be removed from the Labour Party. This is the only way that the party can become respectable again.”

“My fear has become a reality that the Labour Party has become a party of antisemites, racists and homophobes, it has indeed become the nasty party.”

Mr Barclay, an armed forces veteran, had been a member of the Party for more than 24 years. A Labour Party spokesperson said that the Party rejected Mr Barclay’s position.

Ms Davies also resigned over antisemitism. A Labour and Co-op councillor in Freeland and Hanborough in Oxfordshire, Ms Davies, was reportedly infuriated after a video featuring former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown making a speech opposing antisemitism was deleted from the closed Witney Labour Facebook group. Ms Davies told the Oxford Mail: “I could not have been prouder to be elected, a year ago, as a Labour and Co-op councillor for Hanborough and Freeland. But in that year, my party has changed, and whilst I know my former Labour councillors at West Oxfordshire District Council share my values and commitment to our communities, I have come to the conclusion to stay in the party would make me complicit in the antisemitism and climate of hate and fear now generated across CLPs.”

“I believe the Party has become institutionally antisemitic, and I can no longer stand by in silence, because being silent is being complicit.”

She added: “I believe the Labour Party is now institutionally antisemitic. It is not just those who generate it who are to blame but those that stand by silent while they do. I can no longer be silent. I will be louder.” In a Facebook post, she also wrote that: “But I believe the Party has become institutionally antisemitic, and I can no longer stand by in silence, because being silent is being complicit.”

Mr Fojtik, the Labour town and district councillor for Clopton Ward in Stratford-upon-Avon, released a statement on social media explaining his resignation. He wrote: “For months the Labour Party failed to act before finally being shamed into accepting the definition [International Definition of Antisemitism], but little has changed and I have come to the conclusion that a Party that has always been proud of its anti-racism, has become institutionally antisemitic under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Ignoring this deplorable behaviour by our supporters is tantamount to tacit endorsement.”

“I have come to the conclusion that a Party that has always been proud of its anti-racism, has become institutionally antisemitic under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership.”

Mr Fojtik was elected town and district councillor for Clopton Ward in 2015. He will now stand as an independent in that ward in the upcoming local elections.

Campaign Against Antisemitism commends Messrs Barclay, Davies and Fojtik for taking a principled stand against antisemitism.

They join many other councillors who have also felt compelled to leave. In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

Yesterday, marked the one year anniversary since over 2,000 Jews and non-Jews alike converged from across the UK for a national demonstration outside Labour Party Head Office in London organised by Campaign Against Antisemitism. The rally demanded that the Labour Party hold Mr Corbyn to account over his failure to tackle antisemitism in the Party. We received 1,025 disciplinary complaints from the demonstrators which we handed over to the Labour Party. A year later, they have still not investigated these complaints.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office”.

Emily Thornberry, the Shadow Foreign Secretary and a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, is reportedly the latest senior Labour politician to call for the Equality and Human Rights Commission to proceed with its investigation into institutional antisemitic discrimination and victimisation within the Labour Party.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission launched pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party last month following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

According to the news website, Politico, Ms Thornberry said that she would be in favour of Labour coming under national oversight from bodies like the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which she said could launch an inquiry into the Party’s process for handling complaints. Ms Thornberry made the comments during an interview for Politico’s “EU Confidential” podcast.

“I just want it sorted,” she told Politico.

Ms Thornberry also told Politico that she is “disgusted” by fresh media reports in the Sunday Times of antisemitism within Labour and claims that the leadership had interfered with the disciplinary process. She said: “I’m completely disgusted this is continuing to happen” and added that: “Some of the things that were said just turn my stomach and the idea that these people are still in my Labour Party disgusts me.”

Ms Thornberry follows many others within the Labour Party who have called for the EHRC’s investigation to proceed.

Her colleague Tom Watson, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, who stated that: “I am deeply saddened to read that the EHRC feels there is sufficient evidence to investigate Labour for breaches of discrimination law. I have written to our General Secretary to ask that that Labour Party cooperates fully with the EHRC and that all relevant files and data should be retained so that investigators can form a clear picture of the process and culture around Labour’s response to antisemitism within our ranks.”

Lord Falconer, who was at one point due to be asked by the Party’s leadership to become their “antisemitism surveillance commissioner”, told BBC Radio 4’s World at One that: “It sounds to me like an urgent investigation is required…I was willing to do that, and if the Commission don’t come in, I would remain willing to do it.”

Trevor Phillips, founding Chair of the EHRC and a Labour member, wrote that: “…Yesterday’s courageous decision by the Commission to investigate the Labour Party was a proud moment for me. I know that EHRC lawyers would have considered the decision with the utmost thoroughness, and I am sure the Board would have weighed the risk of controversy carefully. And then they did the right thing – just as you’d expect a pioneering body empowered to attack injustice without fear or favour to do….Let me be clear: Had I still been at the EHRC, I would have supported this decision 100 per cent.”

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

Yesterday, marked the one year anniversary since over 2,000 Jews and non-Jews alike converged from across the UK for a national demonstration outside Labour Party Head Office in London organised by Campaign Against Antisemitism. The rally demanded that the Labour Party hold Mr Corbyn to account over his failure to tackle antisemitism in the Party. We received 1,025 disciplinary complaints from the demonstrators which we handed over to the Labour Party. A year later, they have still not investigated these complaints.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office”.

The Jewish Labour Movement, which has for almost 100 years been the collective body of Jewish Labour Party supporters, has approved a motion declaring that it has “no confidence” in Jeremy Corbyn and that he is “unfit to be Prime Minister”.

However the Jewish Labour Movement has not decided to reopen the debate on disaffiliating from the Labour Party after a motion to do so was defeated a month ago.

The Jewish Labour Movement therefore seems to be in agreement that the Labour Party is institutionally antisemitic and that its leader poses a serious threat to the British Jewish community, but it is prepared to remain affiliated to “stand and fight” despite that fight having demonstrably failed. This sends a confusing message.

The move comes amid revelations that Jeremy Corbyn said he was not involved in disciplinary process “at all” whilst his office interfered in over 100 cases.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office”.

A leaked hard drive of e-mails and documents and a secret recording of a meeting between Jeremy Corbyn and Campaign Against Antisemitism’s honorary patron, Dame Margaret Hodge, have proven once and for all that Mr Corbyn and his team have intervened in hundreds of antisemitism cases in the Labour Party whilst lying that they would “never” interfere. The revelations are made in pages of analysis in today’s Sunday Times.

In the secretly-recorded meeting between Dame Margaret, Mr Corbyn, and his political secretary, Amy Jackson, both Ms Jackson and Mr Corbyn repeatedly claim that they would “never” interfere in complaints of antisemitism in the Labour Party and would not even normally see them. Mr Corbyn assures Dame Margaret: “I don’t involve myself in a complaint at all”. Yet in numerous leaked e-mails, staffers intercede in the name of “LOTO”, which stands for Leader of the Opposition, and in one e-mail, Mr Corbyn’s chief of staff, Karie Murphy, wrote: “I think it’s important for Amy Jackson to have an overview of all complaints that involve elected politicians or candidates.”

As for how Mr Corbyn secretly used his influence, it is clear that it was to block or delay disciplinary cases against antisemites, according to the files leaked to The Sunday Times.

Revelations include that:

  • Mr Corbyn’s office has intervened in over 100 antisemitism cases.
  • “Heil Hitler”, “F*** the Jews” and “Jews are the problem” are online comments for which Labour members were not expelled.
  • A Councillor in Lancashire was readmitted to the Party after claiming that when ranting about “Jewish” media attacks and the Rothschild family, she meant “Jewish” as a “blanket term of description without any racist connotations”.
  • A trade union official was readmitted despite posting online that “Jewish Israelis” were behind the 9/11 terrorist atrocities.
  • Thomas Gardiner, a key ally of Mr Corbyn, prevented the fast-tracking of a complaint about a Party member who condemned two Jewish Labour MPs as “s***-stirring c*** buckets”.
  • A council candidate was let off without any action because he “is a candidate”, after claiming that Jewish Labour MPs were “Zionist infiltrators”.
  • In one tracking spreadsheet for antisemitism cases, it was evident that 53% of cases were unresolved and in 249 cases the Party had not even started an investigation.
  • Most cases reported even by Labour MPs remain unresolved or have been dismissed.

The revelations add to the existing plentiful evidence that Mr Corbyn instructed his team to interfere in antisemitism cases.

Baroness Shami Chakrabarti, the Shadow Attorney general who was awarded her position after clearing the Labour Party of antisemitism, remarkably reacted by pleading with Jews to remain in the Party, saying that Mr Corbyn is “just one person — he won’t be leader forever”.

A Labour spokesperson told The Sunday Times: “These figures are not accurate…Lines have been selectively leaked from emails to misrepresent their overall contents. Former staffers asked the Leader’s Office for their help with clearing the backlog of cases. This lasted for a few weeks while there was no general secretary, and was ended by Jennie Formby [now in that role].”

Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite and a liar. He and his team have claimed ‘never’ to have interfered in disciplinary cases, but there is hard evidence of that happening over 100 times. The contents of the leaked hard drive show concrete proof that Mr Corbyn and his acolytes have been working hard to ensure that Jew-haters can stay in the Labour Party and spread their venom. Mr Corbyn and his allies are the racist rot at the heart of the once proudly anti-racist Labour Party. The fight from within is lost: the Labour Party is now the vehicle for Mr Corbyn and his bigoted Jew-hating allies. That is why Campaign Against Antisemitism made our formal referral and legal submissions to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party as a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.”

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite.

Baroness Chakrabarti, who authored the eponymous whitewash report claiming that “The Labour Party is not overrun by antisemitism, Islamophobia or other forms of racism” and swiftly became the first person that Jeremy Corbyn ever proposed for elevation to the peerage, has now made a remarkable plea to Jewish Labour members.

Speaking to Sky’s Sophie Ridge, Baroness Chakrabarti begged Jewish members to stay in the Party because Jeremy Corbyn is “just one person — he won’t be leader forever”.

Campaign Against Antisemitism holds Baroness Chakrabarti responsible for allowing Mr Corbyn and his allies to take hold of the Labour Party and for antisemitism running rampant within it. She appears to have sold the Jewish community out in return for her peerage. Still, this is a remarkable statement by one of Mr Corbyn’s front bench colleagues and could be a sign of further splits within the Party over antisemitism.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite.

Tom Godwin

Charity worker Thomas Godwin has told BBC News that the failure of Devon and Cornwall Police to deal adequately with a sustained campaign of antisemitic abuse against him has left him feeling scared and vulnerable in his own home.

Mr Godwin, a resident of Tavistock in Devon, first contacted Campaign Against Antisemitism for help five months ago, after losing confidence in the ability of his local police force to keep him safe from antisemites who were repeatedly intimidating and threatening him. After he reported them to the police, a letter was sent anonymously to his place of work. It read, “We warning you Jew scum [sic] Stop talking to the pigs or else”, using the slang term for the police. The police did not collect this evidence of an antisemitic threat for two weeks, despite being aware that Mr Godwin was already being victimised for being Jewish.

In an emotional televised interview with BBC South West, Mr Godwin detailed the multiple failures of the investigation into this crime. Devon and Cornwall Police told him that a prosecution might not be in the public interest and attempted to pressure him into agreeing to mediation, which would have required him to sit down with people who have made it clear that they hate him for being Jewish. Mr Godwin also told the BBC that the police have not confronted the people he believes to be behind this antisemitic hate crime, choosing instead to make him feel as though he is the problem by telling him to take down the CCTV cameras he installed at his home for his security and advising him to move to another address.

Antisemitism has now reached a level unheard of since the end of the Second World War. Outside the UK, threats against Jewish people have translated into physical attacks and even murder. In this case, it appears that the police have completely failed to grasp the seriousness of the crime, and have sought to make the problem go away rather than ensure that the perpetrators feel the full force of the law. A senior officer with an understanding of antisemitic hate crime should now be appointed to carry out a thorough review of the way in which this investigation has been conducted.

In a statement issued to the BBC, Devon and Cornwall police said that “Local officers are also aware of and investigating a number of reports of harassment and anti-social behaviour; so far there has been insufficient evidence to progress these to the point of charge. All parties involved have been spoken to and offered mediation as a possible resolution.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism continues to provide support to Mr Godwin who has filed a professional standards complaint against the police officers involved.

Prominent Conservative Party backbencher Jacob Rees Mogg has defended his decision to promote a speech by the leader of the far-right German political party, Alternative for Deutschland (AfD).

Mr Rees Mogg tweeted a video of AfD Co-Leader Alice Weidel criticising the European Union in a speech in the Bundestag. Whilst the video shared by Mr Rees Mogg was itself innocuous, AfD has a long and well known history of racism, xenophobia, Holocaust denial and antisemitism. Ms Weidel has also made concerning comments in the past, referring to the current German government as “pigs and puppets of World War II’s victorious powers.”

AfD has a long history of problematic language and policies. AfD co-leader Alexander Gauland has said: “Hitler and the Nazis were but a bird s*** in over a thousand years of Germany’s prolific history”, while in 2017 he called for Germans to “have the right to be proud of the contributions German soldiers made in both world wars.” Martin Hohmann, another AfD parliamentarian, said prior to the formation of the AfD that it was unfair Germans were still portrayed as a nation of murderers while no one talked about how “Jews were active in great numbers” in atrocities committed during the Russian Revolution.

AfD has also long supported the banning of circumcision and kosher animal slaughter, which would drive out Germany’s Jewish community.

When challenged on this, Mr Rees Mogg defended his use of the material, stating whilst on LBC that he doesn’t believe that “re-tweeting is an endorsement of things that other people stand for. It’s just pointing out that there’s something interesting that’s worth watching.” This argument is dangerous and promotes and legitimises groups who have no business being close to power.

This is not the first controversial group linked to Mr Rees Mogg. In 2013, he spoke at a dinner for the Traditional Britain Group, which has called for black Britains to be “repatriated”. He said that he felt “very silly”, adding: “I can entirely disassociate myself with the Traditional Britain Group as I have never been a member.” He later told BBC’s Newsnight: “I clearly made a mistake. I think the postings that we’ve recently seen are so deeply disgraceful and shocking that they have no place in decent political debate…I clearly didn’t do enough work to look into what they believed in.”

Part of the way that far-right populists operate is to gain a platform with legitimate — though controversial — statements, occasionally peppering them with extremism and hatred. British politicians should not be promoting their content and adding to their audience. By now, Mr Rees Mogg should know better.

https://twitter.com/Jacob_Rees_Mogg/status/1112428768193404935

An article apparently written by Jeremy Corbyn has been uncovered that calls on Western governments to confront “the Zionist lobby” following the arrest of the alleged prolific antisemite and blood-libeller cleric, Raed Salah.

The article was published in the Morning Star on 1st July 2011 after Mr Salah, the leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, was arrested and detained for 21 days on the orders of the then Home Secretary, Theresa May, after entering Britain despite a travel ban. He later won a partial victory in a claim for damages, however none of the antisemitism allegations were overturned.

In the article, rediscovered by investigative journalist Iggy Ostanin, Mr Corbyn allegedly criticised “the hysteria” that followed coverage of the ban in the Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Daily Telegraph and Jewish Chronicle, writing that: “This bizarre turn of events seems to indicate that the right-wing press has more power than rationality.”

He concluded that: “It’s time that Western governments stood up to the Zionist lobby which seems to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism” and signed off as the Labour MP for Islington North.

In April 2012, Mr Corbyn warmly praised Mr Salah who claimed that Israel planned the 9/11 terrorist atrocities and who has, according to the Court of Appeal, even promoted the antisemitic blood libel that Jews bake bread using the blood of non-Jewish children. Yet Mr Corbyn said that: “Salah’s is a voice that must be heard” and publicly told Mr Salah that: “I look forward to giving you tea on the terrace [in Parliament] because you deserve it!”

A Labour Party spokesperson told the Jewish News that: “There was widespread criticism of the attempt to deport Raed Salah, including from Jews for Justice for Palestinians, and his appeal against deportation succeeded on all grounds.” However that is a deeply misleading statement as the appeal was on technical grounds and the court agreed that Mr Salah promoted the antisemitic blood libel.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

Almost 50,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office”.

Chelsea Football Club fans have reportedly chanted the antisemitic slur “Yid” at an away game in Swansea, Wales.

Simon Johnson, the Evening Standard’s sports reporter, tweeted that it “took less than six minutes for the y-word to emerge from the away end where #cfc [Chelsea Football Club] fans are housed.”

“Yid” is a Yiddish word often appropriated by antisemites as a repulsive derogatory term for Jews on a par with slave-trade era terms to describe black people. It is often and brazenly used by Chelsea supporters as a means of deriding rival team Tottenham Hotspur, amongst whose supporters Chelsea’s fans believe that there are many Jews.

Writing in Chelsea News, a website for Chelsea fans, Jamie Wilkinson said that: “We’ll have to wait and see if there’s any further verification of these claims. If it arrives, there’s no doubt those involved should be punished accordingly.”

Chelsea Football Club’s fans have a long history of singing and chanting antisemitic lyrics. In January last year, however, the Club announced a new project aimed at tackling antisemitism, involving senior players, including Eden Hazard, Charly Musonda and Ross Barkley. The project, under the Chelsea Foundation’s Building Bridges campaign was supported by Roman Abramovich, the club’s owner.

We commend Mr Johnson for reporting this matter and await Chelsea Football Club reporting members to the police if Mr Johnson’s report can be corroborated by other witnesses.

Conservative MP Suella Braverman has refused to apologise or revise her language after using the term “cultural Marxism” in a meeting of the Bruges Group, a right-wing think tank in Westminster.

Ms Braverman reportedly said that “As Conservatives, we are engaged in a battle against cultural Marxism.” She was criticising what she considers to be a rising tide of censorship.

‘Cultural Marxism’ is a term derived from Neo-Nazi propaganda, referring to a conspiracy theory that Marxist scholars from the Frankfurt school in Weimar Germany had devised a manipulative programme of progressive politics, particularly sexual liberty and the spreading of communism, with the intent to undermine the West as part of a nefarious Jewish plot. In recent years, it has found renewed popularity within the far and alt right, and is commonly recognised to be a buzzword for antisemitic theories and beliefs.

A member of the audience is reported to have challenged her immediately after she made her comments, drawing to her attention that the antisemitic trope is one she shares with Anders Breivik, the far-right terrorist who murdered 77 people in two attacks in Norway in 2011. The MP for Fareham was however unapologetic, insisting during the question and answer section of her speech that she believes: “we are in a battle against a cultural Marxism, as I said.”

She added: “We have culture evolving from the far-left which has allowed the snuffing out of freedom of speech, freedom of thought. No one can get offended any more, we are living in a culture where we are putting everyone in cotton wool, a risk-averse mentality is now taking over. And that instinct for freedom, for risk-taking, for making mistakes, for innovation, for creativity, is being killed. And it’s absolutely damaging for our spirit as British people, and our genius, whether it’s for innovation and science, or culture and civilisation; whether it’s for statecraft. I’m very aware of that ongoing creep of cultural Marxism which has come from Jeremy Corbyn.”

Campaign Against Antisemitism condemns Ms Braverman’s unapologetic use of this phrase. Far from censoring Ms Braverman, we simply ask that she conduct her debates without knowingly borrowing terminology from neo-Nazi propaganda.

Jeremy Corbyn’s disgraced senior parliamentary aide, Laura Murray, has now been exposed intervening to prevent the suspension of Pat Sheerin from the Labour Party.

In leaked e-mails, she said that she intervened on behalf of Mr Corbyn himself.

Ms Sheerin is one of three former Labour activists who have been arrested on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred. The arrests were made after Campaign Against Antisemitism reported a secret Labour Party dossier to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick live on air, after it was exposed on LBC radio.

In e-mails leaked to The Sunday Times, Ms Murray intervened to stop the suspension of Ms Sheerin. Ms Murray has previously been revealed interceding to stop disciplinary action against antisemites.

Ms Murray wrote in one e-mail that Ms Sheerin should not be suspended after Labour Party staff pleaded to suspend her because Ms Murray claimed that she was anti-Israel but not against “Jews or Jewishness”.

The material that Ms Sheerin is now being interrogated by police about is decidedly antisemitic.

Ms Murray reportedly told Labour Party staff that the recommendation not to suspend Ms Sheerin was from Mr Corbyn himself.

Mr Corbyn’s most senior lieutenants were copied in on the e-mails, including his Executive Director of Strategy and Communications, Seumas Milne, his Chief of Staff, Karie Murphy, and his political adviser, Andrew Murray, who is Ms Murray’s father.

For weeks, Labour Party staff were ignored as they sought to suspend Ms Sheerin, writing: “Please can we get a response to the below” and “The next thing will be people saying we are soft on anti-semitism [sic] or not acting” before pleading: “Please can I get an agreement for these suspensions. Pleeeeeeeease [sic].” However Ms Murray eventually responded to instruct that Ms Sheerin should not be suspended.

Labour attempted to dismiss the revelations, telling The Sunday Times that “The material that was sent to the leader’s office is different from the material that went to NEC [National Executive Committee] in July, and different from the material that may have been reviewed by the police. There is therefore no comparison to be drawn between these e-mails and later action taken by the Party and possibly the police against this individual, which was on the basis of more serious material.”

It appears that Mr Corbyn himself ordered an intervention on behalf of someone currently under police investigation on suspicion of the very serious crime of incitement to racial hatred. It is a reminder that Mr Corbyn, who is himself an antisemite, can never be the solution to antisemitism in the Labour Party.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

The disgraced former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has reportedly told a meeting of pro-Corbyn activists that the Labour Party’s antisemitism crisis is driven by “lies and smears” manufactured by the “elite” wishing to protect their “tax-dodging in the Cayman Islands”. According to the Daily Mail, he also blamed “bloody corporations” and “ghastly old Blairites”, but did not appear to have acknowledged that there was any real problem in the Party.

Instead, it is claimed that he added a new antisemitic remark to his repertoire, reportedly telling the gathering: “You can’t have a proper functioning democracy in a world in which the media, whether it’s the press or internet, can just spread lie after lie after lie.”

Under the International Definition of Antisemitism, antisemitism often involves “the targeting of the State of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity” and states that “making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions” is antisemitic.

Mr Livingstone reportedly made his comments to a meeting of Labour Against the Witch-Hunt, which claims that Labour’s antisemitism crisis is a witch-hunt. The group includes various antisemites but in a strange turn of events last year, the group expelled one of its founders over antisemitism, leading to claims that Labour Against the Witch-Hunt was conducting a witch-hunt.

If true, the claims would mark a new low for Mr Livingstone, who has consistently claimed that the antisemitism crisis in Labour was a “smear”, even appearing last year on banned Iranian television station Press TV in a debate about whether Holocaust commemoration has become an industry “exploited” by “Zionists”.

Mr Livingstone was investigated by the Labour Party in April 2017 over his claims that Hitler “was supporting Zionism”, but his punishment was so extraordinarily light that we branded it the Labour Party’s “final act of brazen, painful betrayal”. 107 Labour MPs subsequently wrote that they “will not allow it to go unchecked” but then they mostly fell silent.

Eventually Mr Livingstone was suspended and investigated again, before resigning from the Party, which Mr Corbyn said had left him feeling “sadness”.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

On Tuesday 26th March, the Shadow Home Secretary, Diane Abbott, alongside fellow Labour MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle reportedly hosted the launch of a new report by the founder of “Spinwatch”, Professor David Miller.

Prof. Miller has long used his various platforms to attack and smear Jewish community organisations. In November he is reported to have defended Ken Livingstone and portrayed the security concerns of Jewish university students as “propaganda which they have been schooled with.” He has himself been suspended by the Labour Party in the past over his claims that the creation of Israel was a “racist endeavour” and that “most of the allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party have been false”. He was later reinstated.

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour)” is antisemitic.

A website founded by Prof. Miller, PowerBase, even categorises Campaign Against Antisemitism as in fact being part of the “Israel lobby”. Powerbase is linked to another of Prof. Miller’s websites, Spinwatch, which is funded by various Islamist-linked organisations.

Another brainchild of Prof. Miller’s, a website called NeoCon Europe, has also previously published work by Kevin MacDonald, a supporter and public defender of notorious Holocaust denier David Irving. Mr MacDonald has said that “there are clear apologetic tendencies — tendencies to view the Jewish ‘in group’ in a favourable manner and to pathologise antisemitism as irrational and completely unrelated to the actual behaviour of Jews.” NeoCon Europe eventually pulled the article, which included MacDonald’s suggestion that Jewish characteristics included “Access to prestigious and mainstream media sources, partly as a result of Jewish influence on the media.”

Mrs Abbott has form on the issue of antisemitism in the Labour Party. In an appearance on BBC Question Time, when challenged on the issue she said that “When Gerard [another panellist] says that the Labour Party has an institutional problem with racism, or institutional antisemitism, because they’re one and the same, when you say that the Labour Party has a problem with institutional antisemitism and racism, I’m sorry you feel the need to attack your Party. I’m proud of the Labour Party’s record on fighting racism and antisemitism.”

Diane Abbott also told a television audience that allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party were a politically-motivated smear campaign against Jeremy Corbyn. Were the Labour Party to win a general election, Abbott would assume responsibility for tackling hate crime as Home Secretary.

It is therefore unsurprising but no less sickening that the Shadow Home Secretary has chosen to share a platform with a conspiracy theorist like Prof. Miller who is so appallingly dismissive of antisemitism in Britain.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has called for the Metropolitan Police Service to demand that the Labour Party hands over its further secret internal dossiers detailing antisemitic hate crimes by Party members, and for police officers to seize the dossiers if they are not provided willingly. We have also called for the Labour Party to be investigated for keeping its evidence of the crimes secret.

Three people have been arrested after Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Chairman, Gideon Falter, called into an LBC phone-in with Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick and made a live-on-air police report of the antisemitic hate crimes detailed in a secret Labour Party dossier which had been leaked to LBC and reviewed by a former police Commander responsible for obsessing hate crime, Mak Chishty.

Two men in their 50s were arrested as well as a woman in her 70s, all on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred, which is a very serious criminal offence.

The three are understood to have been expelled from the Labour Party after the Party learned on LBC that its secret dossier had been reported to the police by Campaign Against Antisemitism live on air.

The secret internal dossier contains over eighty pages of antisemitic hatred by Labour Party members, including numerous admissions of guilt, but the Labour Party kept the dossier secret, not even telling Jewish Labour MPs who were directly threatened within it. This is despite police considering threats to their safety to be so severe as to warrant special police protection.

Some of the perpetrators admitted to the Party that they were behind some of the hatred chronicled in the dossier, which is just one of many dossiers compiled by the Party’s internal Compliance Unit for consideration by the Party’s Disputes Panel. The original researchers who compiled the dossier have now left the Party, with at least one of them publicly voicing their disgust at attitudes towards antisemitism.

Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “I am pleased that three arrests have been made after I reported the secret Labour Party dossier to the Commissioner live on air, but the dossier contains many more hate crimes which must also result in arrests. Moreover, officers must demand that the Labour Party hands over further dossiers we know of and seize them if it refuses, so that police can investigate whether the Labour Party’s decision to keep evidence of crimes and admissions of guilt secret actually results in criminal liability for those responsible within the Party.”

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

The Metropolitan Police Service has made three arrests over a secret internal dossier of Labour Party antisemitism, which was reported by Campaign Against Antisemitism to Commissioner Cressida Dick live on LBC radio.

Two men in their 50s were arrested as well as a woman in her 70s, all on suspicion of incitement to racial hatred, which is a very serious criminal offence.

The three are understood to have been expelled from the Labour Party after the Party learned on LBC that its secret dossier had been reported to the police by CAA live on air.

The dossier contains over eighty pages of antisemitic hatred by Labour Party members, including Holocaust denial and threats to harm Jewish Labour MPs. Some of the perpetrators admitted to the Party that they were behind some of the hatred chronicled in the dossier, which is just one of many dossiers compiled by the Party’s internal Compliance Unit for consideration by the Party’s Disputes Panel. The panel is currently chaired by Claudia Webb, who defended Ken Livingstone and claimed that the “combined machinery of state, political and mainstream elite” are conspiring to smear Jeremy Corbyn with “false allegations”.

The secret dossier is believed to be just one of several compiled by the Labour Party’s Compliance Unit, though all but one of the original researchers in the unit have now left, with at least one of them publicly voicing their disgust at attitudes towards antisemitism.

After joining LBC  to discuss the dossier, Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Chairman, Gideon Falter, waited until the Metropolitan Police Commissioner appeared live on LBC later that day, calling in to her call-in programme and reporting the dossier to her on air.

The secret internal dossier contains over eighty pages of antisemitic hatred by Labour Party members, including numerous admissions of guilt, but the Labour Party kept the dossier secret and did not even tell Jewish Labour MPs who were directly threatened within it, despite police considering threats to their safety to be so severe as to warrant special police protection. It is absolutely right that police officers have opened a criminal investigation, which we hope will encompass both the antisemitic hate crimes and the Labour Party’s complicity by concealing its evidence. Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite under whose leadership the once fiercely anti-racist Labour Party has become institutionally antisemitic and an existential threat to British Jews.

We are pleased that three arrests have been made, but many more are now needed, both of individuals whose offences are detailed in the secret Labour Party dossier and of those who continue to incite hatred against Jews online.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has begun pre-enforcement proceedings against the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant. The pre-enforcement proceedings are a precursor to opening a full statutory investigation.

In recent months, eleven MPs have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism.

Jackie Walker’s case is, deservedly, one of the most notorious among those exemplifying the institutionalisation of antisemitism in the Labour Party.

A former vice-Chair of Momentum, her initial suspension for repeating the Louis Farrakhan-inspired hoax that Jews were the “chief financiers of the slave trade” was lifted in secrecy and without public explanation, with that mysterious exoneration being swiftly celebrated with a public embrace from the Party’s leader, Jeremy Corbyn. She went on to be suspended a second time for comments misrepresenting the inclusivity of Holocaust Memorial Day and for challenging the need for security at Jewish schools. She has remained suspended for two and a half years, as the gears of the Labour Party’s disciplinary system ground to a near halt.

Ms Walker has persistently claimed that complaints of antisemitism are used to silence critics of Israel as part of a plot to destabilise the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn; she has rejected the International Definition of Antisemitism; and while contentiously claiming to be Jewish, she has nevertheless alleged that Jews claim privileges at the expense of black people, only this week reportedly referring to Jewish Labour MP Margaret Hodge as “someone from the white millionaire elite” whom she accused of “black Jew baiting”.

Ms Walker has acted as an outrider for the Labour Party and Momentum’s leadership, testing what is possible for prominent members to say publicly about Jews, even taking her bizarre “Lynching” show — in which she claims to be the victim of a “Witch-hunt” — around the country to applause from her Parliamentary equivalent, Chris Williamson MP. Meanwhile, leaders of the Party who publicly affect to disavow antisemites in their midst, including John McDonnell, have defended her.  

It comes as no surprise that the institutionally antisemitic Labour Party waited almost three years to finally expel Jackie Walker. During those three years she has toured the nation, openly supported by leading Labour MPs, claiming that the case against her was trumped up. It is because Labour has shown itself to be incapable of addressing antisemitism cases in a fair, transparent and timely manner that Campaign Against Antisemitism brought in the Equality and Human Rights Commission to take charge. Labour’s decision to finally act now that the Commission is at the gate, is not a sign of change, but merely an act of naked self-preservation by a political party being brought face-to-face with its own racism.