How well do you know your local candidates for Parliament?
Over the past few weeks, we have been monitoring developments across all political parties, first among local council candidates and councillors in the run-up to and aftermath of the local elections, and now with a greater focus on the candidates for Parliament, following the announcement of the snap general election.
We have worked with national newspapers to publicise our research, which has been reported in multiple articles, including on the front page of The Times. The Jewish community and the wider public have a right to know about the records of the candidates who are asking for our votes, and we are doing everything we can to provide that information.
What we have found is that no party is immune from antisemitism, but some are doing better than others to address concerns and investigate allegations.
Green Party
Of the main national parties, the Green Party is proving to be a magnet for controversy relating to antisemitism, and is largely failing to deal with cases as they arise.
Our fears that the far-left would gravitate towards the Greens following the end of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour Party have proved prescient. This trend is encapsulated by Green candidates like Cllr Jo Bird, formerly of Jewish Voice for Labour.
We are uncovering Green candidates who have made statements like “there’s no such thing as a good Zionist” and called Zionism a “cancer”; compared Israel to the Nazis; denied Labour antisemitism; provided apparent justifications for the “resistance”; and denied the Hamas attack or victim-blamed the Jewish state.
We have written about a sample of these candidates, and they have been covered extensively in the press using our research.
The Greens have dropped a small number of problematic candidates, but many are still running with the Party’s endorsement. It is therefore difficult to escape The Times’ assessment that there may be more than merely a dysfunctional internal vetting process at play here.
Workers Party of Britain
Candidates in George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain have even more frightening records, which we have worked hard to expose and publicise in the media. Among them is a candidate who said: “It can’t possibly be six million.” Every day we seem to uncover new horrors from candidates for the Workers Party. The rhetoric from these candidates is utterly shocking.
The Party must urgently consult the EHRC’s antisemitism report, but given Mr Galloway’s record of baiting the Jewish community – and that of his deputy leader, disgraced former Labour MP Chris Williamson – we will not be holding our breath.
Conservatives
The Conservative Party has selected a lot of its candidates at very short notice, reducing the timeframe that we have to investigate. We are aware of at least one candidate of interest so far and are continuing to examine the records of others.
On the local level, however, some problems persist. For example, Cllr Mohammad Aslam is alleged to have a history of engaging with conspiratorial rhetoric regarding the Jewish community. The Party said some time ago that it was investigating Cllr Aslam and yet now he is the Mayor of Pendle. This is not what a transparent disciplinary process looks like, and it is not the only instance of the Tories appearing to brush antisemitism allegations relating to local councillors and associations under the carpet.
Labour
Labour may be unrecognisable from what it was in recent years, but it still has challenges relating to antisemitism. The Party has finally expelled Jeremy Corbyn, not for his role in staining UK politics with antisemitism, but for standing as a candidate against the Party.
Candidate Faiza Shaheen has been dropped by the Party after she liked a social media post which appeared to support conspiratorial claims and make reference to the “Israel lobby”, as well as publicising her closeness with Mr Corbyn.
But Diane Abbott has had her suspension lifted after a seemingly interminable investigation by the Party that lacked transparency.
Other parties
We are continuing to monitor Liberal Democrats, the SNP, Reform UK, other parties and independent candidates, and our research will be published soon.
#ItWasAScam is a scam
Since the 2019 electoral defeat of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party and the EHRC’s finding that Labour had become institutionally antisemitic, some of his most ardent supporters on the far-left of British politics have sought any way to undermine that finding.
An idea has developed that it was the Jewish community and its supposedly false and malicious allegations of antisemitism that fatally undermined Labour’s electoral ambitions at the time. This idea has been heavily promoted via a social media campaign that uses the hashtag “#ItWasAScam”.
This phrase has trended on social media repeatedly over the past several years. Today, the Labour Party is unrecognisable from what it was at the time of the EHRC’s investigation. Not perfect, but unrecognisable. But whenever Labour has tried to address far-left antisemitism in its ranks, it has been confronted by antisemitism-denial – by #ItWasAScam.
We scrutinised the claims of the #ItWasAScam campaign, and found each claim to be nonsense. In other words, #ItWasAScam is a scam.
Read the full rebuttal at antisemitism.org/itwasascam-is-a-scam/.
Victims of antisemitism speak out
As part of our work making the voices of British Jews heard, our unique series of powerful testimonials by members of the Jewish community and allies continues, detailing how they have been affected by the events of the past several months.
Last week, we shared testimonials from Lysa, who revealed the precautions that she feels that she must take to maintain her safety as a Jew in Britain; and Anatole, a Jewish student at University of Leeds, who, like so many other students, does not feel safe right now. This week, we have published further testimonials.
We spoke to Sarah*, who told us that when she and her friends went out one evening to put up posters of hostages taken by Hamas, they were assaulted. She now fears for her safety.
*For security reasons, we have changed the name of the interviewee.
In another testimonial, Josh recounts how his film about two gay Jews was due to be screened at an LGBTQ+ support group. However, fearing the reaction that Josh might have faced, the organiser cancelled it. Josh now questions where he fits in as a gay Jewish man.
Speaking with Farhad, it is clear that he is horrified by what is happening on our streets.
Though not Jewish himself, he considers himself an ally and recognises what a frightening time it is for many British Jews right now. Farhad believes people should speak up when they see antisemitism occurring. He’s right. We need more people like Farhad right now.
Campaign Against Antisemitism launches Student Ambassador programme!
Are you a student at university in 2024-2025, or do you know somebody who is? Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Student Ambassador programme is an exciting opportunity to work with us in a prestigious year-long initiative.
Student Ambassadors will work closely with our Education Officer and wider team to help us expose and challenge the rising tide of antisemitism overwhelming UK university campuses.
Student Ambassadors will:
- Meet the Campaign Against Antisemitism team, receive our training and gain the knowledge and skills to effectively advocate against antisemitism at university and in the student sphere.
- Host Campaign Against Antisemitism on campus throughout the year and build a network of students helping your work.
- Take part in our summer workshop hearing from expert speakers.
- Develop life-long skills and experiences in leadership, public advocacy, campaigning and community building.
- Outstanding participants will also receive the opportunity to apply for a two-month work placement within any one of our flagship in-house teams.
The contributions of our students is more important now than ever before to the fight against antisemitism.
For further information and details about the programme please visit antisemitism.org/become-a-student-ambassador.
Would you like to become a Team Leader for Campaign Against Antisemitism?
Later this month, we will be running a crowdfunding campaign to help us raise the funds that we need to continue bringing cases, exposing political parties, assisting victims, exposing hate on the marches, supporting students on campus, holding the media to account, putting antisemitism on the front pages and giving a voice to the Jewish community and our allies.
If you would like to help by becoming a Team Leader and spending just a few minutes in late June encouraging your family and friends to support Campaign Against Antisemitism, or you would like more information, please e-mail us at [email protected].
No previous experience is necessary, and we will provide all the resources and instructions that you need.
If you can’t wait to support us and want to make a donation now, you can do so by clicking here! But you may wish to wait, because during the crowdfunder your donation will be matched.
With the General Election campaign underway, we are working hard to expose candidates whose records concern us and calling attention to parties that are failing to act. We are bringing this information to the Jewish community and the wider public, with front-page exposés in national newspapers, without fear or favour.
We will always advocate for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we will continue to monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
