Labour Friends of Israel to skip own party conference over antisemitism fears

Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), the parliamentary faction that promotes Israel within the Labour Party, has announced that unlike in previous years it would not be hosting a stand at the party conference next week because of fears of antisemitic abuse.

In a statement, LFI cited “the failure of Jeremy Corbyn to do anything” to curb “the ongoing abuse of Jewish party members”, and explained that “our staff have faced incidents of antisemitism in previous years and, given that the situation appears to have further deteriorated, we do not feel it is responsible as an employer to put them in this environment.”

This follows last year’s Party conference, when Luciana Berger, then a Labour MP, had to be escorted by the police for her safety.

Not only has Labour utterly failed to tackle antisemitism within the Party, but even those members and parliamentarians who are Jewish or associated in some way with Judaism or Israel do not feel assured of their own safety at the Party’s flagship event, the implication being that Labour has quite literally become an unsafe space for Jews.

On 28th May, 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, twelve MPs and three peers 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.”