Labour Party fails to confirm whether it will initiate disciplinary proceedings over Sir Gerald Kaufman’s antisemitic speech

Following the antisemitic speech reportedly made by Sir Gerald Kaufman, Campaign Against Antisemitism has contacted the Opposition Chief Whip and the Labour Party Press Office. Additionally our Chairman has made a formal complaint (which must be made in a personal capacity under Parliamentary rules) to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.

In its response to CAA, the Labour Party has so far failed to provide any assurance that it considers Sir Gerald Kaufman’s comments to be a disciplinary matter, or whether it will initiate disciplinary proceedings, which we believe to be the only acceptable response to racist comments of this nature.

We encourage you to make your own complaints to the bodies below, and encourage other organisations concerned with antisemitism to also make complaints, to show the breadth of concern that this speech had generated.

Opposition Chief Whip: Rosie Winterton MP, [email protected]
Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards: Kathryn Hudson, [email protected]

Opposition Chief Whip

Dear Ms Winterton,

I am writing to you in your capacity as Opposition Chief Whip with respect to statements reportedly made by Sir Gerald Kaufman MP yesterday at 1 Parliament Street.

David Collier, a blogger who attended a meeting of the Palestine Return Centre, said that Sir Gerald claimed that “Jewish money, Jewish donations” dictate government policy on Israel.

Speaking after Martin Linton MP, Sir Gerald is reported to have said: “Martin wonders why this governments policy has gone farther and farther and more and more pro-Israeli, but I’ll tell you because I can tell you in a way which perhaps nobody else in this room can tell you. It’s Jewish money, Jewish donations, to the conservative party as in the general election in May, support from the Jewish Chronicle, all of those things, bias the conservatives. There is now a big group of conservative members of Parliament, who are pro-Israel whatever government does and they are not interested in what Israel, in what the Israeli government does. They’re not interested in the fact that Palestinians are living a repressed life, and are liable to be shot at any time.”

Sir Gerald reportedly began his speech by claiming that the wave of antisemitic stabbings in Israel which has seen Jews stabbed, axed, run over and shot in the streets for being Jews, was “fabricated”.

The globally-recognised EUMC definition of antisemitism clearly states that it is antisemitic to make “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.”

The speech delivered by Sir Gerald Kaufman, as reported by David Collier here (http://david-collier.com/?p=1336), is antisemitic and the Labour Party must take action immediately.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Yours sincerely,

Gideon Falter
Chairman

So far, the Office of the Opposition Chief Whip has responded only to say: “The views as reported, do not reflect the views of The Labour Party.”

We have responded as follows:

Dear Mr Sullivan,

I am grateful for your swift reply, however I look forward to your urgent confirmation that the Party is investigating this as a disciplinary matter due to the serious nature of these racist comments.

Yours sincerely,

Gideon Falter
Chairman

Labour Party Press Office

The press officer has said: “We will get back to you” but has not yet responded to our requests for confirmation that disciplinary action will be taken.

Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards

Dear Ms Hudson,

I am writing to you in a personal capacity with respect to statements reportedly made by Sir Gerald Kaufman MP on Tuesday 27th October at 1 Parliament Street.

David Collier, a blogger who attended a meeting of the Palestine Return Centre, said that Sir Gerald claimed that “Jewish money, Jewish donations” dictate government policy on Israel.

Speaking after Martin Linton MP, Sir Gerald is reported to have said: “Martin wonders why this governments policy has gone farther and farther and more and more pro-Israeli, but I’ll tell you because I can tell you in a way which perhaps nobody else in this room can tell you. It’s Jewish money, Jewish donations, to the conservative party as in the general election in May, support from the Jewish Chronicle, all of those things, bias the conservatives. There is now a big group of conservative members of Parliament, who are pro-Israel whatever government does and they are not interested in what Israel, in what the Israeli government does. They’re not interested in the fact that Palestinians are living a repressed life, and are liable to be shot at any time.”

Sir Gerald reportedly began his speech by claiming that the wave of antisemitic stabbings in Israel which has seen Jews stabbed, axed, run over and shot in the streets for being Jews, was “fabricated”.

An audio recording can be provided for your reference.

The globally-recognised EUMC definition of antisemitism clearly states that it is antisemitic to make “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.”

The speech delivered by Sir Gerald Kaufman, as reported by David Collier here (http://david-collier.com/?p=1336), is antisemitic and was delivered to an event at which several other MPs are understood to have been present, none of whom spoke out.

Given the rise in antisemitism which has recently reached heights not seen since records began to be kept thirty years ago, action must be seen to be taken to safeguard the reputation of the House of Commons.

My complaint is that (1) Sir Gerald’s speech and (2) the failure of other MPs in attendance to speak out constitutes a breach of clause 16 of the Code of Conduct for Members of Parliament.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Yours sincerely,

Gideon Falter
Chairman

We will await the Commissioner’s response.