Online backlash against new Labour leader takes aim at the Jews
Members of at least one Facebook group backing losing candidates in Labour’s leadership and deputy leadership primaries have vented their frustration regarding the results towards a traditional scapegoat.
Numerous deeply troubling messages on the group, called “Jeremy Corbyn Group supports Richard Burgon for Deputy Leader”, which has almost 23,000 members, have been uncovered by activist Gillian Lazarus.
The messages include statements that the UK is now a “one party state run by the Jews”; that “there is no antisemitism in Labour”; that Sir Keir Starmer, the new Labour leader, is “just another Israeli lickspittle”; and “when is anyone ever going to stand up to these people?”, in reference to Campaign Against Antisemitism, because it promotes the widespread adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism.
Members of the group have previously targeted the Chief Rabbi with their ire.
Mr Burgon, an unsuccessful candidate for the deputy leadership of the Party and until recently a Labour frontbencher, does not have any administrative involvement in the Facebook group, although he also has his own very troubling record in his relationship with the Jewish community.
There was a similar backlash against the Jews among some disappointed supporters of Labour’s hard left following the General Election.
On 28th May 2019, 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 the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
