Antisemitism in Political Parties

Kate Hollern

2015-present: Labour Member of Parliament for Blackburn

2018-present: Shadow Minister for Housing, Communities and Local Government

2017-2020: Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition

2016-2018: Shadow Minister for Communities and Local Government

Incidents

On or around 18th November 2019, Kate Hollern reportedly retweeted a comment originally tweeted by an account which regularly alleges that accusations of antisemitism are made in bad faith for political motives, which said: “99.94% of Labour members have never been accused of antisemitism. Jeremy Corbyn has done more to tackle antisemitism than every previous Labour leader combined. Corbyn is a Palestinian rights campaigner who criticises Israel. Labour’s ‘antisemitism crisis’ is about Israel.”

On or around 26th November 2019, Ms Hollern ‘liked’ a tweet which contained images of two Conservative candidates who had been suspended over alleged antisemitism the previous week beneath the words: “Two Parliamentary Tory candidates suspended in a week for antisemitism. [a] Barely covered in mainstream media. Chief Rabbi says nothing.” A further image below showed the Chief Rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, who had, the previous day, published an article in the Sunday Times in which he expressed the fears of the mainstream Jewish community at the prospect of a Corbyn-led government. Alongside the image were the words: [b] “Labour catching Tories in the polls. Chief Rabbi launches hyper-partisan attacks on Labour. Attacks massively amplified by mainstream media.”
It should be noted that the Chief Rabbi’s publication of a response to the antisemitism crisis in Labour was recognised as an exceptional intervention, not least by Rabbi Mirvis himself, as Rabbis do not usually comment on political matters. It should also be noted that the cases of the Conservative candidates (Ryan Houghton and Amjad Bashir) had, in fact, been covered by all the main newspapers, as well as by the BBC, ITV and Sky News.

On an unknown date, Ms Hollern reportedly ‘liked’ a post on Facebook whose author (Labour Councillor Andy Kay) had commented on a 2014 article from The Guardian entitled ‘Gaza’s only power plant destroyed in Israel’s most intense airstrike yet’, saying: “The Jewish state has learnt nothing from the Nazis and the Jewish leaders are worse than the Nazis.”

Analysis

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis is that Ms Hollern’s actions amount to breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism and qualify as antisemitic discourse according to our methodology.

By ‘liking’ a comment on Facebook which stated that “The Jewish state has learnt nothing from the Nazis and the Jewish leaders are worse than the Nazis” [3], she was endorsing a statement which was “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.”

By ‘liking’ a tweet in which it was implied that the Chief Rabbi ignored instances of antisemitism in the Conservative Party [2a], she was endorsing an antisemitic trope which has gained currency in left-wing discourse which allows the views and concerns of Jewish people not only to be dismissed, but which also seeks to demonise them by association with political groups already demonised on the left, either by employing the generalised term ‘right wing’, or by explicitly linking them with the Conservative Party, which is often associated with the notion of ‘evil’ in left-wing discourse. This constitutes “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.”

By endorsing the above tweet, which further alleged that the Chief Rabbi was supposedly just attacking the Labour Party for antisemitism when they were “catching [the] Tories in [the] polls” [2b], and by retweeting the assertion that allegations of antisemitism against the Labour Party and Jeremy Corbyn are “about Israel” [1], she was deploying the so-called ‘Livingstone Formulation ’, by accusing Jews who cite evidence of antisemitism of lying, conspiring or having deceitful motives in doing so, when there is clear evidence that there have been breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism. This further constitutes “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.”

Outcome

On 6th December 2019, it was reported that Ms Hollern had deleted her retweet in [2], and that the Party had apparently taken no action.

On 11th December 2019, Ms Hollern’s endorsement in [3] was reported and she commented: “I am sincerely sorry for having engaged with this post. I don’t remember engaging with it at all, but I imagine I would have seen The Guardian article headline, without reading this person’s comment, which is clearly unacceptable and deeply hurtful and offensive. I unequivocally oppose anti-Semitism [sic] in all its forms and I stand in full solidarity with the Jewish community against the prejudice they face.”

On 14th February 2020, it was reported that Cllr Andy Kay, whose post describing “Jewish leaders” as “worse than Nazis” Ms Hollern had ‘liked’ [3], had been expelled from the Labour Party.

At the time of writing, on 1st July 2020, we are unaware of any action having been initiated by the Labour Party against Ms Hollern. However, the circumstances and outcomes of any such action would, in any case, remain unknown, owing to the conditions of secrecy imposed by Baroness Chakrabarti’s report on antisemitism in the Labour Party.

In July 2020, Campaign Against Antisemitism put this matter to both Ms Hollern and the Labour Party, but did not receive a response.

Rating

Campaign Against Antisemitism has rated the Party’s handling of this matter as “bad”. Our rating system is explained in our methodology. This case was last updated on 22nd July 2020.

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