Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis is that Baroness Osamor’s actions amount to breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism and qualify as antisemitic discourse according to our methodology.
By sharing a letter which characterises Israel as a state whose establishment was essentially an act of racism [1], Baroness Osamor was disseminating material which was “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour).”
In becoming a signatory to a letter which supported Ken Livingstone (whose suspension for stating that Hitler supported Zionism was characterised as stifling “the sharing of information on some of the uncomfortable events that took place during the Shoah”), in [2], she was supporting a perversion of the historical account of the Holocaust which had been formulated in order to demonise an identifiably Jewish movement.
In becoming a signatory to a letter which supported Jackie Walker, whose suspension for stating that Jews were among the “chief financiers of the…slave trade” was characterised as stifling “the sharing of information on some of the uncomfortable events that took place during…the Maangamizi (African Holocaust)”, in [2], she was endorsing a proven antisemitic myth. In doing so, she was “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.”
In becoming a signatory to a letter which stated that allegations of antisemitism were being made “to silence criticisms of Israel, hamper the work of Momentum activists, and undermine Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn,” in [2]; by sharing an article in which allegations of antisemitism are described as “fabricated” and “exaggerated”, and the IHRA definition of antisemitism is described as “false, ahistorical and politicized, [sic]” and “designed to protect Israel’s human rights violations from censure and accountability”, in [3]; and by sharing a letter which suggested that the debate on antisemitism was being manipulated in order to “weaponise it against a single political figure [Jeremy Corbyn] just ahead of important elections,” in [4], she was disseminating material which was characterising those who allege antisemitism in the Labour Party to be politically motivated. This would inevitably include those Jewish groups and individuals who have publicly and repeatedly stood up to and reported antisemitism within the Labour Party. In doing so, 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.
We note that on 26th March 2018, in a published response to complaints of antisemitism by Jewish community charities, Jeremy Corbyn MP stated: “I recognise that anti-Semitism [sic] has surfaced within the Labour Party, and has too often been dismissed as simply a matter of a few bad apples.” Furthermore, we note that on 24th April, 2018, in an article published in the Evening Standard, Mr Corbyn stated: “We must strive to understand why anti-Semitism [sic] has surfaced in our party…”, and “when members of Jewish communities express genuine anxieties we must recognise them as we would those of any other community. Their concerns are not ‘smears’.”
