In view of the fake “anti-Semitism” debate going on inside the Labour Party, we are taking the unusual step here of reproducing in full an excellent reply in today’s Financial Times letters page (March 11), to an earlier piece. The previous piece had been written by John McTernan, who was Tony Blair’s Director of Political Operations from 2005 to 2007. The letter in the FT was from Arthur Goodman, from Jews for Justice for Palestinians.
“John McTernan alludes to many old-left attitudes (March 2), ending with “being pro-Palestinian bleeds into anti-Zionism” and “anti-capitalism masks and normalises anti-Semitism”. He then arrives at his desired conclusion that the Labour left has normalised anti-Semitism under Jeremy Corbyn
“In two surveys conducted in 2017, one found that “Levels of anti-Semitism among those on the left wing of the political spectrum, including the far left or indistinguishable from those found in the general population…The most anti-Semitic group on the political spectrum consist of those who identify as very right wing”. The other survey found that “supporters of left-wing political parties are less likely to be anti-Semitic than those on the right”.
“He should also have read the Labour Party general secretary’s report of February 11 on progress under the procedure for dealing with allegations of anti-Semitism, and in particular for distinguishing between anti-Semitism and strong criticism of Israel. Since the procedure was instituted in April 2018, more than 1100 allegations were made, but only 673 actually related to Labour Party members. That was only about 0.1% of the membership of about 525,000 during the period.
“One case of anti-Semitism or racism of any kind is one too many, but those figures do not suggest that Labour has a serious anti-Semitism problem.
“That many of the allegations were found to be either without foundation or made against people who were merely thought to be Labour Party members, raises the wider significance of the issue. There appears to be a campaign of alleging anti-Semitism against Labour Party members who criticise Israel in strong terms, intended to inhibit people from criticising Israel strongly at all, lest they be accused of anti-Semitism.
“Tom Watson, deputy leader of the party, recently attempted to interfere with the procedure by appointing himself as ex officio adjudicator of allegations. The Board of deputies of British Jews supported his action. Evidently, neither Mr Watson nor the board is happy with the procedure that equates as well as convicts. Mr Mack turns position notwithstanding, the general secretary should continue to apply the procedure. It permits action to be taken against anti-Semitism but also protects the right to criticise Israel”.
March 11, 2019
