Corbyn: I am “militant opponent” of anti-Semitism
Jeremy Corbyn has written to the two Jewish organisations planning today's protest to apologise for the rise of anti-Semitism within the Labour party in recent years.
The leader who has been plagued with accusations of anti-Semitism since he took the reins from Ed Miliband, told the Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies of British Jews that he "recognised" it had surfaced within Labour "and has too often been dismissed as simply a matter of a few bad apples", acknowledging the "pain and hurt" this has cause.
The MP for Islington North said he would "never be anything other than a militant opponent of anti-Semitism", telling the two groups: "In this fight, I am your ally and always will be."
However, he will not attend this evening's protest, despite a group of pro-Corbyn supporters planning a counter rally.
But in a lengthy letter, Corbyn appeared to suggest that certain forms of anti-Semitism such as Holocaust denial were only "expressed on the far right of politics", while describing the conspiracy theory depicted in mural he defended in 2012 as “the socialism of fools.”
"I am sorry for not having studied the content of the mural more closely before wrongly questioning its removal in 2012," Corbyn said.
But he admitted that "newer forms of anti-Semitism have been woven into criticism of Israeli governments". While he said that criticism could not be avoided, he said "comparing Israel or the actions of Israeli governments to the Nazis, attributing criticisms of Israel to Jewish characteristics or to Jewish people in general and using abusive phraseology about supporters of Israel such as “Zio” all constitute aspects of contemporary antisemitism. And Jewish people must not be held responsible or accountable for the actions of the Israeli government".
Corbyn said he would "speed up" procedures to deal with cases of alleged anti-Semitism, and demand "among other things the overdue full implementation of the recommendations of the Chakrabarti report, including a programme of political education to increase awareness and understanding of all forms of anti-Semitism".
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