Jeremy Corbyn : why the British Labour Party is no longer a safe place for Jews

KLAFF, Lesley (2016). Jeremy Corbyn : why the British Labour Party is no longer a safe place for Jews. International Relations and Diplomacy, 4 (7), 427-433.

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Abstract

On September 12, 2015, Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of the Labour Party despite his history of jumping to the defence of blood libellers and conspiracy theorists, his friendship with Holocaust deniers, and his political embrace of antisemitic organisations. With Corbyn's election a phenomenon known as "anti-imperialist campism" became a prominent feature of the Labour Party. "Anti-imperialist campism" is characterised by stereotyped, disproportionate, and irrational hostility to Israel and Zionism. This caused the majority of Jewish Labour supporters to feel unsafe in the new Labour Party both because Israel is a non-contingent aspect of Jewish identity and because "anti-imperialist campism" is considered to be antisemitic. Yet Jewish members who raised concerns about antisemitism in the Party were accused of dishonestly "playing the antisemitism card" in order to prevent criticism of Israel or to smear the Labour Party and undermine Corbyn's leadership. This response prevented antisemitism within the Party from being addressed and made those who raised concerns feel excluded from the Party and the community of the good, progressive people. Corbyn's failure to tackle antisemtism in the Labour Party continued until April 2016 when he reluctantly suspended two prominent members of parliament for antisemitism. An independent enquiry into antisemitism in the Labour Party was set up in May and its report is keenly awaited.

Item Type: Article
Research Institute, Centre or Group - Does NOT include content added after October 2018: Law Research Group
Departments - Does NOT include content added after October 2018: Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities > Department of Law and Criminology
Identification Number: https://doi.org/10.17265/2328-2134/2016.07.001
Page Range: 427-433
Depositing User: Lesley Klaff
Date Deposited: 17 Jan 2017 11:39
Last Modified: 18 Mar 2021 16:19
URI: https://shura.shu.ac.uk/id/eprint/14585

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