Antisemitism in the Labour party was real and it must never be allowed to return

 

Antisemitism in the Labour party was real and it must never be allowed to return

Margaret Hodge

The EHRC report is damning, and Corbyn’s suspension necessary. The tragedy is that any of this had to happen in the first place

 

Thu 29 Oct 2020 14.46 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/oct/29/antisemitism-labour-party-echr-report

 

I hope with all my heart that today’s report into Labour’s antisemitism crisis by the Equality and Human Rights Commission signals the beginning of the end of a culture that should never have found a home in the Labour party.

 

It is shameful that this investigation ever became necessary.

 

The report is tougher than we expected. It found that the Labour party had acted unlawfully on three separate counts involving harassment of individuals, political interference in the complaints system, and a failure to properly train those involved in handling complaints.

 

At least it puts an end to the naysayers who claimed that we invented the allegations and that they represented a minuscule – and therefore irrelevant – number of Labour members. The report exposes the fact that the allegations were never dealt with swiftly by the leadership, and that political interference helped to breed a culture that encouraged racism against Jews in the party.

 

Under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, permission was given for antisemitism to spread from the fringes to the mainstream. The report specifically outlines a failure of leadership, and yet Corbyn simply could not bring himself to offer a genuine apology today. Keir Starmer made the right decision in suspending him from the party, following his shameful reaction. Corbyn’s persistent denial really left Starmer with no choice but to take this action. In doing so he has created an opportunity for the party to now move forward.

 

For those of us who were the targets of the relentless abuse, it was a dreadful, lonely and frightening period of our lives. In my nearly 60 years of membership of the Labour party I have lived through many ups and downs, but none as debilitating and horrible as the time spent battling antisemitism within the party. The torrent of abuse was gruesome, especially after each time I openly challenged the racism in my party. People often tie together my Jewish identity with the fact that I am a woman. So I am regularly accused of being a Zionist pig, a Tory hag, a racist shill or being a dizzy old bint who should be executed by Hezbollah.

 

This abuse grinds you down. It forced some of my friends to leave the party and left me continuously questioning whether I should carry on.

 

I know that others regularly receive a torrent of abuse on social media for all sorts of reasons, but the constant stream of antisemitic tweets and emails has made my life very stressful and deeply upsetting for a long time. The enormously welcome change of party leadership has not of itself stemmed the abuse or curtailed people denying that there is a problem.

 

The fantastical claims by Karie Murphy, Corbyn’s former chief of staff, that we sought to weaponise the issue, and her failure to recognise that the disciplinary process was utterly dysfunctional, provide just one example. Only last week, the trade union leader Len McCluskey repeated a common antisemitic trope on television when attacking Peter Mandelson.

 

McCluskey’s failure to recognise the racist nature of his own words demonstrates how anti-Jewish language has become deeply embedded in the party’s culture. For some, antisemitism springs from their wider political worldview. They see capitalism as a systemic evil that has to be destroyed, and wrongly allege that it is closely associated with all Jews, who as avaricious financiers – from Shylock to the Rothschilds – control global capitalism. This loathing of capitalism morphs into an irrational hostility towards Jews.

 

By the same token, for many on the hard left, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the totemic example of the continuing evils of western imperialism. Their anti-Zionist views quickly translate into antisemitic attacks; this means they often ignore the diversity of opinion among Jews and lump us all together. Many of us remain strong advocates of the right of Jews to enjoy the security of their own homeland, but also express heartfelt concern at the wrongdoings of successive Israeli governments. The extreme left refuses to understand the distinction between support for Zionism and support for every action of the Benjamin Netanyahu regime.

 

 

Most inexplicable has been the explosion of antisemitic conspiracy theories that exist online. Whether blaming Israel for the 9/11 attacks or insisting that Jewish philanthropists are subverting democracy and controlling the world media, many on the extreme left have too often peddled these conspiracies. Together these strands make up a culture of anti-Jewish racism that we still have to stamp out on the political left.

 

The publication of the EHRC report should be a moment to bring the Labour party together. Starmer has consistently proclaimed his priority to drive out anti-Jewish hatred. I welcome the fact that he has promised to implement every recommendation in the EHRC report and, indeed, to go further.

 

Rebuilding trust will take time, and it will only happen when words are translated into action, and I look forward to playing my part.

 

Over the last few days people have said to me, “Well done, Margaret, you won.” But as I reflect on the last five years, my biggest regret is that many of us have been forced into fighting a destructive and inward-looking battle within the Labour party. The problem of anti-Jewish hatred could have been dealt with easily and swiftly, and an investigation by the equalities watchdog could have certainly been avoided. But the obsession of the hard left with seizing control of the Labour party came at the cost of ignoring anti-Jewish racism, trashing our credentials as an anti-racist party and ultimately played a major role in our losing the last general election.

 

All that energy could have been channelled into fighting the Tories at the last election. Things could be so different today with a Labour government. And that is the tragic legacy of Corbyn’s tenure – he alienated Jews, he failed the Labour party, and he let down the country. Finally, that era is over.

 

• Margaret Hodge is Labour MP for Barking and the parliamentary chair of the Jewish Labour Movement