CORBYN’S SHAME
Tearful Labour MPs shame Jeremy Corbyn as they reveal extent of sick online abuse they get as party’s anti-Semitic problem exposed
Jewish MPs revealed torrent of abuse they have received during heated debate in Parliament
FEMALE Labour MPs shamed Jeremy Corbyn as they were reduced to tears revealing the extent of the sick abuse they get online.
The party’s problem with anti-Semitism was brutally exposed as the leader’s own colleagues lined up to hammer him for failing to take action.
11
In a special House of Commons debate a string of emotional interventions laid bare the scale of anti-Jewish hatred which has been allowed to flourish online.
Ruth Smeeth, the MP for Stoke-on-Trent North, read out a “small sample” of what she had received on social media, including phrases like “Zionist hag bitch”.
She said she had been told: “Hang yourself you vile treacherous Zionist Tory filth. You are a cancer of humanity.”
And in pointed remarks at her party leader, she made sure to include the hashtags in favour of Mr Corbyn which accompanied the abusive tweets.
11
Ms Smeeth said: “This is merely a snapshot, and the comments are those that I would feel comfortable - if that is the right word - to say in this place.
“It is a glimpse into the abuse that now seems par for the course for any Jew who has the audacity to participate in this political world.”
She added: “What is so heart-breaking is the concerted effort in some quarters to downplay the problem.
“For every comment like those we have just heard, we can find 10 people ready to dismiss it, to cry ‘smear’; to say that we are ‘weaponising’ anti-Semitism.”
11
Blasting the Corbynites who say the issue is manufactured to harm Labour at next month’s local elections, the tearful MP concluded: “There is something more fundamental at stake here than any party’s policy platform or electoral performance: the right of Jewish people to participate in the politics of our country as equals.
“Last month we heard a plea: enough is enough. I stand here today to say that we will not be bullied out of political engagement, that we are going nowhere, and that we will stand and keep fighting until the evils of anti-Semitism are removed from our society.”
She received a standing ovation from the Labour benches, though not from Mr Corbyn – who had already snuck out of the chamber early.
But he was there to hear an earlier speech by Luciana Berger, a Labour MP who has long been a target of the left’s anti-Semitism.
11
She talked about her own family’s history - revealing more than 100 members of it “were sent by the Nazis to their death in the gas chambers”.
She told MPs: “I was 19 when I received my first piece of hate mail - it described me as a dirty Zionist pig - and so started my 18-year experience of contending with anti-Semitism.”
Four people have been convicted since 2013 for anti-Semitic abuse and harassment towards Ms Berger, who added: “It pains me to say this as the proud parliamentary chair of the Jewish Labour Movement - in 2018, anti-Semitism is now more commonplace, more conspicuous and more corrosive within the Labour party.
“That is why I have no words for the people purporting to be both members and supporters of our party and using the hashtag JC4PM who have attacked me in recent weeks for my comments, for speaking at the rally against anti-Semitism, and for questioning the remarks of those endorsing the anti-Semitic mural.”
11
Setting out a litany of abuse she has received, accusing her of being “a paid-up Israeli operative”, she railed: “My party urgently needs to address this issue publicly and consistently, and we need to expel from our ranks those people who hold these views, including Ken Livingstone.
“We have a duty to the next generation. Denial is not an option. Prevarication is not an option. Being a bystander who turns the other way is not an option.
“The time for action is now. Enough really is enough.”
Another Labour MP John Mann, who is the chair of the all-party group against anti-Semitism, said he has been shocked at the abuse he and his family had received.
11
He told MPs: “When I took on this voluntary cross-party role, I did not expect my wife to be sent, by a Labour Marxist anti-Semite, a dead bird through the post.
“I did not expect my son, after an Islamist death threat, to open the door, when he was in the house on his own as a schoolboy, to the bomb squad.
“I did not expect my wife, in the last few weeks, from a leftist anti-Semite in response to the demonstration, to be threatened with rape. I did not expect my daughter similarly to have to be rung up in the last few weeks by special branch to check out her movements in this country.
“No, I did not expect any of that.”
11
The Communities Secretary Sajid Javid, who led the debate, said that there has been a spike in “dinner party anti-Semites”, respectable middle-class professionals who secretly harbour a hatred of Jews.
And he demanded that Mr Corbyn take personal responsibility for stamping out hard-left bigotry.
Mr Javid blasted: “We cannot and must not ignore the particular concern with elements within the Labour party.
“This increasing concern has correlated with the current leader of the opposition and the waves of activists that have come with him.”
11
He added: “There has frankly been a deeply worrying lack of leadership and moral clarity on this issue from him.
“I sincerely hope that he takes the opportunity to once and for all clarify his position on anti-Semitism.”
The minister warned that anti-Semitism is not confined to outspoken racists as he described how many middle-class Brits are secretly prejudiced against Jewish people.
Mr Javid said: “There are the dinner party anti-Semites - self-regarding, respectable people who recoil at the accusation of racism but they are quite happy to trot out modern takes on old tropes.”
11
Mr Corbyn was sitting on the opposite bench throughout the impassioned speech, but did not speak in the debate.
Many other of his MPs did, including veteran Margaret Hodge, who said: "I have never felt as nervous and frightened as I feel today at being a Jew. It feels that my party has given permission for anti-Semitism to go unchallenged."
And former Labour minister Ivan Lewis blamed Mr Corbyn for the anti-Jewish abuse, saying: “His leadership has attracted new members whose anti-Semitism is pernicious, and exposed longstanding members whose use of anti-Semitic language and imagery is shocking.
“It is also wrong that in the past he has failed to call out ideological allies when their anti-Semitism was clear for all to see.”
11
Jewish Tory Robert Halfon said life in Britain had become harder for Jews in recent years.
He told the Commons: “The air has grown tighter - it’s when you feel very hot, and you undo a button on your shirt, and your mouth goes dry.
“Things have changed, and I never imagined that one would ever feel an air tightening in this country.”
Shadow communities secretary Andrew Gwynne vowed that Labour would “put our house in order” by expelling anti-Jewish bigots.
11
He said: “Recent events show that we in the Labour party need to be better at policing our own borders.
“There is no place for anti-Semitism in the Labour party, in the left of British politics, in British society at all - end of.
“We will put our house in order. Let me be clear today - if anyone is denying the reality of anti-Semitism on the left, they are not doing so with the endorsement of the Labour party or the leader of the Labour party.”
The debate in Parliament came after widespread fury at claims that Mr Corbyn has been too soft on anti-Semitism among his hard-left supporters.
MOST READ IN POLITICS
And while it was going on a three billboards-style protest was going on outside, accusing Mr Corbyn of "harbouring Holocaust deniers".
The Labour leader was forced to apologise after it emerged he had defended an anti-Semitic mural, leading to protests from Jewish groups warning him that “enough is enough”.
Mr Corbyn will hold crunch talks with community leaders next week in a bid to convince them he is taking the crisis seriously.
Topics