Any thoughts on tonight's Panorama ( Labour Party and antisemitism)?

[BoogleMcGroogle]

I understood there to be a problem with antisemitism in the Labour party, but it really bright home to me just how institutionalised and acceptable this has been allowed to become.

It's pretty clear Corbyn doesn't care enough about antisemitism to take any meaningful action or check how his behaviour and views might have contributed to this situation.

And the statements put out by the Labour Party HQ pretty much dismissing everything as anti-Corbyn conspiracy, while wheeling out some gormless and confused shadow junior minister, were unforgivable.

I'm pretty sympathetic to the ideals of the Labour movement, but couldn't in all good conscience lend my vote to a party with a leadership that's let this happen.

Anyone?....

Didn’t watch it but sounds horrific.

I watched it and was go smacked by how traumatised the interviewees were. They had been treated terribly.

I think people in the Labour Party genuinely struggle to identify anti-semitism. They have given themselves a moral free pass: left-wing good, right wing bad - I am left wing therefore I am good.

Hopefully it will open up people’s eyes.

It's absolutely right that all traces of anti-Semitism are removed from the Labour party. It is also true to say that Islamaphobia has absolutely no place in the Tory party and should also be rooted it out.

There won't be many responses about this until the MN labour activists has a new direction

m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/corbyn-online-fightback-panorama-anti-semitism-panorama_uk_5d262256e4b0583e482b0ede?guccounter=1

was Chakrabarti's report mentioned?

Yup, the deflect to defend strategy, as practised in typically muddled form by Owen Jones in yesterday's Guardian.

No one is denying that Islamophobia is a problem for the Tories. And it's wrong that the work Baroness Watson has done on this is not being listened to.

But 'the other lot is worse' has never been a sufficient moral defence. My lawn never got mowed while I was busy complaining about my neighbour's long grass. And ( at risk of stretching a metaphor) it looks like Corbyn and his allies are keeping the key to the mower shed firmly in the pocket of his anorak.

Chakrabati's report was described by an ex member of the disciplinary investigations team as 'impossibly disappointing'

I didn't watch it but I once had a conversation with a Labour member friend about the anti-Semitism allegations. I was under the impression that people were labelling anti-Zionist feelings as anti-Semitism and my friend agreed there was some of that, but there was genuinely deep rooted anti-semitism and members fully signed up to Jewish conspiracy theories etc. It really shocked me. My friend is a change the system from the inside sort of person and I hope he can but with this and the whole Lily Madigan scandal I won't be voting Labour again anytime soon.

I was appalled. Aside from all other considerations, what a thoroughly toxic workplace.
Some very, very nasty people running labour these days.

I thought from the beginning Chakrabarti's report was a whitewash

I watched it, it was horrific, to be honest, and a lot worse than I ever suspected. British left currently in charge of the Labour party has gone the full circle and has a lot more in common with ultra right nationalists in terms of anti-Semitism. It's shocking.

I honestly think that those now running the party don't recognise anti-semitism when it's staring them in the face. I remember watching a speech by Jackie Walker at the Momentum alternative conference in 2016 with absolute horror. All the old tropes: conspiracy, weaponisation, a political attempt to undermine Corbyn, funded by the Israeli embassy and so on. And people defending her on the grounds that she couldn't be anti-semitic because her grandmother was a Jew.

I think for Corbyn anti-semitism is Auschwitz and Anne Frank. Unless it's swastikas on a gravestone, he doesn't recognise it in a post-war form. But I've seen him standing by, nothing to do with me, while Ruth Smeeth was abused at the Chakrabati report press conference, and then being all matey with her abuser. And the same thing happened when Pete Wilsman went off on a rant about the Board of Deputies at the NEC meeting. Not a peep out of Labour's leader.

This has been going on since the GLC days in the 80s. Jews working at County Hall had to prove themselves by attacking Israel at every opportunity before they were accepted as one of us. And now this faction is calling the shots and their followers joined the party in droves in 2015.

Corbyn says he supports a 2 state solution - but never explains how he can square that with marching for Right to Return.

The whole thing makes me feel physically sick - and I'm speaking as a non-Jew.

I completely agree Thymeout. I'm not Jewish but my BIL and SIL are practising. Speaking to them there is real fear and despair in their (very integrated) community about what's going on. For many of them, the Labour Party is their obvious and lifelong political home and they feel disenfranchised, politically deracinated and vilified. Being required to constantly answer (as a stay at home mum living in the Home Counties) for the actions of a government of a country you've visited twice on holiday, is just one example. The other day SIL ( who has now left the party), who is the least hyperbolic person I know, said something about keeping some assets as liquid as possible because you never know when you might not be welcome somewhere anymore.

And you are right, the failure is in part not recognising antisemitism when it's staring them in the face ( or coming out of their mouths). Because you don't see what you don't want to see. Views which were (thankfully for years) on the most radical leftist margins of the party have become mainstream and are attracting others who relish the opportunity for a bit of antisemitism, dressed up as political debate. Like flies around a shit.

I’m really surprised this thread has received just a handful of replies.

But yes op, I did see the program.
Very worrying.

tomtom

I’m surprised you’re surprised. MN is very left leaning - I wouldn’t have expected anything else.

It's incredibly worrying. I'm a Jew and a lifelong Labour supporter until recently. Personally I don't like the current regime in Israel but I feel like the party dislikes me simply for my religious beliefs.

Well maybe Labour people on MN won’t defend the indefensible? The far left wing can be pretty awful and isn’t much different to the far right wing when intolerance is the issue. The fact that some of those close to Corbyn are far left and have views not consistent with the Labour Party is a problem and all complaints should be heard by an independent body. Not Labour Party members. Labour stinks with this and members should be expelled, but they won’t be because they keep the boat afloat!

I watched it. I also then did some googling about Ken Livingstone (I didn’t live here at the time of his hey day) because it appears the anti-semitism in labour is so very far from a new things. It would appear enmeshed in the party from the top down for many many years. I think the only way to stop it is a clean sweep of the party. I’m very close to someone who is Jewish. No one at his work knows and he hears loads of antisemetic comments/jokes often. Some might think it’s ok because so many do it, but it’s not.

I’ll never vote labour without a clean sweep having been done. They need new blood, more tolerant and accepting of others.

Question for the 'never vote labour' people. Who do you vote for?

I watched. It barely scratched the surface, so much was left out. They needed to extend the programme by a further 3 hours.

The fish is rotting from the head down. Labour is an antisemitic party.

Oh yea Labour

Once the party of choice of mine and my nan .

They bleat on about xenophobia and racism yet don't seem to think anti semitism is the same ? Corbyn is one of the worst leaders they EVER had.

I think Labour and the Conservative party have both had their day.

There's nothing about Corbyn that is impressive. Given that he's presided over this, he's got to go imo. I felt sorry for the participants in the show - it seems like an awful place to have worked and also some of the former employees were breeching NDA's to go on the programme I think? Took a lot of courage. And STILL Labour shrug it off.

They seem so far gone as a party. Useless on Brexit, institutionally racist. Ineffective leader who always seeks to shift the blame. If they can't run their own party how do they expect to run the country.