Oh yes that old chestnut find a Jewish person to say AS is not a problem
I’m not prepared to have an argument with AS deniers. Listen to what Labour MPs are saying including Luciana Berger, Angela Eagle, Margaret Hodge. Listen to what the Labour Party whistleblowers said wrt top brass interference into investigations into AS - including director of strategy Iain McNicol, Seumas Milne and Jennie Formby.
Margaret Hodge’s perspective here:
What has happened under Corbyn is that antisemitism, which was always completely stamped on at the fringes, has been given permission to come into the mainstream and, like a cancer, is infecting and growing through the party,” she said.
“One of my real concerns is: what started off as absolutely the exception became the familiar and is now becoming systemic … Anyone who is really serious about zero-tolerance of antisemitism would close down constituencies where it happens.
“Just close them down. It has moved from individuals saying terrible things to motions being passed.”
The motions she refers to are where local parties have increasingly been expressing support for Chris Williamson, the MP suspended for suggesting Labour had been “too apologetic” about antisemitism, or rejecting the international accepted definition of antisemitism adopted by the party following a huge row.
She is also incandescent about the party’s approach to handling complaints of antisemitism, which has seen 12 members expelled and 96 suspended out of almost 673 complaints over a 10-month period.
The party is furious with me about this,” she said, whipping out a leaked copy of a disputes panel from July 2018 showing 47 examples of alleged antisemitism by Labour members.
One of the cases reads: “People are finding out how much power Jews have.” Another one: “It seems like the whole world is coming under Zionist control.” One describes a prison sentence for a former Nazi guard as a disgrace and accuses the BBC of “being overrun by Jews”. It continues: “Hatred of Jews is in my DNA.”
www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/mar/08/just-close-them-down-margaret-hodge-on-antisemitism-in-labour-branches
I never thought I would become a victim of Jew hatred from the hard left. I never dreamed that one year on the situation within the party would so dramatically deteriorate and that the antisemitism crisis in Labour would spiral out of control. In the last month I have been accused of being an operative for the Israeli embassy. Conspiracy theorists accuse me of running a cartel of “Nazi rabbis” and say that Jeremy Corbyn is the “final solution” to the Zionist question. I receive shameful attacks seeking to question my Jewish identity and express doubt about my family’s suffering under the Nazis.
Hateful language has now become part of mainstream political discourse. Antisemitism always existed on both the extreme right and the extreme left fringes. But under Corbynism it has been allowed to flourish in the mainstream.
The Labour party should be the natural home for Jews with its historic commitment to fighting racism, promoting equality and fostering international solidarity. Instead, it has become a hostile place. So much so that many Jews and lifelong activists have left the party, forced out by the toxic antisemitic culture.
Last week saw the departure of three Labour grandees from the House of Lords, including a former general secretary. A BBC Panorama programme featured young Labour activists and workers, the very people who should form Labour’s future but whose aspirations and hopes have been crushed by antisemitism and bullying in the Labour party. We saw a frightening display of deliberate denial by the party leadership. The way they have intimidated those calling out Jew hate echoes many of the dangerous populist forces that have surged across the west.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/17/antisemitism-labour-party-jeremy-corbyn-margaret-hodge