Britain’s former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has called Labour opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn an anti-Semite and said comments about Zionists he made five years ago were the most offensive by a senior UK politician in half a century.

Labour has been battling accusations of anti-Semitism for months, and Corbyn has previously apologised for what he has described as “pockets” of anti-Semitism in his party.

Sacks, who was Britain’s Chief Rabbi from 1991 to 2013, accused Corbyn of having “given support to racists, terrorists and dealers of hate who want to kill Jews and remove Israel from the map”.

He said Corbyn had depicted a group of British citizens as “essentially alien” when it was revealed last week he said in 2013 that British Zionists “don’t understand English irony” despite “having lived in this country for a very long time”.

“When he implies that, however long they have lived here, Jews are not fully British, he is using the language of classic pre-war European anti-Semitism,” Sacks told the New Statesman political magazine.

“Now, within living memory of the Holocaust, and while Jews are being murdered elsewhere in Europe for being Jews, we have an anti-Semite as the leader of the Labour party and Her Majesty’s opposition. That is why Jews feel so threatened by Mr Corbyn and those who support him.”

Labour said in a statement there is no place for anti-Semitism in their party and that they are committed to rebuilding trust with the Jewish community.

Some opinion polls put Labour ahead or level with Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservatives, meaning he is a potential British leader, although the next election is not due until 2022.

Sacks compared Corbyn’s comments to the infamous “Rivers of blood” speech by Enoch Powell in 1968 in which the then-Conservative shadow cabinet member warned of the dangers of immigration. His speech is widely regarded as one of the most divisive made by a modern British politician.

Labour dismissed the comparison with Powell as “absurd and offensive”.

Since unexpectedly becoming Labour leader in 2015 after decades spent on the left-wing fringes of the party, Corbyn has repeatedly faced accusations of turning a blind eye to anti-Semitic comments in the party and among groups he supports.

Corbyn has responded to protests by meeting Jewish community leaders, reassuring Jewish people they are welcome in the party.

In his 2013 speech to a meeting convened by the Palestinian Return Centre, Corbyn spoke about the importance of history and of how necessary it was for people to understand the origins of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

He said Zionists had “two problems” – firstly, that they do not study history and, secondly, they do not understand English irony.

After the emergence of footage, Labour asserted that Corbyn had been referring to a “group of pro-Israel activists” and had not been singling out Jewish people as a whole.

The deputy leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party increased pressure on its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, over anti-Semitism on Sunday, saying the party could “disappear into a vortex of eternal shame” unless he tackled a growing crisis.

Corbyn has been criticised by Jewish groups for what they describe as his tolerance of anti-Semitism in Labour, a crisis that has threatened his standing at a time when the governing Conservatives are struggling to unite behind a Brexit plan.

Corbyn’s again appealed to Jewish members on Sunday, using a video message to press his pledge to drive anti-Semitism out of the party “for good” after a similar attempt fell flat for several Jewish groups on Saturday. One — the Jewish Labour Movement — called for action, not words.

In an interview with the Observer newspaper, deputy leader Tom Watson took aim at Corbyn saying the party had to “take a long, hard look at ourselves, stand up for what is right and present the party as fit to lead the nation – or disappear into a vortex of eternal shame and embarrassment”.

“I think it’s very important that we all work to de-escalate this disagreement.”

He called on Corbyn to adopt in full an internationally accepted definition of anti-Semitism. Labour says it has concerns about part of the definition but had re-opened discussions to take into account Jewish community concerns.

In his message, Corbyn did not refer to the definition but apologised for the hurt caused to many Jewish people and pledged to speed up disciplinary cases in Labour to drive out anti-Semitism.

“People who use anti-Semitic poison need to understand: You do not do it in my name, or the name of my party. You are not our supporters,” he said.

The Labour Party has been benefiting in the polls from a row in the Conservatives over Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans for Britain to leave the European Union, which has deepened divisions and raised the possibility of an early election.

But some Labour members fear the growing row over anti-Semitism will damage the party before an election, which is due in 2022.

“When my family helped to form the Labour Party in 1906, they suffered terribly because of that. The Jewish community in Leeds stood beside them and supported them. That is why I took on the role 13 years ago chairing the All-Party Group. I didn’t expect today when Labour members stand in solidarity with our Jewish colleagues and Jewish communities, to be targeted by an organisation called Momentum, which has happened to all of us who stood in solidarity, but worse than that that, explicitly targeting Jewish members of the Parliamentary Labour Party because they are Jewish. That is what is going on at the moment. I did not expect when I took on this voluntary cross-party role, for my wife to be sent by a Labour Marxist anti-Semite, a dead bird through the post, I didn’t expect my son after an Islamist death threat to open the door in the house as a school boy to the bomb squad. I didn’t expect my wife in the last few weeks from a leftist anti-Semite in response to the demonstration to be threatened with rape. I didn’t 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 didn’t expect any of that.

“And I tell you the principles that we operated on. The very first speech that I made on this, 13 years ago in this chamber, that every party in this house should look after its own backyard first. And I have said that repeatedly on hundreds of occasions since and I have specifically in private letters to every party in this house, repeatedly challenged antisemitism in all parties. And for years action was taken, painful action and I am not sure people welcomed getting the letters and having the discussions with me in all parties, but that was the principle we operated on and we worked cross-party. And I recall that Jewish people used to say, “Is it true that there is a growth in anti-Semitism?”

“We identified 13 years ago the three forms of anti-Semitism. Islamist anti-Semitism, traditional right anti-Semitism and the anti-Semitism of the new left, all documented and discussed in here. It is not new. And those who say it is a smear, a smear, in raising this issue need to publicly apologise and publicly understand what they are doing and saying and the dangers.

“It does not end with me and my family, it does not end with British members of Parliament here, this stuff ends is what happened in Copenhagen, is what happens in Brussels, is what happened in France repeatedly including 4 weeks ago. People murdered because they are Jewish. That’s where this ends. You know this ends and this is the reality now.

“Last night in my constituency – it is constant, explicit anti-Semitism and then the bigger group. The excusers for anti-Semitism, the people who say this is something to do with who the leader of the Labour Party is and in challenging him. No it isn’t, in the 13 years I have been doing this, what Jewish people say to me now is different to what they said 13 years ago. “Is it true that there is a growth in anti-Semitism”, 5 years ago Jewish people would come up to me and say, “we’re concerned that there is a rise in anti-Semitism”.  I am stopped in the street everywhere I go now by Jewish people who say to me very discreetly, “I am scared”. Young people, old people, “I am scared”. You see what happened in France and you see what happened in Belgium and you see what happened in Copenhagen and then you understand why people are scared.

“People who are scared, young Jewish members to go to a Labour Party meeting with me because they are fearful of how they will be intimidated and threatened and how their identity will be challenged

“Any Jewish person is entitled to say and define that they are an anti-Zionist and I have no right to challenge that. Any Jewish person has the right to say, as the vast majority do, “I am a Zionist” and I have no right to deny them that and those that do are racists. And just that change in language by making the word ‘Zionist’ as a pejorative insult by the Labour Party, just that change, would alter the dialogue in this country in a very big way. We all have a choice on what we do, stand in solidarity with the Jewish members of Parliament under attack today, that is the role of Parliamentarians.”

Enquiry into the Direction of the Campaign Needs to be Undertaken by the Conservatives

It took Jeremy Corbyn some time to ensure that he set out an Inquiry into Antisemitism which will be headed up by Shami Chakraborty. The Inquiry is needed given the charges of antisemitism that should be looked into and given the fact that the Labour Party has a proud history of tackling racism. (For those who believe that antisemitism is not racism, let us put this bizarre argument to bed, it is racism and legally seen as such).

But there are questions to be asked of the campaign of Zac Goldsmith and let us not forget that towards the end of the campaign, the theme consistently put out was the link between extremism and Sadiq Khan. Some within the Conservative Party must have known that this would be read negatively within Muslim communities at a time when many Muslims are tired of their communities being framed solely through the lens of extremism. This was also expressly stated by Baroness Warsi in tweets that she put out.

These impacts would therefore have been known, but someone in the campaign made the decision to run on the extremism narrative and to push it through repetitively. Who was that individual or individuals is the question to be asked? How could this have been the main theme of Zac Goldsmith’s campaign is another question to be asked? Who authorised the campaign and who agreed to it? These are legitimate questions to be asked.

If we are to have a London united, then the public also need answers to these questions. In fact, over 1 million Londoners voted for Sadiq Khan. At the very least 1 million people would surely like an answer to these questions. We hope that the Conservative Party does show transparency and order an Inquiry into what went so disastrously wrong with the campaign that they had to resort to the lowest common denominator – innuendos about how the Labour candidate met someone over 10 years ago who was extreme and by default must have tendencies towards extremists. This is the narrative that was weaved and it was a toxic narrative. It is a narrative that has been soundly rejected by Londoners. However, now the questions must be asked about the Conservative campaign.

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Mayoral Campaign Was Run on the Basis of Smears, Innuendo & Negativity

The Conservative Mayoral campaign that has been run fixating on extremists and past associations with extremists may well have put off voters from listening to the public policies of Zac Goldsmith. Zac Goldsmith himself is a man who cares about issues affecting communities and is someone with a genuine desire to make a positive change for communities. Yet the campaign placed around him may well have also damaged his public reputation in the way that it constantly sniped at past events in the life of Sadiq Khan. It gave the impression of Goldsmith as being aggressive and playing to the lowest common denominator, of placing extremism with a Labour Muslim Mayoral candidate with no real tangible evidence.

Stories even went back to 2004, as a way of placing a question mark in the minds of voters, as though he was somehow secretly ‘one of them’. What ‘one of them’ meant was left to the reader, though it was a subtle attempt to suggest that people could not trust Sadiq Khan.

It looks like the people of London have rejected the attacks and the negative campaigning against Khan’s character. Also, let us be honest and say that whilst associations which politicians had should be questioned since they are in the public eye, the constant focus on who Khan met sometimes over a decade ago showed that the Tory campaign was solely based on pressing the button on extremism and Khan. They were playing to this core campaigning theme with little regard of the damage that it was doing to its image in Muslim communities. We believe that this will have short and medium term implications for the Conservatives as many Muslims remember and associate this campaign with them. This in itself is sad since this Conservative Government has ben strong on tackling anti-Muslim prejudice and ensuring that this is pushed through at a national and local level. This should also not be forgotten.

We hope that such a campaign is assigned to the past. It is clear that Londoners have rejected the negative campaign and in significant numbers. We also welcome the new Mayor of London and hope that he unites Londoners rather than dividing them.

The post Never Again Should Such a Torrid Campaign Be Run for the Mayor of London appeared first on TELL MAMA.

Not to be out-done in the scraping the bottom of the political barrel, extremist group Britain First sent out circulars by e-mail stating that self-appointed Britain First leader, Paul Golding, would be standing for the Mayor of London.

The circular hyped up the publicity that individuals and political parties will get through a two page platform in which to highlight their positions. The booklet will be delivered to homes in London. What is interesting is that the Britain First bulletin also played on issues of race by suggesting that,

“Each mayoral candidate is entitled to a two-page spread in a booklet that is delivered to 10 million people in London, 45% of which are still ethnically British.”

The bulletin also suggests that mayoral candidates will receive a ‘Daily Politics’ interview, though our call to media outlets will be to investigate comments and statements made by individuals like Paul Golding and Jayda Fransen and to hold them to account for them. Media outlets cannot give these individuals an easy ride so that their messages of separation, based on race and religion, be allowed to resonate within our united capital.

You would also think that any group would carefully consider the statements it made against other mayoral candidates. Yet this is the statement made against Labour hopeful, Sadiq Khan MP.

“Labour has chosen a Muslim career politician with strong sympathies for his fellow radicals and extremists, – Sadiq Khan.”

The statement not only opens up Britain First and its leaders to potential civil legal action, it shows the kind of dog-whistle politics that they are playing and no doubt, if the Labour hopeful did take any legal action, Britain First who rail against ‘the politics of victimisation’, would then simply play out this position.

The e-mail bulletin finishes with a call for £30,000 for the campaign. Anyone even considering donating, should think carefully about supporting a group who seek division rather than a united London. That is the choice ahead, whether we support the politics of hope or the politics of hate.

The post Britain First Send out Libellous Statements Against Labour Hopeful Sadiq Khan appeared first on TELL MAMA.

After the public hammering that Britain First took in the last week on the BBC documentary entitled, “We Want Our Country Back“, this far right extremist group has gone back to its victim mentality comfort blanket, blaming the whole world for the ills and the ‘conspiracies’ that supposedly range against it.

Their latest begging bowl of a mailshot shows how extreme the rhetoric of this extremist group is becoming. “Traitors” who “give away our homes, jobs and heritage,” will according to them, find “good old fashioned British justice at the end of a rope.”

The mailshot then goes onto suggest that Britain First is a “Declaration of War against the establishment.” They go onto state that they are, “poised for battle“, with their tin pot saucepans on their heads.

And just to complete the fact that Britain First base their policies on race, this statement sums it up: “Each Mayoral candidate is entitled to a two-page spread in a booklet that is delivered to 10 million people in London, 45% of which are still ethnically British.” Britain First reverts back to the ‘lineage’ fascist ideology, much vaunted by the Nazis in Europe.

Not to be outdone in the smear stakes, the mailshot then turns its fire on Sadiq Khan,  the Labour Party’s candidate, with the following statement, “Labour has chosen a career politician Muslim with strong sympathies for his fellow radicals and extremists – Sadiq Khan.” The link – well you have to stretch it quite a great deal. By advocating for the release of Babar Ahmad and representing a constituents family, Sadiq Khan is now supposedly an Islamist sympathiser. There is truly no level that this group will not stoop down to.

And finally, at the end of this rabble rousing ode to Goebbels, what do Britain ask for? Your time? Your efforts – oh no, that will not do. You can guess what they ask for. A whopping £30,000, all accounted and costed for as though it was done on the back of a fag packet. If they aim to govern London, we think that all Londoners should give them a short sharp shock and put any of their literature where it belongs – in the recycle bin.

The post Hanging, Give us Your Money & Sadiq Khan – A Cacophony of Hate From Britain First appeared first on TELL MAMA.