“[It] really shows the blind spot that the Labour Party has. You cannot think anything other than that is chilling,” said Jonathan Goldstein, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council.
By JNS
Britain’s Labour again found itself in the crosshairs of public opinion for leaving Jewish people out of a new campaign video released on Saturday about minorities valued by the party.
In the clip, which claims that “diversity is our greatest strength,” Labour MP Dawn Butler gives a long list of communities the party will support, including those who wear “a hijab, turban, [or a]cross,” and people who “are black, white [or]Asian.” Butler says the groups mentioned are “worthy of equality, worthy of dignity and worthy of respect, and a Labour government will value you.”
Jews were the only group not mentioned.
Daniel Sugarman, public-affairs officer for the Board of Deputies of British Jews, responded to the campaign video, saying, “You’re a party being investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission over claims of institutional anti-Semitism. Your latest response is to release a video assuring pretty much every other group which faces discrimination that you’re here for them, but not Jews. Subtle.”
He added: “Why not just end off with a postscript reading ‘not you, Jews’?”
A spokesperson for the Board of Deputies added that the video “gets to the heart of Labour’s problems with the Jewish community.”
“The Jewish community is ‘erased’ as a minority group worthy of their support. The plea for Labour to recognize and then tackle the racism facing our community is met only with contempt.”
Jonathan Goldstein, chairman of the Jewish Leadership Council, said, “To deliberately create and promote a video which talks about minority communities in this current climate and not mention the Jewish community really shows the blind spot that the Labour Party has. It shows they don’t regard the Jewish community or anti-Semitism as equal to other communities or racism of other types. You cannot think anything other than that is chilling. If this is what they are like in opposition, imagine what they would be like in government.”
Most Brits harbor anti-Semitic views, especially on the left, new study finds
YouGov poll of British attitudes towards Jews finds that those who hold no anti-Semitic views are now in the minority in the United Kingdom, while 75 percent of respondents identifying as “far-left” were found to hold at least one.
By Israel Hayom and JNS
Negative perception of Jews in the United Kingdom is greater than generally reported and is especially prevalent on the political left, according to a recently released study.
According to a YouGov poll commissioned by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA) to study British attitudes towards Jews in 2018 and 2019, wide swaths of the British population hold anti-Semitic views. According to the CAA, the survey is also the first to demonstrate that anti-Semitism is more prevalent on the political left in the United Kingdom.
Among the study’s results, for instance, are that among those with far-left views, 42 percent believe that supporters of Israel are damaging British democracy and 60 percent believe that Israel treats the Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews. Overall, 75 percent of respondents identifying as “far-left” held at least one anti-Semitic view, while 58 percent held at least two.
Among the general sample, nearly one-third of respondents believed Israel treats the Palestinians like the Nazis treated the Jews.
The survey also found that 67 percent of British adults who strongly favor Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn hold at least one anti-Semitic opinion, while 33 percent hold four or more—figures which far surpass those for any other party leader.
Among other questions, respondents were asked whether “British Jewish people chase money more than other British people” and whether “Jewish people consider themselves to be better than other British people.”
The results were not encouraging.
“Our polling shows that 20% of British people consider that Jews chase after money. Among members of the ‘very right-wing’ boost sample, this rose to 29%,” the organization said in its report on the survey last week.
Only 33 percent of respondents disagreed with the statement that Jews have too much power in the media.
In fact, the study found that those who held no anti-Semitic views were in the minority in Britain.
“Just 44% of respondents did not hold a Judeophobic antisemitic opinion or an anti-Zionist antisemitic opinion,” the report said, referring to the general sample. “In other words, those who do not subscribe to any anti-Semitic views would appear to be in a minority in Britain today,” it concluded.