Jewish $2M Donor To Britain’s Labour Party Quits Over ‘Anti-Semitism’

Jeremy Corbyn Image by Getty Images

By JTA April 1, 2018

(JTA) — One of the British Labour Party’s major donors left the party over its failure to deal with “the most blatant acts of anti-Semitism.”

Sir David Garrard, who is Jewish, has donated about $2.1 million to Labour since 2003.

“As one of the former leading political and financial supporters of the Labour party, of which I was a member for so many decades, I no longer feel any affinity with, or connection to, what it seems to have become,” Garrard told the British daily newspaper The Observer in remarks that were widely republished in other British news publications.

The announcement comes as the major British daily The Independent on Sunday reported that 12 senior staff working for Corbyn and for the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, are members of Facebook groups containing anti-Semitic and violent comments, including praise for Adolf Hitler and threats to kill British Prime Minister Theresa May.

The report also found that 20 of the biggest pro-Corbyn Facebook groups contained “more than 2,000 racist, anti-Semitic, misogynistic, violent and abusive messages,” and found routine attacks on Jewish people, including Holocaust denial. Many of the groups are restricted to members only.

Garrand said that he has “watched with dismay and foreboding the manner in which the leadership has, in my view, over the last two years, conducted itself. I consider that it has supported and endorsed the most blatant acts of anti-Semitism.”

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