Jewish $2M Donor To Britain’s Labour Party Quits Over ‘Anti-Semitism’
Jeremy Corbyn Image by Getty Images
(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.”
A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.
If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
