Event Trying To Show Labour Party Isn’t Anti-Semitic Scheduled For Yom Kippur
Image by Getty Images
By Aiden Pink September 2, 2018
Updated September 3rd
A group hoping to defend British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn from mounting public claims that he is an anti-Semite scheduled an event to defend him on September 18 — which happens to be Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar.
The event, called “Corbyn, Antisemitism and Justice for Palestine,” will take place in Bristol. Two of the five listed speakers are Jewish, including a member of the group Jewish Voice for Labour.
“Jeremy Corbyn – a lifelong anti-racist in all respects and prominent figure in the Palestine solidarity movement – is being labelled an antisemite and a racist by those who oppose his politics and leadership of the Labour Party,” the event description says. “This meeting will discuss the importance of challenging any attempt at a witch hunt, strengthening the struggle for Palestinian freedom while maintaining zero tolerance for antisemitism and all forms of racism.”
The date was changed from the 18th to the 17th after commenters on the event’s Facebook page pointed out the irony of the panelists, especially the Jewish ones, defending Corbyn from anti-Semitism charges on the day when most Jews will be in synagogue.
“The organizers made an error and after Jewish Voice for Labour pointed this out to them they changed the date so any Jew who wants to can attend and no one is unnecessarily excluded,” JVL said in a statement.
Allegations that Corbyn has allowed anti-Semitism to fester in his party have been ongoing for years, and grew stronger still when the party attempted to water down its institutional definition of anti-Semitism. But more and more people, including the [former chief rabbi of Britain](“given support to racists, terrorists and dealers of hate who want to kill Jews and remove Israel from the map”.) as well as previously supportive left-wing pundits, have outright accused Corbyn of anti-Semitism in recent weeks after a series of reports revealed that he had laid a wreath on the graves of the planners of the Munich Olympics massacre, and claimed in 2013 that Zionists who have lived in Britain their entire lives “don’t understand English irony.”
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink
A message from our CEO & publisher 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.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
