We tell EHRC: LP targeting left wing Jews, needs new investigation

Challenge to fair process: Labour’s Advisory Board on Antisemitism

Update, 8 October 2021

We tell EHRC: LP targeting left wing Jews, needs new investigation

Following a lack of engagement with our concerns regarding the appointment of the Advisory Board and other matters raised in our submissions to the EHRC of 5^th and 29^th August, JVL has submitted a new letter of complaint to the EHRC via our solicitors – Bindmans LLP – making it clear that The Action Plan has failed to consider or reflect the views of ‘Jewish stakeholders’ widely and Party policy “would appear to be having the opposite effect to that which was intended; namely the exacerbation as opposed to elimination of the mistreatment of Jewish members by the Party”.

We point out that “the Party is disproportionately targeting and disciplining Jewish members that question the Party’s interpretation of antisemitism, as compared with non-Jewish members”.

The EHRC made recommendations to the Labour Party that ‘Jewish stakeholders’ should be consulted on the Action Plan and the failure for any such consultation and the lack of our representation on the Advisory Board highlights that the Labour Party has failed to engage with the spectrum of Jewish stakeholders. The EHRC, in response to our original letter, has in fact side-lined our complaint by treating it as commentary on the EHRC’s previous investigation rather than as a submission of a new complaint.

We are calling for a new investigation into the behaviour of a party machine that has specifically targeted left-wing Jews in its purge of left-wing members.  JVL points out in this latest letter that on the latest figures, five times more Jewish than non-Jewish Party members have faced complaints of antisemitism resulting in a level of persecution more than 200 times higher for JVL officers than for non-Jewish party members and 33 times higher for rank-and-file members of JVL.

There is a particular concentration on visible JVL activists and currently eleven out of the seventeen JVL committee members have been accused of ‘antisemitism’.

JVL considers that the Party’s deliberate attempts to exclude JVL from its ongoing engagement with Jewish communities is deeply unfair and amounts to discrimination of a subset of Jews on the basis, for instance, of their political opinions regarding Israel and Palestine and their concerns about the Party’s interpretation of antisemitism. Such potential discrimination, arising after the investigation and Report, is indicative of the Party’s increased hostility towards certain Jewish Party members, which is directly contrary to the intended outcome of the Report.

JVL are offering to assist the EHRC in its ongoing monitoring of the Action Plan in order to highlight particular areas of concern where it would appear to be having the opposite effect to that which was intended: namely the exacerbation – as opposed to elimination – of the mistreatment of Jewish members by the Party. JVL has made it clear that we would welcome a meeting with relevant representatives of the EHRC to discuss our concerns.

Engaging legal advisors to express our concerns is costly but we think the principles are worth fighting for.

We are aware that there are many demands on our supporters’ pockets. But we ask that you donate to this action if you can and share the link to this page widely with all your relevant networks.

Link to relevant articles on JVL website:

2021.https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/statement/how-labours-claim-of-countering-antisemitism-has-resulted-in-a-purge-of-jews/

https://www.jewishvoiceforlabour.org.uk/statement/supplementary-submission-by-jvl-to-the-ehrc-and-the-forde-inquiry/

You can see our previous update here.