Labour’s ongoing harassment of left wing Jewish members challenged
Dear Supporter
We continue to challenge the ongoing harassment and bullying of left wing Jewish members with allegations of antisemitism. This targeting is increasingly being perceived by those on the receiving end as a form of antisemitism in itself as they appear to be being picked out disproportionately because they are Jews: Left Wing Jews, or ‘The Wrong Sort of Jews’.
We are seeking further legal advice from lawyers on developing our next steps. The author of the Forde Report has suggested that the LP has failed to implement reforms adequately and yet the EHRC has closed its monitoring of the implementation of LP Action Plan as they “are satisfied with the action the Party has taken”. The EHRC itself turned down our FOI request relating to which Jewish organisations were consulted.
One of our Jewish members has recently had her ‘charge’ from 2022 changed from one of “threatening behaviour and harassment” to one of “antisemitism”, with no change of evidence and no apology or explanation. And what was the evidence provided by the Party? That she wrote – in a supposedly secure WhatsApp group – the suggestion that the trawling of social media accounts in order to report members for alleged breaches in the LP rules might have been carried out by Keir Starmer’s appointed “Social Listening and organising manager”, Assaf Kaplan. He had previously been part of an Israeli military spying/intelligence unit for nearly 5 years, as reported in the Guardian and therefore quite widely known.
You may have seen the powerful play entitled “The Wrong Sort of Jew” that was performed at the Sands Theatre, Rotherhithe and also streamed live in March this year. It featured actors narrating from the recorded testimonies of several Jewish Labour Party members regarding their backgrounds and experiences both within and without the Party. Here is a link to one section of the performance which highlights many of the issues that we are challenging.
We believe that getting justice for LP members continues to be worthwhile since members continue to be wrongly accused of antisemitism and to be bullied and harassed. Legal consultations are extremely expensive, so we ask that you donate to us if you can and please share on all your networks.
Thank you.
Sympathies to all the victims under pitiless attack by their own Party. The feelings of betrayal and heartache must be nigh on unendurable.
I feel it is a mistake to focus on Jewish members. The whole point of the past 7 years is that this isn’t anything to do with antisemitism. We should defend all members from this most successful of smears. Otherwise we slide into divisiveness of our own making.
I watched ‘The Wrong Sort of Jew’ – for me it was mostly on this wrong track. Being Jewish only serves to show how ludicrous the smear is, and the political nature of the smear against all the left should be foremost in our responses.
Only someone with no sense of Orwellian irony could have come up with “Social Listening and organising manager” as a job title.
This issue, one of so many in this area, must be taken up. The victimising, gaslighting, of oppressed groups and their supporters and advocates is a universal phenomenon, but perhaps none so openly, cynically, yet in a way censored so totally by the media as this variation. Any way to challenge this is vital in such a hypocritical unjust society
I’m partially inclined to agree with dave (30 May, 16.36). The witchhunt can and does target any Labour member or group which expresses support for the Palestinian cause, together with their supporters and associates. A disproportionately large percentage of those so targeted are Jewish. But the party leadership could plausibly claim in a court that the fact that non-Jews are also targeted shows that the witchhunt is itself not discriminatory and so not antisemitic.
Nonetheless I see strength in the argument that the view, seemingly held by some groups and organisations close to the party leadership, that Jewish people in Britain have no business expressing serious criticism of the Israeli regime and its actions, may itself be anti-semitic, in that it lumps all Jews together.
Meanwhile (a while back) in another mostly confected parallel universe:
In a JC article on March 7, 2019. headlined ‘EHRC opens investigation into Labour antisemitism’, with the sub-headline ‘Watchdog begins pre-enforcement proceedings after Jewish Labour Movement and Campaign Against Antisemitism [submit] dossiers:
In a statement on Wednesday, the JLM, which this week voted to remain a member of Labour for at least another month, said: “We did not take that decision [to submit a dossier] lightly.
“After years of anti-Jewish racism experienced by our members, and a long pattern of denial, obfuscation and inaction by those with the power and ability to do something about it, we felt there was little choice but to secure a fully independent inquiry, not encumbered by corrupted internal practices……”
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk/equalities-and-human-rights-commission-paves-the-way-for-formal-probe-into-labour-over-antisemitism-1.481107
There are 71 articles on JLMs website (at the time of typing), the first of which was posted on Feb 3, 2016, and entitled ‘JLM Elects New National Executive Committee’ [or perhaps their first??!], and the only thing I’ve found that equates with their claim about their members is six articles by six different people posted on October 29 & 30, 2020, and entitled: ‘My experience of antisemitism’, followed by the name of the person. So, “After years of anti-Jewish racism experienced by our members….” one can only wonder why on earth they waited so long before complaining to the EHRC – it really doesn’t make sense that they would – and how it is that they didn’t mention it in any of the articles they posted during the years their members experienced ‘anti-Jewish racism. Hmm, funny that.
Afterthought: They don’t actually specify where this ‘anti-Jewish racism’ happened, but one can only assume – that if you were to ask them – they would say/claim it happened at CLP meetings. So did the members concerned report such incidents to the LP at the time they (alledgedly) happened, or the JLM? AND to the police?
Would be interesting to ask the JLM how many incidents of ‘anti-Jewish racism’ were they referring to exactly.
I just came back to this thread to check if there were any more comments, and just happened to glance at the bit about one of your members etc, and on this occasion spotted/realised it was accusing THEM of what THEY were doing to him or her – ie threatening and harrassment – and then changing the charge to what they of course know they are doing with their no doubt fraudulent and bogus charge – ie antisemitism and being antisemitic.
Believe me, this is how their twisted, sadistic minds work and, as such, amuse themselves and the many others of their ilk.
Another afterthought: Isn’t it funny how the JLM posted their first comment on their obviously newly aquired website on Feb 3 (2016), and then just two weeks later the OULC story broke with the resignation of Chalmer’s claiming blah, blah, blah, which kicked off the whole A/S thing (as it transpired). But it was purely coincidental of course.