Why the British Labour Party is still a danger for Jews
The British Labour Party, and the promise of fighting antisemitism from a previous leadership was the rallying cry of the new Labour leader Keir Starmer. It didn’t take long for the media to praise his new stance. In the first few weeks we saw the removal of Rebecca Long-Bailey for comments that she made and the popular press praising Starmer for acting decisively and quickly, along with left-leaning Jewish groups who believed that replacing the old leadership would make the Jewish community feel safer.
Keir, a supporter of his local constituency group CADFA, a Palestinian advocacy movement and his support and role for Labour friends of Palestine, it’s still undoubtedly clear that Labours priorities are not for the British people and not in any way for Jews and those in Israel.
For the working-class they believe there hasn’t been a political party worthy of a vote other than the Labour Party, and for Jews whose natural home of Labour became toxic under Jeremy Corbyn with antisemitic narratives from his supporters and advocates, there was a short sigh of relief when Labour lost the last election.
However, the first few months and flurries of sidelining Rebecca Long-Bailey and standing against anti-Semitism by Starmer came in a rallying cry that this would be a new Labour Party, but as we see with the old guards of Corbyn surrounding him could this ever be possible?
So let’s look at what’s been happening over the past months with the Labour Party and continues with the same events and demonstrations.
(Below Diane Abbott at JVL demo London 2022)
Countless Zoom meetings from different NEC and local Labour Party members and familiar Labour faces all Covid compliant and behind the safety of their computer screens. The highlight of every month it seems, the “Arise” Festival of Marxist socialist ideas reaching out on social media, YouTube and the internet targeting a lot more people than actually turn up to the Red Lion Square venue in London where Arise events take place .
On the surface of it, coming together with other Labour supporters talking about social policies and a brand new marketing of old socialist ideas that will change with the new Labour shadow cabinet seemed promising.
Reaching out to new Labour voters and some undecided may fool some of the Jewish community who have stuck with Labour campaigning for Corbyn .
Amongst the debates, and alongside Labour union the TUC, tonight we saw the populist anti-Israel agendas the lies against Israel and Palestinian narratives. For those who aren’t British the Labour Party is heavily funded and guided by the unions. As of April 2017, the trade unions affiliated to the Labour Party are:
Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF)
Bakers, Food and Allied Workers Union (BFAWU)
Community (formerly KFAT & ISTC)
Communication Workers Union (CWU)
Fire Brigades Union (FBU)
GMB
Musicians union MU
National union of mine workers (NUM)
Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA)
UNISON (The Public Services Union)
Unite (general workers in public and private sectors)
Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW)
The TUC job is to: “Support trade unions to grow and thrive, helping them represent their members and keep pace with the changing world of work. Stand up for everyone who works for a living, by publishing research and evidence, and campaigning for changes to the law and in society.” So what is the connection with the Palestinians and why have they taken an anti-Israel stance platforming events alongside the PSC (Palestinian solidarity campaign)?
At the Palestine Solidarity Conference on Saturday, 11 March 2006, Frances O’Grady, the TUC Deputy General Secretary said “This is an important time for “Palestine” and Israel. “Palestine” has just held democratic elections and Israel will do the same later this month. Many may regret the result in Palestine. But the result must be respected”.
However this wasn’t the case. Respected in the way that Hamas a terrorist organisation continued their murder of Israelis suicide attacks fire rockets and projectiles with Incendiary devices?
Hamas covenant explicitly pointed out what they believed. And in July 2019 from Ramallah A senior member of Hamas, the Islamist rulers of Gaza, told Palestinians across the globe to kill Jews. In a video of a speech Fathi Hamad said: “Seven million Palestinians outside, enough warming up, you have Jews with you in every place. You should attack every Jew possible in all the world and kill them. And that’s what they’ve been trying to do, with anti Israel movements helping them.
The covenant of Hamas https://irp.fas.org/world/para/docs/880818a.htm
As I write, we are establishing between Israel and the United States the United Arab emirates, Bahrain, Oman, and possibly Saudi Arabia a peace deal - the Abraham accord. In spite of this historic time in history where peace between the Jews and Arabs is possible, the Palestinians again turned down the opportunity to join . More than this, it exposed the true feelings of the Labour party and their blind hatred of Israel. At a time when peace has been offered, not one congratulations by the Labour Leader, Keir Starmer and his Labour friends of Palestine, all silent, ranting inciters. Labour stalwarts like John McDonnell, Burgeon, Abbott for once said nothing, and the Labour embarrassments of antisemitism seemingly began their racism towards the Arabs who joined with Israel, all as Prime Minister Netanyahu’s pledge of “Peace4peace” rattled Labours socialist cage, for their agenda truly exposing their real concerns. Not for Jews and Arabs to live in Peace but for Israel and Trump to disappear. As the friends of Palestine and PSC chants continue “From the river to the sea Palestine will be free…of Jews”
Originally wrote in September 2021 for Medium. Still relevant
