Almost five years ago I stood with my community in Parliament Square to demonstrate against the handling of antisemitism in the Labour Party. The demonstration was called by my predecessor as Jewish Leadership Council Chair, Jonathan Goldstein and the then Board of Deputies of British Jews President, Jonathan Arkush. The huge growth in anti-Jewish racism that we witnessed in the preceding three years of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership –as well as his personal record (see: initially back the artist behind an antisemitic mural, calling Hamas and Hezbollah his friends, and hosting an event likening Israelis to Nazis) – necessitated this watershed moment.
Jonathan Arkush told the rally that “The Labour Party must go back to being the enemy of racists – not the refuge.” Half a decade on and three years after the conclusion of Jeremy Corbyn’s disastrous leadership and legacy we find ourselves moving in the right direction. Yesterday’s announcement by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is a huge relief to the Jewish community and confirmation that we are on that road back to normality.
The Labour Party has always prided itself as the party implicitly associated with the anti-racist movement, making what happened all the more astonishing. For many Jewish Labour supporters the situation was soul destroying. I know many others in the Party, despite being disturbed by what they saw, went along with it, keeping whatever concerns they now tell us they had, quiet.
There are four lessons here.
Firstly, this virus mutates and can come from any quarter, whether from the far right, Islamist extremists, covid-conspiracists or the far left.
Secondly, we have Jewish heroes who stood their ground – in this sad story, a set of strong Jewish women in the heroic Luciana Berger and Louise Ellman who both resigned, or Ruth Smeeth, Margaret Hodge and many others who decided the best course of action was to challenge from within.
Thirdly, we will always have non-Jewish allies, whether they be the tens of thousands of grassroots Labour members who stood with Jewish members in the local Labour trenches during those times or parliamentarians like Ian Austin, John Mann, Joan Ryan, Mike Gapes, Angela Smith, Ann Coffey and others who sacrificed their careers and left the Party in protest.
Lastly, there will always be bystanders – those people who told us they were worried, but rarely raised their heads above the parapet. We understand the pressure they might have been under but they let us down and we now know who will stand with British Jews when the going gets really tough. Jonathan Goldstein said in 2018 that we could only judge the Labour Party and the then Leader by their actions rather than words and the same applies for those who now wish to make up for past public indifference.
The ultimate lesson though is that we must always guard against this ancient virus rearing its ugly head, even in the most unlikely of places.
Our eyes are now wide open and we have been fair and consistent in our approach since that landmark EHRC report was released. We demanded a level of empathy and responsiveness that was totally lacking within the previous leadership and I am very pleased to note that Sir Keir Starmer has engaged with us with humility, integrity and a profound sense of regret. The Labour Party has taken significant steps forward and set the standard for those who wish to tackle institutionalised racism. We have seen procedures and rules changed but crucially, we have seen a change in culture that has seen thousands of people who are antisemitic or sympathetic to antisemitism find no home within the Labour party – a party now seen once again by the racists as their enemy rather than their refuge.
The Labour party has been transparent and honest in publishing quarterly complaint statistics outlining the number of cases involving protected characteristics, including anti-Jewish racism, and whilst the stats show that the problem still remains, their openness in sharing this data and understanding the scale of the challenge demonstrates that sunlight is indeed the best disinfectant. All political parties and organisations would be wise to follow Labour in this regard.
Whilst there still remains work to do, work that Sir Keir and his team are well aware of, we believe that this is a liberating moment for British Jews. It was unacceptable that in the 2017 and 2019 elections British Jews felt they had to vote primarily on issues relating to their security and safety. I believe Jewish voters won’t face that same quandary come the next election and will be able to vote for any party. That is how it should be.
