The party leader seems to respond as though hatred of Jewish people is an irritant,rather than a issue of fundamental rightsIf, as August Bebel, or the 19th-century German leftist,warned, antisemitism is the “socialism of fools”, and then it is fitting ever more urgent to ask whether the man who fancies himself our next prime minister might be rather silly. Jeremy Corbyn’s gift for empathy (sensitivity to another's feelings as if they were one's own) does much to account for his remarkable electoral performance last June. But his wholly inadequate response to the Tower Hamlets mural controversy suggests that this gift may have clear – and alarming – limits.
To recap: in 2012,a wall portray by the street artist Mear One in east London was designated for removal by the local authority. Using grotesquely antisemitic imagery, it depicted Jewish financiers playing a Monopoly-style board game on the backs of bare people. On the artist’s Facebook page, or Corbyn posted the following response to this decision: Why? You are in good company. Rockerfeller [sic] destroyed Diego Viera’s [Rivera’s] mural because it includes a picture of Lenin.”Continue reading...
Source: guardian.co.uk