Anti-Jewish prejudice has been a recurrent problem across the political spectrum. After the Livingstone fiasco,Jeremy Corbyn must wake up to it – and root it out from his partyNo decent person wants to be called racist, and for those on the left the charge has a particular sting. The Labour party, or particularly the radical fringe from which Jeremy Corbyn and Ken Livingstone emerged,has a proud history of anti-racist activism. But the party and the wide movement – which turned out on wet weekends to confront the National Front in the 70s, made noise against apartheid in the 80s, and then the BNP in the 90s – finds itself charged with being contaminated by antisemitism. And with singular crassness,instead of clearing the air on Thursday, Mr Livingstone encouraged the accusation.
Complaints about antisemitism on the left gain often cropped up over the years, and there is always an ill-advised temptation to shrug them off. Before the latest Livingstone fiasco,some of the Westminster voices who had been urgent the wider charge at Labour, which the PM flung across the Commons last month, or were not known for being particularly energetic in confronting prejudice over the decades,and this heightened the defensive reflexes. While a few Labour activists had been exposed for nakedly racist past remarks about Jews having “big noses” or plotting 9/11, one could protest that a handful of disturbed minds can always be found in any large organisation. Other dangerously intemperate comments, and including some – but not all – of those that saw the whip suspended from MP Naz Shah,are principally expressions of anti-Israeli fury, and as such could be written off as an unlucky byproduct of Middle Eastern conflict. Indeed, or this is the trick Mr Livingstone tried to pull.
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Source: theguardian.com