Tagged Jeremy Corbyn

Prince Charles to visit Israel and West Bank in official capacity

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prince Charles, heir to the British throne, will visit Israel for the first time in an official capacity next month in order to attend the upcoming World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem. According to The Jewish Chronicle, the British royal will “undertake a number of engagements… Read more »

I’m a proud British Jew troubled by Corbyn’s anti-Semitism problem — but I’m still voting for Labour

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn does arts and crafts during a visit to Winwood Heights Retirement Village in Nottingham, while on the 2019 election campaign trail. (Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty Images)

LONDON, England (JTA) — I am a secular Jew and a lifelong British Labour Party voter — two allegiances that once intersected very comfortably. As so many of us do, I inherited my politics. Every time Conservative prime minister Margaret Thatcher was reelected, my mother and her friends held a… Read more »

An Orthodox Jew is running for Jeremy Corbyn’s Parliament seat. He’ll need a miracle.

Yosef David says his Brexit Party is a "safe and friendly place" for Jews despite racism allegations. (Courtesy of David)

(JTA) — As an observant Jew, Yosef David was taught to believe in miracles. That’s a good thing since David, a social worker from London, is going to need one to succeed in his new mission: unseating Jeremy Corbyn from Parliament in the general election on Dec. 12. David… Read more »

Labour’s anti-Semitism problem is an election issue for non-Jews, too

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks at the University of Lancaster, Nov. 15, 2019. (Anthony Devlin/Getty Images)

(JTA) – Just like the Democratic Party in the U.S., Britain’s liberal Labour Party usually counts on star power for a boost. Ahead of the upcoming Dec. 12 general election, for instance, Labour has scooped up endorsements from major celebrities such as former Oasis lead singer Liam Gallagher, pop… Read more »

UK’s Labour Party has an opportunity in upcoming elections. The anti-Semitism controversy is holding it back.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn makes a campaign speech in Battersea, England, Oct. 31, 2019. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

(JTA) – After nearly a decade in power, Britain’s Conservative Party is in tatters. Years of failing to negotiate a deal with the European Union to follow through with Brexit have led to internal party discord and roiled public frustration. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s controversial push to leave the… Read more »

BBC airs expose accusing Jeremy Corbyn’s team of shielding anti-Semites

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn speaking during a visit to the Regents Park Mosque in London, May 19, 2019. (Victoria Jones/PA Images via Getty Images)

(JTA) — Leaders of Britain’s Labour’s party shielded members from accusation of anti-Semitism amid an internal crisis that led to thousands of hate speech complaints but only 15 expulsions, the BBC reported. The findings aired Wednesday by the service’s flagship investigative television program “Panorama” represent the largest-scale journalistic focus… Read more »

3 lawmakers leave British Labour Party over anti-Semitism

(JTA) — Three lawmakers in the upper house of the British parliament left the Labour party over its spiraling anti-Semitism problem. David Triesman and Leslie Arnold Turnberg, who are Jewish, and Ara Darzi, who is not, announced their resignation on Tuesday. They will stay on as independents in the House of Lords.… Read more »

Labour readmits key Corbyn ally who said British party is too apologetic on anti-Semitism

Labour MP Chris Williamson on September 4, 2018 in London. (Photo by Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

‏(JTA) — A key ally of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn who was suspended from the British party for sayings it is “too apologetic” over anti-Semitism has been readmitted. A party ethics panel warned lawmaker Chris Williamson on Wednesday for saying earlier this year that when it comes to Labour’s… Read more »

Despite Brexit woes, Theresa May is a hero to many British Jews

Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at a United Jewish Israel Appeal dinner in London, Sept. 17, 2018. (Peter Nicholls/AFP/Getty Images)

(JTA) — As the United Kingdom’s political establishment continues its tailspin over Brexit, little can be said with certainty about either’s future. All bets are off as Prime Minister Theresa May, whose own survivability in office seems increasingly doubtful, continues a desperate balancing act meant to satisfy her own coalition’s many… Read more »

Jeremy Corbyn was hit by an egg at a mosque. This rabbi comforted him.

Rabbi Herschel Gluck shakes hands with a member of the Finsbury Park Mosque the day after a man drove a white van into a group of people on their way home from prayers, June 19, 2017. One person died and 10 were injured. (Claire Doherty/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

(JTA) — Jeremy Corbyn was hit with an egg while visiting a London mosque, an incident that brought little sympathy from critics of the embattled British Labour Party leader — but an unlikely assist from an Orthodox Jewish first responder. A 31-year-old man named John Murphy was charged with… Read more »

It’s not just anti-Semitism: Jeremy Corbyn’s Brexit problem is also a disaster for Jews

Jeremy Corbyn leads the British Labour Party. (Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Jews are rarely central to peacetime domestic British politics. But on Feb. 18, Jewishness appeared front and center at Westminster when seven members of Parliament left the Labour Party, citing its inability to effectively oppose an unworkable Brexit and its apparent unwillingness to confront anti-Semitism. Some of… Read more »

Senior Labour lawmaker quits over alleged inaction on anti-Semitism

(JTA) — A senior lawmaker for Britain’s Labour Party who was facing sexual harassment allegations has quit the party, citing its anti-Semitism problem. Ivan Lewis , who is Jewish, resigned on Thursday from Labour, where he had served as chief whip — a post whose duties include enforcing coalition… Read more »

These non-Jews are fighting Labour anti-Semitism from the inside

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 26: Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn addresses delegates on day four of the Labour Party conference at the Arena and Convention Centre on September 26, 2018 in Liverpool, England. In his closing speech to the conference the Labour leader will promise to 'kickstart a green jobs revolution' and expand the provision of free childcare should Labour win power. (Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images)

Steeped in anti-Semitism accusations involving him and his supporters, British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has made many Jewish enemies — including inside his own party. But one of his most effective critics is not Jewish. He is a meteorology student at the University of Reading who describes himself… Read more »

In J.K. Rowling’s new novel, a villain is an Israel-hating anti-Semite

J.K. Rowling at the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) at Royal Albert Hall in London, Feb. 12, 2017. (John Phillips/Getty Images)

(JTA) — For months author J.K. Rowling has been warning about the dangers of anti-Semitism in England, sparring on Twitter with critics who either downplay the phenomenon or say its proponents are confusing criticism of Israel with Jew hatred. Now, in her newest book, she includes a character whose… Read more »

Progressives have a new definition of racism: prejudice plus power. What does that mean for Jews?

Sarah Jeong's anti-white tweets prompted a debate over the definition of racism and, subsequently, anti-Semitism. (Illustration by Charles Dunst/JTA; photo: Wikimedia Commons)

NEW YORK (JTA) — Are Jews too powerful to be considered “victims” of racism? Some progressives think so and have been downplaying accusations of anti-Semitism in light of a debate over prejudice and power. This week, The New York Times took heat for hiring Sarah Jeong, a technology writer,… Read more »

Britain’s Labour Party tried to define anti-Semitism to satisfy critics. It didn’t go well.

Campaigners from the Campaign Against Antisemitism demonstrate outside the Labour Party headquarters in London, April 8, 2018. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

  (JTA) — It’s been nearly three years since Jeremy Corbyn became the leader of Britain’s Labour Party, and he has riled British Jews more than any other politician in recent history. Last week, Great Britain’s three leading Jewish newspapers united in publishing a front-page editorial warning that a… Read more »

‘Three Billboards’-style campaign against anti-Semitism in Labour Party fails to sway Brits

Van-mounted billboards in central London were the latest escalation in British Jews' publicized row with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. (Courtesy of Jonathan Hoffman)

LONDON (JTA) — Keith Walker was having a sandwich in Parliament Square when he saw something that made him sit up straight and cut short his lunch. What did the 42-year-old activist for disabled people’s rights find so fascinating? It was three billboards on wheels that circled around the… Read more »

5 reasons why some British Jews are supporting the Labour Party, despite charges of anti-Semitism

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, second from right, speaking with guests during a National Holocaust Memorial Day event at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London, Jan. 26, 2017. (Jack Taylor/Getty Images)

(JTA) — Relations between British Jewry and the country’s Labour Party, which used to be their political home, appear to be at a historic low point. Ahead of the June 8 general elections in the United Kingdom, a Jewish Chronicle poll from last week put support for the center-left… Read more »

The Brexit: Six things you need to know

A slim majority of British citizens have voted to leave the European Union. (Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images)

Great Britain and the rest of Europe woke up to a new reality Friday as a slim majority of British voters said their country should leave the European Union. Markets trembled, British currency crashed and British Prime Minister David Cameron announced his pending resignation. It was a major blow to an alliance… Read more »

Brexit splits UK from Europe and Labour from its party leader

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn in London after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, June 24, 2016. (Rob Stothard/Getty Images)

(JTA) —  Only a week ago, Jeremy Corbyn seemed to have survived his biggest public relations debacle as the leader of Britain’s Labour Party:  the proliferation of anti-Semitic rhetoric among its members. Yet this week, the British vote to leave the European Union achieved what Corbyn’s opponents failed to… Read more »