Who Now Protest

Here:

I am a Jew who joined the Labour party after Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader. Before that I set up a “Jews for Jeremy” Facebook group, which attracted a large number of like-minded Jews. I have encountered no antisemitism in the Labour party.

The isolated cases that were referred to in Jonathan Freedland’s article are actually insignificant in terms of the power these individuals have, and in the case of Gerry Downing (someone I know from my own CLP) more to do with stupidity than antisemitism.

The worst antisemitism I have seen in recent years in connection with the Labour party was that perpetrated by some newspapers during last year’s election campaign, when Ed Miliband’s Jewishness was conflated with classic stereotypes to present him as other and alien.

I saw little protest about that at the time from people who now protest at these isolated, trivial examples.

Dr Ian Saville
London