Jeremy Corbyn must act to purge his party of anti-Semitism

Some friendly gesture from him towards Britain’s Jews is overdue

Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn (AFP/Getty)

Lord Levy, a Labour peer close to Tony Blair with connections to Israel, says he will quit the whip if the anti-Jewish lobby within Labour isn’t brought to heel.

It is strange, but sadly undeniable, that among the ranks of Labour’s activists views are held that are either anti-Semitic, or so close to being so that it makes no difference. Usually their arguments are couched as “anti-Israel” or “anti-Zionist” which all too often implies an impatience with the very existence of the state of Israel, rather than opposition to the undeniable, cruel and illegal policies of various Israeli governments and the Israeli military.

Sympathy for the appalling plight of the Palestinian people turns to anger against Israel itself and its origins in 1948. This, in turn, mutates into a denial of the legitimacy of a Jewish homeland, under any borders, and a suspicion of or hatred of Jews anywhere who would defend the right of Israel to exist in some form. In its most offensive guise this logic ends up labelling Israel a modern version of Nazi Germany, visiting upon the Arabs the genocide Hitler unleashed upon European Jews. Insane.

The problem is that the Labour leadership appears to be far too relaxed about the minority of phobic misguided fruitcakes in its midst. Jeremy Corbyn is a decent man and no bigot, but he has done far too little to defend Israel’s existence as part of a two-state solution, a long-standing Labour policy.

Replacing a Labour leader who happened to be Jewish and was punctilious in what he said and did in this area, Mr Corbyn should realise that his past dialogues with extremists – with the most well-meaning of motives – also make his party seem sympathetic to those who want to erase Israel from the map.

It is many years since Labour was the natural party of Britain’s Jewish community, when the kibbutz was a favourite year-out destination for Jewish and non-Jewish students alike, and where the former leader, Harold Wilson, in whose inner circle and cabinet were many Jewish friends, wrote a book entitled The Chariot of Israel.

Mr Corbyn won’t go that far, but some friendly gesture from him towards Britain’s Jews is overdue.