Ex-Chief Rabbi brands Jeremy Corbyn an ‘anti-Semite’ who made the ‘most offensive’ speech by a top politician since Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood with attack on British Zionists
- Jonathan Sacks branded Labour leader an ‘anti-Semite’ in angry intervention
- Ex-chief rabbi said tape of Corbyn discussing English Zionists was ‘offensive’
- He claimed it was comparable to Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech
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The former chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks today lashed Jeremy Corbyn as an ‘anti-Semite’ who ‘defiles our politics’.
He said a tape of him attacking English Zionist Jews was the most offensive remark by a British politician since Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech in 1968.
MailOnline revealed last week Mr Corbyn used a speech at the Palestinian Return Centre in London in 2013 to criticise a group of British Zionists.
Rows over anti-Semitism have rocked Labour all summer after the party refused to adopt in full an internationally accepted definition of hatred against Jews.
The party is expected to finally do so next week – but it was claimed today could still add caveats to its rulebook to protect members who accuse the Israeli government of racist treatment of Palestinians.
The former chief rabbi Jonathan Sacks today lashed Jeremy Corbyn (pictured in Edinburgh last week) as an ‘anti-Semite’ who ‘defiles our politics’
Mr Sacks (file image) said a tape of him attacking English Zionist Jews was the most offensive remark by a British politician since Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood speech in 1968
Mr Sacks told the New Statesman: ‘The recently disclosed remarks by Jeremy Corbyn are the most offensive statement made by a senior British politician since Enoch Powell’s 1968 ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech.
‘It was divisive, hateful and like Powell’s speech it undermines the existence of an entire group of British citizens by depicting them as essentially alien.’
Mr Sacks said Mr Corbyn could only be judged by ‘his words and his actions’.
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In the remarks revealed by MailOnline, which have been widely condemned as anti-Semitic, Mr Corbyn said: ‘They clearly have two problems.
‘One is they don’t want to study history and, secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don’t understand English irony either.’
The remarks, made while the Labour leader was still an obscure backbencher, reignited the toxic row over anti-Semitism inside Labour that has rocked the party.
Jews, including the Labour MP Luciana Berger (pictured) have repeatedly demanded Mr Corbyn tackle anti-Semitism inside Labour
Continuing his attack on the Labour leader as ‘low, dishonest and dangerous’, Mr Sacks said: ‘He has given support to racists, terrorists and dealers of hate who want to kill Jews and remove Israel from the map.
‘When he implies that, however long they have lived here, Jews are not fully British, he is using the language of classic pre-war European anti-Semitism.
‘When challenged with such facts, the evidence for which is before our eyes, first he denies, then he equivocates, then he obfuscates.’
Mr Sacks said Mr Corbyn’s ’embrace of hate defiles our politics’ and warned Jews were threatened by having an ‘anti-Semite as the Leader of the Labour Party and Her Majesty’s Official Opposition’.
In a statement issued last Friday night, Mr Corbyn defended his use of language in 2013 – but said he was now more cautious.
He said he had used the term Zionists ‘in the accurate political sense and not as a euphemism for Jewish people’.
He added: ‘I am now more careful with how I might use the term ‘Zionist’ because a once self-identifying political term has been increasingly hijacked by anti-Semites as code for Jews.’
What is the timeline of anti-Semitic scandals which have erupted under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership?
Jeremy Corbyn (pictured) has been accused of failing to tackle the racism among his supporters
The anti-Semitism scandal has dogged Labour since Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader in 2015.
Here is a timeline of the controversies:
April 2016:
Labour MP Naz Shah is suspended for anti-Semitic posts – including one in which she appeared to endorse calls for Israelis to be deported to the US.
She apologised and was given a formal warning.
Ken Livingstone goes on the radio to defend Ms Shah – but sparks fresh controversy by claiming that Hitler supported Zionism.
He is suspended by Labour but refuses to apologise and has repeated the claim many times.
He eventually quits Labour two years later, saying his suspension has become a distraction.
June 2016:
A two-month inquiry by civil liberties campaigner Shami Chakrabarti finds that Labour is not overrun by anti-Semitism.
But the launch is overshadowed when Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth flees it in tears after being accused by Corbyn supporter Marc Wadsworth of colluding with the press.
Critics accuse the report of being a whitewash and Ms Chakrabarti is widely criticised for accepting a peerage from Jeremy Corbyn shortly afterwards.
October 2016:
The Home Affairs Select Committee says Labour is guilty of incompetence over its handling of anti-Semitism and of creating a safe space for people with ‘vile attitudes towards Jewish people’.
March 2018:
It is revealed that Jeremy Corbyn defended an artist who painted an anti-Semitic mural and said the offensive art should be removed.
He apologises saying he did not properly look at the picture before he made the post.
Jewish leaders take the unprecedented step of holding a demonstration outside Parliament protesting Mr Corbyn’s failure to tackle anti-Semitism.
Several Labour MPs address the crowds.
April 2018:
Marc Wadsworth is expelled from Labour after being accused of anti-Semitism.
Meanwhile, Labour Jewish MPs tell of the anti-Semitic abuse they have suffered in a powerful parliamentary debate – and round on their leader for failing to tackle it.
July 2018:
The Labour leadership sparks fresh anger by failing to fully adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism
Peter Willsman, a strong ally of Jeremy Corbyn, is secretly taped ranting that ‘Jewish Trump fanatics’ invented the anti-Semitism storm engulfing Labour.
In an angry diatribe at a meeting of Labour’s ruling executive committee, he said he was ‘amazed’ there was evidence party members hated Jews.
He claimed ‘some of these people in the Jewish community support Trump – they are Trump fanatics’ before shouting: ‘So I am not going to be lectured to by Trump fanatics making up duff information without any evidence at all.’
August 2018:
Jeremy Corbyn issues a video insisting he is committed to tackling the racism – but it is panned by Jewish leaders.
Corbynistas mount a social media campaign to get deputy Labour leader Tom Watson to quit after he criticises the party’s handling of anti-Semitism.
The Daily Mail exclusively publishes photos of Jeremy Corbyn holding a wreath at a ceremony where a terrorist linked to the Munich massacre was honoured.
The Labour leader insists he was there to honour others killed – but faces fresh calls to quit over the scandal.
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