{"id":63092,"date":"2018-08-04T17:05:02","date_gmt":"2018-08-04T15:05:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=63092"},"modified":"2018-08-04T08:23:21","modified_gmt":"2018-08-04T06:23:21","slug":"09-05-32","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=63092","title":{"rendered":"Oxford University Labour Club Calls for Disciplinary Action Against MP."},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Oxford University Labour Club Calls for Disciplinary Action Against MP Who \u2018Dismissed Legitimacy\u2019 of Antisemitism Row<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Algemeiner Staff<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Photo: Reuters \/ Pierre Albouy.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The\u00a0Labour Club at\u00a0Oxford University (OULC) in\u00a0England called on Monday for disciplinary action against a parliamentarian who appeared to blame accusations of\u00a0antisemitism within the opposition party\u00a0on \u201cright-wing trolls.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

MP Chris Williamson \u2014 a strong supporter of Labour\u00a0leader Jeremy Corbyn \u2014\u00a0said<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0in an April interview\u00a0that he saw evidence of people \u201csetting themselves up as pro-Labour, pro-Jeremy Corbyn individuals on social media,\u201d and then making\u00a0\u201cantisemitic, horrible and abusive remarks.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The OULC said\u00a0Williamson\u2019s comments \u201cdismissed the\u00a0legitimacy of the issue of antisemitism within our party,\u201d and recommended the withdrawal of the Labour whip.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is imperative that the Labour Party and OULC send a clear message of solidarity with the\u00a0Jewish community,\u201d the club said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Williamson drew further\u00a0condemnation<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0after speaking\u00a0at a meeting of left-leaning Labour members a day\u00a0after the OULC\u00a0issued its criticism \u2014 this time from the Jewish Labour Movement, which claimed he\u00a0was complicit \u201cin the face of antisemitism.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The controversy stemmed from comments made at the same gathering by\u00a0a\u00a0party activist \u2014\u00a0identified<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0only as Jack by a\u00a0Jewish Chronicle\u00a0<\/em>reporter\u00a0in attendance\u00a0\u2014 who described\u00a0the Jewish Labour Movement and Labour Friends of Israel as \u201cIsraeli \u2026 foot soldiers\u201d who are \u201ctrying to take our democracy away from us.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat could be a greater threat to our democracy than a foreign government who is trying to veto the person we want for prime minister?\u201d he said\u00a0to applause.<\/span><\/p>\n

Williamson address the audience minutes later, but failed to publicly confront Jack over his accusation, instead calling on Labour members to be \u201cbrave\u201d while facing \u201csinister\u201d actions taken against them, according to the\u00a0Chronicle.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

He also asserted that some in the party had \u201callowed their passion to run away\u201d and\u00a0spoke in \u201ca light which could be perceived as antisemitic,\u201d but added, \u201cI don\u2019t believe they are antisemites.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In response to criticism, the lawmaker\u00a0expressed<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0astonishment\u00a0that a \u201cveteran anti-racist\u201d like himself is being targeted\u00a0\u201cfor alleged comments made by another person,\u201d and pledged to \u201cnot be bullied by the JLM or anyone else for that matter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The latest developments have further inflamed what many leaders of the UK\u2019s Jewish community \u2014 who held\u00a0a rare\u00a0rally<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0on the issue in March 26 \u2014\u00a0have repeatedly described as an antisemitism crisis\u00a0in Labour under Corbyn\u2019s leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n

The veteran pro-Palestinian campaigner, who once\u00a0referred<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0to the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah as \u201cfriends,\u201d faced increasing criticism since his election in 2015 for inappropriate behavior by some members of his party, among them a Labour parliamentarian who\u00a0said<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Israelis should \u201crelocate\u201d to the United States and a former London mayor who\u00a0claimed<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0that Adolf Hitler had once been a Zionist.<\/span><\/p>\n

During his tenure, multiple Labour council candidates and potential candidates were found to have\u00a0made<\/a>\u00a0conspiratorial<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0hostile<\/a>\u00a0comments<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0on\u00a0Israel<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0Jews<\/a><\/strong><\/span>;\u00a0student<\/strong><\/span><\/a>representatives<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0were criticized for sharing antisemitic, racist, and homophobic tweets; a party member derisively\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0a Jewish journalist a \u201cZionist\u201d; Jewish Labour councillors\u00a0resigned<\/a>\u00a0after saying they\u2019ve been subject to antisemitic abuse; and another councillor stepped down after\u00a0calling<\/a>\u00a0Jews \u201cparasites\u201d and pedophiles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Tensions between Labour and the Jewish community escalated in March, following revelations that Corbyn and several Labour members had been part of the Facebook group Palestine Live, which included posts denying the Holocaust and alleging Israeli involvement in the 9\/11 and 7\/7 terrorist attacks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Late month, Labour decided to approve a version of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance\u2019s definition of antisemitism, which was edited to remove examples relating to Israel \u2014 going against the advice of 68 leading UK rabbis. The country\u2019s top three Jewish\u00a0newspapers subsequently\u00a0published<\/a>\u00a0an unprecedented joint editorial warning that\u00a0\u201ca Jeremy Corbyn-led government\u201d would pose an \u201cexistential threat to Jewish life in this country.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The crisis has also extended to the OULC, which in 2016 voted\u00a0to endorse Israel Apartheid Week, prompting its co-chairman Alex Chalmer to resign from his position.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[A] large proportion of both OULC and the student Left in Oxford more generally have some kind of problem with Jews,\u201d\u00a0Chalmer, who is not Jewish, wrote in an online statement explaining his position.<\/span><\/p>\n

He also accused some peers of \u201cthrowing around the term \u2018Zio’\u201d \u2014 a slur for Jews popular with neo-Nazis \u2014 \u201cwith casual abandon,\u201d and shared accounts of \u201csenior members of the club expressing their \u2018solidarity\u2019 with Hamas and explicitly defending their tactics of indiscriminately murdering civilians.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A subsequent internal Labour report on the matter \u2014\u00a0released<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0by\u00a0The Jewish Chronicle<\/em>after\u00a0being\u00a0suppressed by Labour\u2019s National Executive Committee \u2014 found that \u201cthere have been some incidents of anti-Semitic behaviour,\u201d and recommended \u201cdisciplinary procedures.\u201d However, it stopped short of implicating the OULC as a whole, claiming that there is \u201cno evidence that the Club is itself institutionally anti-Semitic,\u201d while also acknowledging a \u201ccultural problem in which behaviour and language that would once have been intolerable is now tolerated.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It noted that \u201csome Jewish members do not feel comfortable attending the [OULC] meetings, let alone participating.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A subsequent investigation by Labour into two members of the club was terminated and the students let off without facing any disciplinary action, in a move that was decried by leaders of the UK Jewish community.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Oxford University Labour Club Calls for Disciplinary Action Against MP Who \u2018Dismissed Legitimacy\u2019 of Antisemitism Row Algemeiner Staff British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn. Photo: Reuters \/ Pierre Albouy. The\u00a0Labour Club at\u00a0Oxford University (OULC) in\u00a0England called on Monday for disciplinary action against a parliamentarian who appeared to blame accusations of\u00a0antisemitism within the opposition party\u00a0on \u201cright-wing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63092"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63092"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63102,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63092\/revisions\/63102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}