FORMER Scottish Labour chief Jim Murphy has taken out an advert in the Jewish Telegraph to apologise for his party’s antisemitism difficulties.
Murphy, who as the MP for East Renfrewshire, represented Scotland’s largest Jewish community, writes that he "could no longer remain passive while the current Labour leadership does so much damage to Labour's relationship with British Jewry."
Referring to Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell as “British Labour's top-team” he accuses them of being “intellectually arrogant, emotionally inept and politically maladroit.”
Corbyn, he adds, “is not doing nearly enough to throw out the antisemites found within grassroots and online Labour.”
I’ve paid for a full-page ad in this week’s Jewish Telegraph. It’s an apology to the Jewish Community about the actions of the Labour Party’s leadership. JM pic.twitter.com/DALswTYuWI
— Jim Murphy (@glasgowmurphy) 10 August 2018
Labour antisemitism row has been rumbling on ever since Corbyn became leader in 2015.
However, it has intensified in recent weeks after the decision by the party’s ruling NEC not to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association’s full definition of antisemitism into its code of conduct.
It misses out the IHRA’s examples of antisemitism which includes comparisons between Israeli policy and the Nazis and allegations of dual loyalty.
In his advert, Murphy says: “I have always been angered by the way in which British Jews are held to account for actions of a government of a foreign country, of which they're not citizens and whose government they've played noi role in choosing.”
He adds: “The Jewish community and everyone else who is offended by Labour's stance are being asked to accept quarter-baked platitudinous Labour apologises for the 'upset that has been caused'. "
Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell recently told the BBC, the row had shaken Labour to its core.
"None of us failed to appreciate the way this has upset people, including ourselves. It's really shaken us to the core really. But we'll resolve it. We've got to.
"We've got to resolve it in the Labour party certainly, but also the members of the Jewish community are really suffering out there.
“We've had a massive increase in attacks on the jewish community - daubing of cemeteries, it's appalling that Jewish schools have to have security guards with them as well.
“So we need to resolve it within our party and then get out there with the Jewish community and campaign against anti-semitism within our society overall.”
Murphy led Scottish Labour to its biggest defeat in 2015, when the party lost 40 of its 41 seats to the SNP,including the East Renfrewshire constituency he had held since 1997 He is currently listed as a “contributor” at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change.
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