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Washington Post Whitewashes British Labour Party's Anti-Semitism

Washington Post / Getty Images
November 26, 2019

The Washington Post is under fire for saying Britain's Labour Party is unfairly criticized as anti-Semitic, despite numerous examples of the party and its leaders demonizing Jews and denying the Holocaust.

A tweet from the paper's account said that Labour "has been hit by claims of anti-Seminism [sic] because of strong statements on Palestinian rights." Twitter users were quick to point out the absurdity of the tweet.

The Post later updated its tweet to note the misspelling of anti-Semitism. Shortly thereafter, the account deleted the offending tweet altogether.

"We've deleted a tweet that was not accurate and incorrectly summarized Post reporting," the Post's account tweeted. "Labour members have been accused of making anti-Jewish statements, which should not have been conflated with statements on Palestinian rights."

The Post made the claim about the Labour Party despite the fact that the article linked in the tweet listed multiple instances of Labour Party members, including its leader Jeremy Corbyn, employing anti-Semitic canards and even going so far as to deny the Holocaust.

"In Facebook groups, social media posts and at meetings, Labour members have been accused of going far beyond criticism of Israel and into anti-Jewish statements," states the article, which largely focuses on recent statements by Britain's chief rabbi accusing Labour of anti-Semitism.

"Corbyn revealed that a review of online posts among Labour members uncovered 'examples of Holocaust denial, crude stereotypes of Jewish bankers, conspiracy theories blaming 9/11 on Israel, and even one individual who appeared to believe that Hitler had been misunderstood,'" the article reads.

The piece also note that "Corbyn himself has been criticized for hosting a 2010 panel where Israelis were compared to Nazis," and that, "in 2012, he defended an artist's 'freedom of speech,' but failed to condemn the London mural that depicted Jewish bankers playing monopoly on a board balanced on the bent backs of the workers."

Further instances of Corbyn and Labour's anti-Semitism abound.

"In 2013, [Corbyn] suggested that 'Zionists' do not understand 'English irony,' even after living in Britain for years," according to the article. "Since 2017, a dozen Labour members of parliament have quit the party, in part over its handling of anti-Semitism (alongside Corbyn's leadership and the party's leftward tilt)."

"Earlier this month, the Jewish Chronicle, which has campaigned against Corbyn, published a front-page editorial against the Labour leader and released results of a poll claiming 47 percent of British Jews would 'seriously consider' leaving Britain if Corbyn won next month," the report notes.

Former Labour Party member Luciana Berger recently recounted leaving Labor due to its embrace of virulently anti-Israel and anti-Semitic causes.

"I left the Labour Party, I was outspoken in the Labour Party, I'm Jewish, I'm a target of the far right, I'm anti-Brexit—the combination of which means I get more than my fair share," she told the Independent earlier this month.

Tuesday's Post tweet comes on the heels of the paper describing ISIS terror mastermind Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi as an "austere religious scholar"—a portrayal that forced Post editors to later issue a correction.

Published under: Media , Washington Post