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Former Leader of Israel's Labor Party Slams Britain's Labour Chief Corbyn as "Anti-Semitic"

(Ha'aretz) Judy Maltz - Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog, who served as chairman of the Israeli Labor Party from 2013 to 2018, sent a letter on Thursday to UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, accusing him and his party of crossing the line into anti-Semitism. "It is legitimate to criticize any government. I have done so myself as leader of the opposition, from within the Knesset - as vibrant and as vivid a democratic parliament as you may find in any liberal democracy," wrote Herzog. "But it is racist to attribute to a whole ethnic or religious group negative characteristics, which are supposedly innate. It is anti-Semitic to demonize Israel and Israelis in general as inherently evil. It is anti-Semitic to apply double standards to Israel, that is: To hold it to standards to which no other nation is held." "And it is anti-Semitic to delegitimize the Jewish people's right to a sovereign state of its own - and to apply this denial exclusively to Jews and to no other people." "All of this relies heavily on ages-old anti-Jewish prejudice, stereotypes and bigotry. The new mask of this old hatred fools no one." Herzog described the treatment of anti-Semitic incidents within the ranks of the British Labour party, and the leniency displayed by the party's institutions toward members who spread anti-Semitic tropes, as "mind-boggling." - Judy Maltz (Ha'aretz) Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog, who served as chairman of the Israeli Labor Party from 2013 to 2018, sent a letter on Thursday to UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, accusing him and his party of crossing the line into anti-Semitism. "It is legitimate to criticize any government. I have done so myself as leader of the opposition, from within the Knesset - as vibrant and as vivid a democratic parliament as you may find in any liberal democracy," wrote Herzog. "But it is racist to attribute to a whole ethnic or religious group negative characteristics, which are supposedly innate. It is anti-Semitic to demonize Israel and Israelis in general as inherently evil. It is anti-Semitic to apply double standards to Israel, that is: To hold it to standards to which no other nation is held." "And it is anti-Semitic to delegitimize the Jewish people's right to a sovereign state of its own - and to apply this denial exclusively to Jews and to no other people." "All of this relies heavily on ages-old anti-Jewish prejudice, stereotypes and bigotry. The new mask of this old hatred fools no one." Herzog described the treatment of anti-Semitic incidents within the ranks of the British Labour party, and the leniency displayed by the party's institutions toward members who spread anti-Semitic tropes, as "mind-boggling."
2019-07-19 00:00:00
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