Allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party

Dr. Dave Rich, Dr. David Hirsh

In 2016 the Labour Party established an inquiry, known as the Chakrabarti Inquiry, to investigate allegations of antisemitism and other forms of racism amongst its ranks. Dr. Dave Rich will talk about the events that led to the launch of the inquiry as well as about its goals and outcomes. Following this, Dr. David Hirsh will discuss some additional developments related to the allegations of antisemitism in the Labour Party that took place over the course of 2017-2019. He will explore how these relate to the Right-wing conspiratorial discourse on Brexit in the UK and explain how this combination of factors is created a complicated and sensitive climate for the Jewish community in Britain.

Please note that as these lectures were filmed prior to the 2019 General Elections in the UK, they do not discuss the situation in the UK following the results of these elections.

In this video Dr. Hirsh mentions the IHRA definition of antisemitism. We will examine this definition in some depth in step 6.13. You can familiarize yourselves with this definition by pressing on this link.

References

• Hirsh, David, Contemporary Left Antisemitism (London: Routledge, 2018).

• Rich, Dave, “Antisemitism in the Radical Left and the British Labour Party,” Kantor Center Position Papers, January 2018.

• Rich, Dave, The Left’s Jewish Problem: Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and Anti-Semitism 2nd ed. (London: Biteback Publishing, 2018).

• The Shami Chakrabarti Inquiry, 30 June, 2016.