Labour MP defends Jeremy Corbyn against antisemitism allegations
Barry Garinder said it was "important" that there be "clarity" with regards to the Labour Party's history with antisemtism.
By BENJY SINGER
The antisemitic claims against Jeremy Corbyn were challenged on a BBC Newsnight interview on Friday, as Barry Gardiner, Shadow Secretary for International Trade said Corbyn was merely "critical of the politics of Israel," but not antisemitic, according to the Jewish Chronicle.Garinder said it was "important" that there be "clarity" with regard to the Labour Party's history with antisemitism."What Jeremy has always done is be critical of the politics of Israel and the way Israel has dealt with the Palestinian question," he continued. "And he has been absolutely unequivocal on that. He has not and the party has not, in my view, been antisemitic.""It is important we have clarity on that," the Jewish Chronicle quoted him as saying.He said that he reached his conclusions after attending a 2017 Al-Quds Day march in central London, where he heard a speaker claim the "Zionists" were to blame for the Grenfell fire.Gardiner, currently standing to be re-elected in Brent North, commented, "I wrote to the prosecution service after the Al-Quds march in London a year or so ago and I said 'Why didn't you prosecute these people?' who making antisemitic statements."They said because 'they complained about Zionism, they weren't antisemitic.'"I need to make this point, if the Crown Prosecution Service makes a distinction between being anti-Zionist and antisemitic, then I think in the past the Labour Party has made this as well," it was reported by the Jewish Chronicle.This seems to be in contrast with previous statements of Garinder, where he described himself as a friend of the Jewish community, who understood the anger over anti-Jewish racism in the Labour Party."When asked if he read the report that the Jewish Labour Movement sent to the equalities watchdog the EHRC, which contained eleven allegations of antisemitism relating directly to Corbyn, Gardiner responded that he had not had time to read it completely.