MEDIA NOTICE – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

·        Data shows Jewish Labour Party members more likely to be accused and disciplined for allegations of antisemitism than non-Jews
 
·        Legal letter copied to EHRC seeks end to unlawful practices in breach of Equalities legislation
 
·        Labour’s discriminatory regime undermines party’s commitment to eliminate antisemitism and conflicts with its anti-racist history
 
·        “Wrong kind of Jews” harassed by denial of their identity and failure to deal with antisemitic acts against them.

London, Sept 8 – Labour leader Keir Starmer is facing calls to acknowledge and make amends for discriminatory treatment of Jewish party members.

A legal letter to the party from Bindmans LLP on behalf of Jewish Voice for Labour sets out compelling evidence that Jews who disagree with the current leadership about Israel, Palestine, Zionism and antisemitism suffer disproportionately from the Party’s harsh disciplinary regime. Jewish members are 6 times more likely to be investigated and 9.5 times more likely to be expelled from the Labour Party for antisemitism than non-Jewish members (see Annex B).

The letter, copied to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, says the Party has failed to understand the diversity of opinion among British Jews and misconstrued criticism of Israel as antisemitism, illegitimately restricting the free expression of Jewish views on Israel and on Zionism. Associated restrictions on the rights of ­all party members are contrary to Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and to the Party’s own rules.

Such practices undermine the Party’s commitment to eliminating antisemitism and are in conflict with Labour’s history as the party that pioneered laws against racial discrimination such as the Race Relations Acts of 1965, 1968 and 1976 and the Equality Acts of 2006 and 2010.

The letter notes the exclusion of non-Zionist Jews from consultation on and implementation of Labour’s complaints and disciplinary procedures, as referenced by Martin Forde KC in his report (pp. 110-12) on these matters.

The letter invites the Party to acknowledge that it: “is in breach of the Equality Act 2010 by discriminating unlawfully against its Jewish members and unlawfully harassing them in (a) the manner in which it investigates complaints made against them and (b) its failure to investigate complaints made by them.”

Details are summarised in a new update to the ongoing Crowd Justice appeal set up by Labour Activists 4 Justice.

Notes for Editors

1.   Full text of Bindmans LLP letter available as a pdf file.
2.  Annex  B – pdf file providing a statistical analysis of the disproportionately larger number of Jews than non-Jews who have been subject to disciplinary investigation and to expulsion or auto-exclusion;

3.  Further evidence is available on request from Annexes A, C and D. These detail 11 specific cases; appeals made by Jewish members against punitive sanctions; and the Party’s response to complaints of antisemitism made by Jewish members.

4.   Summaries of the cases of four individuals who are available for interview appear below:

Andrew Feinstein

Mr.Feinstein is a Jewish former member of the South African Parliament in which he represented the constituency with the country’s largest proportion of Jewish residents. He is the son of a holocaust survivor and has lectured on genocide prevention at Auschwitz, on behalf of the Auschwitz Institute.

Mr. Feinstein received a notice of investigation from the Labour Party in November 2021 and a notice of allegation in June 2023. The first accused him of undermining the party’s ability to campaign against racism and discrimination in various speeches and statements on social media. Those statements included trenchant criticism of aspects of the Party’s policies in relation to Israeli treatment of Palestinians and to Jewish members of the Party who made similar criticisms. Mr. Feinstein, whose commitment to anti-racism was taught to him by Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, found these accusations deeply offensive and hurtful. The claim that they undermine the Party’s ability to campaign against racism and discrimination is absurd and should have been rejected out of hand, Following Mr. Feinstein’s reasoned response and request for an explanation, he received no response. The second complaint accused him of promoting apparently proscribed organisations of which he was unaware. Both complaints in effect accuse him of antisemitism, a slur which is particularly hurtful to Jewish people.

Both complaints should have been rejected out of hand as they disclosed no prima facie evidence of any violation of party rules.

Stephen Marks

As noted in his statement, Stephen Marks was elected onto the NCC (National Constitution Committee of the Labour Party) in November 2018.  He served on this body until he was issued a notice of administrative suspension from membership of the Party in July 2021 on allegations of antisemitism. The charges related to his having signed open letters and a petition which allegedly breached Chapter 2.1.8 of the party’s rules. All actions which pre-dated his election.

The open letters expressed the view that there is no systemic problem with antisemitism in the Labour Party and that antisemitic allegations are sometimes made for political purposes. As a Jewish member of the Labour Party, Mr Marks was particularly concerned to ensure that issues such as criticism of the state of Israel and the definition of antisemitism can be debated openly.

As far as JVL and other colleagues know, no other signatory to these documents has been investigated by the Party on charges of antisemitism citing this particular evidence. Mr Marks believes he has been arbitrarily singled out due to his membership of the NCC.

Mr Marks robustly rejected these allegations in a comprehensive response on 23rd August 2021 and in particular pointed out that “Antisemitism is abhorrent to me, as an anti-racist, a human rights activist and as a Jew.”

“There is a principle of natural justice here, the right to speak up for others subject to accusations which is relevant to all three petitions. I have confirmed with other NCC colleagues that a signature on a statement or petition would not normally be accepted as evidence in a disciplinary case.”

Mr Marks was expelled in July 2023: in his absence he was found guilty in effect of antisemitism.

The investigation process had been long drawn out from July 2021 to July 2023 and inhumane. No response was made to references to Marks’ ill health nor to his full reply to the charges and there was no acknowledgement of his Jewishness. In addition, expulsion is extremely rare on this sort of charge but the appeal made by Marks’s lawyer was turned down with no explanation.

Diana Neslen

Mrs Neslen is a religiously observant, 82 years old, Jewish woman born in South Africa who came to the UK because of South African apartheid. She has been a lifelong antiracist and campaigner for justice and equality and both she and family members have been victims of antisemitic slurs and physical attacks.  Mrs Neslen considers that she has been bullied and harassed by the Labour Party.

 In April 2018 her husband of 51 years died very suddenly and three months later, while still navigating the early stages of grieving, she was diagnosed with breast cancer for which, on 30th August, she had an operation.  Five days later she was shocked to receive a reminder of conduct letter from the lParty accusing her of antisemitism for posts critical of Israel.  That letter said that the Party was a safe place for lively debate and exchange of views, but that offensive statements would not be tolerated.  Despite writing to request an explanation as to the nature of the offence, there was no reply.

Following this Reminder of Conduct, Mrs Neslen subsequently received a Notice of Investigation (NOI) on 13 May 2020 while she was shielding alone at home, very vulnerable and anxious. She wrote to tell the Party about this. In February 2021 she was given a formal warning, the Labour Party having found that she had breached the party’s rules with respect to antisemitism and social media activity. She received a further NOI on 18 August 2021, which was withdrawn on 21 December 2021 following intervention by solicitors.

The allegations related to social media posts, many of which predated her rejoining the Party in autumn 2015 in which Mrs Neslen shared her deeply considered opinions about Zionism and definitions of antisemitism.
Mrs Neslen made her own complaint to the LP about bullying on 10th May 2023 having been smeared on social media by Party members, which she feels has made her very vulnerable. There has been no response to this complaint.

Also Mrs Neslen has written to the LP about antisemitic comments in her CLP. The Party rejected these complaints entirely, without proper investigation. Mrs Neslen feels, therefore, that the Labour Party is not a safe place for Jews who are critical of Zionism.  The experience has left her feeling abused by the Party at a local as well as a national level.

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi

Ms Wimborne- Idrissi is a Jewish woman.  She writes of herself “I am “the eldest of three children of liberal Jewish parents whose own parents had fled anti-Jewish pogroms in Russia, Poland, Germany and Ukraine in the second half of the 19th century…Conflict in the Middle East was a particular concern of mine, as it is for many Jews.”

Ms Wimborne- Idrissi was suspended by the LP in December 2020. The charges were that she had breached rule 2.1.8 at a meeting of her CLP in November that year. The questions related to a speech Ms Wimborne- Idrissi had made (and separately her contribution to the Zoom chat).

According to the transcript of the meeting prepared for her legal advisers, this is what Ms Wimborne- Idrissi had said in response to a suggestion that certain subjects should not be debated at LP meetings in case these offend Jewish members:

This is a dangerous road. Do we really want us Jewish members to be seen as gatekeepers – as people who prevent others from discussing issues of importance?

But the LP quoted from that speech in their question to Naomi as follows:

At this meeting it is further alleged that you made the following statement: “Jews shouldn’t be the gate keepers for what can and can’t be discussed in meetings.”

Her legal adviser wrote: “Our client made a statement… about “us Jewish members” – that is, about our client and others like her. The misquotation transforms “us Jewish members” who are “seen as gatekeepers” into “Jews” who are “the gatekeepers.”

“The misquotation erases Ms Wimborne-Idrissi’s Jewish identity.”

The LP then found that Ms Wimborne-Idrissi had engaged in conduct that may reasonably be seen to demonstrate hostility or prejudice based on race, religion or belief.

There has been no response to Naomi’s complaint relating to a leak of the meeting’s discussions to the Jewish Chronicle and no reply to any of her responses to the Party.  This includes: “To repeat, I am Jewish…., I know what antisemitism is in the depth of my being and carry the fear of it through my life. ….The party’s behaviour in this respect reflects prejudice and hostility to me as the Jew I am..”

Ms Wimborne-Idrissi was suspended from the Party a second time, in September 2022, just after she had been elected onto the NEC – the only Jew to win a seat in that election. Her alleged offence was speaking at a meeting held by a proscribed group a year earlier.  She was expelled in December 2022 and submitted an appeal to which she has had no response to date.

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