MK Yair Lapid, one of the four leaders of the Blue and White party, denounced Labour UK chairman Jeremy Corbyn on Monday, in a rare commentary on internal British politics.
Speaking at the Israel Allies Foundation’s Chairman’s Conference in Jerusalem, Lapid excoriated Corbyn, calling the British Opposition leader an “anti-Semite” and a “racist”.
“Usually, you’re not supposed to interfere in elections in other countries. But in this case I’m going to make an exception. Jeremy Corbyn is an anti-Semite. If you want to know something in this world, you have to come to an expert. And there are experts about anti-Semites – they’re called ‘Jews’. And I’m an expert on this. We can tell an anti-Semite when we see one. This isn’t even a new form of anti-Semitism,” said Lapid.
“We’ve talked quite often about this black and red coalition against the Jews, but this is old-school, plain anti-Semitism just using new excuses. And everyone should take this into mind when going into the voting booths, because racists are racists are racists, and Jeremy Corbyn is a racist.”
Lapid also discussed the recent vote by the French National Assembly to recognize anti-Zionism as a form of anti-Semitism, lauding the French legislature for the vote and adding that the "conflict between Israelis and Palestinians is not about the 'settlements', it's not about the 'occupation'. The conflict was there long, long before the Six Day War, before any settlements were there".
"Hatred was always there," continued Lapid.
Corbyn’s Labour party, which leads the Opposition in the British Parliament, has been polling behind Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Conservatives since new elections were declared for December 12th, though recent polls show Labour cutting into the Tories’ lead, with Remainers shifting support from the Liberal Democrats to Labour.
While Corbyn has long denied accusations of anti-Semitism, deflecting the claims as attacks on his criticism of Israel, the Labour chief has been denounced by some within his own party, including the Jewish Labour Movement, which last week accused Corbyn personally of anti-Semitic behavior.
In November, British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis took the unprecedented step of commenting on the upcoming elections, warning against the possibility of a Corbyn victory and urging voters to oppose Labour.