The Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), one of the oldest left wing organizations affiliated with the UK Labour Party, has penned a letter addressed to the co-leaders of the British Green Party, spelling out concerns over antisemitism and blasting the Greens for admitting former Labour councillors expelled over antisemitism allegations.
The purpose of the letter, co-signed by JLM’s national chair Mike Katz and national secretary Adam Langleben and addressed to Green co-leaders Carla Denyer and Adrian Ramsay, was to warn the Greens that they “must avoid the temptation of becoming a refuge for those thrown out of Labour for antisemitism.”
It specifically brought up the inappropriate social media posts of a Green Party councillor in Norwich. It accused Sewell Ward Green councillor Gary Champion of “posting material online which promotes antisemitic tropes,” and repeatedly stating that internal Labour antisemitism scandals were a “smear.”
“The most worrying content refers to our organization… which acts as a voice of Jews in the Party,” the letter said. “Champion has alleged online that the Jewish Labour Movement’s concerns about antisemitism in the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn were in fact an attempt to attack Jeremy Corbyn because of his views on Israel/Palestine.”
It went on to state, “That an elected councillor is sharing such material is extremely concerning for Jewish residents and should be hugely worrying for you as Green Party leaders.”
The letter explained that “tolerance of antisemitism” during the Corbyn-era in the Labour Party “gave voice to fringe [antisemitic] thinking, which further fueled the Party’s bunker mentality in ignoring a very real problem. As a result, Labour got into a very dark place on racism.”
They warned that “we fear the Green Party is in danger of providing a refuge for the ideas of left wing antisemitism.”
“We have been extremely troubled by examples of councillors who had been expelled or suspended from Labour for antisemitism being welcomed into the Green Party,” they added.
They asked for assurances from the Green Party’s leaders that members are conforming with policies “that we assume your party has on discrimination and harassment against Jews,” and asked for an explanation of how the Greens are training their members and activists on countering left-wing antisemitism.
“If the Green Party makes a judgement that an individual is sorry for whatever happened in their previous party, then you should be satisfied that those individuals have meaningfully apologized to the Jewish community before they are able to join your party,” the letter urged.