Corbyn Holocaust memorial statement omits Jews, anti-Semitism
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Corbyn Holocaust memorial statement omits Jews, anti-Semitism

ADL says UK Labour leader’s message ‘offensive’ to the ‘millions murdered’; party has been accused of failing to deal with Jew-hatred in its ranks

By TOI staff 25 January 2018, 11:17 pm 7 Edit
Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn delivers a speech to supporters at a party rally in Glasgow, Scotland, May 28, 2017. (AFP/Andy Buchanan)
Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn delivers a speech to supporters at a party rally in Glasgow, Scotland, May 28, 2017. (AFP/Andy Buchanan)

The Anti-Defamation League sharply criticized the leader of the UK’s Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, on Thursday for failing to mention Jews or anti-Semitism in a Holocaust memorial statement he put out.

“To omit any reference to Jews or #antiSemitism in your Holocaust remembrance statement is offensive to us and the millions murdered. Nazi ideology was rooted in hate & #antiSemitism. We can never forget that,” ADL head Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted.

Greenblatt’s tweet came hours after Corbyn shared on Facebook the message he wrote in the memorial book of the Holocaust Educational Trust ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

In the message, Corbyn mention the “millions who died” and were displaced during the Holocaust, but made no mention of the victims’ identity.

He also wrote, “We should understand the way fascism arose in Germany and the circumstances that gave space for the Nazis to grow.” He did not, however, mention the anti-Semitism central to the Nazi’s ideology.

Here is the message I have written in the Holocaust Educational Trust memorial book ahead of the service I am attending…

Posted by Jeremy Corbyn on Thursday, 25 January 2018

US President Donald Trump similarly came under fire last year for an International Holocaust Remembrance Day statement that didn’t mention Jews.

The White House later defended the omission, with spokeswoman Hope Hicks saying Jews weren’t mention because they weren’t the only group targeted and murdered by Adolf Hitler’s Nazi regime.

Since becoming Labour leader in 2015, the left-wing Corbyn has been accused of failing to sufficiently address anti-Semitism in his party.

Jeremy Newmark, the head of the Jewish Labour Movement, has criticized the party for failing to deal with a number of incidents of anti-Semitism, saying that Labour does not appear serious about tackling anti-Semitism in its ranks.

Newmark said the lack of action in dealing with those cases raised concerns as to whether the party had internalized the findings of a report on anti-Semitism in Labour, the Guardian reported Saturday.

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