From the Liveblog of
Monday, May 2, 2016
Tzipi Livni: Strong reek of anti-Semitism calls British values into question
Former foreign minister and current opposition lawmaker Tzipi Livni writes in an op-ed for the UK daily The Telegraph that recent anti-Semitic comments from members of the UK Labour Party “represent a disturbing trend which requires urgent and comprehensive intervention.”
“It is time to state the obvious: Israel today is a Jewish and democratic state, the nation state of the Jewish people in which all citizens, Jews and Arabs, have equal rights… However, the strong reek of anti-Semitism that arises from recent acts concerns Britain above all. When anti-Semitism rears its ugly head it puts British values under scrutiny,” she writes.
Five Labour members have been suspended from the party in recent days over posts to social media or public comments that have been deemed anti-Israel and in some cases anti-Semitic.
“Will the Britain that rightly took pride in the fight for justice and morality against the Nazis, and that has for centuries protected civil rights and values, today allow anti-Semitism to stand? Will its leadership step up and stop it? Britain must take steps to uproot these phenomena, first and foremost for the sake of its own core values,” Livni concludes.
The Times of Israel Community.