UK’s Labour Party meets in bid to calm anti-Semitism crisis

The governing body of Britain’s main opposition Labour Party meets in an attempt to defuse a crisis over anti-Semitism that has caused a schism within its ranks.

The party’s National Executive Committee is debating whether to adopt a definition of anti-Semitism approved by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.

Labour’s adoption earlier this year of a more limited definition — omitting some of the alliance’s language around unfair criticism of Israel — renews claims that the left-of-center party has become hostile to Jews under leader Jeremy Corbyn, a longtime supporter of the Palestinians.

Corbyn says anti-Semitism has no place in the Labour Party, but some members think he has failed to stamp out anti-Jewish prejudice. Last week, veteran lawmaker Frank Field quit Labour’s grouping in Parliament, saying the party had become a “force for anti-Semitism.”

— AP