There have now been half a dozen national news stories about Labour Party members, including two councillors and a parliamentary candidate, being exposed for making antisemitic remarks.

I declare an interest in that I am not Jewish but I’m a Zionist (literally meaning someone who supports Jewish national self-determination through the creation and existence of a Jewish State in Israel) and my day job is running a pro-Israel campaign group, We Believe in Israel, so I am very conscious of where the boundary lies between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitism.

It’s apparent from the reactions to the recent cases that many people in the party are unaware of or in denial that antisemitism (prejudice and hatred towards Jewish people) can exist as a left phenomenon, and if they do accept it, confused about which aspects of extreme anti-Israel rhetoric are offensive.

It’s easy for people on the left to understand the reality of far right antisemitism because we are all familiar (or should be) with the history of the rise to power of the Nazis and the Holocaust. It makes sense to us as leftists because clearly the Nazis were a common enemy to both Jews and socialists and that the same goes for modern day neo-Nazis like the BNP.

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