Thread by @davidjrosenberg

Tomorrow, @EHRC will release its report its report into whether the Labour Party acted unlawfully against Jewish members. The body that pushed first for this Inquiry are the "Campaign Against Antisemitism" - a body mired in their own controversies re racism

They first called for an Inquiry In November 2018 three months after they had launched a petition: "Jeremy Corbyn is an antisemite and must go". They eventually had to remove the "comments page" of the signatories to that petition, because of what those signatories had added.

There were threats of violence/death threats against Jeremy Corbyn, and crude anti-immigrant/white supremacist abuse eg: “corbyn is a danger to the uk he hates the uk and white men he is skum”, "Jews... are peaceful people unlike the immigrants he wants to flood the country with”

CAA only removed these comments, and stopped more, after they were exposed on social media. Lots of signatories came from Israel and America. Many commentators regard CAA as a rabidly pro-Israel body and have accused it of anti-Palestinian racism.

Some months later the Jewish Labour Movement (a body whose members must sign up to an explictly pro-Zionist constitution), also called for an inquiry. Many non-Zionists and anti-Zionist Jewish LP members who are very far from the politics of JLM and CAA made submissions too.

It will be interesting to see if the views of non/anti-Zionist Jewish members, many of whom have longstanding records of activism against racism and fascism, and for human rights, and who hold elected positions in their CLPs, or as councillors, will be represented in the Report.

When the call for this Inquiry was launched, I suggested that an inquiry about racism across political parties was much more appropriate, especially given the Tory Party's Hostile Environment policy and its close links with antisemitic/Islamophobic/anti-Roma governments in Europe

Antisemitism must of course be challenged wherever it rears its head, as must any bigotry. Today we mark 2 years since the Pittsburgh Synagogue massacre by a neo-Nazi gunman, filled with hate and incensed by that synagogue raising funds for refugee projects.

Since then, other similar massacres - at a mosque in New Zealand and just over a year ago an attempt thwarted at a synagogue in Halle, Germany. The Black Lives Matter movement challenging structural racism has resonated globally. Many Jews in UK+US have shown solidarity with it.

This is where the frontline of the fight against antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Black racism is located. I hope we don't get diverted from that crucial struggle or divided by the report form an Inquiry that many suspect is rooted in factional politics far from that front line.