Thread by @jrschlosberg

A thread on why @UKLabour's ever more brazen targeting of left wing Jews reflects one of the most appalling bi-products of the anti-Corbyn movement: the normalisation of a particularly insidious form of antisemitism...

https://twitter.com/helensclegel/status/1436773116760494085

There are of course some Jews on the left who have downplayed or ignored the very real problem of antisemitism within the Labour movement. This was wrong, even if the extent of the problem was indeed exaggerated by others for political gain...

But this futile and damaging debate about the 'scale' of the problem overshadowed a disturbing trend that has been roundly ignored even by left wing commentators with mainstream platforms...

What is now beyond doubt is that the targeting of left wing Jews is not limited to the so-called 'hard' or 'fringe' left. But it never really was...

From the outset, even moderately left leaning Jews who did not buy into the mass hysteria surrounding Corbyn have been repeatedly attacked and labelled with vile stereotypes such as self-hating, useful idiots, etc...

This kind of language would be sickening if used against any minority and yet it has not only become acceptable mainstream media discourse, but is now embedded in @UKLabour's official policy...

It's tragically ironic not least because socialist Jews have always been on the frontline of resistance to antisemitism, from the Warsaw Ghetto to Cable Street, often battling against actual 'kapos'; a term that has now become an acceptable form of racial abuse against us...

So-called 'mainstream' groups like @BoardofDeputies are seemingly oblivious to the very real hurt and harm this has caused to so many of us. They have been not just silent but actively complicit in encouraging obviously baseless and outrageous 'investigations' targeting Jews...

They must have missed the obvious warning signs early on when far right platforms and leaders like Victor Orban started jumping on the 'Corbyn is an antisemite' bandwagon...

When the real history is told, they will be remembered not for confronting antisemitism in a serious and effective way, but for helping to turn it into a political football.

Worse, they will be left with the awful but deserved legacy of 'turning a blind eye'.