Membership of any democratic political party is “incompatible” with joining Stop the War or the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a Labour peer has said.
Speaking after securing a Lords debate on steps being taken to eliminate antisemitism on university campuses, Lord Cryer singled out the two “malign organisations” which he said had helped encourage anti-Jewish racism by “whipping it up, and prey (ing) on perhaps relatively young minds.”
Cryer noted how the Stop the War had, on October 9th, within two days of the barbarous Hamas attacks on southern Israel on 7 October, held at protest outside the Israeli embassy in London.
Lord Cryer
“This is before the IDF was even really fully thinking about its response,” he added. “It was hours after the massacre had stopped.
“Why would anybody engage in a protest outside the Israeli embassy after 1,200 Israelis had been murdered and Hamas had engaged in rape, torture and abduction?
“In my estimation, it was because it was engaging in the incitement of racial hatred against Jewish people.
“Stop the War, by the way, has strong links to Hezbollah and Hamas, and therefore, I feel fairly sure, Iran and the clerical fascists of Tehran.
“Stop the War was set up in 2003 in the run-up to the Iraq war. I was a Labour MP at the time, as I was until a short time ago, and I voted against the Iraq war probably seven times, as well as marching against it and speaking against it.
“I have never had any link with Stop the War and never will.”
Cryer also recalled how the Palestine Solidarity Campaign applied for a licence to have a march in London on 7 October.
“The attack on southern Israel started, I think, at about 6.30 am,” he told peers.
” Within a few hours, the PSC had applied to the Metropolitan Police for a licence so that it could have a march in central London. Again, why would you do that, unless you are intent on whipping up racial hatred against Jewish people?”
Lord Leigh praised Cryer for his words, before citing a report on campus antisemitism published by the StandWithUs organisation on the issue.
“We have seen tough action in the States,” he said. “No one, including me, likes all of Trump’s actions, but he has showed a decisive determination to deal with antisemitism on campus.
“Over here, the Union of Jewish Students—UJS—points out that campuses have become an increasingly hostile and exclusionary environment for Jewish students.
“I visited Cambridge University last year to see the camp and tents outside King’s College where the cry for the elimination of the Jewish people in Israel was made repeatedly.
“The UJS tells us that repulsive Holocaust inversion takes place, where the roles of victims and perpetrators are reversed.”
The peer, who is Jewish, added:”Universities all need to be reminded of their duty to adopt the IHRA definition and police it.
“They need to understand that undue hatred of Israel is antisemitic. We need to know that the OfS produces guidance which ensures that universities intervene so that they carry out their duty of care.”
Lord Leigh at Lords Grand Committee
Lord Mann, the government’s independent adviser on antisemitism, praised the work being done by UJS to combat antisemitism during Wednesday’s debate.
“The biggest difference between the UK and the US is that we have one unified Jewish student body,” he said.
“The facts that I always rely on are the facts from the Union of Jewish Students, with its 85 Jewish societies. I can tell noble Lords that that organisation is dramatically stronger, braver, better organised and better trained than it was five, 10, 15, 20 or 40 years ago—far better.
“That is a huge success story for the Jewish community. In a terrible and traumatic two years in this country, the Union of Jewish Students is a beacon of what can be achieved.
“Of course there are difficulties, but its success in holding back in the universities and of getting its way in with every single university leadership —at the table, eloquently putting its case in detail, and often getting results—should not be overlooked in this.”
Baroness Berger delivers maiden speech
Baroness Berger also spoke noting the government had committed £7 million to fighting antisemitism in our schools and at universities.
“However, other than a small percentage, this funding is still yet to be allocated to those on the front lines fighting antisemitism and representing the interests of Jewish students,” she said.
“University leaders must not be allowed to sit idly by while this, the oldest form of hatred, is allowed to continue in their institutions.”
Berger called for the government to “convene university leaders, together with the UJS, to compel them to act decisively and proactively against anti-Jewish racism on their campuses.”
