Simon Wiesenthal Center: The World Cannot Afford a Leader Who Shows Reverence to Terrorists but Lectures Anti-Semitism's Victims

August 16, 2018

 “Instead of dealing with anti-Jewish bigotry, [Jeremy Corbyn’s] supporters have in effect told British Jewry to shut up and accept second class status in the Labour Party,” said Center officials.

The Wiesenthal Center, a leading international Jewish Human Rights NGO with a constituency of 400,000 families, is expressing concern about relations between the Labour Party and the UK Jewish community.

“We have watched with increasing alarm and outright anger the spectacle of Jeremy Corbyn’s reckless leadership of the UK Labour Party. Instead of tackling the anti-Semitism that has gained traction within his party, he allows it to fester and grow. Corbyn has sacrificed integrity for political expediency. Instead of challenging history’s oldest hate as many great British leaders from the left and right have done, Corbyn and his supporters have charted a new course by seeking to re-define anti-Semitism so as to leave open extreme, unfair, and one-sided attacks on the democratic state of Israel -- home to the world’s largest Jewish community,” said Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, founder and dean and associate dean, respectively, of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

“Instead of dealing with anti-Jewish bigotry, his supporters have in effect told British Jewry to shut up and accept second class status in the Labour Party,” they added.

“But our concerns go beyond the safety and viability of British Jewry. As Americans, we fear a leader who forgot the bitter lessons of the 9/11 and 7/7 terrorist and more recent attacks in London. Jeremy Corbyn shows reverence to dead terrorists and respect for live ones -- from the PLFP to Hamas. He saves his criticism for those who stand up to these terrorists. Such a man cannot be trusted to be a leader in the greatest challenge of the 21^st Century – the defeat of international terrorism,” concluded Rabbis Hier and Cooper.

For more information, please contact the Center's Communications Department, 310-553-9036. join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).