It is extraordinary to see a leader of a political party suffer a demonstration that includes many of his own MPs.

This follows a letter (here, with Corbyn’s reply) from the Board of Deputies of British Jews, which says

There is literally not a single day in which Labour Party spaces, either online or in meetings, do not repeat the same fundamental anti-Semitic slanders against Jews. We are told that our concerns are faked, and done at the command of Israel and/or Zionism (whatever that means); that anti-Semitism is merely “criticism of Israel”; that we call any and all criticism of Israel “anti-Semitic”; that the Rothschilds run the world; that Isis terrorism is a fake front for Israel; that Zionists are the new Nazis; and that Zionists collaborate with Nazis. Rightly or wrongly, Jeremy Corbyn is now the figurehead for an anti-Semitic political culture, based on obsessive hatred of Israel, conspiracy theories and fake news that is doing dreadful harm to British Jews and to the British Labour Party.

Now I agree with Tony Blair that Corbyn himself is not anti-Semitic, but that he doesn’t understand the seriousness of the problem. Specifically, I would say, to Corbyn, what matters is being anti-Western and anti-capitalist, and he will see potential allies in those terms, and if they are homophobic or anti-Semitic, well they’ve probably just been provoked into that by some dreadful action of the West.

And then we have “criticism of Israel”. Criticism of Israel is like talking about immigration. Most people do it, but many complain that they aren’t allowed to any more because they get called racist. Enthusiastic defenders of Israel and immigration are relatively hard to find. In both cases racists test the boundaries of reasonable criticism of Israel or immigration policy with coded language. Don’t say “Jews” when you mean “the Israeli government” because that makes you unfit to be a candidate for any non-racist party.

I will condemn with the best of us, Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories, but I support Israel’s right to exist and to defend herself from aggression, and if that makes me a Zionist then I am a Zionist. Israel could do more to bring peace, but so could the Palestinian Authority, and so could the rest of the region. Policing in the Occupied Territories could be less heavy handed, but I doubt any democratic government would behave very much differently if beset by rocket attacks and with tunnels dug into its communities so that random teenagers can be kidnapped, tortured and murdered.

Corbyn, to his credit, admits many shortcomings, but signally fails to address key points of the Board’s letter. Corbyn:

Newer forms of anti-Semitism have been woven into criticism of Israeli governments. Criticism of Israel, particularly in relation to the continuing dispossession of the Palestinian people, cannot be avoided. Nevertheless, comparing Israel or the actions of Israeli governments to the Nazis, attributing criticisms of Israel to Jewish characteristics or to Jewish people in general… all constitute aspects of contemporary anti-Semitism.

This is true, but it is weak. There is no attempt to address the “obsessive hatred of Zionism”. Corbyn needs to show some understanding of why these aspects of contemporary anti-Semitism seem so appealing to parts of the left. What is wrong with the left wing collectivist ideology of assigning everyone based on group identity to the category of either oppressor or oppressed, and then seeking to oppress the oppressors on behalf of the oppressed? The infantile politics of class allies and class enemies actively promotes generalisation and therefore prejudice and Corbyn doesn’t get it. He is wrong about this because he is wrong at large.

* Joe Otten was the candidate for Sheffield Heeley in June 2017 and Doncaster North in December 2019 and is a councillor in Sheffield.