Labour’s hollow response to antisemitic violence

The antisemitic attack in Crumpsall has shaken Manchester. The government’s response reveals a cynical conflation of Jewish identity with Zionism, as JB reports. 

On Thursday 2 October, the people of Manchester were heartbroken as the news came in about the horrendous antisemitic attack at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation synagogue in Crumpsall. This act of violence has led to two people being killed and another three severely injured during Yom Kippur, one of the holiest days in the Jewish calendar. Manchester is a city that prides itself on diversity and acceptance, yet what we saw that day was brutal antisemitism, racism and malice. 

As someone who grew up just minutes away from the place this attack took place, I was shocked and saddened not only by the violence itself but also by the response. It is a stark contrast when we look back on the reaction of the general public to the bombing of the Manchester Arena in May 2017. The then leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, responded to that attack by reminding people that it was important that the ‘city and community come together in solidarity and strength… we don’t allow these attacks and these people to divide us’ and linked the attack to British imperialism. Then there was a concerted effort to push back against racist attempts to weaponise that tragedy. Many will remember the crowds in Manchester singing ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’, as our city rejected efforts to respond with racism. 

Today as we look at the reaction of the Labour Party, we clearly live in a different world. Starmer’s response, whilst acknowledging antisemitism as a driving force behind the attack, does not attempt to move towards restorative calm – there is no call for the putting away of hate, only the acknowledgement of antisemitic hatred and a renewed promise of increased policing in Jewish communities. Starmer’s response was ‘sympathetic’ but without substance as to what would be done to stop further antisemitic attacks other than increased police presence. Starmer’s response lacks any meaningful pushback towards the rise in tensions, instead pandering towards the Zionist reaction to the attack. 

Tory leader Kemi Badenoch referred to Palestinian solidarity marches ‘carnivals of hate.’ Rather than push back against this, the Labour government and the police have already tried to further link the attack to the Palestine solidarity protests taking place across the country. The attack is now being framed not as the actions of an antisemitic extremist, but as part of the national Palestinian solidarity movement. The Met Police commissioner Mark Rowley claimed that the Palestine solidarity marches held since the attack would contribute to community tensions and that such marches would endorse antisemitism. This view has clearly spilled over into parts of the public as, at a vigil in the aftermath of the attack one person shouted at David Lammy, ‘Go to Palestine, leave us alone’. 

Keir Starmer put out a message on the morning of Saturday 4 October:

I urge anyone thinking about protesting this weekend to recognise and respect the grief of British Jews.

This is a moment of mourning. It is not a time to stoke tension and cause further pain. It is a time to stand together.

What he is doing here is engaging in the antisemitism of the reactionary liberal establishment. The idea that protests in solidarity with Palestine are antisemitic is itself a deeply offensive and antisemitic stance. It is antisemitic to conflate Jewishness with the state of Israel and Zionism. The Jewish people are not beholden to, nor responsible for the actions of the Israeli state. Many outspoken Jewish people oppose the genocide perpetrated by the Israeli state in Gaza, as seen in large Jewish blocs within the Palestine solidarity marches. 

Being Jewish does not make someone complicit in the actions of the Israeli state. Protests against the actions of the Israeli state are not protests against Jewish people in Britain. To suggest that Palestine solidarity protests are antisemitic is to accept the antisemitic conflation of Jewishness with Israel and Zionism. The constant conflation of Jewish identity with the state of Israel is not just antisemitic; it also makes Jewish people less safe. 

Keir Starmer knows this. Yet still he weaponises grief to claim a moral high ground for Labour and for Britain’s continued support for the state of Israel. The government has been repressing anti-Zionist protest since before the genocide began. This repression has intensified through the proscription of Palestine Action, violent attacks on people at Palestine solidarity demonstrations and the closure of Palestine solidarity groups’ bank accounts. 

If Starmer were truly empathetic to the community of Crumpsall, torn apart by racist and antisemitic violence, and to Jewish people across Britain, he would push back against all forms of racism. He would refuse to conflate Israel with the Jewish diaspora. He would stand up to the surge in racist attacks on people of colour and people seeking asylum. And he would stand up against the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Instead, he seeks to equate Jewish identity with a genocidal, settler-colonial state. This from a prime minister who has echoed the language of Enoch Powell and the policies of Reform UK. 

In the attack, the police killed two of the three people who died: the perpetrator and a member of the synagogue who was attempting to stop the attacker. Starmer’s only response to the attack, in addition to asking people not to march in solidarity with Palestine, has been to announce ‘more policing’ in Jewish communities. This is the response of a hollow neoliberal authoritarianism, which offers nothing but more violence to counteract violence. 

So when Keir Starmer asks us to ‘stand together’ instead of protesting, the implication is clear. He does not mean we should stand together with British Jews, for how could marching in solidarity with Palestine stoke tensions with British Jewish people? Instead, Starmer wants us to stand together with those opposed to Palestine, with Zionism and with the authoritarian state. He wants us to stand together on a platform of a false ‘care’ for the Jewish community, care that comes at the expense of Jewish and all racialised people across the country.

As socialists, we stand opposed to all forms of racism. There is no space in Britain for antisemitism, there is no space in Britain for Islamophobia. Being part of the Palestine solidarity movement is not being antisemitic. We reject any antisemitic claims that conflate the apartheid Israeli state with Jewish people.