‘I don’t believe Corbyn is antisemitic’, says Labor peer
Labor peer Lord Dubs, who arrived in the UK in 1939 as a six-year-old refugee fleeing the persecution of Jews in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, has said the Chief Rabbi has “gone too far ”And that Jeremy Corbyn is not antisemitic.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’sTodayprogram, Lord Dubs said:“ I think, I have a lot of respect for the Chief Rabbi, I’ve co-operated with him on campaigns on behalf of child refugees, I’ve spoken to him in many synagogues and I’ve got a lot of positive feeling about the Jewish community, but I think today the Chief Rabbi has gone too far. ”
Lord Dubs said:“ I think the Labor Party has been much too slow in getting to grips with this… but I feel we are getting there, and I want to look at it from the point of view of where we are today and moving forward. ”
He added:“ And I think Jeremy Co rbyn himself is personally hurt at the accusations of antisemitism. I don’t believe he is antisemitic, even though, under his leadership, things have happened which should have been dealt with much faster. ”
Questioned on Corbyn’s comments on an antisemitic mural, he said: “As regards to the mural, my understanding, I found it a very shocking mural, I saw it, my understanding is that Jeremy hadn’t actually looked at it properly and made a comment which afterwards he very much regretted. And he has apologized. ”
On whether Corbyn is fit to be PM, he added:“ I think he is, yes, I think he is fit to be prime minister… I don ‘ t believe he is personally antisemitic and I believe he will find it very, very hurtful that people accuse him of being antisemitic or racist or Islamophobic, he is none of those things. ”
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