How to ingrain change on antisemitism
To say it has been a problematic period for the Labour party on the issue of antisemitism would be something of an understatement. I think we must learn from our past experience of building relationships with the Jewish community if we are to repair the Labour party’s relationship with it.
In 2008 I was lucky enough to be part of an extensive project to build trust across faith (and non-faith) groups, as the government minister for faith communities. It began with a consultation document which borrowed a phrase first used by the chief rabbi: ‘Face to face and side by side’.
Unfortunately, it can take a long time to build trust, and just a few ill-judged words to wreck it, as we have seen. Our work with the Jewish community in 2008 began with an all-party group of members of parliament investigating the causes and effects of antisemitism, which involved the Board of Deputies, the Jewish Leadership Council and many other groups. Tea and sympathy with politicians can help build some trust – but it is only policy change that ingrains it. So that is what we did.
Under the auspices of a ‘command paper’ we made government departments work together to tackle the problem, and bring their solutions under one umbrella, so that no department could dismiss the issue of antisemitism any more than it could other forms of racism. Off the back of that work came a string of policy initiatives, including allowing schools to use capital money to protect buildings that had security concerns, and we got the Crown Prosecution Service to look at where prosecutions had fallen down when antisemitism was involved. Many government departments contributed to the command paper. Simultaneously, the funding was secured to send two sixth formers from every school to visit Auschwitz (with support from the Pears Foundation) and report back to their fellow students. I can recall today the impact this had on the young people who visited the concentration camps, and how it changed their attitudes towards prejudice.
The model for the Labour government’s work to fight antisemitism, including the very inclusive all-party group report that had kicked it off, became a worldwide model of good practice, copied by parliaments in Europe and Canada. The model ain’t broke, but Labour must find the desire to reboot it.
In the short term, from an internal perspective, the party needs to get to work on the sensible eight-point plan put forward by Progress’ Richard Angell and supported by the Jewish Labour Movement. It would restore a level of compliance, ensure insulting behaviour is punished and that appropriate training is put in place for the National Executive Committee and those in positions of influence in the Labour party. That is important because we should not just assume people have a proper understanding of antisemitism just because they are in a position of power.
The bottom line is this: it will take time for the Labour party to rebuild the trust of the Jewish community. But I take solace that many of the people who were involved in doing this type of work before are still out there today. I hope they will be called upon again to help us get this right.
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Parmjit Dhanda is former minister for faith communities and is a candidate for Labour’s National Executive Committee
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