New in-depth research shows that Labour voters, the young and Remain voters are the least anti-Semitic group in the country.
And that conversely, Tory voters, Leavers voters and older people are much more anti-Semitic.
The research was carried by the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), who commissioned in-depth YouGov polling into the subject of anti-Semitism in Britain.
The polling clearly illustrates the difference in perception between people who are labelled as antisemitic and the reality of who is actually anti-Semitic.
Accusations of anti-Semitism plagued the Labour Party last year, specifically targeted at Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters.
Yet, the YouGov poll shows that Labour voters, Remain voters, and women are the least anti-Semitic, and that Tories, Leave voters and older people are overwhelmingly more so.
However, 83% of Jewish people surveyed said that they thought Labour were too tolerant of antisemitism among their MPs, members and supporters.
Rather than pointing to the barrage of negative media coverage against Labour last year, the report instead attempts to explain this rather shocking mismatch by saying:
The YouGov data shows, for example, that
Labour Party supporters are less likely
to be antisemitic than other voters, so
the cause of British Jews’
discontentment with the Labour Party
must be the way that it has very publicly
failed to robustly deal with the
antisemites in its ranks. This means that
the Labour Party has fallen out of step
with its core supporters, who are
generally less likely to hold antisemitic
beliefs.
The report also ignores a revealing undercover investigation by Al Jazeera (AJ) in late 2016 which presented compelling evidence showing that much of the anti-Semitism scandal in the Labour Party was essentially manufactured.
WATCH: Blairite MPs collude with Israeli Embassy to manufacture Corbyn-antisemitism controversy.
It should be noted that following the AJ documentary, many accusations of anti-Semitism aimed at Corbyn and his supporters fell eerily silent.
The report also fails to discuss the drop in the perception of Labour’s supposed anti-Semitism problem since last year, as well as ignoring the growth in anti-Semitic perception in the Tory Party.
The report also notes that older Jewish people and Orthodox Jews are the most likely to perceive Labour as having a problem, and that the young and secular are less likely.
Another interesting finding from the report is that Tory voters and Daily Mail/Express readers, as opposed to Labour voters and Guardian readers, were twice as likely to agree with the statement below:
“HAVING A CONNECTION TO ISRAEL MAKES JEWISH PEOPLE LESS LOYAL TO BRITAIN THAN OTHER BRITISH PEOPLE”
There is no doubt that anti-Semitism is still a massive problem in Britain and throughout the world, with the report shockingly showing that 1 in the 3 British Jews have felt so fearful of rising anti-Semitic crimes that they have actually considered leaving the country.
The main reasons for this are the failures of the criminal justice system and of political parties to tackle antisemitism, says the report.
However, on a more positive note, the report also states that there the British population as whole is “shunning anti-Semitic prejudice”, saying that:
Since 2015, antisemitic prejudice amongst British adults has declined from 45% in 2015, to 39% in 2016, to 36% in 2017,
But also noting that:
sizeable sections of British society clearly do
still hold deeply antisemitic views
It is clear then that we have a long way to go as a country to overcome anti-Semtism (as well as all other forms of hate) but, as the report clearly indicates, light also needs to be shone on these other groups spreading this scourge of intolerance and hatred.
It’s also worth noting that, unlike last years screaming headlines about Labour’s alleged antisemitism, headlines about this report into who is actually most anti-Semitic are strangely absent from the mainstream media.
Perhaps the fact that it is actually them, their readers and Tory voters who are actually overwhelmingly responsible for the spread of anti-Semitic views just isn’t newsworthy in their minds?
Well, why would they let a little thing like facts get in the way of spreading their hate? It hasn’t ever stopped them before.
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