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Prominent Jewish Labour activist David Rosenberg quits party

PROMINENT Jewish Labour activist David Rosenberg dramatically quit the party today, accusing the current leadership of launching a full-scale war on its own members.

In a damning blog post, the Jewish Socialist Group founder condemned party leader Sir Keir Starmer for attacking the Labour left instead of the “most dangerous right-wing government I have lived under.”

On his Rebel Notes website, under the heading “Reaching the tipping point,” he wrote: “A party founded by trade unionists and dedicated socialists is embarrassed now by its union links and is a hostile environment for socialists.

“Latest estimates say 200,000 members have left under Labour’s ‘new management.’ That should be adjusted to 200,001.”

Expressing his “disgust and anger,” Mr Rosenberg also blasted shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves for “openly rejoicing that so many have left, slandering us all as ‘anti-semites.’”

The Leeds West MP was widely criticised last month for claiming that a significant drop in the number of Labour members was a good thing as it allowed the party to rid itself of the stain of anti-semitism.

Mr Rosenberg wrote: “When prominent Labour figures go unpunished for real anti-semitism, while many members with impeccable anti-racist track records face disciplinary measures, it is clear that the leadership’s claimed fight against anti-semitism is about something else.

“The cynicism of their phoney war provided the ultimate tipping point that has compelled me to leave what has become a toxic party.”

The 64-year-old, who was a member of the party’s branch in Islington North, where the local MP is former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, also criticised the Jewish Labour Movement as an “an overwhelmingly right-wing pro-zionist Labour body.” 

Despite campaigning for the party during the 2019 general election, the group “wanted Labour to lose, even though they knew this would open the door to a Tory government led by a known racist,” he argued. 

Additionally, the former teacher used his blog to attack the much-criticised International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-semitism, which has been taken up by the Labour Party, saying that it is “chilling free speech by confusing and conflating opposition to Israeli policy or to zionism” with genuine anti-Jewish prejudice.

Mr Rosenberg said that he had been a Labour member for “less than 10” of the years since he first joined in the early 1980s, stressing that most of his time in its ranks was spent as part of an “insurgent, proudly socialist, internationalist, anti-racist” party under Mr Corbyn.

Labour has been contacted for comment.

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