‘Corbyn should give us clear, straight answers’ says Board president

Board of Deputies’ president Jonathan Arkush [pictured] has said he will demand a meeting with Jeremy Corbyn if the Islington North MP wins the Labour leadership race, saying there are still questions to answer.

He said: “The Jewish community has some very deep concerns about [his] reported links to a Holocaust denier and other individuals with anti-Semitic track records and about his hostile views on Israel.

“The community has also been very troubled by his seeming friendship towards Hamas and Hezbollah, which are both proscribed terrorist organisations. Any British politician in a senior capacity will not be taken seriously if he has any partiality towards terrorist bodies.”

He added: “We would like Jeremy Corbyn to give clear, straight answers to straight questions and repudiate any sort of support for or links to anti-Semites, racists and terrorists… “If he is elected as leader of the Labour Party, I will seek an early meeting with him to discuss the community’s concerns.”

Corbyn has said he would back a boycott of goods from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, but that he would oppose an academic boycott of thecountry. He has also defended speaking to representatives from Hamas and Hezbollah, saying “only dialogue can bring about peace”.