Jewish academic quits Labour: ‘I’m done and most other Jews are done too’

Goldsmiths sociology lecturer David Hirsh has announced he is leaving the Labour Party in an open letter.

The Jewish academic has been outspoken for many years in his opposition to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and academic boycotts of Israel.

His remark in 2017 that Jeremy Corbyn was “intentionally ambivalent” in his handling of antisemitism drew heavy criticism from the left.

Published on Facebook today, Hirsh’s letter reads: “Personally, I have had enough of being humiliated by antisemitism in the Labour movement.

“I have fought it for years, in the student movement in the academic unions and in the Labour Party. I won’t subject myself to it any longer.”

It says: “I do not want Jeremy Corbyn to be the next Prime Minister; he is so wedded to antisemitic politics that he has been quite unable to address the antisemitic culture which he imported into the Labour mainstream.”

The letter continues: “Some have argued that if democratic people, not least democratic Jews, leave the Labour Party then this will allow free reign to those who embrace antisemitic and proto-totalitarian politics.

“Yes, if we leave, that is what will happen. But it happens when we don’t leave too.

“So now people who consider themselves socialists will have to take responsibility for the culture in their own movement. Because I’m done. And I think most other Jews are done too.”

You can read the letter in full here.