Jewish community leaders set out preconditions for meeting Corbyn

Joint statement from Board of Deputies and Jewish Leadership Council heads outlines their concerns

Jewish leaders last night issued a set of preconditions to be met before they would agree to meet with Jeremy Corbyn.

In a joint statement on Wednesday from Jonathan Goldstein, chair of the Jewish Leadership Council (JLC) and Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies, the Labour leader was warned that the Jewish community “needs to hear you say, publicly and in your own voice, that we had every right to protest about anti-Semitism, and that Labour MPs had every right to support us. That our concerns about anti-Semitism are sincere and not a “smear” as has been widely alleged (including on your own Facebook page); and that anyone directing abuse, intimidation or threats at those of us who oppose anti-Semitism is damaging your efforts to eliminate it and to start rebuilding trust. We firmly believe that this must happen urgently, and certainly before we can meet.”

Meanwhile, a Jewish Labour peer has urged the community not to accept invitations to talks until they see concrete action – while Lord Mendelsohn, president of the Commonwealth Jewish Council, praised the Board and JLC “for their courage and leadership to confront anti-Semitism”.

He urged the community “to hold firm and wait for Labour to demonstrate it is prepared to change by a concrete show of its determination to expel those guilty of anti-Semitism”.