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Lee Harpin

Rows on Twitter are going to make people switch off from Labour antisemitism

Obsessing over the Twitter conversation risks turning the whole saga into a sideshow, writes our political editor

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August 07, 2019 18:28

It has become glaringly obvious that over the past three years the impact of the ferocious row over antisemitism in the Labour Party has been at its greatest when real people are involved.

Think back to the MP Luciana Berger’s repeated interventions on the topic, her and other Jewish MPs' impassioned speeches both inside parliament and outside at events such as the Enough Is Enough demonstration.

Think of the audio footage and video recordings of far-left activists like the now suspended "Jew-baiter" MP Chris Williamson, Pete Willsman and Glyn Secker speaking at Labour meetings.

And think of the sheer agony on the face of ex-Labour Head of Complaints staffer Sam Matthews as he recalled the nightmare of having to deal with a mountain of complaints about antisemitism in Jeremy Corbyn’s party to BBC Panorama.

But in recent weeks the antisemitism row seems to have become dominated by discussion about the row played by Twitter in fuelling the crisis.

A report by the Community Security Trust, released at the weekend, highlighted 36 influential accounts it called the “engine room” driving the online conversation around Jew-hate in Mr Corbyn's party.

Another report, released the next day by the campaigner David Collier, suggested Labour members who said nothing about Israel before Mr Corbyn became leader had become "radicalised" about Jewish people and the Jewish state on Twitter and elsewhere on social media.

Both contributed to the wider debate about how to resolve the obvious surge in anti-Jewish racism.

But Twitter must never ever be viewed as the main arena, or the main focus as to how this crisis has been allowed to fester. If it is, we risk turning the whole devastating saga into a bit of a sideshow.

Latest figures suggest there are 12 million users of Twitter in the UK. That's around a fifth of the population. But it still misses the lives of the vast majority of Brits.

People who do use Twitter do so for different reasons – although understanding or spreading antisemitism is unlikely to be the first priority of everyone drawn to the platform.

But it does remain a fact that in order to be heard on Twitter, it helps to be loud. Because the platform acts like a giant amplifier whenever it encounters rage.

My biggest fear now is that while the antisemitism debate continues at full volume on Twitter, more and more people elsewhere are deciding to switch it off.

In recent months, some of the most active and vociferous campaigners against antisemitism have decided the best course of action is to fight fire with fire.

Fools like Chris Williamson and deservedly been shouted down whenever they have raised their voice on Twitter. But in the desire to be louder, the campaigners against antisemitism have turned their attention to less obvious targets.

Only last week the Labour MP Wes Streeting was subjected to an attack from activists claiming he was “part of the problem” -  yet another example of a so-called ‘moderate’ Labour MP who, unless he quit the party, was accused of ultimately supporting the election of a Corbyn government.

But if Mr Streeting did bow to their command and decide to stand down as Labour’s Ilford North MP, there is every likelihood he would be replaced by a Momentum-backed, Jewish Voice For Labour-supporting alternative.

Who would the 5,000 plus Jewish residents of Ilford North be best served by?

This is not the only problematic example either. At last month’s Durham Miners Gala, a brass band performed Hava Negila.

It was not the first time they had done so. It was a tradition that went back years, and perhaps celebrated the proud history of Jewish involvement in the trade union movement.

But in a tweet which illustrated Twitter’s increasing role as platform for the circulation of foolish opinion, it was suggested that the brass band were “gas lighting the entire Jewish community”.

What evidence was there for that? And perhaps just as importantly, in the wider fight against anti-Jewish racism, who thought it was tactically clever to attempt to sow wider seeds of discontent between the community and the trade union movement?

I could go on. The debates that have raged in some quarters in Twitter over past weeks about which ethnic minority experiences the worst kind of racism – Black, Asian or Jew.

Why even go there on Twitter? There can clearly be no winner.

So on that note, I’m going to switch off myself. And go on holiday.

August 07, 2019 18:28

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