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Greenbelt Festival disinvites Jewish Voice For Labour's Leah Levane, saying she would stoke party's 'febrile' antisemitism crisis

'A disproportionate amount of attention would have been focussed in Leah’s direction, on this particular panel, and on our decision to include her'

August 28, 2019 10:24
JVL's Leah Levane
1 min read

A festival has disinvited a speaker from the controversial pro-Jeremy Corbyn, fringe group Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL), saying her presence would have stoked Labour's “febrile” antisemitism crisis.

JVL co-chair Leah Levane, who is also a Labour councillor in Hastings, was due to appear on a panel at the Greenbelt Festival, discussing religious ideas about mortality. But her invitation was rescinded days before it was due to start.

The festival said in a statement saying that Ms Levane’s contribution would divert attention from “the rich history and wider Jewish conversation that we have had the privilege of fostering over the years”.

“Because of a whole web of delicate, inter-related issues and programming that we’re staging over the weekend… we reached the point where we recognised that a disproportionate amount of attention would have been focussed in Leah’s direction, on this particular panel, and on our decision to include her,” the statement said.

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