The Board of Deputies has condemned an “antisemitic bomb threat” that was made at Labour Party conference against a meeting of a pro-Jeremy Corbyn fringe Jewish group.
Jewish Voice for Labour (JVL) held a screening in Liverpool on Tuesday night of The Lynching, a film by Jackie Walker, a party activist, about her suspension from Labour over controversial comments about Jews.
But shortly after the film began, a bomb threat to the building was made by phone.
The Board tweeted: “We utterly condemn the antisemitic bomb threat made to those attending a fringe event at the Labour conference.
"We hope the perpetrators of this racist act will be found & prosecuted. This latest threat underscores the need for all parties to take antisemitism seriously.”
We utterly condemn the antisemitic bomb threat made to those attending a fringe event at the Labour conference. We hope the perpetrators of this racist act will be found & prosecuted. This latest threat underscores the need for all parties to take antisemitism seriously.
— Board of Deputies of British Jews (@BoardofDeputies) September 26, 2018
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, a founding member of JVL, told the Guardian that a man had made a call to the building where the event was taking place at about 7.15pm.
She said: “We had started showing the film shortly before 7pm. The girl (on reception) answered and he said: ‘Is there a Jewish event going on?’
“He said: ‘It is a big Jewish event and I want to tell you that there are two bombs that will kill many people in the building.’”
Ms Wimborne-Idrissi, who earlier this year attempted to dismiss antisemitic abuse sent to Jewish female MPs by saying there was "no proof anybody in the Labour Party is going to punch them in the face”, said that police had searched the building and had found nothing, but decided that the screening could not go ahead.
A spokesperson for Merseyside police told the JC: “We can confirm officers attended Blackburne Place in Liverpool city centre following a malicious call.
“A report was received shortly after 7.20pm that the call had been made and staff at the building evacuated the premises as a precaution. Officers then attended and provided advice and reassurance at the scene and are treating the call as a hoax.”
Ms Walker was suspended twice from the Labour party in 2016, the first time after saying that “many Jews were chief financiers of the slave trade” and the second time during an antisemitism training event at Labour conference, where she claimed that Holocaust Memorial Day was not “open to all people who experienced Holocaust” and said that she hadn’t “heard a definition of antisemitism that I can work with”.
At a separate JVL event on Tuesday night, the group’s chair, Jenny Manson, said that evidence showed people "weren't listening" to the numerous reports of antisemitism in the Labour party.
She said it was time to "move on" from fighting off allegations of Jew-hate and to instead highlight the "injustice to the Palestinians."
The JVL meeting also saw Tony Greenstein - expelled by Labour in February over his use of antisemitic slurs, including the term “Zio” - give a speech saying: “We need to be quite clear, the purpose of the witch hunt is not to get rid of individuals. Its purpose is to topple Jeremy Corbyn.”
He added: “Antisemitism is a stick to beat the left with.”
Responding to the Board of Deputies' tweet, the Jewish Voice for Labour Twitter account claimed the call was "probably by the extremist fringe of the Zionists.
"When JVL are threatened we become real Jews and it's antisemitic. Therefore we expect BoD to condemn those who insult us as fake Jews and will defend Jackie Walker’s right to free speech."
