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Board of Deputies and JLC will not attend Corbyn's antisemitism round table

The decision to invite JVL to the meeting has infuriated mainstream Jewish groups

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The Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council have confirmed they will not attend a second “round table” meeting with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn next week – and have called on “other communal organisations to follow our lead”.

In a statement released this morning, after the JC’s exclusive story last night revealing Mr Corbyn had invited Jewish groups including Jewish Voice for Labour to a session next Wednesday, the Board and JLC said the meeting had no “agenda for action” on how to tackle the party’s on-going antisemitism crisis.

The two organisations said they already had a meeting with Mr Corbyn and new Labour general secretary Jennie Formby organised for next Tuesday.

“After we have had our meeting with Mr Corbyn on April 24, we will see whether he and the Labour Party have committed to the action we need against antisemitism,” it added.

The strongly worded statement said there was “no reason” to attend the round table meeting the following day.

Other Jewish groups known to have been invited to the round table discussion were the Jewish Labour Movement, the Community Security Trust and the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism.

Further emails are also said to have been forwarded from the Labour leadership to the JVL group, formed last year and chaired by Jenny Manson, and a long-standing member of Jews for Justice for Palestinians.

The decision to invite JVL to the meeting infuriated mainstream Jewish groups who have viewed Mr Corbyn’s move as an attempt to “divide and rule” the community.

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