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Labour MP condemns 'fundamental lack of understanding and support' on antisemitism within feminist movement

Ruth Smeeth said: 'The sisterhood too cannot afford double standards'

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Some feminists show a "fundamental lack of understanding and support" on antisemitism, a Jewish Labour MP has said.

Ruth Smeeth who has been the target of antisemitism online amid her party's crisis over the issue and had a panic button and CCTV installed in her home in the face of threats.

She cited the example of the American leaders of the Women's March, who have embraced Nation of Islam founder Louis Farrakhan, who is notorious for his antisemitic comments and recently compared Jewish people to termites.

Ms Smeeth wrote in the Times: "Sadly, there is a fundamental lack of understanding and support in some feminist quarters... The sisterhood too cannot afford double standards."

Her article appeared ahead of a major parliamentary conference on misogyny and antisemitism, which will discuss research showing Jewish women MPs receive 15 percent more mentions on a far-right website than their male counterparts.

Ms Smeeth wrote that these attacks were "turning away" Jewish women from public life.

She said women such as the Holocaust Educational Trust's Karen Pollock and actress Tracy-Ann Oberman were receiving "misogynist and racist abuse for having the audacity to participate in our national conversation is hardly an incentive for young Jewish women to get involved".

"Anyone that knows me will know that I refuse to be cowed, bullied, intimidated or threatened. Antisemites in my own party have failed to force me to leave. Misogynists and racists online will not grind me down or push me out," she wrote.

"I’m proud to be a British, Jewish woman in public life and I’m not going anywhere."

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