London – Baroness
Jenny Tonge, a member of Britain’s House of Lords with a long record of
inflammatory, often antisemitic, statements against both Israel and the British
Jewish leadership, has again been pressuring British Jews to collectively
condemn Israel.
Earlier this week, Tonge tabled a written question in
the House of Lords in which she asked “Her Majesty’s Government whether they
plan to encourage Jewish faith leaders in the United Kingdom publicly to
condemn settlement building by Israel and to make clear their support for
universal human rights.”
Tonge’s
question, which comes against the background of rising antisemitism in the UK,
was quickly condemned by Jewish campaigners.
Jonathan Sacerdoti of
the Campaign Against Antisemitism, which recently published a
disturbing survey about the current levels of antisemitism in the UK, told The
Algemeiner that the
“widely accepted” definition of antisemitism coined by the European Union Monitoring
Center “specifies that it is antisemitic to hold Jews collectively responsible
for any action of the State of Israel.”
“Baroness
Tonge has a long history of making these sorts of remarks,” Sacerdoti said. “It
is despicable to see her using the House of Lords to try to harass Jewish
people.”
