The following letter has been organised by Jews for Jeremy, a group that was set up over the summer during the Labour leadership contest, to counter allegations that Jeremy Corbyn was anti-Semitic.  It is a response to the articles in The Telegraph and The Times concerning my suspension from the Labour Party.

I understand that in less than a day over 30 Jewish members of the Labour Party have signed this letter.  If you or anyone you know are Jewish and a member of the Labour Party, then please sign or ask them to sign.  The petition can be sent to [email protected]

John Mann rent-a-mouth Labour MP attacks Corbyn in Daily Express

Fraser v UCU Employment Tribunal was scathing about Mann’s attempts to accuse the University lecturers’ union UCU of ‘anti-Semitism’

To the National Executive Committee, Labour Party


Re: Our Concerns about Suspension of Tony Greenstein

We are Jewish members of the Labour Party who oppose all forms of
racism equally. Some of us have been members for many years. We are
committed to Labour ideals and principles, and have been working to
ensure that Jeremy Corbyn’s vision for the transformation of society
gains support. We want a progressive Labour government.

We were
dismayed to discover that Tony Greenstein has been suspended from the
Party, without even being told the grounds for this suspension. We were
further dismayed that the grounds for Tony’s suspension had been leaked
to a right-wing newspaper: the Daily Telegraph claimed on April 1st that
the suspension is related to allegations of anti-Semitism.

Tony
Greenstein is not an anti-Semite. However, in common with a growing
number of other Jews, he is opposed to Zionism, and to the actions of
the Israeli state with regard to the Palestinians. Such a stance is
emphatically not anti-Semitic; it is important that the distinction
between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is clearly understood.

Tony Greenstein has long campaigned against both the constitutional
inequalities of the Israeli state and its continuing attacks on the
Palestinian people. His writings can be forthright and angry, in the
best traditions of many polemicists, but it is a slur to characterise
them as anti-Semitic.

Like many Jews opposing Israel’s actions,
Tony has endured insults from some who claim to represent the Jewish
community, who have no interest in protecting the Labour Party from
anything. We note, for example, that the current President of the Board
of Deputies of British Jews, is on record recently as saying that Jews
cannot trust Labour. We would be concerned if the serious issue of
anti-Semitism was being exploited in order to damage the Labour Party.
Some of us faced similar insults last summer because we set up the
Facebook group “Jews for Jeremy”. If Tony Greenstein can be accused of
anti-Semitism, we fear that other Jews, who have been critics of Israeli
policy and actions, may soon be faced with similar charges.

Tony has been an active opponent of racism, fascism and anti-Semitism.
It would do damage to the Labour Party to expel him. We ask that the NEC
intervene in this case to ensure that his suspension is lifted
forthwith, and the charge of anti-Semitism dropped. If there are other
serious charges against him that have not yet been disclosed, they
should be made public, and Tony should be given an opportunity to answer
them.

In solidarity,