"Britain's Labour party has become 'an incubator for anti-Semitism,' a new report has claimed.
Since the election of the party's hard-left leader Jeremy Corbyn in September 2015, Labour members have become 'radicalized' about both Israel and Jewish people, according to a study by researcher and blogger David Collier.
In 'The British Labour Party: Obsession and Radicalization,' Collier presents evidence of a pattern by which members who had rarely or never commented about the Jewish state, Zionism or Jews prior to Corbyn's election as leader nearly five years ago began to post about them on scores of occasions afterwards. They often shared anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, denied the existence of Jew-hate within the Labour party and rejected the mainstream media as controlled by 'Zionists.'...
The report disputes the view that anti-Semitism exists only among a relatively small number of new members who joined Labour in 2015 to support Corbyn's campaign for the party leadership.
While some of these new members 'held extremist or anti-Semitic views' prior to joining Labour, writes Collier, the 'general assumption' that the problem in the party is confined to this minority is 'woefully misplaced.'...
Collier describes a 'template' for the process of radicalization of those members who previously showed little or no visible interest in Israel prior to Corbyn's election as Labour leader. Afterwards, they suddenly began sharing articles about Israel, Zionism and Jews; joined numerous pro-Corbyn Facebook groups; began to post 'outrageous lies' about the Jewish state, commenting on the subject more than any other; and attacked the 'Zionist' media. They went on to share anti-Semitic conspiracy theories from obscure websites; repeated the mantra that 'criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism'; began to make anti-Semitic arguments in their own words; promoted the defense of Corbyn offered by hard-left, anti-Zionist Jewish groups; and developed 'an outright hostility towards mainstream British Jewry.'..."