Submission from the IRR to the Labour Party Inquiry into anti-Semitism and other forms of racism, including Islamophobia

Abstract

Following a number of accusations of anti-Semitism against British Labour Party activists, including former London mayor Ken Livingstone, an inquiry into racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia was instituted by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in May 2016 – to be chaired by Shami Chakrabarti (former director of Liberty). This article consists of the submission to the inquiry from the Institute of Race Relations which suggests the parameters within which recent accusations of anti-Semitism should be analysed: the personalising of racism in society at large and the gradual blurring of the line between what incites hatred and what merely gives offence. While racism is offensive, not everything which gives offence is per se racist. The challenge for the Labour Party is to strike the correct balance between education against prejudice, protection from racial hatred and freedom of speech. The IRR believes that the Party would be in danger of losing that balance if it were to adopt the proposition (recently advocated by Eric Pickles, former secretary of state for communities and local government) to extend the definition of anti-Semitism to include particular types of criticism of the state of Israel.