A "former Labour voter" has filed a complaint for bigotry against the Labour Party, claiming that it fails to pursue alleged antisemitism.

The crucial question is, to what extent are these alleged antisemitic incidents real antisemitism — that is, bigotry toward or mistreatment of Jews qua Jews — and to what extent are they criticism of Israel's occupation of Palestine. The former should be stamped out. The latter are legitimate political views (one can agree or disagree with them).

In principle, either or both may be present.

England has a long history of antisemitism; for centuries, Jews were forbidden to live there. Before World War II, antisemitism was overt and widespread in Britain — as it was in the US.

At the same time, the UK is a hotspot in the global debate about Israel's occupation of Palestine. Accusations of "antisemitism" are being weaponized. In the US, defenders of the occupation fabricated false accusations of antisemitism — not just misconstrued, but factually false. We cannot assume that people will not do this, either to support the occupation or protect plutocracy from Corbyn.

Perhaps in the Labour Party there are some incidents of each kind. If so, what's crucial is to distinguish them clearly. Perhaps there are complex cases which combine some of both. In those cases, the factors need to be separated.