(JTA) — A demonstrator protesting Labour’s handling of its anti-Semitism problem was kicked in the face outside a London meeting of pro-Palestinian supporters of the party, witnesses said.
The incident, which left the protester moderately injured, occurred on Tuesday night outside the Mayton Street venue for an event titled “Corbyn, Antisemitism and Justice for Palestine — North London.” The U.K. leader of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and anti-Israel activists were among those on hand.
“Police is on scene treating injured Jewish protester who was kicked in the face,” David Collier, a blogger who specializes in covering anti-Israel activity in the United Kingdom, wrote about the incident.
Cliff Dixon, a protester who was at the scene, said there were two female attackers, including at least one who assaulted the alleged victim, whom he said was Jewish.
“70 year old Jewish lady had her phone stolen and beaten by two girls, I was threatened and told I would be ‘dealt with’,” he wrote on Twitter. “When myself and some others tried to stop the second girl attacking her, we were shoved away by security including a particularly vile man in a grey sweatshirt who accused me of being far right and said he would ‘deal with me’ later as he knows who I am.”
Euan Philips, a spokesman for the group Labour Against Anti-Semitism, wrote on Twitter: “Earlier tonight a Jewish woman was beaten at an @PSCupdates event. No-one from the crowd intervened.”
Jeremy Corbyn is a far-left politician who was elected to lead Labour in 2015. Leaders of British Jewry have accused Corbyn of being an anti-Semite following the emergence of a recording of him claiming British-born “Zionists” don’t understand irony. That year, he also defended a mural that featured hook-nosed Jews playing monopoly on the backs of dark-skinned men. Earlier this year, new evidence emerged that he commemorated dead Palestinian terrorists months before assuming office.
Watchdog groups have accused Corbyn, who has denied allegations of anti-Semitism also after he called Hamas and Hezbollah his “friends,” of not doing enough to tackle the increase of anti-Semitic rhetoric among Labour members who support him, including more than 1,000 individuals that have been flagged by the Labour Against Anti-Semitism group.
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