Corbyn rejects repeated chances to apologize for Labour anti-Semitism in BBC interview

Corbyn refuses to take opportunity to apologize for anti-Semitism.

By World Israel News Staff

“Jeremy Corbyn has declined to apologize to the U.K. Jewish community after the chief rabbi criticized how the party deals with anti-Semitism claims,” the BBC reported on Tuesday.

In the BBC interview, the Labour leader was asked four times if he would like to apologize for anti-Semitism in Labour. He rejected each opportunity.

Labour’s Shadow Defense Secretary Nia Griffith said Corbyn should apologize, the BBC reports. “We need to apologize to our colleagues in my own party who have been very upset and to the whole of the Jewish community,” she said.

Corbyn was asked about anti-Semitism following comments by the U.K.’s chief rabbi, who slammed Corbyn for failing to stem anti-Semitism within his party.

“A new poison – sanctioned from the top – has taken root in the Labour Party,” Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis wrote in an op-ed published by The New York Times on Monday.

“The way in which the leadership has dealt with anti-Jewish racism is incompatible with the British values of which we are so proud – of dignity and respect for all people,” he wrote.

With the Dec. 12 general elections looming, Mirvis has called on everyone to “vote with their conscience,” adding that the “very soul” of the country is “at stake.”

“It is not my place to tell any person how they should vote. I regret being in this situation at all. I simply pose the question: What will the result of this election say about the moral compass of our country?” he wrote. “How complicit in prejudice would a leader of Her Majesty’s opposition have to be to be considered unfit for office?”

“Would associations with those who have incited hatred against Jews be enough? Would describing as ‘friends’ those who endorse the murder of Jews be enough?”