Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Will Zarah Sultana quit Labour if she thinks it is ‘institutionally racist’?

Labour MP for Coventry South Zarah Sultana, pictured with Jeremy Corbyn (Credit: Getty images)

Anyone who’s ever had a conversation with a Corbynista will know it’s impossible to talk to these people about anti-Semitism. The minute you mention the world’s oldest hatred their ‘buts’ come flying. ‘But what about Islamophobia?’, they say. ‘But what about other forms of racism?’, they cry. It’s like a tic, an involuntary ideological spasm that makes them mouth that intrusive ‘BUT’ before you’ve even got through all six syllables of ‘anti-Semitism’.

For those of us who have tried to draw attention to rising Jew hatred in recent years, it is incredibly frustrating. I’ve been ‘butted’ in numerous TV and radio debates. You come to expect it. You know if your media sparring partner is a leftist of the Corbynista kind that they will interrupt you when you raise anti-Jewish racism. ‘Other racisms!’, they’ll wail, almost convulsing as they do. Yes, we know there are other racisms. And that all are bad.

Brendan O’Neill
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Brendan O’Neill

Brendan O’Neill is Spiked's chief politics writer. His new book, After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel and the Crisis of Civilisation, is out now.

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