Michael Dugher MP: Why Jeremy Corbyn should visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial
5 min read
Vice-Chair of Labour Friends of Israel Michael Dugher MP reflects on a visit to Yad Vashem this week with colleagues and calls on Jeremy Corbyn to visit himself.
This week Labour's deputy leader, Tom Watson, led a delegation of MPs, including Rosie Winterton, Gloria De Piero, Ruth Smeeth and myself, to visit Israel and the Palestinian Territories. At Yad Vashem, the powerful memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, Tom laid a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance on behalf of the whole British Labour Party. We also met with our sister party - fellow socialists dedicated to promoting peace in the region.
The backdrop to our visit with the Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) was though, to say the least, challenging. The original invitation to visit Yad Vashem was made to Jeremy Corbyn by Isaac Herzog, the Israeli Labor leader, following months of grim headlines about anti-Semitism inside the Labour party back in the UK.
A few months ago in London, I remember attending the incredibly moving annual dinner for the Holocaust Education Trust (HET) where I had the enormous privilege of sitting next to Freda Wineman, one of the inspiring but sadly dwindling number of Holocaust survivors who support HET's amazing work promoting lessons from the Holocaust amongst young people in Britain today. I remembered the sense of shame as Ken Livingstone's comments about Hitler were referenced at the dinner.
Allegations involving high-profile figures like Ken Livingstone or Momentum's Jackie Walker, reports about anti-Semitic incidents at Oxford University Labour Club, the unsavoury furore over Shami Chakrabarti's controversial peerage, as well as anti-Semitic attacks on Labour MPs like Luciana Berger or Ruth Smeeth, have all been front page news in Israel.
We wanted to come to Jerusalem and say that abhorrent anti-Semitic views do not represent the British Labour party. At Yad Vashem we not only remembered the victims of the Holocaust, history’s greatest crime against humanity, but renewed our determination to fighting anti-Semitism and the foul hatred that fuelled it.
On our arrival in Israel we were also reminded about the current stalemate in the Middle East peace process, a cause of great concern and deep frustration for myself and many others. Several years ago I remember Tony Blair, then Middle East peace envoy, telling a number of us that however bad things get in the Middle East, the key is to keep some kind of process alive. Sadly that is not the case at the moment.
We know that we cannot affect change from the sidelines. Britain can be a force for good when we build up strong international alliances based on friendship, solidarity and a determination to promote dialogue, reconciliation and peace. That’s another reason why the negative press about our party in Israel has been so damaging. You can’t have any influence when you’re not in the room.
Of course Labour in the UK, like our sister party in Israel, have many huge difference with the current Israeli government led by Benjamin Netanyahu. We are against settlements. We defend Israel's right to exist free from terror, but we also support the creation of a viable Palestinian state.
It's incredibly helpful, positive and well-received when Labour MPs, especially senior figures like Tom Watson, seize any opportunity to engage with Israel and our sister party. In the new year, LFI will take more Labour MPs out to Israel and the Palestinian Territories and crucially the delegation will include Labour's general secretary, Iain McNicol.
But there is no substitute for engagement from the very top. Sadly, Jeremy Corbyn's office say that he is too busy to visit Yad Vashem anytime soon. That's a real shame and a missed opportunity. I genuinely think that Jeremy would find the visit moving and informative.
Yad Vashem is a place I've been to many times. Every time I go there is the almost overwhelming sense of horror about what happened during the Holocaust. Yet amongst the despair, there is always a little hope - like the stories of the 'Righteous Among the Nations', the non-Jews who risked their own lives to save Jews and who are honoured at the memorial.
And on every visit I see something I hadn't noticed before. This year it was some examples of very early Nazi propaganda showing how Jews were negatively caricatured in language and imagery, long before they were sent to their deaths in the gas chambers. That is how it all started.
Whilst the backdrop to our trip this week was difficult, for all the gloom and doom, our visit has also instilled a sense of hope for the future of the region. Whilst there is little movement at a political level, at a grassroots level there are signs of a powerful movement for progress and peace in a number of impressive co-existence projects.
It was particularly heart-warming to meet a young Palestinian, Marina Burshen, and a young Israeli, Anat Gilenson, in East Jerusalem who had participated together in the Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow (MEET) programme. Viewing the success of these projects first-hand has only strengthened my view that these are essential to any long-term peace, and I would urge all those supportive of this goal to support the LFI campaign for the UK to significantly increase its funding on co-existence projects like MEET.
We know that Jeremy Corbyn has had a longstanding interest in the Middle East. But there is so much to see. And a visit to Yad Vashem in particular would do so much good. British Airways, Easy Jet and El Al all do regular flights from London to Tel Aviv. So what are you waiting for, Jeremy?
Michael Dugher is Labour MP for Barnsley East and a vice-chair of the Labour Friends of Israel.
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