STUDENTS belonging to the Oxford University Labour Club allegedly called Jewish students “Zios”, sang a song about rockets over Tel Aviv and called Auschwitz “a cash cow”, according to testimony seen by The Sunday Times.
Evidence given to an inquiry by Labour Students, the national youth body of the political party, into alleged anti-semitism within the club claims allegedly “poisonous” anti-semitic attitudes were displayed by some members.
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Soon afterwards, an investigation was announced, with the club’s leadership stating that it “wholeheartedly” condemned anti-Semitism and that it would cooperate with the investigation, encouraging its members to come forward.
Members of the group that did testify were soon disillusioned, turning to the press rather than wait for the results to be published.
The report of the inquiry has not been published despite being completed more than 10 days ago, nor has anyone faced disciplinary action as a result of the allegations.
This weekend some students said they had “lost faith” in the investigation and gave some of their testimonies to The Sunday Times.
According to evidence seen by the Sunday Times, members of the Oxford University Labour Club allegedly condoned the antisemitic attacks on synagogues in Paris in 2014 and mocked the Jewish mourners and victims of the 2015 Paris supermarket attack when the funerals were on television.
Jewish students at Oxford have accused Labour of a cover-up. One told the Times: “It is absolutely appalling that the party is trying to cover this up. There has been a long and proud tradition of centre-left Jews in the Labour party and that is being lost for a generation.”
The Labor Club first came under fire last month due to the resignation of Oxford co-chairman Alex Chalmers, who alleged that “the attitudes of certain members of the club towards certain disadvantaged groups was becoming poisonous.”
“Whether it be members of the Executive throwing around the term ‘Zio’ (a term for Jews usually confined to websites run by the Ku Klux Klan) with casual abandon, senior members of the club expressing their ‘solidarity’ with Hamas and explicitly defending their tactics of indiscriminately murdering civilians, or a former co-chair claiming that ‘most accusations of anti-Semitism are just the Zionists crying wolf, ’ a large proportion of both OULC and the student left in Oxford more generally have some kind of problem with Jews, ” Chalmers lamented on Facebook.
Last month the group received a harsh repudiation by former Labor Party chief Ed Miliband, who announced that he would not speak at Oxford until the investigation was completed.
Meanwhile, writing in the Jewish News, Labor MPs Michael Dugher and Rachel Reeves called the group’s decision to endorse Israel Apartheid Week “ignorant, offensive and deeply unfair.”
“How we deal with allegations of anti-Semitism and racism inside our party is a big test for Labor, ” the lawmakers stated, asserting that while it was admirable that an investigation was conducted, it was disappointing that the resulting report had not been public.
Overall, the city of London experienced a massive surge in anti-Semitism in 2015, with anti-Semitic incidents up more than 60 percent over the previous year.
According to the London Metropolitan Police, 483 anti-Semitic crimes were recorded during the 12-month period ending on November 15, while only 299 such incidents were recorded during the corresponding period in 2014, marking an increase of 61.5 percent, Jpost reports.
