The president of one of the U.K.'s main Jewish groups has called on the leader of the Labour Party to make an "abject apology" to British Jews for allowing anti-Semitism to fester in the leftist opposition party.
Allegations of anti-Jewish prejudice within Labour have mounted since veteran socialist Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader in 2015. Some in the party say Corbyn, a longtime critic of Israel's treatment of Palestinians, has allowed anti-Semitic sentiments to go unchecked.
Corbyn apologized this week for the "concerns and anxiety" caused before he became Labour's leader when, as a pro-Palestinian activist, he shared platforms with people "whose views I completely reject." He was referring to an event he hosted in 2010 at which speakers compared Israeli policies to those of the Nazis.
But the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Marie van der Zyl, tweeted Thursday that Corbyn was "hiding behind a halfhearted 'apology' no doubt crafted by his spin doctors."
"Jeremy Corbyn needs to stop hiding and make an abject apology to U.K. Jews in his own voice," she wrote.
The long-simmering dispute inside Labour recently boiled over after the party proposed adopting a definition of anti-Semitism that differs from the one approved by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
The alliance says it is anti-Semitic to accuse Jewish people of being more loyal to Israel than to their home countries, an example omitted from Labour's definition. The alliance also says it is anti-Semitic to compare contemporary Israeli policies to the policies of the Nazis, a view Labour did not endorse.
Labour's leadership is facing pressure to expel Peter Willsman, a party official who accused Jewish "Trump fanatics" of stirring up controversy around anti-Semitism in a recording that surfaced recently.
