Photo from Wikimedia Commons. A branch of the British Labour Party will be discussing a vote of no confidence calling for a Jewish member of parliament (MP) to resign on the night of Kol Nidre, the eve of Yom Kippur.
The Jewish Chronicle (JC) reports that the Labour branch of St. Michael’s in the Liverpool Riverside area will put forth a motion that calls on MP Dame Louise Ellman to resign. The motion cites a JC article where Ellman says she “understands why Jews would seriously consider leaving Britain if [Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn became [prime minister].”
“The Branch therefore calls on our Riverside MP, Louise Ellman, to resign,” the motion states.
Board of Deputies of British Jews President Marie van der Zyl said in a statement, “That a Jewish MP should be threatened with a vote of no confidence tabled for Yom Kippur – the holiest day in the Jewish calendar when she has no opportunity even to respond – ought to be a source of deep shame for the Labour Party.”
According to the BBC, the motion likely won’t come to a vote on Kol Nidre.
Ellman called the timing of the vote “particularly insidious” and vowed to continue fight “Jeremy Corbyn for his failure to deal with anti-Semitism.”
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt tweeted, “Scheduling a vote on Yom Kippur against a Jewish vocal critic of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party is a cowardly and reprehensible ploy.”
Scheduling a vote on Yom Kippur against a Jewish vocal critic of anti-Semitism in the Labour party is a cowardly and reprehensible ploy. https://t.co/KMccEuwQiB
— Jonathan Greenblatt (@JGreenblattADL) October 3, 2019
The pending motion comes after Corbyn appeared in a Rosh Hashanah video featuring an activist who led a vigil commemorating the Palestinians who died in the riots at the border of Israel and the Gaza Strip in May 2018. The vast majority of those Palestinians were members of Hamas.
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