Understanding anti-Semitism today

Listen to the debate from the Battle of Ideas Festival 2018.

With accusations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party taking centre stage in political life this week, this debate is very topical.

Introduction

From racist attacks to ominous propaganda, anti-Semitism appears to be making a comeback in Europe. In the UK,  the Labour Party has been very publicly split over how it deals with the issue.  In one respect, it looks like the simple return of what has been called ‘the longest hatred’. But while anti-Semitism has long been seen as a right-wing phenomenon,  particularly since the Nazis, today’s anti-Semites are more likely to rail against Jews in the name of the Palestinians, a favourite cause of the left. Is hatred of Jews really on the rise? Is it re-emerging in new forms? 

RICHARD ANGELL
director, Progress; elected member,  TUC’s LGBT committee; formerly worked for All Party Parliamentary Group on Combatting Antisemitism

DR STEPHEN LAW
philosopher; author, The War For Children’s Minds

BRENDAN O’NEILL
editor, spiked; columnist, Penthouse; writer, the Sun and the Spectator; author, A Duty to Offend

JULIAN PETLEY
professor of journalism, Brunel University;  editorial board member, British Journalism Review; principal editor, Journal of British Cinema and Television 

MELANIE PHILLIPS
columnist, The Times; regular panellist,  BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze; author, The Legacy and best-selling book, Londonistan

CHAIR: JACOB FUREDI
junior commissioning editor, Daily Mail

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