Noam Chomsky has warned against antisemitism being used as a political weapon in an exclusive interview with The London Economic.
The American linguist pointed to the treatment of Jeremy Corbyn during his time as the leader of the Labour Party.
Last year, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) identified “serious failings in leadership and an inadequate process for handling antisemitism complaints across the Labour Party.”
The 130-page report went on to conclude that “there were unlawful acts of harassment and discrimination for which the Labour Party is responsible.”
But Chomsky said that, if you look at the facts, the Tory Party has “more antisemitism than Labour”.
He said: “If there’s something there, you know, you should deal with it. But it’s not even within shouting distance of the way the issue was presented. By now, there’s pretty careful analyses of it. And I think if you look at them, you find what we know in advance. Yes, there’s antisemitism in England. That’s a bad thing. We should deal with it. But it’s not in the Labour Party any more than anywhere else, probably less.”
Chomsky, who has previously spoken of being subjected to antisemitism as a child, added that “antisemitism shouldn’t be vulgarised and politicised, turned into a weapon.
“It’s too serious for that.”
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