Jewish groups in Britain planned a protest outside Parliament on Monday, accusing the country’s main opposition leader of failing to stamp out anti-Semitism within his left-of-center party.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Jewish Leadership Council say Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party has shown a “repeated institutional failure” to address anti-Jewish prejudice.

In an open letter, they said that “again and again, Jeremy Corbyn has sided with anti-Semites rather than Jews.”

The groups plan to protest outside Parliament on Monday before a meeting with Labour lawmakers.

Allegations of Labour anti-Semitism have grown since pro-Palestinian socialist Jeremy Corbyn was elected leader of Britain’s main opposition party in 2015.

Some in the party say Corbyn, a longtime critic of Israeli actions against the Palestinians, has allowed abuse to go unchecked.

The latest furor erupted over a six-year-old Facebook post by Corbyn supporting the artist behind a street mural that included anti-Semitic stereotypes.

In October 2012, Los Angeles-based street artist Mear One, painted a wall in London’s East End which featured apparently-Jewish bankers beneath a pyramid often used by conspiracy theorists playing Monopoly on a board carried by straining, oppressed workers.

Following complaints, the mural was due to be removed, prompting Mear One to post on Facebook: “Tomorrow they want to buff my mural. Freedom of Expression. London Calling, Public art.”

Mr Corbyn commented: “Why? You are in good company. Rockerfeller [sic] destroyed Diego Viera’s [sic] mural because it includes a picture of Lenin.”

Corbyn has said he regrets not looking closely at the “deeply disturbing and anti-Semitic” mural before offering support to the artist.

In a statement, Corbyn said that “Labour is an anti-racist party and I utterly condemn antisemitism,” adding “we must stamp this out from our party and movement.”

“We recognise that antisemitism has occurred in pockets within the Labour Party, causing pain and hurt to our Jewish community in the Labour Party and the rest of the country. I am sincerely sorry for the pain which has been caused,” Corbyn said.

Corbyn said he would meet with Jewish leaders in the coming days.

Campaign Against Anti-Semitism said it rejects Corbyn’s attempted apology, and pointed to Corbyn’s participation in no fewer than three separate anti-Semitic Facebook groups as proof of his true feelings.

Gideon Falter, Chairman of Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: “Having been caught red-handed four times in the past two weeks, Jeremy Corbyn must take the public for fools if he thinks that he can now start talking about ‘stamping out’ antisemitism in the Labour Party and saying sorry. It is too late. He has squandered every opportunity to address this issue, including by commissioning a whitewash inquiryinto antisemitism whose author he then made the only person he has ever elevated to the peerage.

“Mr Corbyn has spent his political life seeking out and actively defending vile antisemites as well as terrorists whose aspiration is the extermination of Jews worldwide. It is little wonder that contrary to his claims, we are not witnessing ‘pockets of antisemitism’ in the Labour Party, but instead a spreading racist rot is taking hold and it is coming from Mr Corbyn’s hard-left supporters.

“Mr Corbyn says that the solution is for him to pacify the Jewish community and that he will be meeting with us. The telephone has not rung and frankly nor do we want it to. Two years ago we proposed a transparent disciplinary process for Labour to implement: the adoption of that process is the only sign that we will accept that the Labour Party is serious about freeing itself from the grip of antisemites, and the first disciplinary case to be heard under that process should be the complaint we have made against Mr Corbyn himself.”

(YWN / AP)