A BOURNEMOUTH rabbi has criticised the Labour party leadership as “arrogant” and “insensitive” amid an ongoing row over its approach to anti-Semitism.

The party’s ruling body, the National Executive Committee (NEC), approved a new code of conduct on anti-Semitism this week despite intense criticism from the party’s MPs and peers as well as Jewish leaders.

An unprecedented letter signed by 68 progressive and ultra-orthodox rabbis condemned the party’s decision to ‘rewrite a definition of antisemitism accepted by the Crown Prosecution Service, College of Policing, the Scottish parliament, the Welsh assembly, the National Union of Students, and 124 local authorities’.

Bournemouth rabbi Charles Wallach was among the signees.

Members have since agreed to reopen the development of the policy in recognition of the “serious concerns” raised.

The document states explicitly that “anti-Semitism is racism” and it is “unacceptable”, but stops short of signing up in full to the definition drawn up by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).

Rabbi Maurice Michaels, of Bournemouth Reform Synagogue, said the NEC has been “remarkably insensitive to the feedback it has had from the Jewish community.”

“I really do not believe the Labour party would be so insensitive to any other part of the community. That, in itself, borders on anti-Semitism,” he said.

“The fact they feel they have a better idea than all these other organisations, like the government, about the definition of anti-Semitism is very arrogant. They have changed the definition to suit their purpose.”

He added Labour had “overlooked the fact” that the party has been the “natural home of the vast majority of Jewish people” throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

“The policies they have had in terms of social action have been shared by the Jewish community. Now what they are doing is to remove the natural home of the Jewish people.”

He said a review of Labour’s code of conduct on anti-Semitism should take place “immediately” and “with the intention of rectifying the errors that have been made”.

Labour officials drew up the document in the wake of protests by Jewish groups outside Parliament earlier this year.

The code states that criticism of the state of Israel and its policies should not automatically be regarded as anti-Semitic, and makes clear that even “contentious” comments on this issue “will not be treated as anti-Semitism unless accompanied by specific anti-Semitic content ... or by other evidence of anti-Semitic intent”.

The code explicitly endorses the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism and lists behaviours that are likely to be regarded as anti-Semitic, copied word-for-word from the international organisation’s own document.

But it omits four examples from the IHRA list:

- Accusing Jewish people of being more loyal to Israel than their home country;

- Claiming that Israel’s existence as a state is a racist endeavour;

- Requiring higher standards of behaviour from Israel than other nations; and

- Comparing contemporary Israeli policies to those of the Nazis.

Labour insisted that while the examples are not reproduced word for word, they are covered in the new code.

The party has called its code “the most detailed and comprehensive guidelines on anti-Semitism adopted by any political party in this country”.

It added: “They adopt the IHRA definition and contextualise and add to the working examples to produce a practical code of conduct that a political party can apply in disciplinary cases.”