Just published: our article for the Guardian on antisemitism, co-written by me, Ben Gidley ( @bengidley) and David Feldman ( @PearsInstitute). We make two key points. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/08/education-labour-antisemitism-party-keir-starmer

First: antisemitism has been misunderstood. Before Labour or anyone else can effectively address it, they must rethink the way antisemitism operates in Britain today.

In an otherwise bitter dispute, there is one unnoticed area of consensus: Labour’s friends and enemies agree the problem is about the number of antisemites in the party's ranks. This has been a mistake: the more fundamental problem is one of antisemitism, not antisemites.

Second: unexpectedly, figures on all sides draw on the same understandings of antisemitism. Jeremy Corbyn and the Chief Rabbi agree it is a ‘poison’; for Boris Johnson and Len McCluskey, it is a ‘virus’.

Words matter and these metaphors lead us to misconceive the problem. If we need a metaphor to comprehend antisemitism, it is not ‘virus’ but *reservoir*: a deep reservoir of stereotypes and narratives, replenished over time, from which people draw with ease, intentionally or not.

The notion that we are dealing with a 'poison' or 'virus' has led Labour to focus on individuals - antisemites who have ‘caught’ the contagion. All sides call on Labour to expel these ‘bad’ apples to make the barrel healthy again. But it is not as simple as that.

Expulsion, though sometimes necessary, will never get to the heart of Labour’s problem.

*You can expel antisemites, but you cannot expel antisemitism*

Many have promised ‘zero tolerance’ to ‘eradicate’ the problem. Yet the demand for zero tolerance is impossible to meet. While antisemites might be rooted out, antisemitism, flowing through our political culture, almost certainly cannot be.

In the aftermath of the Corbyn leadership, there is an opportunity to escape this impasse. This requires us to take seriously the distinction between antisemites and the more diffuse antisemitism that subsists in political culture.

This is why education as well as discipline must be a priority for Labour. This should focus on fostering a deeper understanding of antisemitism as a form of racism, and on cultivating familiarity with its tropes and the harm done by them, regardless of intent.

Finally, our piece draws on a longer article which is about to come out with @po_qu, where we expand on these themes and explore why anti-racism and anti-antisemitism have drifted so far apart in recent decades. (end of thread)