Luciana Berger Quotes

The abuse didn't stop when I left the Labour party. I have a threshold for how bad it is. If I take a screenshot of something it's pretty bad. Just in the last few days I've taken quite a number of screenshots. They have all come from the left.

I'm glad that I left the Labour party [...] Everything that has happened since then proves that I was right to leave. The great party that I joined is a shell of its former self.

While I accuse no one of anti-Semitism, this year NUS has been a bystander to Jew-hatred [...] In the past three days, at the heart of our democratic union, to my horror, I have seen the events of the year replayed.

I have to be very careful what I say here. I'm disappointed by the fact that they are playing to other parties' policies in order to discuss it all. Whereas the Labour Party in the past have been so strong and so active in combating and standing up for themselves, I'm surprised that on this particular issue, it's unfortunate that it's been played into.

[On abusive Twitter posts] Online hate needs to be taken as seriously as offline hate – but it isn’t. Twitter’s response isn't good enough. It has a responsibility to do more to protect its users. The site is letting me and many others down who have been the subject of lots of hate ... It could start by proactively banning racist words which aren't allowed to printed in newspapers or broadcast on TV that could never be used in a positive way – such as kike – a derogative and anti-Semitic term for describing a Jew.

[On the categories of antisemitic abuse she was receiving] First, there are people who say it’s all a smear and accuse me of "faux anti-semite outrage" and "bullshit of the highest order". This attack has come even after Jeremy has acknowledged in the strongest terms that the mural was anti-semitic.
Second, there are those who say the mural is "absolutely true" and that they support it, that "global banks are ripping everyone off because they are run by Jews".
The third strand is to accuse me of having "two masters", that I'm "Tel Aviv’s servant" and a "paid-up Israeli lobby operative" as well as being an MP. It’s anti-semitism of the worst kind, suggesting I'm a traitor to my country. They call me "Judas", "a venal piece of detritus", a "Zionazi" and an "absolute parasite", telling me to get out of the country or go back to Israel.
The last strand are the messages from people who tell me to "f*** off", resign, call me "another red Tory that needs deselecting" and make physical threats.

It is almost four years to the day since you left our Labour Party. I say 'our' deliberately. You left because you were forced out by intimidation, thuggery and racism. Yours was a principled and brave move. But it was one you should never have been forced to take. That day will forever be a stain on Labour's history.
I don’t need to explain to you the litany of failures that left you — a Labour MP with a huge future ahead of you — no longer feeling welcome in your own party. Instead, I want to once again apologise.

Why do people with antisemitic views think today's Labour party is the right place for them? And why are so many people on the left still averting their eyes? The exit from the party of the Liverpool MP Luciana Berger is a case in point, bluntly summed up by the leftwing Jewish journalist Rachel Shabi: "A Jewish MP left Labour because of the tide of antisemitism directed at her and I don’t think the terrible significance of this has sunk in for chunks of the left."

[Being asked if she was someone's aide at a climate change conference] I'm nobody’s aide! I find a lot of people say, you know, "When do we get to meet the MP?" And, er, no, I am the MP.

What you experienced was intolerable and unacceptable. The abuse you suffered was disgusting. You were left isolated and exposed. Shamefully, those who should have defended you stood by.
The Labour Party — our party — has always prided itself on being a party of equality, collectivism, solidarity and anti-racism. But during those dark days we were none of those things.
Before you were forced out of the party, you were an outstanding member of parliament ... Both the Labour Party and British politics are poorer places without you. I would be honoured to work alongside you in continuing to build a Labour Party we can be proud of again — a Labour Party that can win again.

The last local constituency meeting I attended was so awful, so toxic, there was no humanity in the room. [...]I went into detail about the threats I'd been subjected to — messages handed in to my office saying I was going to get stabbed and raped and have acid thrown on me. I was categorically committed to Labour. I worked seven days a week, true to the values that led me into politics, but because I would not commit to Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister that night, I was dead to them. I thought, "I just cannot be part of this any more."

I think the insensitivity surrounding all parties' approach to asylum and immigration has a lot to say for the rise in not only anti-Semitism but any form of racism directed at immigrants. All parties have been responsible for not dealing with the issue in an appropriate manner.

The volume and toxicity of stuff thats come from the left for daring to speak out, for daring to address this, because it's so incongruous with the values that I'm supposed to share with people on the left around anti-Semitism.
People believe that there is a place for anti-Semitism on the left, that's what I found particularly challenging and difficult over in particular this past year.
Not that it hasn't occurred at all before but it's certainly been given oxygen and I only have to reflect on what I've seen and the volume of it and from those accounts that use the hashtag #JC4PM in their biography.

[When asked who was responsible for continuing issue of antisemitism in the Labour Party] I sat in meetings with Jeremy Corbyn. Ultimately the leader is responsible and must take responsibility.

[On deciding to openly challenge Jeremy Corbyn] It was the Friday before the Monday of the Enough Is Enough demonstration outside Parliament.
I hadn't actually seen it [the mural] before then, despite it being discussed on blogs and written about in the JC before.
But I didn't get a proper response [from Mr Corbyn], then there was the fight to get the party to adopt the IHRA definition in full, which even at the last moment there was an attempt to undermine.
Then there was what became known as the 'summer of antisemitism' - all the connections Jeremy had made, his statements of July, August and September - it really has got worse.
More recently, two weeks in a row at the meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, we had a motion that was unanimously supported by party colleagues calling on the leadership to release the information about antisemitism cases - and we were held with utter contempt.
This has been something the leadership has sought to dismiss and turn a blind eye to every step of the way.
That is why I have come to the conclusion the party is institutionally antisemitic.
I said 'Enough is Enough' and I challenged it from within. Now I mean Enough IS Enough.