Jewish British MP under police protection following anti-Semitic death threat

September 6, 2016

(JTA) – A Jewish member of the British Parliament was put under police protection following an anti-Semitic death threat on Facebook.

The message from July repeatedly called Ruth Smeeth a "Yid" and said "the gallows would be a fine and fitting place" for the Labour Party MP to "swing from," the Jewish Chronicle reported last week. It also expressed strong support for Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is in an election battle to remain in his post.

Smeeth, 37, told the British media that she holds Corbyn personally responsible for the actions of his supporters.

"I expect Jeremy to show true leadership, which means calling out individuals at times by name to say what they are doing it is unacceptable," she told the British Sun newspaper last week. "He must stand up and say enough is enough, and he has done nowhere near enough yet."

Smeeth, who represents a district in Stoke-on-Trent, the largest city in western England's Staffordshire County, reportedly has received 25,000 abusive or anti-Semitic posts. She had panic buttons and CCTV surveillance cameras installed in her home, the Chronicle reported.

Corbyn, who has called Hezbollah and Hamas "friends," has been accused of fostering an atmosphere of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

According to the BBC, the threat to Smeeth was issued soon after she fled the launch of Labour's report into anti-Semitism in tears after being accused by an activist of colluding with the right-wing press.

JTA