Charges of anti-Semitism in its ranks has that have dogged the Labour party in recent months, has now seen the suspension pending investigation of Naz Shah, a promising and rising Labour leader who was elected from the northern constituency of Bradford West in the 2015 elections.
Ms. Shah, who has issued a full and “profound” apology in the House of Commons on Wednesday for her online statements that she acknowledged were “anti-Semitic.”
In a Facebook post she uploaded in 2014, Ms. Shah shared an image of Israel superimposed on a map of the United States with the headline “Solution for Israel-Palestine conflict – relocate Israel into the United States” with the comment “problem solved.” The post said that the US had plenty of land to incorporate Palestine as a 51st state, thereby allowing Palestinians to “get their life and land back.”
Ms. Shah shared the post before becoming an MP and amidst widespread criticism of the bombings by Israel in the Gaza strip in mid- 2014. According to a United Nations Commission of Inquiry at the time, 2251 Palestinians were killed, of whom 1462 were civilians including 551 children. By contrast 67 Israelis were killed of whom six were civilians.
The post was dredged up by Guido Fawkes, an online commentary space run by the right-wing political blogger Paul Stains. It also alleged that she shared a post that compared “Apartheid Israel” to Hitler. (Her post shows an image of a young Martin Luther King with his famous words: “Never forget everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”).
Ms. Shah statements have come as an embarrassment to the party, deepening the schism between the moderates and those, led by Jeremy Corbyn, who are seen as Labour’s “hard left.”
On Sunday, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell and a close ally of Mr. Corbyn told the popular BBC Andrew Marr Show that anyone expressing anti-Semitic views should be banned from Labour Party membership for life, and steps taken to ensure that their views had not “infected the party.” Ms. Naz has also resigned as his principle private secretary.
The issue has become handy ballast for the Conservative Party and Mr. Corbyn’s detractors within the Labour party. During the Prime Minister’s question hour yesterday, David Cameron said “anti-Semitism is effectively racism,” and attacked Labour for harbouring an MP who called for the “transportation of the people from Israel to America.”
With pressure mounting and amidst charges that her original apology was edited by someone high up in the Labour party, Mr. Corbyn, who had earlier accepted her “fulsome apology,” issued the statement of Ms. Shah’s suspension.
Lord Levy, a former chief fundraiser for Labour, told BBC’s Newsnight that he was left “scratching his head with despair as to how people like this can enter our parliament with such a lack of knowledge, discretion and sensitivity.”
Ms. Shah is an inspiring figure in politics who rose in exceptionally hard personal circumstances. Born in poverty, she escaped an abusive child-marriage in Pakistan only to see her mother convicted for the murder of an abusive husband. In the 2015 election she won as a first time candidate against the seasoned Respect politician George Galloway. (EOM)
