Inflammatory columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown writes of Israel’s “influence” in Britain and that Labour Party members were expelled for “being pro-Palestinian”
The controversial columnist Yasmin Alibhai-Brown has written of Israel’s “influence” in Britain and how Labour Party members were expelled for “being pro-Palestinian”.
Ms Alibhai-Brown made the claim in a column this week for the i newspaper.
“I fear Israel is above international law and, in Britain, more influential than it has ever been,” she wrote, implicitly claiming in the very next sentence that as a result of that influence, “Several Jewish Labour Party members have reportedly been expelled from the party because they are pro-Palestinian.”
Referencing the International Definition of Antisemitism, she erroneously added that “the flawed International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which the Government has instructed universities to adopt, has already been used to inhibit legitimate criticism of Israel.”
Britain was the first country in the world to adopt the International Definition of Antisemitism, something for which Campaign Against Antisemitism and Lord Pickles worked hard over many meetings with officials at Downing Street.
The media watchdog CAMERA UK has documented a pattern of concerning statements from Ms Alibhai-Brown in her articles and social media pronouncements over the years, including a tweet from 2014 in which she wrote: “Jews were massacred by Nazis & good Germans did nothing. Now Israel massacres Gaza infants & good Israelis do nothing. Wrong lessons learnt.”
According to the Definition, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.
Moreover, earlier this year, Ms Alibhai-Brown deployed the Livingstone Formulation in an article, in which she asserted that “These days, any criticism of Israel is deemed ‘antisemitic’.”
The “Livingstone Formulation”, named by sociologist David Hirsch after the controversial former Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, is used to describe how allegations of antisemitism are dismissed as malevolent and baseless attempts to silence criticism of Israel. In its report on antisemitism in the Labour Party, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) found that suggestions of this nature were part of the unlawful victimisation of Jewish people in the Party.
Late last year, Ms Alibhai-Brown made a similar claim, arguing in an article that “any criticism of the state [of Israel] is deemed antisemitic by apologists and diehard allies”, and suggesting that this is motivating a “purge” of Labour Party members. In the article titled “The UN is warning of spiralling violence, yet the West has forgotten the Palestinians” for the i newspaper, Ms Alibhai-Brown also wrote that “a report from Jewish Voice for Labour accused Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour Party of purging Jewish members who call Israel to account.” Jewish Voice for Labour is an antisemitism-denial group and sham Jewish representative organisation.
The year before that, she replied to journalist Stephen Bush’s reaction to being appointed to lead a Jewish charity’s review of racial inclusivity in the Jewish community by tweeting: “maybe ask them about the Palestinians.” The review was concerned with British Jews and was unrelated to Israel, a distinction that Ms Alibhai-Brown is apparently incapable of apprehending.
Previously Ms Alibhai-Brown also expressed her opposition to the Labour Party’s adoption of the International Definition of Antisemitism, describing the fringe minority of Jewish individuals who agreed with her as “good Jews”.
Newspapers and television broadcasters who host Ms Alibhai-Brown must think again before giving a platform to someone who takes such positions.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
Campaign Against Antisemitism monitors traditional media and regularly holds outlets to account. If members of the public are concerned about reportage in the media, they should contact us at [email protected].
