Straight Talking
The BBC reports that three more Labour Party members have been suspended for comments made on social media which suggests that the damaging row over anti-Semitism in the party is not going to go away anytime soon.
In the meantime, John Rentoul has written a pretty fair assessment of how Labour got itself into such a mess and how Jeremy Corbyn might start repairing the damage, by showing some leadership and confronting the issue with some straight talking and honest words.
Labour suspends three councillors over Israel comments
BBC Nottingham
Image copyrightNottingham/Blackburn councilsImage captionCouncillors Ilyas Aziz from Nottingham (left) and Salim Mulla, from Blackburn, have been been suspended pending Labour Party investigations
Three Labour councillors have been suspended over social media posts about Israel.
Nottingham councillor Ilyas Aziz and ex-Blackburn mayor Salim Mulla are both said to have shared a post which suggested the state of Israel should be relocated to the US.
Burnley councillor Shah Hussain said he would "fight" his suspension for a tweet sent to an Israeli footballer.
Mr Aziz said he did not write the 2014 post, while Mr Mulla has not commented.
It comes after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted the party was "united in opposing anti-Semitism".
Three Labour councillors have been suspended over social media posts about Israel.
Nottingham councillor Ilyas Aziz and ex-Blackburn mayor Salim Mulla are both said to have shared a post which suggested the state of Israel should be relocated to the US.
Burnley councillor Shah Hussain said he would "fight" his suspension for a tweet sent to an Israeli footballer.
Mr Aziz said he did not write the 2014 post, while Mr Mulla has not commented.
It comes after Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn insisted the party was "united in opposing anti-Semitism".
'Disgrace to humanity'
The posts were highlighted on the Guido Fawkes website.
One, shared from Mr Aziz's account, was a comment stating: "Jews and Muslims lived together in the Middle East, in peace pre 1948.
"Perhaps it would have been wiser to create Israel in America it's big enough. They could relocate even now."
The Radford and Park ward councillor's account also features a series of re-posted comments and images criticising Israel.
Image copyright -Twitter Image caption - Mr Hussain was suspended over a tweet sent to Israeli footballer Yossi Benayoun
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption - Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said he will propose a new "code of conduct" on racism at Labour's national executive committee in May
A comment posted with an article about Nazi Germany in 2014, said: "A reminder of the treatment and suffering of Jews in Nazi Germany. ARE THERE ANY SIMILARITIES TO HOW ISRAEL IS TREATING PALESTINIANS."
Asked if he had been suggesting Israel should be relocated, Mr Aziz told the Press Association: "I didn't write that."
Blackburn with Darwen councillor Mr Mulla reportedly described "Zionist Jews" as a "disgrace to humanity" in a social media post.
Mr Hussain, who represents Burnley's Daneshouse with Stoneyholme ward, intervened in a Twitter conversation in 2014 between footballers Joey Barton and Yossi Benayoun over the conflict in Gaza.
In a message directed at Benayoun, he wrote: "You are an complete and utter plonker, you and your country doing the same thing that hitler did to ur race in ww2"
When approached by the Press Association, Mr Hussain said he would "most definitely" fight the suspension.
"If Jewish people find it offensive then I think they need to think about what the rest of the world thinks," he said.
A comment posted with an article about Nazi Germany in 2014, said: "A reminder of the treatment and suffering of Jews in Nazi Germany. ARE THERE ANY SIMILARITIES TO HOW ISRAEL IS TREATING PALESTINIANS."
Asked if he had been suggesting Israel should be relocated, Mr Aziz told the Press Association: "I didn't write that."
Blackburn with Darwen councillor Mr Mulla reportedly described "Zionist Jews" as a "disgrace to humanity" in a social media post.
Mr Hussain, who represents Burnley's Daneshouse with Stoneyholme ward, intervened in a Twitter conversation in 2014 between footballers Joey Barton and Yossi Benayoun over the conflict in Gaza.
In a message directed at Benayoun, he wrote: "You are an complete and utter plonker, you and your country doing the same thing that hitler did to ur race in ww2"
When approached by the Press Association, Mr Hussain said he would "most definitely" fight the suspension.
"If Jewish people find it offensive then I think they need to think about what the rest of the world thinks," he said.
'Not about religion'
The Guido Fawkes website reported Mr Mulla also shared a message suggesting Israel should be relocated to the US - the same post which led MP Naz Shah to apologise in the Commons and have the whip withdrawn.
Mr Aziz said politicians needed to be careful when commenting on the Middle East, but added: "The thing you have got to try and appreciate is that if a particular government - whether it's the Israeli government, whether it's the British government - if the government is actually doing something wrong they should be criticised.
"But not the population itself, it's got nothing to do with them, it's got nothing to do with the religion."
Mr Corbyn has announced an independent review into anti-Semitism and pledged to tighten party codes of conduct on this and other forms of racism in an attempt to put a lid on the furore.
A party spokesman confirmed that all three councillors had been suspended, but made no further comment.
http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/ken-livingstone-has-gone-now-were-waiting-for-jeremy-corbyn-to-speak-a7005201.html
Ken Livingstone has deservedly gone – but Naz Shah made a genuine apology we should be prepared to accept
I have never seen anything like it. Things got rowdy in the Labour Party in the early 1980s. But not quite like this
By John Rentoul -The Independent
It is not often you start writing an article knowing that by the time you have finished it the subject will have been suspended. But then it is not often that a member of Labour’s National Executive starts free-associating on radio about whether Hitler was a Zionist. It is not every day that a Labour MP tells a member of the National Executive to his face, in front of cameras, that he is a “Nazi apologist” and a “f***ing disgrace”.
Watch the moment a fellow Labour MP calls Livingstone 'Nazi apologist'
I have never seen anything like it. Things got rowdy in the Labour Party in the early 1980s. People shouted at each other as the SDP broke away. In the Chamber of the House of Commons, Clare Short shouted at Labour MPs (including Jeremy Corbyn) who voted against the Labour Government over the bombing of Slobodan Milosevic that they were “like those who appeased Hitler”. But even that was not quite like this.
This started off as a discussion about what Labour should do about Naz Shah, the MP who defeated George Galloway in Bradford. On Tuesday, Paul Staines, whose Guido Fawkes website is one of the powerhouses of the new media, reported her two-year-old Facebook posts. In them she mockingly suggested that Israeli Jews should be transported from Israel to settle in America.
It is not often you start writing an article knowing that by the time you have finished it the subject will have been suspended. But then it is not often that a member of Labour’s National Executive starts free-associating on radio about whether Hitler was a Zionist. It is not every day that a Labour MP tells a member of the National Executive to his face, in front of cameras, that he is a “Nazi apologist” and a “f***ing disgrace”.
Watch the moment a fellow Labour MP calls Livingstone 'Nazi apologist'
I have never seen anything like it. Things got rowdy in the Labour Party in the early 1980s. People shouted at each other as the SDP broke away. In the Chamber of the House of Commons, Clare Short shouted at Labour MPs (including Jeremy Corbyn) who voted against the Labour Government over the bombing of Slobodan Milosevic that they were “like those who appeased Hitler”. But even that was not quite like this.
This started off as a discussion about what Labour should do about Naz Shah, the MP who defeated George Galloway in Bradford. On Tuesday, Paul Staines, whose Guido Fawkes website is one of the powerhouses of the new media, reported her two-year-old Facebook posts. In them she mockingly suggested that Israeli Jews should be transported from Israel to settle in America.
