Maajid Nawaz's Powerful Response To People Who Say Labour Is Not Anti-Semitic

31 May 2019, 12:53

Maajid Nawaz summed up the current anti-Semitism crisis in Labour with a powerful analogy.

Maajid Nawaz was responding after LBC exclusively obtained recordings of a senior Labour party official making a series of anti-Jewish claims.

Peter Willsman, a member of Labour’s governing National Executive Committee, claimed that the Israeli embassy is whipping up anti-Semitism claims to attack Labour.

Maajid was responding to people who had claimed it was not anti-Semitic to criticise Israel. He made a powerful analogy between the current situation and the criticism of Barack Obama when he was US President.

Maajid said : "When President Obama became President of the United States of America, it is not racist to criticise President Obama.

"But, the people that were indulging in birther conspiracies, that were claiming he wasn't an American citizen, that were complaining he was secretly Muslim were criticising the President of the United States of America in a racist way.

"They were doubting his America citizenship, which they would never do for a white President. They were criticising him in a racist way.

"You on the left should understand this. That criticism of a government is very different to racist criticism of a government."

The LBC host pointed out that Israeli citizens, 20% of whom who are Arabic, regularly criticise the Israeli government.

"It is not anti-Semitic to criticise the Israeli government, and nobody anywhere serious, ever says it is," Maajid said.

Adding: "So stop with the straw-man, nobody is telling you it's racist to criticise the Israeli government.

"What people are saying, to criticise the government in a racist way to indulge in anti-Semetic conspiracy theories," is anti-Semetic Maajid said.

"You're meant to be on the left, you're meant to understand this. And the fact you refuse to understand this tells me you've got a serious problem with institutional anti-Semitism in your party."

Maajid pleaded for those in power to "sort it out."

Watch all of Maajid's powerful analogy at the top of the page, or see the article which sparked the debate here.