A Labour councillor has been suspended from her party for allegedly tweeting anti-Semitic messages, said to include calling Adolf Hitler the “greatest man in history”.
In the latest such scandal to hit Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, a 20 year old Politics and Sociology student elected last May to Luton Borough Council has been suspended from the party over anti-Semitic tweets uncovered by an investigations team from the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism.
Back in February 2013, Aysegul Gurbuz is alleged to have approvingly predicted Iran would use a nuclear weapon to “wipe Israel off the map”, using the hashtag “TEAMAHMADINEJAD”.
Other tweets credited to her account include: “Adolf Hitler = greatest man in history” (October 2011); “#iwannameet Hitler” (December 2011); “If it wasn’t for my man Hitler these Jews would’ve wiped Palestine years ago. Sorry but it’s a fact. Not hating on Jews btw” (November 2012); and “The Jews are so powerful in the US it’s disgusting” (January 2013).
One of the tweets, from October 2012, even attacked the then leader of Ms. Gurbuz’s party, Ed Miliband. Assessing his chances of becoming Prime Minister, the tweet said of the man who identifies as an atheist and Jewish through his heritage: “Ed Miliband is Jewish. He will never become prime minister of Britain.”
Ms. Gurbuz has denied tweeting the messages, reports The Mail, suggesting that her sister is the responsible party. Nevertheless a Labour Party official confirmed last night that “Councillor Gurbuz has been suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation.” The tweets will also be referred to Luton Borough Council’s independent standards committee.
Ms. Gurbuz — who is events organiser for the Friends of Palestine society at the Univeristy of Warwick and sits on a panel supervising Bedfordshire Police — told the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism:
“It was a joint account I had with my sister so I don’t know if she’s gone out and tweeted that, but I’m absolutely appalled right now. Where I live we’ve got very good cohesion with the Jewish community… I’m absolutely shocked.”
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said:
“Anti-Semitism is absolutely abhorrent and wrong. Anyone that commits any act of anti-Semitism, that makes anti-Semitic remarks, is auto excluded from the party and an inquiry follows immediately.
“We have suspended, we will suspend, any member that behaves in that way.”
According to a report in The Mail, commenting on the Labour Party’s recent problems with anti-Semitism, Lord Carey — a former Archbishop of Canterbury and current vice-president of the Council of Christians and Jews — said he would not say the Labour Party is “riddled” with anti-Semitism, but the problems “are real enough” and the absence of effective action from the leadership demonstrates that “Labour is not ready to govern”.