Gaza over Israel’s war against the Islamist Hamas terror group responsible for the barbaric October 7th terror attacks.
An acolyte of septuagenarian socialist ex-Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn — who was ousted from the party over a series of antisemitism scandals — Kate Osamor MP has had the whip suspended from her after likening the war in Gaza to the Holocaust and other genocides.
To mark Holocaust Memorial Day, the London MP sent out a message to party members in which she said that it was an “international duty” to honour Holocaust victims, but that other “more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and now Gaza” should be remembered on the day, The Guardian reports.
The claim promoted by the far-left in Britain that Israel is committing “genocide” in Gaza by seeking to eliminate the Hamas terror network that has controlled the region directly contradicts the position of Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer, who said Israel has the “right to defend itself” after Islamist terrorists killed around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and took around 250 hostages from Israel on October 7th.
Starmer, however, has recently called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and has criticised the “intolerable” casualties occurring in Gaza in an apparent nod to the far-left and Muslim bases of the party, who have been deeply critical of Starmer’s position on Israel.
The British government has also rejected the notion that genocide is being committed by Israel and has criticised South Africa for launching a lawsuit at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at the Hague calling for the war to be classified as such.
“Our view is that Israel’s actions in Gaza cannot be described as genocide, which is why we thought South Africa’s decision to bring the case was wrong and provocative,” a Foreign Offices spokesman said on Saturday.
Following her suspension, Osamor posted on X: “Holocaust Memorial Day is a day to remember the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust and the genocides that have occurred since. I apologise for any offence caused by my reference to the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Gaza as part of that period of remembrance.”
The Labour Party’s shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said that Osamor has met with the chief whip of the party and will meet with other Labour officials this week.
“What is happening in Gaza is clearly a humanitarian catastrophe that is recognised,” Reynolds said. “But there are specific reasons why the Holocaust is considered as it is. It’s important on Holocaust Remembrance Day to remember that.
“And I understand Kate has apologised. There’s been a conversation with the chief whip. There’ll be further conversations next week, but of course we take anything in this space extremely seriously.”
The leftist grassroots Labour network Momentum was deeply critical of the suspension, saying that it was an “outrageous decision [that] further damages Labour’s reputation for anti-racism under Keir Starmer and should be immediately reversed”.
Osamor was not the only European politician to draw controversy on this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day, with German EU Council President Ursula von der Leyen being blasted by Poland after posting a video that falsely referred to the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz as having been “Polish”. While the camp was located in the geographic area of Poland at the time of the Second World War the country was under Nazi occupation.
The German politician later deleted the video and reposted an edited version that correctly referred to Auschwitz as a “German Nazi extermination camp”.