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Was always going to be quiet on the blogging front - there being a local election and all that jazz. But it has turned out to be a most peculiar week. It started with this:
A Labour MP has argued Israel should be “relocated” to America and praised the “transportation costs” of deporting Israeli Jews out of the Middle East. Naz Shah, who defeated George Galloway in Bradford West, shared a highly inflammatory graphic arguing in favour of the chilling “transportation” policy two years ago, adding the words “problem solved”.
Three days later it resulted in this:
“Jeremy Corbyn and Naz Shah have mutually agreed that she is administratively suspended from the Labour Party by the General Secretary. Pending investigation, she is unable to take part in any party activity and the whip is removed.”
As I said, a strange old week. Not only is it a lesson (again) about social media but it reminds us that hatred is easy to get sucked into - from putting 'hates Tories' on your Twitter profile to posting anti-Semitic tropes. A sense of injustice about Palestine is entirely understandable as is criticising the Israeli government but the next step, depersonalising Jews is a problem. I suspect Naz Shah knows this and knows what she posted was wrong - not because some people might be offended by those posts but because anti-Semitism itself is wrong.
There may yet be more to come on this story, I don't know who trawled through Naz Shah's social media, but whatever the personal cost I hope that the result is that my fellow politicians challenge anti-Semitism more strongly wherever it rears its ugly head.
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