Labour just suspended 2 more councillors over anti-Semitism allegations

REUTERS/David Moir

Former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone was suspended last week for his remarks about Hitler.

The Labour party just suspended another two councillors over anti-Semitism allegations on Wednesday.

This takes the number of members who've been suspended for alleged racism since Jeremy Corbyn became leader to 18.

Newport councillor Miqdad Al-Nuaimi and Renfrewshire councillor Terry Kelly were suspended by the party pending further investigations into social media posts, according to Sky News

These suspensions mark the latest episode in an anti-Semitism row which has engulfed the Labour party in recent weeks.

Last week, the party suspended former London mayor Ken Livingstone, who sparked outrage when he claimed Adolf Hitler was a Zionist while defending Bradford West MP Naz Shah, who was suspended earlier in the week for a Facebook post she shared in 2014 which suggested re-locating Israeli Jews to the US.

This clip shows Labour MP John Mann angrily confronting Livingstone prior to his appearance on the Daily Politics.

In these latest cases, published on the Guido Fawkes website, Mr Al-Nuaimi used tweets to compare Israel to the Nazis and suggested links between Israel and the so-called Islamic State.

One of the tweets, posted Feb 21 2015, read: "Jews in whose name #Israeli #Zionist regime commit war crimes should worry: it's same arrogant menality as #Nazis."

In another posted on March 29 this year, Al-Nuaimi said: "ISIS Leader Al Baghdadi dies in Israeli Hospital. If confirmed, the #Israeli connection is very interesting."

Mr Kelly used his online blog to speak out about the "Jewish lobby" in the US, suggesting it exerts strong influence on foreign policy decisions.

For example, in a blog post he wrote about US vice president Joe Biden failing to condemn Israel's actions in Gaza, Kelly said: "If you ever wondered how powerful the Jewish lobby is in America there is an example for you right there."

Kelly is pictured below on the right.

On Monday, Labour suspended three councillors over comments they had posted on Facebook within hours.

Labour leader Corbyn is under increasing pressure from party members to take stronger and more effective action against anti-Semitism, which could potentially impact Thursday's nationwide local elections.

The party leadership last week announced it would be launching an inquiry into anti-Semitism in Labour, which will be headed by the former head of rights group Liberty Shami Chakrabarti.

Speaking to The Guardian last week, Corbyn said: "Labour is an anti-racist party to its core and has a long and proud history of standing against racism, including antisemitism."

He added: I have campaigned against racism all my life and the Jewish community has been at the heart of the Labour party and progressive politics in Britain for more than 100 years."