Starmer accused of Islamophobia by Newham councillor?

The unforeseen consequences of the murderous attack of Hamas gunmen on southern Israel are being played out closer to home. Various Labour councillors have felt the need to put some distance between themselves and the official position of the Labour Party. We understand that locally, several have come under pressure to make statements or even leave the Labour Party because it is seen as being too “pro-Israel”.

The numbers are relatively small and have been used to generate significant media coverage, and with it increased political pressure on the leadership of the Labour Party. Time will tell whether this works for or against the Labour Party.

In Oxford a total of eight councillors have resigned; in Manchester, Cllr Amna Abdulatif has resigned and in Scotland fifteen Labour Party officers have resigned, (there may be more, but this is what we are aware of; 10 wrote to Keir Starmer in opposition to his views). Cllr Mirza hinted that there may be a number of Newham councillors who are considering resignation because the Labour Party has supported Israel’s response to the 7/10 attacks, (10/7 in Americanese).

The following tweets suggest that Labour has some work to do in getting its house in order in Newham, not least because it was the attitude and behaviour of some of the comrades that led to the only Jewish cabinet member resigning.

Here it is, in their own words.

Calling for the hostages to be released is Islamophobic. Calling for aid for Gaza is…? The Guardian report of the meeting stated that Starmer had miss-represented the feelings of the Muslim community in South Wales. They had demanded a “free Palestine”. This appears to be a politically acceptable way of saying “free of Jews”.

If we are correct in our reading of the true meaning of the slogans “Free Palestine” and “End the Occupation”, then why is Labour entertaining such bigotry?

Cllr Chowdhury’s failure to express any similar concern on behalf of the murdered Jews was suggested, by other users of Twitter/X to be somewhat hypocritical. It was the unprecedented mass-murder that precipitated the course of events.

His comments were endorsed however, by ‘NewhamMuslims’.

They in turn organised the demonstration at City Hall.

Sabia Kamali has been active in support of the Palestinian cause. Her engagement has sometimes been labelled as part of a movement for peace, it is a peace movement that does not seem to engage with any Israelis, nor indeed, even seem to acknowledge that they exist.

The events of late October have meant that she has been active again.

Comrade Kamali appears keen to end the suffering of the people of Gaza, as indeed we hope all readers do; she is rather more ambivalent regarding the misfortunes of Israelis. She is completely silent with regard to Hamas, the authors of the current conflict. Only she knows why, but readers might hazard a guess.

This is not Kamali’s post, but was a comment to her post in Twitter/X. We are delighted to see that conspiracy theories are alive and well. Clearly this contributor has an insight that we have missed into David Lammy’s thinking.