Israel compared to Nazis at Labour conference fringe event

The event featured a number of anti-Zionist Jewish Labour activists, including Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi and Tony Greenstein, who was suspended by the party last year. Mr Greenstein has previously written that Ken Livingstone, the former Mayor of London, “got it right over Hitler and Zionism”.

Jennifer Gerber, LFI director, said the comments made at the meeting were "beyond disgraceful". She called for the Labour leadership to "swiftly condemn those who seek to bully pro-Israel and Jewish members out of the party".

Jeremy Newmark, JLM chair, said the event had seen “a thinly-veiled call to purge Jews from the Labour Party.

“It is a stark example of why party conference must vote decidedly tomorrow to pass JLM’s rule change on antisemitism.

“The group whose meeting provided an arena for this hate speech was allowed to advertise it in official party literature. That is far from the zero-tolerance on antisemitism that the leadership have promised.” 

Earlier, Ms Wimborne-Idrissi, who is a member of the Waltham Forest branch of the hard-left Momentum group and a vice-chair of Chingford and Woodford Green Labour Party, spoke at the conference.

She was loudly cheered after telling delegates: “We Brits need to take responsibility for the ongoing Palestinian tragedy dating from Balfour’s pledge. We call for an end to Israel’s blockade on Gaza, an end to occupation and the settlements, and endorsement of a Palestinian state. This is the very least we should be doing.

"I say this as a Jew, as an anti-racist…and comrades, I am not an antisemite.”