The UK's first MP of Palestinian descent has condemned the defacing of bus-stops with "Israel is a racist endeavour" posters as "blatantly antisemitic".
Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, was taking part in a discussion on the BBC's Daily Politics show about the defacing of a number of bus-stops in central London on Wednesday.
The posters were meant to mock the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of Jew-hate, which the party only adopted this week in full this after a prolonged row with jewish groups and with a caveat vowing "free speech" on Israel.
The IHRA definition, which gives calling "a state of Israel... a racist endeavour" as an example of potential antisemitism.
But Ms Moran condemned them, saying: "I'm a Palestinian... The fact that this has come from a group that purportedly is speaking for Palestinians, I take great offence at myself, because I think it is blatantly antisemitic."
The posters went up at bus stops in Elephant and Castle, Waterloo Bridge, Bloomsbury and Westminster.
Ms Moran was responding to Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, who told the programme: "It is not at all antisemitic to describe a state as racist.
"On the Windrush issue, I was describing the British state as being racist. But it is antisemitic if you're saying 'having a State of Israel is racist."
Ms Moran said: "There are factions in the Israeli government, there are extremes in the Israeli government, led often by Netanyahu, who do actually have issues with Palestinians and the settlements, and there are very clear issues there.
"But to say that an entire country is racist is entirely wrong."
Authorities responded quickly to reports of the vandalism, with Transport for London (TfL) saying: "These adverts are absolutely not authorised by TfL or our advertising partner JCDecaux. It is fly posting and therefore an act of vandalism which we take extremely seriously.
"We have instructed our contractors to remove any of these posters found on our network immediately.”
Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, condemned the fly posting as "offensive" and confirmed that any posters found would be rapidly removed.
