Politics
Labour drops case against JVL member for alleged antisemitism
Diana Neslen had threatened to sue the party
February 7, 2022 18:47
Diana Neslen had threatened to sue the party
February 7, 2022 18:47Labour has reportedly dropped an investigation into Jewish activist Diana Neslen who threatened to bring a discrimination lawsuit against the party for its probe.
Ms Neslen, a member of Jewish Voice for Labour, was under investigation for a 2017 tweet in which she branded Israel a “racist endeavour”. She threatened to sue Labour for discrimination based on her belief in anti-Zionism.
Ms Neslen was at the centre of a controversy last month after it emerged she was the guest on a BBC programme due to explore whether anti-Zionism itself should be a protected characteristic.
In a letter to the party, lawyers Bindmans acting on behalf of the 82-year-old, threatened a lawsuit for discrimination and harassment, claiming anti-Zionism was a protected philosophical belief under the Equality Act.
Bindmans argued the majority of tweets cited as part of Labour’s probe were excluded under party rules either because they pre-dated her re-joining the party in 2015 or had been considered in a previous investigation. Ms Neslen received a ‘reminder of conduct’ letter in 2018 after an earlier investigation.
Ms Neslen said: “I’m pleased that they dropped it because it exposes the fact that they shouldn’t have done anything in the first place. But I also feel that I would have liked the issue of protected belief to have been addressed because I believe there are a lot of people who also, like me, are anti-Zionist, believe that it’s a perfectly legitimate belief, and they have no recourse.”
Ms Neslen was due to be a guest on a pulled BBC debate last month which questioned whether anti-Zionism should be a protected characteristic. Board of Deputies President Marie van der Zyl called the planned segment a “grotesque insult to an overwhelming majority of British Jews”.
Ms Neslen has previously denied that former MPs Luciana Berger and Dame Louise Ellman were “hounded out” of the party during Mr Corbyn’s leadership and has also posted: “Zionism is not Judaism. It is blasphemy.”
The JVL was formed in 2017 by Jewish Labour members to support then leader Jeremy Corbyn in the wake of mounting concern about widespread antisemitism within the party.
In a speech to Labour Friends of Israel last November, party leader Sir Keir Starmer condemned “anti-Zionist antisemitism” as “the antithesis of the Labour tradition.”
He said: “It denies the Jewish people alone a right of self-determination. It equates Zionism with racism, focusses obsessively on the world’s sole Jewish state and holds it to standards no other country is subjected.”
The JC approached Labour for a comment.