Facebook post by Mozaquir Ali.[Missing Credit]
Separately, Bea Foster, who is listed as one of the organisation’s directors, organised a protest outside then-MP for Burnley Antony Higginbotham’s office against Israel’s war in Gaza, in which she used props of dead babies.
In a Facebook post in February 2024, she shared an image that appeared to equate Israel with Nazi Germany and apartheid-era South Africa.
Facebook Post by Bea Foster[Missing Credit]
Although not a councillor at the time, in December 2023, Foster backed a motion by Burnley council to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and told the BBC: “To challenge the Israeli government on the issue of the illegal occupation is not antisemitic.”
Building Bridges in Burnley won a prestigious King’s Award for Voluntary Service last year, the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK and equivalent to an MBE.
Beatrice Foster (far left), Mozaquir Ali (second from left) and Afrasiab Anwar (third from left) receiving the King’s Award[Missing Credit]
According to the King’s Award website, the charity was given the award for “promoting harmony and understanding across all faiths and none”.
The charity was also visited in 2023 by Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, as part of her visit to the Lancashire town and it is listed as a partner organisation of Championship football club Burnley FC. Foster was in Israel when Hamas launched their attack on October 7.
Former Conservative MP Higginbotham told the JC that he helped her get a place on a Foreign Office-organised evacuation flight out of Israel.
“I genuinely thought it would change her mind, and she’d realise that Israel is not all bad but sadly it didn’t, because a couple of weeks later, she stood outside my office,” he said.
She stood as an independent in the May 2024 local council elections in Burnley but was defeated by a Labour candidate.
The charity’s chair is Afrasiab Anwar MBE, who is the leader of Burnley council and also works as an equality and diversity team leader for Lancashire county council.
The JC has seen no evidence to suggest that Anwar has posted anything controversial on social media when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, he has attempted to use the conflict in Gaza for electoral purposes.
Anwar was elected as a Labour councillor in 2018 but, in November 2023, he and ten other local councillors resigned the Labour whip in protest at Labour and Sir Keir Starmer’s stance on the conflict in Gaza and sat as independents.
In council elections held in May 2024, before the general election in July, despite being the largest bloc, Labour were unable to form a majority on the council and Anwar’s independents – backed by the Lib Dems and Greens – formed a grouping on the council.
Gaza – and both Labour and the then Conservative government’s stance on the conflict between Israel and Hamas – featured heavily in the Independents’ local election campaign and Anwar was photographed wearing a tracksuit in Palestinian colours on the campaign trail.
In the general election both Foster and Ali were pictured campaigning for Liberal Democrat candidate Gordon Birtwistle, whose campaign in the general election sought to capitalise on the other main parties’ stance on the conflict in Gaza. Birtwistle, who represented Burnley in parliament from 2010 to 2015 and currently serves as a local councillor, was also pictured alongside Foster at her protest outside Higginbotham’s office and praised her for doing so.
In a recording of a June meeting of local community group Burnley Brierfield Vote (BBV) obtained by the JC, Birtwistle was challenged over why he had not called Israel’s campaign in Gaza a “genocide”.
Post by BBV[Missing Credit]
The former MP claimed that this was because “Jewish groups” had previously tried to get him kicked out of the Liberal Democrats.
“I will call it that in parliament when I have the protection”, he told the meeting which, the JC understands, was attended by both Anwar and Foster. It is not known whether they sought to challenge his comments.
BBB, Gordon Birtwistle, Mozaquir Ali, Bea Foster and Afrasiab Anwar were contacted for comment.
Facebook post by Mozaquir Ali[Missing Credit]