The Council has told Campaign Against Antisemitism that it has adopted the International Definition of Antisemitism.
The Council said that the Definition was adopted on 3rd October 2019.
As part of its response, the Council provided minutes of a Council meeting on 13th November 2019, which show that the Definition was adopted.
There is no reference to the examples in the minutes, accompanying report or Freedom of Information response and therefore we cannot assess with certainty whether the Definition has been adopted in full.
Campaign Against Antisemitism considers the examples to be integral to the Definition, without which an adoption is not complete. In a statement on 7th August 2018, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance reiterated the integrality of the examples to the Definition.
This information was obtained after Campaign Against Antisemitism submitted a request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on 1st August 2021, to which the Council responded on 31st August 2021.
The following are recent incidents relating to the Council’s officials or councillors that have been reported to us, however we recognise that antisemitism is chronically underreported and it is possible that there are incidents that have not been reported. To report an incident, please contact us.
Labour Councillor Tasleem Fazal was reportedly readmitted to the Labour group at Blackburn with Darwen Council, despite suggesting that ISIS is a Jewish plot.
Blackburn with Darwen Council faced outrage after the revelation that there were as many councillors who had been suspended from the Labour Party over antisemitism claims on its committees as there were Liberal Democrats.
The Labour Party suspended Councillor Tasleem Fazal, alleged to have claimed that Jews created the ISIS terrorist organisation, a popular antisemitic trope.