Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell campaigned to have the word “Holocaust” axed from Holocaust Memorial Day

It has emerged that Jeremy Corbyn and Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell campaigned to have the word “Holocaust” axed from the name of Holocaust Memorial Day.

In a motion tabled in Parliament in time for Holocaust Memorial Day 2011, the two Labour Party leaders called for Holocaust Memorial Day to be renamed “Genocide Memorial Day” instead. Holocaust Memorial Day already commemorates other genocides.

The motion appears to be part of the “Never Again For Anyone Initiative” which is a project of an organisation calling itself the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.

The motion was proposed by Mr McDonnell and seconded by Mr Corbyn. It was endorsed by 23 MPs, of which nineteen were from Labour, two were from the Liberal Democrats, one was from the Conservative Party, and one was from Plaid Cymru.

In response to the revelation of the motion, Mr McDonnell and Mr Corbyn issued a statement saying that “It is not our policy to seek a name change for this important commemoration.”

The revelation comes as Mr Corbyn was revealed to have organised an event in Parliament on Holocaust Memorial Day in 2010 in which Israel was compared to Nazi Germany. According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic. When members of the Jewish community at the event tried to remonstrate with speakers at the event, Mr Corbyn allegedly ordered police to throw them out.

Mr Corbyn seems to have a real problem with Holocaust Memorial Day. Each year he seems to mark it by doing something new to undermine the commemoration.

Campaign Against Antisemitism has made a further disciplinary complaint against Mr Corbyn and referred the Labour Party to the Equality and Human Rights Commission.