Labour activist suing Labour for employing Israeli social media manager reportedly declared his “love” for founder of genocidal antisemitic terror group
A Labour activist who is suing his Party for employing an Israeli social media manager has declared his “love” for the founder of a genocidal antisemitic terror group, the JC is reporting.
Adnan Hmidan, who is being represented by the Bindmans LLP law firm and has the backing of former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, is suing Labour for employing a Jewish-Israeli member of the Party who, according to reports, was previously in the signals branch of Israeli intelligence.
According to the law firm, “A British Palestinian member of the Labour Party has called upon the Party to provide further details about its recruitment of former officer of the Israeli Defence Force, Assaf Kaplan, to manage the Party’s digital campaigning. Bindmans LLP has written to the Party on behalf of Mr Hmidan regarding its recruitment of Mr. Kaplan to the position of Social Listening and Organising Manager in January 2021.”
Israel has military conscription applicable to most sectors of the population, so most adult citizens of Israel are veterans of its armed forces.
According to the JC, Mr Hmidan posted a picture on Facebook of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the cleric who founded the Hamas terrorist organisation, with the Arabic caption “I love this man”.
Mr Hmidan is also reported to have published a complimentary post on social media about Raed Salah, a radical sheikh who was found by the Court of Appeal to have promoted the antisemitic blood libel that Jews bake bread using the blood of non-Jewish children. Sheikh Salah is best known in the UK as an object of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn’s warm praise.
It is understood that Mr Hmidan works as a presenter for Alhiwar TV, an Arabic-language channel based in London, and the JC reports that he has also posted pictures of himself with other controversial figures on social media.
Of his legal case, Mr Hmidan said through his lawyers: “I am very concerned that Labour has recruited a former Israeli spy to a position that involves monitoring the social media accounts of its members including those that are British Palestinian, supportive of Palestine or opposed to the occupation of Palestine. The Party has also failed to confirm what steps, if any, have been taken to limit the risks to these members or to ensure that our data is not processed without our consent.”
The Labour Party was found by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to have engaged in unlawful discrimination and harassment of Jews. The report followed the EHRC’s investigation of the Labour Party in which Campaign Against Antisemitism was the complainant, submitting hundreds of pages of evidence and legal argument. Sir Keir Starmer called the publication of the report a “day of shame” for the Labour Party.
Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Antisemitism Barometer 2019 showed that antisemitism on the far-left of British politics has surpassed that of the far-right.
Campaign Against Antisemitism advocates for zero tolerance of antisemitism in public life. To that end we monitor all political parties and strive to ensure that any cases of concern are properly addressed.
