Labour councillor suspended for claiming George Michael’s music career was damaged by his opposition to “illegal wars by the Zionists”
A Labour councillor has reportedly been suspended for claiming on social media that George Michael’s music career was damaged by his opposition to “illegal wars by the Zionists”.
Lyn Boyd, who serves on the Durham County Council and is the cabinet support member for finance, was accused of promoting a “wide range of antisemitic tropes and far-fetched theories that you would expect from a far-right activist.”
Another Facebook post described former Prime Minister Tony Blair as “the perfect Zionist puppet”.
Yet another post linked to a video of a German Shepherd mauling a child, accompanied by a caption reading: “This is how the Israeli Zionist attack Palestinian children. You won’t see this in the mainstream media as they control most of it. Please watch and share.”
Other posts sought to downplay the extent of Labour’s antisemitism crisis and suggested that the claims of anti-Jewish racism in the Party were “complete rubbish and designed with one aim only. Ruining Corbyn and the party.”
Ms Boyd insisted that, although she would not seek re-election in 2021, she would “continue to campaign against any form of racism or antisemitic behaviour.”
On 28th May 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.
In the first release of its Antisemitism in Political Parties research, Campaign Against Antisemitism showed that Labour Party candidates for Parliament in the 2019 general election accounted for 82 percent of all incidents of antisemitic discourse by parliamentary candidates.
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.
(Photo Credit: Durham County Council)
