Labour refuses to investigate Councillor who has “no idea” how antisemitic video appeared on his Facebook timeline
The Labour Party has refused to take any action against a Councillor who shared an antisemitic video produced by a former Grand Wizard of the Ku Klax Klan. Birmingham Councillor Zafar Iqbal Said claimed that he had “no idea” how the video came to be posted on his Facebook timeline. According to the Birmingham Mail, the video, entitled “CNN , Goldman Sachs and the Zio Matrix”, was captioned “this video reveals how the Zionist Matrix of Power controls Media, Politics and Banking”.
A Labour Party spokesman told the JC that no action would be taken as, without any investigation, the Party had accepted Councillor Said’s explanation that the video appeared from nowhere, saying: “Councillor Iqbal has apologised, we accept his explanation of what happened and we have reminded him of his responsibilities as a Labour councillor.”
The video is unquestionably antisemitic, using the antisemitic term “Zio” and alleging Jewish or “Zionist” control over banking.
Councillor Said was reportedly appointed Justice of Peace in Solihull Magistrates Court in 2007 and awarded an MBE in 2008 for services to education and the community. In a statement, he told the Birmingham Mail: “I have no recollection of sharing this video and have no idea how it was shared on my Facebook page. Anyone that interacts with me on social media knows that I would never knowingly share any racist, abusive or antisemitic content. Nevertheless — I accept that this content was for a period active on my Facebook page and it is now been deleted. I know that this type of content could cause deep offence and I apologise to anyone who was affected by seeing this material. There is no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party or in our society — and I will continue to work closely with groups of all faiths in Birmingham against racism and prejudice.”
The failure of the Labour Party to investigate this incident properly is a sad reflection of the fact that the Party is increasingly deaf to Jews. Earlier this week, Jeremy Corbyn’s Facebook and Twitter accounts released a video about things that his supporters are “tired of hearing”. The video presented each topic on a piece of paper. When antisemitism came up, it was tossed to the floor like rubbish, and the video claimed that accusations of antisemitism were being made by people who are “losing the political argument”.
