Antisemitism in Political Parties

Nicola Day

2019: Green Party parliamentary candidate, North West Cambridgeshire

2019: Green Party councillor, Orton Waterville ward, Peterborough City Council

2018: Green Party candidate, Peterborough North ward, Peterborough City Council

2015: Green Party parliamentary candidate, North West Cambridgeshire

Incidents

1. On August 5th 2019, Councillor Nicola Day responded to another Twitter user discussing antisemitism in the Labour Party: [1a] “Also, Labour are almost not anti Semitic [sic] and you know that too. They are being smeared by right wing press because big people in big places with lots of money. The 1% don’t wanna pay tax fairly and share things with everyone else. It’s all a big lie and you know that.” On being challenged about her assertion that Labour’s antisemitism problem was a “big lie”, she reinforced her claim, stating that it was done “To protect the elite from socialist policy.”

On being asked: “You think that the many victims of anti-semitism [sic] who have come forward are lying? That the many Labour members, and even MPs who have admitted the problem in their party are part of the ‘conspiracy’ you mention? And are you saying that bankers have created a false narrative?”, she responded [1b] by posting a video entitled: “Norman Finkelstein – on the ‘Anti-Semite [sic] Corbyn’ claims”. Professor Finkelstein is an author who argues that the American Jewish establishment exploits the Holocaust for political and financial gain. Professor Finkelstein’s position (as revealed both in his book The Holocaust Industry and more widely) is regarded as hostile to Jews and Israel and, in the opinion of eminent academics, to be based in part on fabrications. In the video, Professor Finkelstein states: “Corbyn, he did not present a threat except to Israel and Israel’s supporters. He posed a threat to the whole British elite. Across the board, from the Guardian to the Daily Mail, they all joined in the new antisemitism campaign…The entire British elite, during this whole completely contrived, fabricated, absurd and obscene assault on this alleged Labour antisemitism of which there is exactly zero evidence — zero…There’s no threat of antisemitism in British society…it just doesn’t exist. It’s all being designed and manipulated. I don’t believe in conspiracy theories as you know, but this is a conspiracy.”

Prompted by the interviewer to comment on what might happen when ‘real’ antisemitism takes hold, with reference made to the proverbial boy who cried “wolf!”, Professor Finkelstein continued: “If Corbyn loses, a lot of people in the Labour Party are going to blame it on those Jews who fabricated this whole antisemitism witch-hunt hysteria, and that will be a problem which…You know what the bigger problem there is? It’s true! Jews were the spearhead of this campaign to stop Corbyn.” He concluded by calling the “leading Jewish organisations” and the three principal Jewish newspapers (which printed a common editorial in August 2018) “the enablers of this concerted conspiracy by the whole of British elite society to destroy Jeremy Cobyn.”

Cllr Day also tweeted a link to the same video in response to another user who had challenged her on her comments in the original conversation.

Analysis

Campaign Against Antisemitism’s analysis is that Cllr Day’s actions and statements amount to breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism and qualify as antisemitic discourse according to our methodology.

By alleging that claims of antisemitism in Labour (many of which will have necessarily been made by Jews) are “smears”, and “a big lie” undertaken by the “right-wing press” to “protect the elite from socialist policy” [1a], and by sharing a video in which it was alleged that claims of antisemitism in Labour (described as an “anti-Semitism [sic] witch-hunt hysteria”) were being “fabricated”, “contrived”, “designed and manipulated” as part of a “campaign to stop [Jeremy] Corbyn” [1b], she was deploying the so-called ‘Livingstone Formulation’ by accusing Jews who cite evidence of antisemitism of lying, conspiring or having deceitful motives in doing so, when there is clear evidence that there have been breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism.

By sharing a video in which “leading Jewish organisations” and Jewish media are accused of being “the enablers of [a] concerted conspiracy by the whole of British elite society to destroy Jeremy Cobyn”, and in which Jews are pre-emptively blamed for antisemitic animus and action which might result from Jeremy Corbyn’s failure to win a general election [1b], she was “making mendacious, dehumanising, demonising, or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as collective — such as, especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.”

Outcome

On 8th August 2019, Cllr Day tweeted: “I recently tweeted inappropriately. I understand now I didn’t fully grasp the issues I was tweeting about. I apologise wholeheartedly for the tweets and will undertake training to develop my understanding of antisemitism. I abhor antisemitism in all forms.”

Later on 8th August 2019, Cllr Day’s apology was covered in the media, and the Green Party’s group leader on the Council, Julie Howell, was reported as saying the tweets were “not Green Party policy” and “could be deemed offensive,” intimating that Cllr Day had been asked to apologise.

On 14th August 2019, a complainant against Cllr Day published the correspondence he had received from the Green Party regarding the case. The response, from the Green Party’s Matthew Browne, stated: “In line with the standing orders the complaint has been considered by the Complaints Referrals Group and by the Green Party Regional Council (in the case of the suspension request)[.] The Complaints Referrals Group and by [sic] the Green Party Regional Council have decided not to suspend or refer Nicola to the Disciplinary Committee at this time.” Cllr Day’s apology on Twitter was cited as the reason for this decision, as well as the fact that this was her ‘first offence’. It was further stated that the Green Party Regional Council (GPRC) would be supporting Cllr Day in accessing antisemitism training.

In response to the Green Party’s decisions, Campaign Against Antisemitism raised a number of queries with them, which they declined to answer. These included querying why they settled for an apology and did not consider a disciplinary investigation to be necessary despite clear breaches of the International Definition of Antisemitism; what criteria the Party is currently using in reaching a decision to refer officers for discipline; who is supplying the education course that Cllr Day is to undertake, what it is, and how Cllr Day’s performance on that course will be assessed. Furthermore, we pointed out that it is a principle of justice that apologies cannot substitute for fair and transparent disciplinary processes. Finally, we queried what benchmark the Party is using to administer such justice, if not the International Definition of Antisemitism.

On 29th October 2019, it was reported that Cllr Day had been selected to run as the Green Party’s parliamentary candidate for North West Cambridgeshire.

In November 2019, Campaign Against Antisemitism put this matter to Cllr Day, but did not receive a response.

In November 2019, Campaign Against Antisemitism put this matter to the Green Party. A spokesman said: “The Green Party utterly condemns and is committed to confronting antisemitism. We have taken action internally to do this, for example members received antisemitism training at our Autumn Conference 2018 and our Disciplinary Committee received training in September 2019. Any new allegations that come to light will be looked into. The Green Party has a robust complaints procedure which is conducted without prejudice. The current and previous leadership have regularly advocated signing the IHRA definition of antisemitism and a process of internal discussion is underway as is always the case with policy decisions in the Green Party. The decision is one that will ultimately be taken by the membership. A motion proposing that the Party signs up to the definition will be put forward by our leadership team and members of the Jewish Green Group at our next Conference in February 2020.”

Rating

Campaign Against Antisemitism has rated the Party’s handling of this matter as “bad”. Our rating system is explained in our methodology. This case was last updated on 4th December 2019.

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