Senior United Nations official asks whether Labour politician pledging to Jewish audience that she will fight antisemitism has also ‘offered solidarity to Palestinians’

A senior official at the United Nations has tweeted to ask whether a Labour Party politician pledging to a Jewish audience that she will fight antisemitism has also ‘offered solidarity to Palestinians’.

Mark Seddon is media advisor to the President of the General Assembly and has previously worked as a speechwriter for a former UN Secretary-General, as well as for Al Jazeera as its UN correspondent.

Mr Seddon was reacting to a report on Twitter that Labour’s Deputy Leader, Angela Rayner, told a Jewish group: “If I have to suspend thousands and thousands of members, we will do that. Because we cannot and we will not accept an injury to one, because an injury to one is an injury to all.” Ms Rayner was referring to attempts to address Labour’s scandal of institutional antisemitism.

Mr Seddon replied to the tweet saying: “Today is the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. Has Angela Rayner recorded her support and solidarity for those being oppressed? A genuine question.”

There is no interpretation of Mr Seddon’s question, given its context, other than that he sees efforts to combat antisemitism in the UK as somehow connected to or even contrary to certain stances on Middle Eastern politics, and that Ms Rayner had no moral authority to address a domestic Jewish group on antisemitism without also expressing a position on a foreign policy matter.

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel” is an example of antisemitism.

The Jewish community will not be surprised at all that UN officials hold these sorts of views. The media outlets that publish work by Mr Seddon should, however, think twice in future about doing so.