Video emerges of Labour candidate Alana Bates singing “Israel is a racist state” in a song titled “From the river to the sea” with her band

A video has emerged of the Labour Party’s candidate for St Ives in Cornwall, Alana Bates, playing a song “From the river to the sea” with her band, The Tribunes.

One verse in the song goes: “From the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea, Palestine will be free,” which is a common and unsubtle call for the destruction of the Jewish State and is thus an attempt to deny the Jews, uniquely, the right to self-determination.

The song also includes the lyrics: “Israel is a racist state, Israel is an apartheid state.”

Ms Bates, a bass player and backing singer in the band, conceded that the song was written by the group but denied that it has any antisemitic meaning in a bizarre clarification in which she said: “I obviously support Israel’s right to exist. The song says that Israel is a racist state. I would personally say that the government policies of Israel are racist.”

According to the International Definition of Antisemitism, “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination (e.g. by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour)” is an example of antisemitism.

Ms Bates, who is also a councillor on Penzance Town Council, also confirmed that the Labour Party had ordered her to remove the song from her social media.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Over 57,000 people have now signed our petition denouncing Jeremy Corbyn as an antisemite and declaring him “unfit to hold any public office.”

On 8th December, regardless of religion, race or politics, Jews and non-Jews alike will gather in Parliament Square to declare that they stand together against antisemitism in the face of Jew-hatred in politics and mounting anti-Jewish hate crime.