Already reeling from repeated accusations of anti-Semitism among its rank and file, the UK’s Labour Party suspended a low-level British Muslim politician over a series of pro-Hitler tweets she posted before being elected.
Aysegul Gurbuz, the youngest ever councillor in Luton, wrote on Twitter of her fondness for the Nazi leader as well as posting comments propagating the classic anti-Semitic trope that Jews control global politics.
The Daily Mail on Saturday quoted a Labour spokesperson as saying that, “Councillor Gurbuz has been suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation.”
The 20-year-old student wrote in October 2011: “Hitler = the greatest man in history.”
Screenshot of tweet by suspended Labour councillor Aysegul Gurbuz (Credit: Campaign Against Antisemitism website)
In another tweet from November 2012, Gurbuz wrote, “If it wasn’t for my man Hitler these Jews would’ve wiped Palestine years ago.”
She also expressed her support for Iran using a nuclear weapon to “wipe Israel off the map.”
Screenshot of tweet by suspended Labour councillor Aysegul Gurbuz (Campaign Against Antisemitism website)
The tweets, which were uncovered by Britain’s Campaign Against Antisemitism, included one that read: “The Jews are so powerful in the US it’s disgusting.”
Screenshot of tweet by suspended Labour councillor Aysegul Gurbuz (Campaign Against Antisemitism website)
In another post in October 2012, she attacked former Labour leader Ed Miliband for his Jewish origins. “Ed Miliband is Jewish. He will never become prime minister of Britain,” she wrote.
British opposition Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn. (AFP PHOTO / BEN STANSALL)
Gurbuz has sought to distance herself from the tweets, claiming her sister may have been the author. Her Twitter account has apparently been deleted.
Ironically, as a candidate for Warwick Student Union’s Ethnic Minorities Officer, Gurbuz listed in her manifesto a commitment to “increase awareness of Holocaust Memorial Day.”
This is the latest incident in a growing row over anti-Semitic remarks by Labour activists in recent months. The scandal has sent a wave of criticism toward the party’s current head Jeremy Corbyn.
The most recent criticism came from the former archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey, who said the party’s inability to counter its anti-Semitic streams demonstrated “Labour is not ready to govern.”
Screenshot of tweet by suspended Labour councillor Aysegul Gurbuz (Campaign Against Antisemitism website)
According to the Daily Mail, Lord Cary, who is now the vice president of the Council of Christians and Jews, told an audience at a New York synagogue that the attack on Corbyn by the Board of Deputies of British Jews last week would probably be “news to the majority of Brits.”
Last Thursday, the head of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Jonathan Arkush, accused Corbyn of belittling the party’s alleged anti-Semitism problem.
UK Labour Party chair Jeremy Corbyn (right) meeting with Board of Deputies President Jonathan Arkush (center) and Chief Executive Gillian Merron (left), February 9, 2016. (Courtesy)
“We cannot imagine that any other minority’s concerns would be dismissed off-hand in this way,” he said, according to the Jewish News of London, adding he was “deeply concerned” over the party’s handling of Jew hatred in its ranks.
“In the last few weeks, we have witnessed a stream of clear-cut cases of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, which can’t just be fobbed off as differences over Israel,” he said.
Corbyn has said that any incident of anti-Semitism will be immediately investigated, but senior members of his own party have expressed concern that not enough is being done.
A Labour spokesman said Corbyn had “consistently condemned anti-Semitism and all forms of racism” and was taking “clear action against offenders.”
