A far-left candidate for Labour’s highest disciplinary committee supported a member who had been suspended for allegedly sharing antisemitic conspiracy theories on social media and suggested those who had reported him “are the ones who should be suspended”.
Stephen Marks, a member of the pro-Corbyn Jewish Voice for Labour fringe group, shared a petition in support of David Watson, who was suspended from the party in 2016, after the JC reported he allegedly shared claims on Facebook that Isis had used weapons made in Israel, comparing Mossad with the Nazis and accusing Israel of genocide against the Palestinians.
As reported by the Red Roar blog, Mr Marks shared the petition, saying: “It is cases like this which ‘bring the party into disrepute’. Those responsible are the ones who should be suspended!”
According to minutes of a meeting of Momentum's Oxford branch, Mr Marks wrote a letter in support of suspended activist Jackie Walker on its behalf.
Ms Walker was first suspended from Labour in early 2016 after saying that “many prominent Jews were chief financiers of the slave trade”.
Her suspension was lifted only for her to be suspended again later that year after she said she had not found a definition of antisemitism she could work with and that Holocaust Memorial Day was not wide-ranging in including other genocides.
As previously reported by the JC, Mr Marks — who once accused the Board of Deputies of being behind “imagined” claims of antisemitism in Labour — is on the far-left slate of six suggested candidates for election onto the party’s National Constitutional Committee (NCC).
Last week, Momentum confirmed it would support Mr Marks as a candidate – despite earlier claims that founder Jon Lansman would block the endorsement of the JVL activist.