The leader of the pro-Jeremy Corbyn Momentum group Jon Lansman has been condemned after trying to defend the actions of a woman who spray-painted “Free Gaza and Palestine” on a Warsaw Ghetto wall.
Ewa Jasiewicz, who spray-painted the words “Free Gaza and Palestine” and “Liberate all Ghettos” on the wall in 2010, was scheduled to be a panelist for an event at The World Transformed, Momentum’s event to be held alongside the Labour conference in Liverpool later this month.
On Wednesday, it was reported that Ms Jasiewicz, who has previously been described as a “good friend” by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, had withdrawn from the event.
Mr Lansman tweeted: “The trial by media of Ewa Jasiewicz for her graffiti is no way to judge anyone. ‘Libertate [sic] all Ghettos’ and ‘Free Gaza and Palestine’ are not antisemitic statements.
“The whole context, more info than Gilligan provided & her own defence must be considered as we do at Labour's NEC.”
But Mr Lansman drew widespread criticism for failing to mention where this graffiti had been daubed.
David Aaronovitch, the Times columnist, responded by tweeting: “You must have flipped your lid, Jon. The context is obvious. Why do you think she didn't choose to spray-paint slogans on a wall in Istanbul?”
Dave Rich, deputy communications director of the Community Security Trust (CST), tweeted: “The slogans are not antisemitic. The act of daubing them on a block of the old Warsaw Ghetto and then boasting about it was definitely antisemitic.”
Arieh Kovler, writer and political consultant, told Mr Lansman: "'Stand up to terror' and 'Stop ISIS murders' aren't Islamophobic statements. But if someone spraypainted them on a mosque it would be an Islamophobic act.”
Ms Jasiewicz, 40, had described the 2010 daubing as “a small act of unarmed resistance”, which she carried out together with a former IDF captain and reservist, Yonatan Shapir. The two claimed that the act was a protest against how Israel had “co-opted” the Holocaust to serve “agendas of colonisation and repression”.
Among those to denounce the act was Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, who said: “Defacing the wall of the Warsaw ghetto where hundreds of thousands of Jewish men, women and children were imprisoned, starved & eventually sent to their deaths is sickening and shameful.”
The CST called it “exactly the kind of obsessive anti-Israel hatred and abuse of the Holocaust that is central to Labour’s problem of antisemitism.” CST had also called on Momentum to withdraw their invitation for her to take part in the panel “if they have any decency or integrity.”
