Leeds University to probe academic who said Israeli embassy ran ‘antisemitic campaign’ against Corbyn

— Ray Bush (@raymondobush) August 17, 2017

Mr Winstanley, who writes for Electronic Intifada, was himself retweeting a now-unavailable update from anti-Zionist activist Tony Greenstein, who was suspended from Twitter in 2018. Mr Winstanley was reportedly suspended by Labour in 2019 but maintained he quit.

In November 2019, Professor Bush retweeted an opinion piece published in Haaretz which argued former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was not antisemitic.

He wrote: “The reason they hate Corbyn of course is because he is anti #Zionist and the antisemitic campaign is ran [sic] by the #Israeli embassy among others.”

In 2018, he retweeted a story about Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte visiting Israel with: “Does it take a nazi to recognise a #nazi? #Israel #racism? [sic]”

The Telegraph reported that Leeds University had pledged to investigate the complaints. The paper also wrote that Professor Bush denied accusations of antisemitism and said: “The lobby to implement the IHRA definition of antisemitism is struggling to get its ‘internally incoherent and non-legally binding’ report adopted.

“The widely held concern is that the IHRA definition of antisemitism is accompanied by a list of examples which are deployed to preclude any criticism of Israel or the promotion of human rights for Palestinians.” 

A spokesman for the university said: “Our Freedom of Expression protocol is unambiguous on this point and takes into account guidance from the Government and, among other things, the working definition of antisemitism produced by the IHRA."