A Labour candidate, who was last week defeated in a council by-election, has reported the local Conservatives to the police for “inciting racial hatred” over alleged abusive comments made on social media and in an email.
Daniel Ozarow, who stood to represent the Borehamwood Kenilworth ward on Hertsmere Council, claimed in an open letter posted on his campaign website that he had been the subject of “a vicious, libellous racist smear campaign against me by Hertsmere Conservatives or their supporters.
“I was branded a terrorist sympathiser, a Marxist, a self-hating Jew, and they spread lies about me being a member of the JVL and Elstree Liberation Front (the latter by Brett Rosehill, the Conservative candidate himself).”
He added that he had “been told to go and die in the gas chambers”.
One Facebook post, seen by the JC, called Dr Ozarow a “Jew-hating Jew C**t”.
“My family has also received abuse over a matter that is literally nothing to do with them,” Dr Ozarow continued.
“This has upset me deeply and also caused enormous stress to my heavily pregnant wife.”
Last week, the JC revealed that Dr Ozarow, a senior lecturer in HR Management at Middlesex University, had previously put his name to a letter which argued that Jeremy Corbyn had “nothing to apologise for” in his meetings with representatives of terrorist outfits Hamas and Hezbollah.
Dr Ozarow said he “never saw the final text” of the letter, and that he “should have been more careful”.
Hertsmere Labour spokesperson, Nik Oakley told the JC that after the article was posted online “an inflamatory post appeared on the Hertfordshire Friends of Israel Facebook page and other closed Jewish groups.
“Simultaneously a link to the story was also posted on every Borehamwood Facebook group by Conservative councillor Glenn Briski.
“The Conservative agent produced a letter the same day which was subsequently delivered to Jewish only homes in the ward and a digital ad featuring the JC story appeared on a hoarding owned by another Conservative councillor.
“Undoubtedly it was an orchestrated campaign to defame a popular hard-working Labour candidate.”
Hertsmere Conservatives said in a statement: “It is always unfortunate if people choose to abuse others online as a consequence of anything they read. Social media should be an avenue for a grown-up debate.
“Yes, of course, we shared the Jewish Chronicle story which had been published and in the public domain. It is not a made-up story or fake Facebook account and it is on a subject that people feel strongly and passionately about. As we do.
“When the spotlight is turned on them they don’t like it. This story is not a fake story and we have no qualms in sharing it.”
A Hertfordshire Police spokesperson confirmed that they were investigating social media comments made towards a candidate in the run-up to the by-election, and that enquiries are ongoing.
Despite being joined on the campaign by Labour deputy leader contender Angela Rayner, Dr Ozarow lost Thursday’s by-election, with the Conservative candidate Brett Rosehill winning 49 per cent of the vote, compared to Dr Ozarow’s 41 per cent.
