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Labour Friends of Israel pull Labour conference promotional stand over security fears

They took the decision after increasingly toxic comments were directed towards them on social media

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Labour Friends Of Israel have decided to pull their promotional stand from Labour’s annual conference Brighton over fears about the safety of staff.

The organisation, chaired by Dame Louise Ellman, took the decision to abandon having a stall at the Brighton Hilton venue on Tuesday after concern grew about the increasingly toxic comments directed towards them on social media and political forums.

Official stands at Labour Conference cost more than£2,000 but it is understood that LFI decided to cancel the booking because they felt it was unfair to put young staff, who volunteer, through the five-day event, which starts on Saturday, in front of an increasingly hostile gathering of people.

LFI will still host the annual evening reception at Conference on Tuesday evening – with Labour deputy leader Tom Watson, Dame Louise and Israeli ambassador to the UK Mark Regev set to speak.

An LFI spokesperson said: "The ongoing abuse of Jewish party members – highlighted by July’s Panorama programme – and the failure of Jeremy Corbyn to do anything to deter his supporters from engaging in it, means that we have decided it would not be appropriate for us to have a stand at Labour party conference this year.

“Our staff have faced incidents of antisemitism in previous years and, given that the situation appears to have further deteriorated, we do not feel it is responsible as an employer to put them in this environment.”   

In 2017, Al Jazeera, the Qatari backed TV channel, used undercover filming in an attempt to show LFI were part of a bid by the Israel government to interfere in British politics.

The documentary made the untrue claim that the then LFI chair Joan Ryan MP had been offered £1 million from the Israeli government. No such sum was ever actually paid.

Both LFI and the Jewish Labour Movement have been the target of false claims by pro-Corbyn supporters that they are acting as “Israel’s foot soldiers” in the UK.

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