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Brighton Labour member urges party to 'march' on local synagogue to protest suspension of fellow member

She was responding to the suspension of a council candidate for posts about the 'Israeli bloodline' and claims Israel was carrying out 'a genocide'

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A Labour member in Brighton suggested that the local party “march to" a local Synagogue to protest against the suspension of a fellow Labour party member over alleged antisemitism, with an MP calling on the police to investigate her for "incitement".

Amanda Bishop was writing in the Brighton and Hove Labour party forum Facebook group in response to news that local council candidate Alex Braithwaite had been suspended from the party.

Miss Braithwaite was suspended two weeks ago over her posts to social media.

One such post claimed that Israel was “giving African migrants 90 days to leave the country so they don’t effect [sic] Israeli bloodline. They must leave or they will be jailed or murdered.”

Another showed a cartoon with BBC and CNN news cameras pointing at a crying Israeli child while ignoring dead Palestinian bodies.

The image’s caption accused “the media” of being “nothing more than an accessory to the police/terror state”. In another post written by Ms Braithwaite herself, she accused “IsraHell” of carrying out a “genocide” against the Palestinians.

As publicised by the Guido Fawkes and Red Roar blogs, in the wake of Ms Braithwaite’s suspension, Ms Bishop wrote on Facebook: “This was the flimsiest reason for suspension I’ve ever seen… I’m so angry and upset.”

She went on to say “we need to march about this to the synagogue in Hove, all of us members in Brighton… why are we continuing to accept this bulls***? Why aren’t we defending ourselves?”

Ian Austin MP, who left Labour in February, described Ms Bishop's comments as "appalling" and called for her to be “booted out of Labour” and said police should investigate her for “incitement.”

The parliamentarian who now represents the Dudley North constituency as an independent, said the incident showed "how much has gone wrong with the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership that people with views like this are joining the party or feel able to say this disgusting stuff.

“What are decent Labour MPs and members going to do about it?

Mike Katz, chair of the Jewish Labour Movement, described the case as "truly beyond belief.

"Won't have it from Neo-Nazis. Won't have it from supposed progressives."

Euan Philipps, spokesperson fro Labour Against Antisemitism, called for Ms Bishop to be "immediately expelled, to show that this kind of incitement to racial violence has no place in British politics.

"The Labour Party in Brighton has been shown to have a deep-rooted and longstanding problem with antisemitism. It is about time Jeremy Corbyn got a grip and placed the city’s Labour branches in special measures, before we find ourselves talking about real acts of racial violence being committed."

Brighton MP Lloyd Russell-Moyle tweeted on Tuesday evening, after the news broke, that Ms Bishop had been suspended after he reported the comments.

 

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