Young Labour’s BAME representative leads chant about Israel as a 'terrorist state' - The Jewish Chronicle

The newly elected BAME representative for Young Labour officer has been filmed leading a chant about Israel as a “terrorist state” at a pro-Palestine rally that he organised. Clips of the rally emerged as Young Labour faced calls to be shut down over its extremist views. Abdullah Okud, one of three Momentum-backed candidates elected to official posts within Young Labour last month, could be seen telling the crowd in Sheffield to chant after him, “five, six, seven, eight, Israel is a terrorist state”. In another film of the May demonstration, protesters also could be heard chanting the Hamas rallying cry, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”. Many view the slogan as a call for the dismantling of the Jewish state. It has also long been a Hamas rallying cry. Mr Okud also designed the poster for the event which includes the same inflammatory phrase. He also urged the crowd to “look up” Cage — a Muslim advocacy group whose research director hailed Isis terrorist Jihadi John as a “beautiful young man” in 2015 — in order to “know the great work that they do”. Placards at the protest declared, “Zionism is racism” and called for the end of “Israeli apartheid”. In an interview on the day, Mr Okud revealed how he was working alongside the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on campus at Sheffield to promote BDS against Israel. Meanwhile, Young Labour, an official wing of the Labour Party, last week faced calls to be closed down. Journalist and author Oliver Kamm cited Young Labour’s position on Palestine as one of the reasons it should be dissolved. He added that dissolving the outfit would be “one more signal of [Labour’s] earnestness in cracking down on the extremism and antisemitism that did immense damage to its reputation under Corbyn’s titular leadership”. Young Labour leader Jess Barnard took to Twitter this week to accuse Sir Keir Starmer of effectively banning the organisation from speaking at Labour conference later this month, along with Jeremy Corbyn and speakers from the PSC. Mr Corbyn will, however, be granted a pass to enter the conference and address fringe meetings despite his status as an independent MP. Young Labour and the PSC are planning a separate pro-Palestine rally at the conference called Youth Rising for Palestine. A spokesman for the Labour Party said: “Young Labour will have a day at this year’s party conference. Speakers will be announced in due course.”