Remember these remarks by Labour MP Diane Abbott in which she claimed to take antisemitism seriously and then proceeded to deny that Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party had an antisemitism problem?
Let’s just say they’ve aged about as well as Roger Waters.
Labour MP Diane Abbott has had the whip suspended following remarks in which she suggested Jewish people do not face racism, but instead suffer prejudice similar to “redheads”.
Ms Abbott wrote a letter to The Observer newspaper, in response to an article which had the headline: “Racism in Britain is not black and white. It’s far more complicated.”
The Hackney North MP said she was responding to writer Tomiwa Owolade’s claims that “Irish, Jewish and Traveller people all suffer from ‘racism'”.
“They undoubtedly experience prejudice,” Ms Abbott wrote.
“This is similar to racism and the two words are often used as if they are interchangeable.
“It is true that many types of white people with points of difference, such as redheads, can experience this prejudice.
“But they are not all their lives subject to racism.”
The former shadow home secretary added: “In pre-civil rights America, Irish people, Jewish people and Travellers were not required to sit at the back of the bus.
“In apartheid South Africa, these groups were allowed to vote. And at the height of slavery, there were no white-seeming people manacled on the slave ships.”
Following criticism from Conservative and Labour MPs, a party spokesperson said: “The Labour Party completely condemns these comments which are deeply offensive and wrong.
“The chief whip has suspended the Labour whip from Diane Abbott pending an investigation.”
Shortly after the letter was published, Ms Abbott issued a statement in which she said she wished to “wholly and unreservedly withdraw my remarks and disassociate myself from them”.
A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
A law school graduate, David Lange transitioned from work in the oil and hi-tech industries into fulltime Israel advocacy. He is a respected commentator and Middle East analyst who has often been cited by the mainstream media
