UK – Labor Suspends Yet Another Member Over “Jews caused an African holocaust” Comment

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE – A leading member of the pro-Corbyn Momentum hard-left activism group claimed Jews were responsible for an “African holocaust”, the JC can reveal.

Jacqueline Walker is a vice-chair of the movement’s national steering committee and activist in south-east England.

Labour suspended Ms Walker from the party after the JC brought her comments to the party’s attention.

She has repeatedly claimed the ongoing allegations of Jew-hate against party members are part of a “witch-hunt” against Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn.

Describing herself as an anti-Zionist, Ms Walker responded to a critic who asked her about the Holocaust on Facebook in February by writing about “the African holocaust”.

“As I’m sure you know, millions more Africans were killed in the African holocaust and their oppression continues today on a global scale in a way it doesn’t for Jews,” Ms Walker wrote.

“Many Jews (my ancestors too) were the chief financiers of the sugar and slave trade which is of course why there were so many early synagogues in the Caribbean. So who are victims and what does it mean? We are victims and perpetrators to some extent through choice,” she added.

Her comments were uncovered by the Israel Advocacy Movement, which works to counter hostility to Israel in Britain.

This morning Ms Walker posted on Facebook again linking the current antisemitism crisis to black slavery.

She said it was a “lie” to suggest there was a “major problem with antisemitism in the Labour Party”.

“Like everywhere in British society the Labour Party fails, and fails too often, to be what we would want it to be – a bastion of socialism and internationalism,” she wrote.

“The chief victims of those failures however are not people of Jewish descent, but are the many other representatives of other minorities underrepresented in the structures of the LP and discriminated against inside and outside the LP economically, culturally and politically in contemporary Britain.”

Last week she used her social media account to call for Labour MP John Mann to be stripped of the party whip after he challenged Ken Livingstone and called him a “Nazi apologist” following the former London mayor’s comments on Hitler and Zionism.

A Labour Party spokesperson said this afternoon: “Jacqueline Walker has been suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation.”

Ms Walker issued a statement on Thursday morning. She said: “I have been suspended from the Labour Party for alleged antisemitic comments. I have been an active anti-racist trainer and campaigner for years, often in all white communities and in the most vulnerable situations.

“I have been spat at and beaten by racists. I have marched against the fascists, defended minorities, am of Jewish decent as is my partner. If they can do this to me they can do it to anyone.”

A Momentum spokesman said: “Momentum unambiguously condemns antisemitism and welcomes Jeremy Corbyn’s launch of an expert-led inquiry.

“We will look into the claims made in this article.”