The sacking of an MP shows the perils of criticising Israel in the UK

Left wingers within the UK’s opposition Labour party have expressed outrage after an MP was sacked from a front bench role after sharing an article that contained criticism of Israel.

Rebecca Long-Bailey, a leading leftist figure within the party, was sacked as shadow education secretary for tweeting out an interview with actress Maxine Peake.

The interview published by the Independent was broad and touched on a number of topics, including the recent killing of George Floyd by US police officers.

Peake described how US police officers had been trained by Israeli counterparts but claimed the specific knee-on-neck restraining technique used by Floyd’s killers had been learnt from Israeli forces.

That is something Israel denies and there is no information of the specific tactics US police forces have been taught.

The oversight was deemed part of an anti-Semitic conspiracy by Labour leader, Keir Starmer, who promptly sacked Long-Bailey for sharing the article.

It is a matter of fact and public record, that Israeli officers do train US police officers, so this framing in terms of anti-Semitism has sparked its own controversy. Israeli police have also frequently been pictured kneeling on the necks of Palestinians.

Is criticising Israel anti-Semitic?

Irrespective of whether Peake’s comments were mistaken or true, the criticism was directed unambiguously towards Israel.

That led to many supporters of the Labour party asking whether Starmer was trying to equate criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism.

One Twitter user wrote: “Let’s stop calling opposition to the Israeli government ”anti-semitism”. It’s deliberate obfuscation and insulting to millions of Jewish people who oppose Israel’s internationally illegal actions.”

Starmer took over as Labour leader after leftist Jeremy Corbyn’s defeat in the 2019 UK elections.

For years prior to his defeat, Corbyn was dogged by a media campaign that sought to portray the veteran socialist as accommodating of anti-Jewish sentiment within the Labour.

Corbyn, however, rejected the characterisation and had the support of a number of left-wing and non-Zionist Jewish groups.

Nevertheless, Starmer has been under pressure to show that he is taking the issue of anti-Semitism seriously.

Many critics of Israel within the party though believe that his reaction during the Long-Bailey episode shows that the Labour leader is trying to stifle all criticism of Israel.

“Just be honest with us @Keir_Starmer and say you want to silence critics of Israel. Even close allies like Bailey,” wrote one user on Twitter.