Jewish leaders ask Welsh party why activist not expelled for 'antisemitic' posts

Board of Deputies and South Wales Jewish Representative Council write to Plaid Cymru's leader with concerns over 'serial poster' of hateful material, Sahar Al-Faifi

Jewish leaders have sent a letter to the chair of Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru, urging it to expel a member who has reportedly shared antisemitic material on social media.

The Board of Deputies of British Jews and South Wales Jewish Representative Council wrote to the party’s head, Alan Fred Jones, expressing its “deep concern” over the refusal to take action against member, Sahar Al-Faifi.

“Regrettably, a message has been sent to Jews and antisemites that antisemitism is tolerated in Plaid Cymru”, the letter said.

Sheila Gewolb, senior vice president of the Board and Laurence Kahn, chair of South Wales Jewish Representative Council, claim that Al-Faifi is a “serial poster” of antisemitic material, after propagating an antisemitic conspiracy theory linking police violence in America with Israel.

Following the death of George Floyd in police custody in the USA, Sahar Al-Faifi posted a now deleted tweet, saying: “If you wonder where did these American cops trained, look no further than Israel. Oppression is one and the struggle is transitional.”

However, the letter says that this is not an isolated incident and alleges that Al-Faifi’s antisemitic behaviour has been ongoing for years, including propagating Rothschild conspiracy theories and trying to blame Jews for the June 2017 London Bridge terror attack.

Sahar Al-Faifi said in a statement: “My tweet on 1st of June 2020 was based on [an] Amnesty USA report from 2016 titled: ‘Where do many police departments train? In Israel.’

“Amnesty made a clarification, four years after the report, on 25th of June 2020, stating that the Israeli state is one of the countries where American policemen trained.

“Subsequently, my tweet was deleted.”

Al-Faifi was suspended by Plaid Cymru in November 2019 after social media posts re-emerged, which she admitted crossed the boundary into antisemitism, but she was later allowed back into the party.

It appears that Al-Faifi is free to seek the Plaid Cymru nomination for the Senedd constituency of Cardiff North, the constituency with the greatest number of Jews in Wales. The latest letter to Plaid Cymru’s chair asks what the party will do to rectify this situation.