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Journalist says Sultana did not pursue legal threat over his ‘evasive antisemite’ post
Independent MP for Coventry South sent Oliver Kamm a legal letter. He responded saying he was willing to take the case to court
An MP who threatened legal action against a journalist who called her an “evasive antisemite” did not pursue the claim after he refused to apologise or retract the remark, according to the journalist.
Oliver Kamm, a longtime writer for The Times, used the term to describe Zarah Sultana, MP for Coventry South, in August last year, after she had described herself as being “loudly and proudly” anti-Zionist. At the time Sultana responded saying, “Delete and apologise, otherwise you better lawyer up. Anti-Zionism is not antisemitism. The smears won’t work this time.”
In a series of social media posts on Monday, Kamm described what he claims happened next, saying,“to my complacency, the wrath of 1,000s of pseudonymous X accounts descended upon me. More temperately, I received a letter of claim from Ms Sultana’s solicitors, Bindmans, saying I’d referred to her as racist & prejudiced against Jews.
“The letter required remedies including deletion, retraction, apology & a contribution of £1,000 to a charity of Ms Sultana’s choice. Acting for me, Mark Lewis of Patron Law responded that I would do none of these things; and we prepared for the issue to go to trial.”
Kamm further noted that, “Disinformation ran riot. A far-left ‘news’ site called The Canary falsely claimed I’d deleted my tweet and that this ‘spoke volumes’. My tweet in fact remains on X/Twitter to this day, as they could easily have checked.
“A crude screenshot of a purported apology by me circulated widely. I assumed that no thoughtful person could be taken in by it but as a precaution I explicitly stated, and now repeat, it was faked. My legal advice was that I had a strong defence. I hence stood firm.”
Kamm said he understood that the one-year limitation period for bringing the defamation claim had now expired. He stressed that “we didn’t dispute their interpretation of my comment. We held rather that it was an honestly held opinion based on facts, and that even if the court determined it was a statement of fact, it was still true.”
In July 2025, Sultana and Jeremy Corbyn announced plans for a new left-wing political party, which subsequently became Your Party. Early polling suggested significant potential support, although the party has since fallen sharply in national voting-intention polls.
Kamm described Your Party as “a total fiasco but its fragments remain. Even if (like me) you support Palestinian statehood & agree (as Jonathan Freedland has said) that ‘Israelis will indeed have to face a great reckoning for the destruction they have wreaked in Gaza’, some things bear stressing. If Hamas prevailed, the oppression of Palestinians would not end but radically intensify, while a new dark age for the Jews would begin. A ‘left’ that fails to see the evils of theocratic absolutism is no instrument for human liberation, but its enemy.
“Ms Sultana’s views are ignorant but that isn’t impeachable. I hence drew attention to their connotations. I’m glad to have done so, and not backed down. The cause of liberalism, pluralism & secularism – of which the Jewish national ideal is part – is not one I’ll ever betray.”
Sultana responded to Kamm’s thread by posting a meme reading: “I ain’t reading all that. Free Palestine.” Numerous replies to her post pointed out that she had been the one to originally threaten Kamm with legal action, with one suggesting she had “folded like a deck chair”.
Lord Wolfson, the Shadow Attorney General, commended Kamm “for standing his ground. He wrote: “A lawyer’s letter is not a judgment, and a threat of proceedings shouldn’t shut down legitimate criticism. Free speech sometimes depends on people being prepared to defend their comments, and not being intimidated into a retraction.”
Jewish News has contacted Sultana for comment.
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