Labour frontbencher says whips discussing MP’s unacceptable Gaza HMD remarks
Confirmation from Jonathan Reynolds follows disgust at Kate Osamor's attempt to link Gaza with other genocides remembered on Holocaust Memorial Day
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
Labour frontbencher Jonathan Reynolds has said MP Kate Osamor’s comments about Gaza and the Holocaust are not acceptable and has confirmed she faces conversations with party whips this week over possible sanctions.
The shadow business secretary’s remarks came after all the main communal organisations issued condemnation of the MP’s attempt to link Gaza with other genocides remembered on Holocaust Memorial Day.
Jewish News revealed on Friday how Edmonton MP Osamor had infuriated local party members after claiming in her weekly newsletter that “Gaza” should be added to a list of “recent genocides” to be remembered alongside the murder of six million Jews on Holocaust Memorial Day.
Writing under a photograph of herself signing the Holocaust Education Trust’s commemoration book in parliament, ahead of HMD 2024 on Saturday, Osamor wrote of how there was an “international duty to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust” as well as the millions of others people murdered under Nazi persecution.
She then listed “more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia” to be remembered on HMD, before adding the words “and now Gaza”.
Asked by Sky News presenter Trevor Phillips on Sunday is he thought comments made by the left-wing MP “are acceptable”, Reynolds said:”No, I don’t think that it is.”
Reynolds added:”What is happening in Gaza is clearly a humanitarian catastrophe that is recognised.
“But there are specific reasons why the Holocaust is considered as it is.
“It’s important on Holocaust Remembrance Day to remember that. And I understand Kate has apologised.
“There’s been a conversation with the Chief Whip. There’ll be further conversations next week. Of course we take anything in this space extremely seriously.”
Osamor, who has faced several controversies since become an MP, and who has defended former leader Jeremy Corbyn, sparked widespread fury with her latest Holocaust comments.
Karen Pollock, chief executive, Holocaust Educational Trust, responded to the MP’s comments telling Jewish News: “This disgusting post is a malicious distortion of the truth, a painful insult to survivors of the Holocaust and particularly distressing to see on the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day.”
The Jewish Leadership Council said:”Holocaust inversion is antisemitism. To invoke our history and abuse Holocaust Memorial Day to attack the Jewish state is not only amoral, it is offensive to survivors and the wider Jewish community. We will be raising this with the Labour Party.”
Meanwhile the Board of Deputies added:”We unreservedly condemn the attempts by Kate Osamor to link the Holocaust to the current situation in Gaza. We believe that Ms Osamor was perfectly aware of what she was saying and therefore view her apology as utterly hollow.”
In an updated statement the Jewish Labour Movement said Osamor’s subsequent “non apology” for her remarks “rang hollow.”
They called for Labour to suspend her while an investigation took place.
Osamor tweeted on Friday night saying: “I apologise for any offence caused by my reference to the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Gaza.”
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