Welsh party criticised for ‘deplorable’ decision not to expel activist

Jewish leaders have accused the Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru of a “deplorable and deeply regrettable” decision not to kick an activist out after she linked US police violence with Israel.

The furore yet again centred on Sahar al-Faifi, who was suspended last year before being readmitted in January. At the time she apologised for propagating Rothschild conspiracy theories and blaming Jews for the June 2017 London Bridge terror attack.

Yet after she pushed “conspiratorial antisemitic rhetoric” in June this year, the Board of Deputies and Welsh Jewish groups have called for her to be expelled – action party bosses now appear unwilling to take.

Representatives vented their frustration after a meeting with Plaid Cymru chair Alun Ffred Jones and chief executive Gareth Chubb last week.

In a damning indictment, the party’s hierarchy was accused of “sending a message to the Jewish community… that it is acceptable to have someone who shares antisemitic conspiracy theories within the party”.

In their letter, Board senior vice president Sheila Gewolb and Laurence Kahn, the chair of the South Wales Jewish Representative Council, said: “It is totally deplorable that there has been no sanction.”

They added that Plaid Cymru “needs to think again and urgently review the decision relating to Sahar Al-Faifi, which suggests that the party either does not understand antisemitism, or simply does not care about it”.

The lack of censure means that she is free to continue to seek the nomination for Plaid Cymru for the Senedd constituency of Cardiff North, which has the greatest number of Jews in Wales, something the Board said “only adds to the offence”.

Back in June, Gewolb said al-Faifi had taken her readmission “as a signal that she has carte blanche to continue to promote such conspiracy theories, such as the claim that the American police officers responsible for the deaths of African Americans were trained by Israel”.

Al-Faifi’s tweet followed the killing by white police officers of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, in a busy daytime street. The incident was captured on video and circulated, prompting a summer of race riots across the country.