A British-Nigerian member of the Labour Party, Kate Osamor, has been suspended from the party pending an investigation into her remarks where she made a comparison between the situation in Gaza and the Holocaust.
The controversy began when Osamor, Edmonton’s Member of Parliament, sent a message to her party members on Sunday, the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day, listing Gaza as one of the recent examples of genocide.
“Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day, an international day to remember the six million Jews murdered during the Holocaust, the millions of other people murdered under Nazi persecution of other groups and more recent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and now Gaza,” Osamor said.
Her message included a photo of herself signing the Holocaust Education Trust’s commemorative book in Westminster.
Meanwhile, the Holocaust Educational Trust said her remark was a “painful insult to Holocaust survivors” and the Board of Deputies of British Jews, saying it is “disgraceful”.
The Jewish Leadership Council accused her of using HMD to attack the Jewish state.
Faced with criticism, Osamor later apologised on X, claiming that she meant to refer to the Gaza situation as a “humanitarian disaster” rather than a genocide.
“Holocaust Memorial Day is a day to remember the 6 million Jews killed in the Holocaust and the genocides that have occurred since. I apologise for any offence caused by my reference to the ongoing humanitarian disaster in Gaza as part of that period of remembrance,” she wrote.
MailOnline reported that a Labour source confirmed that the Chief Whip has suspended Osamor from the Parliamentary Labour Party pending an investigation.
However, Momentum, the pressure group on the left of Labour, called the suspension an “outrageous decision [that] further damages Labour’s reputation for anti-racism under Keir Starmer and should be immediately reversed.”
Starmer, the Labour Party’s leader, has previously supported Israel’s “right to defend itself” in Gaza against Hamas, but has recently called for a long-term ceasefire and condemned the “intolerable” casualties.
His position has caused tensions within the Labour Party with members urging him to be more critical of Israel’s military action, which has reportedly led to an estimated 24,000 deaths.
