Keir Starmer, the new British prime minister, made a promise several years ago when he replaced the antisemitic Jeremy Corbyn as head of the Labour party: “I’ve made it my first priority to tackle antisemitism, and rebuilding trust with the Jewish community is a No. 1 priority for me.”
Back in June 2020, he seemed to make good on that promise, firing his shadow education minister, Rebecca Long-Bailey, for having retweeted the claim, made by the pro-Palestinian activist and actress Maxine Peake (whom Long-Bailey described in her retweet as “an absolute diamond”), that Israeli police had taught the American police the chokehold and the knee-on-neck technique. The charge was false; the Israelis have never taught the Americans such a method, and even Maxine Peake was forced to admit she had been wrong and retracted her claim – but not before both tweet and retweet had done damage to Israel’s image.
After he had fired her, Keir Starmer had a 90-minute Zoom meeting with about 30 unhappy corbynistas in the Party, who urged him to reappoint Long-Bailey, but Starmer was adamant. He would not do so.
A new day was dawning in the Labour Party. Or so it seemed. Now, as prime minister, he has appointed “Free Palestine” activist Shabana Mahmood as Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. “Labour’s new Justice Secretary was accused of encouraging ‘mob rule’ at pro-BDS protest,” by Jane Prinsley, The Jewish Chronicle, July 7, 2024:
The UK’s new Secretary of State for Justice has a history of supporting Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel and attending anti-Israel marches.
Secretary of State for Justice Shabana Mahmood was accused of encouraging “mob rule” when she forced a supermarket to close in 2014 after a protest over the claim it was “stocking goods from illegal settlements”.
The branch of Sainsbury’s in Birmingham was forced to close for several hours, the MP claimed, before she took to YouTube to call for a boycott of Israeli goods.
She told a rally the week after the Sainsbury’s protest: “I was with 200 activists outside Sainsbury’s in the centre of Birmingham.
“We lay down in the street and we laid down inside Sainsbury’s to say we object to them stocking goods from illegal settlements – and that they must stop. We managed to close down that store at peak time on a Saturday. This is how we can make a difference.”
Mahmood was slammed by Jewish leaders at the time, including the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Leadership Council.
Simon Johnson, then chief executive of JLC, said: “It is completely inappropriate for a Member of Parliament to promote public disorder that forced a supermarket to close.” Vivian Wineman, then president of the BoD, added: “Such rabble rousing is extremely irresponsible.”
Mike Freer, then MP for Finchley and Golders Green, said at the time: “For any Parliamentarian to encourage mob rule as a way of protesting is shameful. Will synagogues and kosher shops be next on her list of targets?”
Since her controversial Sainsbury’s protest a decade ago, Mahmood has continued to back the Palestinian cause, including attending protests organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign….
If Keir Starmer does indeed support Shabana Mahmood’s insistence that Israel be punished by the UK with a boycott of goods from the West Bank, that is indeed a great disappointment, and deflates the hopeful expectations his cleanup of Labour had created. One wonders why Keir Starmer ever appointed Mahmood to become Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice in the first place. Her record of support for BDS goes back to 2014. Is that the kind of person Keir Starmer, if truly determined to pull out root and branch the antisemitic and anti-Israel corbynistas and oppose antisemitism in the UK, should have appointed to such posts? If for some reasons of internal Labour politics that remain opaque to the outside world, Shabana Mahmood had to be given a position of importance, why not steer her away from matters of state, where she can do the most damage? Starmer might have made her Minister for Transport, or for Housing. That would have limited her potential for doing harm.
I don’t think Keir Starmer is antisemitic. But he clearly needs to study, far more than he has until now, the history of modern Israel, in order to be fair both to that permanently imperiled tiny state, and to himself as the new British prime minister.
Tony Rice says
This appointment is indeed a puzzle. Starmer’s wife is Jewish as are the children and he joins in the Jewish observance of the Sabbath , hence this appointment takes some explaining. Unless of course it is some form of window-dressing ?
John Smith says
Thanks for that Tony, I had no idea Starmer’s wife is Jewish. Now it makes a lot more sense to me why he tackled the Jew hatred that was consuming the Labour party.
Eva says
He did next to nothing.
He booted a couple of the most vocal out, and relied on fast talking and the desperation of some parts of the population to believe that he’d ‘purged’ the party of Jew-hatred, and to not look too closely at what they didn’t want to see.
He is a liar, a hypocrite and a manipulator.
I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. And I beg everyone else not to trust him either.
John Smith says
Don’t get me wrong Eva. I’m not sticking up for him because I don’t trust him either. I cannot stand the man or the party he represents.
However he did do one thing right, at least he kicked the hamas loving Jeremy Corbyn out of the party.
maria says
I fully agree.He is a liar and he should never be a PM.
However are there any person in the Labour who is pro UK who can cooperate with the US next president Mr. Trump?
And does Starmer support Israel?
Eva says
She’s a liberal ‘Jew’.
We all know what that means.
Not an actual Jew, but a treacherous, virtue-signalling jino.
He plays up the part when he wants to make use of it, but don’t forget, he wh*red himself out for corbyn, he was his biggest shill for years.
And if he’s that into Judaism, why hasn’t he converted? In fact, why didn’t she insist on it?
Let’s not forget all the moslem terrorists he’s defended too, and the fact that he did NOTHING about the rape gangs during his time as head of the dpp.
Or the promise to recognise ‘palestine’.
This creature is an islamist through and through.
We are doomed.
Rarely says
Eva
Exactly what does “liberal Jew” mean?
“not an actual Jew but a treacherous virtue-signalling(sic) jino”..
Sounds like anti-Semitic stereotyping if I ever heard it.
Seems to me you are a cino.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
From Eva’s post, I tend to think she’s Jewish, although she’s welcome to correct me on that
She’s absolutely right. Jews who support Leftists who collude w/ jihadists are JINOs, or Kapos, or whatever it is they are called
Rarely says
Infidel
What are Christians who support leftists?
OLD GUY says
Or campaign fund repayment. Don’t want to disappoint those Islamic funders
mgoldberg says
He married a ‘jewish’ woman. That does’nt make him but someone’s husband. And this exorcising of antisemites was merely window dressing, as shown by this appointment.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
In addition to being anti Israel, she happens to be anti-India as well. It’s pretty befitting that Starmar should try & lose both the Jewish and the Hindu vote, even while some of his candidates lose to pro-Palestinian independents
https://opindia.com/2024/07/profile-shabana-mahmood-pakistan-occupied-kashmir-origin-british-mp-anti-india-anti-israeli-propaganda
tim gallagher says
Probably will be a popular move among the left wing wanker brigade that would support Starmer and his left wing government. Diversity in this woman’s ethnic background and a female as well, kind of like Kamala Harris, ticks the boxes. Here in Australian, there is a commentator, Rowan Dean, who often says, listen left leaning Jews, it is time to realise that the left are not your friends since the left fascist scum out here, as everywhere else, are supporting ham-ass and the Palestinian Muslim scum and indulging in the evil anti-Jewish hatred that is so trendy these days. What a hopeless government Starmer’s is bound to be in endless ways.
Wellington says
Just another weenie is Starmer. He may wiggle a bit this way or that way to try to make good but it will eventually amount to nothing and the UK will continue to sink into the sea.
James Lincoln says
Tragically true, Wellington.
Billy Corr says
The new Prime Minister is a harsh and unforgiving taskmaster; if she displeases, she will be
summarily dismissed and we may be quite certain that she knows this.
On the other hand, he has only to encounter determined resistance and his own resolve dissolves/