West Midlands official removed after pressure from right-wing MPs and party figures
The Labour party has been accused of sacking and suspending its West Midlands regional director Fadel Takrouri – the party’s only senior Palestinian official – for the ‘crime’ of being a Corbyn supporter, following a pressure campaign by right-wing MPs and party figures.
An email has been sent out to CLP secretaries in the region stating that Takrouri will be ‘away from the office in the immediate future’ and will be replaced on an interim basis by the current East Midlands director:
Senior Labour figures have told SKWAWKBOX that, while a pretext has been found for the move, the real reason is Takrouri’s support for Jeremy Corbyn and the desire of the local right to re-take control of a regional office previously infamous as a tool of the entrenched West Midlands right.
One insider, who is Jewish and not a Corbynite, told SKWAWKBOX:
It’s because he supports Jeremy, plain and simple.
Takrouri was appointed to the role against fierce opposition from the West Midlands Labour right. The move is seen both as part of the overall purge of the left currently underway in the national party and as the Labour right removing an obstacle to the re-establishment of the power it enjoyed in the area before and well into the Corbyn era.
Palestinians recently wrote an open letter to the Labour party expressing their fears about the party’s actions
shrink[ing] the space in the Labour party for British Palestinians’.
Fadel Takrouri’s removal is unlikely to do anything but deepen those concerns. Mr Takrouri declined to comment when he was contacted by SKWAWKBOX today.
Labour has today been exposed, in another SKWAWKBOX exclusive, providing protection for a right-wing councillor against member complaints who was yesterday jailed for 17 months for electoral fraud in relation to the same incident. But the purge of the left seemingly goes on unabated.
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While the media lauds the Israeli success in vaccination nobody points out that they are denying it to Palestinians even though they control Gaza by siege. .
Here’s a link to more info on this – https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/omar-karmi/israels-vaccine-rollout-excludes-palestinians
Thank you for putti g the link up.
It is disgusting.
Is it any wonder? The Israeli government is cruel enough to deny water to Palestinians in the occupied territories and water and food to those in Gaza. Cruelty to anyone, including Jews, who do not accept Zionism is par for the course in Israel.
Samud – steadfast.
Outrageous
It might be necessary to start a new party if socialism is what you want. I cannot see any way back from this because the rules for challenging a new leader and selecting him/her were never changed in any effective way. The party apparatus was impossible to navigate even under Corbyn.
A major purge of one of the UK’s political parties really is a significant news story. That it has not even been properly addressed by the UK’s TV network strongly suggests that a massive covert shift of rightward power is underway.
The BBC, yesterday, praised the Israeli Government for its vaccination program. At no point in an interview with an Israeli health worker did the reporter ask, “Are Palestinians also being vaccinated?” 12% of ‘the’ population, but precisely which population is that?
Martin – I too noticed that about the BBC News item.
Here’s an extract from the article that I linked to above which clarifies the situation..
Israel has secured 8 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, for which its two million-strong Palestinian citizens are eligible, no provision has been made for the roughly 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza who live under its military occupation.
Israel’s public security minister Amir Ohana, meanwhile, has directed the health ministry not to include so-called security prisoners – all of whom are Palestinian – to be included in the second priority group of inoculations
I heard the interview. The Israeli thought they’d done so well because they were often at war and were way ahead of anybody else in tech solutions. It was horrible waiting for the question to come while knowing it was unlikely to be asked. I guess the BBC thought it would be anti-semetic to suggest discrimination? Starmer would have agreed and the interviewer would have been no doubt blacklisted.
Noola McGovern on BBC world service remarked, when reading out the news of the Israeli vaccination program, that no mention had been made of the settlements, and moved on with, but that’s a whole other story.
At first glance it would appear that he has a potential Employment Tribunal claim against the Labour Party for unfair dismissal as well as racial discrimination.
Beat me to it.
This could be a major mistake by the LP rabid right.
While members can be suspended with vague allegations and without due process or natural justice this is subject to employment law and can be examined in a court where the truth has to be told and the sacking legally justified.
And Antisemite?
And Antisemitism?
Sad but predictable as this cult despises socialism and wants it removed so they can just be this cult of new labour 2.0. Well, let them why waste time, money and effort fighting to remain in this zombie party. Where the name remains but the ideology changes to Tory-lite that’s not Labour!
Until we all stop fighting for a return of the past that will never happen. Because of all the sick right-wing cults power games and support of the scumbag press. What we should be supporting is a socialist party. You know what Labour is meant to be but isn’t ,you know the thing we all want and need?
How welcome will this sacking make Palestinian/ Arabs feel in our party?. Will it make them feel Labour is a safe place for them, that they are valued equally with our Labour Friends of Israel ?
Will they fear that supporting Jeremy Corbyn , a vocal supporter of Palestinian rights, means that they will be punished along with him. Are they permitted to express a view about the denial of human rights to Israeli, Palestinian and Gazian Arabs by the Israeli government or will this result in sanctions against them too? What about the issue of Covid vaccinations raised by others on this site? Can they or anyone else for that matter deplore the fact that Israel is withholding this vaccine from Arabs without fear of suspension or expulsion from the party?
I think it has been absolutely clear since Starmer took over the leadership that any support whatsoever for the Palestinian Arabs is deemed antisemitic by the party. (This was made absolutely clear by Angela Rayner who promised the LFI even that she would expel 1000s and 1000s of us) .The party’s position in this matter disgusts me and I take the opposite view – any support for an individual or government which supports the suppression of Arab Human rights amounts to anti Arab racism.
We have become a party of Anti Arab racists
The crime is supporting Corbyn, not being a Palestinian? PHEW! For a moment there I thought Labour had actually become anti-Semitic.
Evans and Starmer are not just errand boys for the Billionaire Class. They are ‘f**king antisemittes’ of the worst type, an abomination masquerading as ‘new management’.
We often see videos saying “must watch”, well this really is one of them!
https://www.intelligencesquared.com/events/anti-zionism-is-anti-semitism/
Haredim Kier masquerading as the leader of a socialist political party dismantling a socialist political party on behalf of the Knesset. The Labour & Zionist Party of not-so- Great-Britain is as detrimental to the British public interests as the Conservative & Fascist Party. Dark days ahead….
Is the West Midlands region TWatson territory?
We desperately need a new source to get behind a new party Labour is so finished for people like me, we simply cannot allow this garbage party abuse and mislead yet another generation of people on the left. #NoLongerALabourDoormat
I’m sure SKWAKIE’S source is right, “It’s because he supports Jeremy, plain and simple”, but has the new management errand boys offered ANY explanation for the sacking?
The Labour party might soon be a threat to the UK and not even a Tory government will be pleased with the infiltration of the Labour party by a foreign government hellbent on a middle East war to obliterate the threat from Islam.Starmer is leading the Labour party into unknown waters and its clear that these are defining moments for the membership that voted for him….SH?
Indeed. Defining moment, good choice of words. Chilling!
The war heats up. last night Tuesday Starmer had cause to ‘speak’to Ian Lavery for being an anti-vaxer for saying exactly what the BBC journalist at the press conference asked, ‘how can we trust this Government after X, Y, z. It was disgusting said a Michael Gapes. The Guardian is splashing it and tolling the bell. I mention it because it will probably go soon it’s so weak. Starmer actually moved quickly for once to ‘speak’ to the socialist. I think he said ‘the exit is over there’.
According to a article in the Canary everything’s good in Tory virus land…Even the BBC didnt need to help the knight to back the government.I know,I Know he thinks hes the establishment tribute act.Even the old windbag Rayner found something to criticise the government on its lockdown plans.
‘Establishment tribute act’, love it. Great tone of phrase, Joseph
Do not be distracted. What is required is a root and branch clearout of the PLP and their cohorts. The only question that remains is how best can this be undertaken and achieved.