Anti-Semitism row: Momentum organiser Jackie Walker readmitted to Labour party following racism allegations

The activist welcomed the lifting of her suspension saying her words had been 'twisted, mashed and mangled'

Caroline Mortimer

Saturday 28 May 2016 17:21 BST

Jackie Walker has already been suspended from the Labour party over the comments

A senior Momentum organiser has been readmitted to the Labour party following her suspension earlier this month for saying Jewish people were the “chief financiers of the sugar and slave trade”.

In a Facebook post about the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Jackie Walker, the vice-chair of the left-wing Labour Party-linked movement, wrote: “I’m sure you know, millions more Africans were killed in the African Holocaust and their oppression continues today on a global scale in a way it doesn’t for Jews...and many Jews (my ancestors too) were the chief financiers of the sugar and slave trade which is of course why there were so many early synagogues in the Caribbean.

“So who are victims and what does it mean? We are victims and perpetrators to some extent through choice. And having been a victim does not give you a right to be a perpetrator."

She also asked “what debt do Jewish people owe?” and said “the Jewish Holocaust does not allow Zionists to do what they want” as she discussed the Palestinian conflict.

Following a meeting in north London earlier this week, the party voted to reinstate her.

In a statement to the political blog, Guido Fawkes, a spokesman for the Labour party said: “Following the outcome of an investigation, Jacqueline Walker is no longer suspended and remains a member of the party.”

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

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1/14Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On Israel and Palestine

The simple fact in all of this is that Naz made these comments at a time when there was another brutal Israeli attack on the Palestinians; and there’s one stark fact that virtually no one in the British media ever reports, in almost all these conflicts the death toll is usually between 60 and 100 Palestinians killed for every Israeli. Now, any other country doing that would be accused of war crimes but it’s like we have a double standard about the policies of the Israeli government

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On Antisemitism in the Labour Party

As I’ve said, I’ve never heard anybody say anything antisemitism-Semitic, but there’s been a very well-orchestrated campaign by the Israel lobby to smear anybody who criticises Israeli policy as antisemitic. I had to put up with 35 years of this

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On Naz Shah

It’s completely over-the-top and rude, but who am I to denounce anyone with all of that. It was wrong. I don’t think she is antisemitic, it was incredibly rude but I don’t believe she is an antisemite. When the NEC investigation is finished they'll say it was rude and over the top but they won’t find any evidence that she actually hates Jews. We’ve got to investigate all these charges and the context in which they are made. If she is antisemitic like the other three or four members we’ve found who are antisemitic, she’ll be expelled

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On other alleged antisemites in Labour

That is part of the classic antisemitic thing about an ‘international Jewish conspiracy’ – that is the reason we need to have an investigation. I’ve got an open mind. I’ve seen nothing to suggest to me that she is antisemitic. I wouldn’t have supported her if I [thought] she was antisemitic

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On whether what Hitler did was legal, as stated by Naz Shah

That’s a statement of fact – Hitler, I’m sure, passed all those laws that allowed him to do that … it’s history … literally, Hitler was completely mad, he killed six million Jews. She’s not saying it’s legal to kill six million Jews: what they were doing in that country allowed them not just to kill six million Jews, kill all the communists, kill all the leftists like me, my father almost died when a Nazi sub sank his boat. I have no sympathy with Hitler

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On another alleged antisemite in Labour

No, that is, and that’s why she’s been suspended or expelled. What I’ve said is that in 47 years of the party in all the meetings I’ve been in I’ve never heard anyone say anything antisemitic. There are bound to be in a party of half a million people you’ll have a handful of antisemites, you’ll have a handful of racists. You’ve managed to dig out virtually every antisemitic comment that Labour members have made out of half a million people. I’ve never met any of these people. There’s not a problem. You’re talking about a handful of people in a party of half a million people. Jeremy Corbyn has moved rapidly to deal with them

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On Jeremy Corbyn’s response to the allegations

He met with Naz and she agreed she would stand down while the investigation is going on. He called her in to see her. There’s been a huge investigation of virtually everything that anybody put on the internet … many of these people are quite new and recent members of the party that joined in the big influx. 300,000 new people came in

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On his meeting a man accused of antisemitism in London

This is the man who called for Muslims around the world to donate blood after the attacks of 9/11 when he came to London I went with him to the Regent’s Park mosque where he said no man should hit a woman and you should not discriminate against homosexuals. So I can’t equate what I heard him say… he made no antisemitic statement while he was here in London. I don’t investigate people. I’ve simply said what I believe to be true which is that Naz was not antisemitic. She was completely over the top, very rude, but that does not make her an antisemite

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On John Mann’s comments

He went completely over the top. I was actually doing a radio interview at the time that he was bellowing that I’m a racist antisemite in my ear. I’ve had that with John Mann before a few weeks ago screaming that I was a bigot down the phone. I’m not an apologist for anyone who makes antisemitic statements. What I’m saying is don’t confuse antisemitism with criticism of the Israeli government policy

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On calling a Jewish journalist a “concentration camp guard” whilst Mayor of London

I can’t tell if a journalist is Jewish or Catholic or anything. If a journalist is chasing you down the street at nine of clock at night you might be rude to them. Some people might have hit him! He said he was just doing his job. We went all the way to the High Court and the judge opened his judgement by saying ‘I hope no one here is going to suggest that Mr Livingstone is antisemitic’. We won the case

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On claims about Hitler and Zionism

I can’t tell if a journalist is Jewish or Catholic or anything. If a journalist is chasing you down the street at nine of clock at night you might be rude to them. Some people might have hit him! He said he was just doing his job. We went all the way to the High Court and the judge opened his judgement by saying ‘I hope no one here is going to suggest that Mr Livingstone is antisemitic’. We won the case

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On John Mann

I’d simply say to John Mann go back and check. Is what I say true, or is it not? The BBC, you’ve got a huge team of researchers, it will take just an hour or two to go back and confirm. I was asked a question, I answered it. I have never in 45 years since I won my first election, I have never lied. I have always answered the question

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On raising the issue if Hitler

It lays you open to people smearing and lying about you. I’ve always answered the questions put to me and that simple fact is we’ve had a handful of people saying antisemitic things in the Labour Party, they’ve been suspended, some of them are on their way to being expelled, some of them have been expelled already

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On people calling for him to be suspended

All my usual critics – but the simple fact is I agree with them; there is no place for antisemitism in the Labour party. For them to suggest I am antisemitic is a bit bizarre considering we worked with Jewish groups and put on exhibitions about the scale of the holocaust, we worked with Jewish groups to tackling the scale of antisemitism back in the 1970s. I’ve always opposed every form of racism whether it’s against black people or Jews. I’m going to stay in the Labour party and continue to fight against all forms of racism and discrimination as I have my entire life

Following the lifting of her suspension the activist, who is also vice-chair of Thanet Labour party, wrote a blog post for Labour Briefing saying she had not said sorry.

She added: "I will never apologise for being an Internationalist, for holding all life as precious, for not valorising one genocide, one holocaust, over any other.

"And if you ask if I think anti-Semitism is a major problem in the Labour Party, I would give almost the same response as the one I was suspended for – 'No' but with one amendment: anti-Semitism is not a major problem, the suspension process is."

She said she had been warned to be "careful of what I say" and her words had been "twisted, mashed and mangled".

Ms Walker accused the media of taking her comments out of context to "support their own slapdash, anti-Labour, anti the present leadership, rhetoric".

She said there was a McCarthyite campaign – referring to the anti-Communist witchhunt in the US in the 1950s – against the left within Thanet Labour and suggested that the right wing of the party and the media were collaborating with "Israeli propagandists" to smear the left.

Ms Walker said: "The fear in my CLP [constituency Labour Party] is palpable; McCarthyism lives and with the same purpose – the destruction of the left.

"In this way Israeli propagandists and their fellow travellers, who conscientiously use every minute of their working day and probably more, to uncover racists as rabid as me, are left with a clear run to get on with their dirty work."

Ms Walker's suspension came a week after Ken Livingstone was suspended for saying Hitler was a Zionist — Ms Walker's suspension came a week after Ken Livingstone was suspended for saying Hitler was a Zionist (Reuters)

Her suspension came a week after the suspension of Ken Livingstone from the party after he suggest Hitler was a Zionist while speaking on LBC.

Following the uproar, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn announced he would launch an inquiry into anti-Semitism within the party.

He said the party was “anti-racist” and had a long history of fighting against all forms of it.

Jonathan Sacerdoti, of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, said: "If the Labour Party has truly readmitted a member who publicly subscribes to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories of Jews financing and causing the slave trade, their ongoing inquiry into anti-Semitism can barely be taken seriously."

He added that for the Labour Party to readmit people who spread "malicious myths" about Jews "tells us that anti-Semitism in the Labour Party is becoming institutional".