Holocaust Post MP To Have Whip Restored By Labour

Suspended MP Kate Osamor will be given the Labour whip back within days, The Independent has been told.

- ARCHIE MITCHELL

Three months after being suspended following a Holocaust Memorial Day post suggesting the Israeli action in Gaza is genocide, the Edmonton MP will be welcomed back into the Labour fold.

Ms Osamor, who was a shadow minister under Jeremy Corbyn, was placed under investigation over the post, which likened Israel’s war in Gaza to the Holocaust, as well as genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia. In the message, she said: “Tomorrow is Holocaust Memorial Day, an international day to remember the 6 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.”

The Jewish Labour Movement (JLM) condemned the remarks as “inappropriate and offensive”. And the Board of Deputies of British Jews issued a statement saying it “unreservedly condemned the attempts by Kate Osamor to link the Holocaust to the current situation in Gaza”. She quickly apologised for the post and instead referred to the situation in Gaza as a “humanitarian disaster” as opposed to a “genocide”.

Judges at the International Court of Justice in the Hague have said there is a “plausible” case Israel has committed acts in Gaza that violate the Genocide Convention.

The Independent approached Labour and Ms Osamor for comment.