Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Lisa Nandy MP
In an interview with Jewish News last week, Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Lisa Nandy laid out how Labour “absolutely shares” the government’s belief that boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns against Israel can be adopted in this country to “whip up hostility against the Jewish community”.
Confirming her own long-held viewpoint that BDS “singles out the world’s only Jewish state to different standards” and can also be used “as a way to strip up hatred towards the Jewish community here in the UK”, Lisa also reaffirmed that Labour is “not going to change our position on this, not now, and not in government.”
She continued that, under Keir Starmer’s leadership, the party were “not just concerned about the way in which BDS has become used to stir up hostility towards the Jewish community here in the UK, but because we don’t believe there is any meaningful route to peace for the Palestinians or for Israel without bringing people together, without co-existence projects, without supporting joint ventures that have emerged.”
She added:”The context of this is that we have seen a dramatic rise in antisemitism over the last decade and we’ve also seen BDS used particularly on social media, along with the word Zionist, as a term of abuse towards Jewish people.
“What is positive is there is a strong view from parties across parliament, not least Labour, that BDS has been used by some in order to stir up hate against the Jewish community, and we won’t stand for that.
“It’s the singling out of the world’s only Jewish state, the different standards and treatment, and the way in which in some cases this has been used to stir up antisemitism that necessitates the need for action.”