Britain's Labour is under growing pressure to reprimand party member Peter Willsman after a recording surfaced in which he suggested "Trump fanatics" were behind accusations of anti-Semitism in the party.
At a meeting of the party's National Executive Committee earlier this month, Willsman, a close ally of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, said he had never seen anti-Semitism in his party.
Addressing an open letter signed by 60 rabbis alleging "sever and widespread" anti-Semitism in Labour, Willsman told the committee, "They can falsify social media very easily, and some of these are people in the Jewish community, support Trump. They're Trump fanatics, and all the rest of it. So I'm not going to be lectured to by Trump fanatics … without any evidence at all.
"So I think we should ask the 70 rabbis, where is your evidence of severe and widespread anti-Semitism in this party? … Let me ask you a question, how many people in this room have seen anti-Semitism in the Labour Party? … I've certainly never seen it," he said.
Willsman, who is running for re-election to the NEC, later apologized for his comments, although he claimed they were not all accurately reported.
Board of Deputies of British Jews Marie van der Zyl called for Willsman's expulsion from the party.
Jewish Labour Movement Chairwoman Luciana Berger called the recording "sickening" on Twitter and wrote, "The fact that it took place in a meeting of @UKLabour's sovereign body the other week after all that's happened is a disgrace. Blaming any other minority group wldn't be tolerated – why is the Jewish community treated this way?"
The Jewish Labour Movement has called for Willsman's suspension as well as a disciplinary investigation into the matter.
In an opinion piece in The Telegraph, Monday, Boris Johnson, who recently resigned as Britain's foreign minister, blasted Corbyn for NEC's decision not to adopt the full, internationally accepted definition of anti-Semitism.
Examples omitted by the NEC include accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel than their own nations, claiming that Israel's existence is a racist endeavor and comparing Israeli actions with those of the Nazis.
Johnson said Corbyn could easily resolve the anti-Semitism issue by adopting the full definition of the word but that the Labour leader would not do so because of his belief that Israel was a "racist endeavor" and the greatest obstacle to peace in the Middle East.
