UK's Labour Party suspends senior figure after claims anti-Semitism crisis was manufactured by Israeli Embassy
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Britain's Labour Party was hit with another anti-Semitism row after a senior party figure was suspended after claiming that the party's issues have been manufactured by Israel.
Pete Willsman, who was on the party’s National Executive Committee, said that an open letter signed by nearly 70 rabbis across the country was “obviously organized by the Israeli embassy.”
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The comments were revealed by LBC, which published the recording on Friday. Willsman is also heard saying some Labour staffers were working “indirectly” for the Israeli embassy.
“The rich control the papers. The rich control everything else and they know he's [Jeremy Corbyn] going to make them pay taxes,” Willsman said, referring to Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
“The rich control the papers. The rich control everything else and they know he's [Jeremy Corbyn] going to make them pay taxes.”
“One of the things about anti-Semitism is that they're using that to whip people up. They use anything. It's all total lies.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In the recording, Willsman is also heard making an “off the record” statement that “It's almost certain who is behind all this antisemitism against Jeremy. Almost certainly it was the Israeli embassy.”
He added: “They caught somebody in the Labour Party. It turns out they were an agent in the Israeli Embassy. My guess would be, they are the ones whipping it all up.”
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The recording was made by Tuvia Tenenbom, an Israeli-American author, after encountering Willsman in Oxford.
Earlier this week, Britain's human rights watchdog said it launched an investigation into whether the Labour Party is guilty of illegal anti-Semitism.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission says it is examining whether the party "unlawfully discriminated against, harassed or victimized people because they are Jewish."
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Labour denied the accusations on Tuesday and insisted that it’s “fully committed to the support, defense and celebration of the Jewish community and is implacably opposed to anti-Semitism in any form.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.