Labour cllr who shared ‘Israel supports Isis’ tweet wasn’t suspended
Jewish News understands that Ayfer Orhan remains under investigation by the party, but Labour sources said she was not suspended by the Enfield Labour Group.
The national party has contradicted claims by a local Labour group that a councillor had the whip withdrawn, after she shared a tweet claiming Israel was “supporting Al Qaeda and Isis”.
Jewish News understands that Ayfer Orhan remains under investigation by the party but Labour sources said she was not suspended by the Enfield Labour Group.
This comes after she shared a tweet sent by the account Partisan Girl, which read: “#Israel hoped that destabilising #Syriaby supporting ALQaeda [sic] & #ISIS would help legitimise their annexation of the #GolanHeights.”
Sharing the tweet, a post from Orhan’s read: “What is this??? I have been watching the development of political interest for the #GolanHeights with some interest but this is truly shocking if true.”
After complaints, the local Labour group said its chief whip suspended her, as reported by Jewish News in March. But, this week the leader of the council, Nesil Caliskan. revealed that Labour’s governance and legal unit (GLU) informed them Orhan had not been suspended.
Caliskan, told Jewish News they “took decisive action to suspend Cllr Orhan following the social media post being brought to our attention by the national Labour Party.
“Shortly after that decision, the national Labour Party announced they would conduct an investigation.”
She added, that GLU “informed us.. that Cllr Orhan is not suspended from Enfield Labour Group. We are unaware of whether the Party has conducted an investigation and we also have not been informed of who in the Governance & Legal Unit has taken this decision.
Labour’s GLU confirmed that she is under investigation but is not suspended from the party.
A London Labour Party spokesperson, said: “The Labour Party takes all complaints of antisemitism extremely seriously and we are committed to challenging and campaigning against it in all its forms. All complaints about antisemitism are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.”
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