Corbyn activist is suspended over ‘dancing Jews’ video
A LABOUR activist linked to the Momentum group, which backs Jeremy Corbyn, has been suspended after creating an allegedly anti-Semitic video mocking three councillors.
Daniel Harris posted a video on Facebook featuring the faces of three Labour councillors superimposed on the heads of dancing Jewish figures.
The video, entitled ‘ The Dancing Brighton and Hove Councillors’, featured city council leader Warren Morgan and his colleagues Anne Meadows and Caroline Penn. It is understood that two of the councillors have close family ties to the Jewish community.
Mr Harris campaigns on housing issues in Brighton and Hove for Momentum, the hard-Left grassroots organisation.
Following a fierce backlash to the video, he has now been suspended by Labour pending an investigation into the post, which he claims was ‘a bit of fun’.
Fiona Sharpe, communities consultant at the Sussex Jewish Representative Council, described the video as a ‘crass uneducated insult’.
She said: ‘ His depiction of three local councillors as Orthodox Jews surrounded by the Star of David is not viewed as “fun” by the Jewish community.
‘We see it as a crass, uneducated insult aimed at our community. Does Mr Harris think it would be amusing to portray councillors dressed in hijabs or turbans?’ Ivor Caplin, former Labour MP for Hove
‘Without question anti-Semitic’
and spokesman for the Jewish Labour Movement, said: ‘ The posting of that video on social media is without question anti-Semitic.
‘The JLM has submitted a formal complaint on the matter. There are people who think they can defend Dan Harris for this – there may need to be a wider investigation by the party.’
Last night, the video had been removed from Mr Harris’s Facebook page and replaced with a different video featuring the three councillors as dancing elves.
One user commented: ‘Too late. You’re a nasty piece of work, fooling no- one.’ Writing in a blog, Mr Harris said he was ‘ utterly devastated’ and blamed his suspension on ‘a political ploy by the Right in Labour’.
He said: ‘I want to condemn all forms of racism. As a gay man who has been victim to two incidents of homophobic hate crime this year, I know full well the challenges people from minority groups face.
‘I would never take part in any form of racism. I fight for vulnerable people in the community and as a result of being fairly vocal on issues, I believe this whole incident is a political ploy by the Right in Labour to deny working-class voices and smear the Left.
‘Finally I want to end with an apology if my post did offend anyone, it was certainly never meant to offend. It was meant to bring seasonal joy, not more divisions.’
Under Mr Corbyn’s leadership, Labour has faced a wave of criticism over allegations of anti-Semitism.
The party conference in Brighton in September included a fringe meeting at which Israel was likened to the Nazis and a panellist questioned whether the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered, had happened.
During the conference, council leader Mr Morgan said the party would not be welcome back in the city unless Mr Corbyn acted to stamp out anti-Semitism.
Mr Corbyn insists he believes in a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to the issue but has faced criticism over his own stance on Israel.
Last year, Mr Harris was removed from the Brighton and Hove District Labour Party executive committee after the constituency party was suspended amid accusations of abusive behaviour and an improper ballot at the annual general meeting.
The party was later disbanded and reconstituted into three separate constituency parties.
Momentum now faces further claims of attempting to seize control of Brighton and Hove City Council after winning all nine places on the council’s candidate selection committee for the next election.