JLM picks Nandy — then she backs Palestinian return
V LABOUR LEADERSHIP candidate Lisa Nandy endorsed a series of pledges issued by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign on the Israel-Palestine conflict, including a statement supporting refugees’ “right of return”, a day after the Jewish Labour Movement nominated her to be party leader at its hustings.
The pledges also appeared to contain a commitment to repealing the antiBoycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) legislation the government is pursuing, saying candidates should oppose “restrictive legislation regarding procurement and investment”.
“I have and always will support Palestinian rights,” Ms Nandy wrote above a retweet of the PSC pledges. “That’s why I oppose Trump’s plan, have campaigned against British business profiting from the OPTs [Occupied Palestinian Territories] and support any embargo on arms deals which violates human rights.”
The “right of return” refers to the right of people to return to the land and properties they left during the 1948 War of Independence or the Six- Day War in 1967.
But critics say it undermines the twostate solution.
Tzipi Livni, the former Israeli foreign minister and previously a co-leader of the centre-left Zionist Union, has written: “As a true supporter of peace based on the principle of two-states-for-twopeoples, the demand that Palestinian refugees ‘return’ to Israel is not only at odds with the very rationale of a twonation-states solution, but if accepted, would lead to a continuation of the conflict long after the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Such a scenario should be rejected by anyone who truly seeks peace in our lifetime.”
She was writing after outgoing Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called for a solution to the conflict that “makes the Palestinian right to return a reality”. The PSC, which backs the anti-Israel BDS movement, has been accused of “fomenting antagonism through local authorities towards the Jews” by encouraging councils to adopt BDS.
Mr Corbyn is a patron of the organisation.
Ms Nandy, who chairs the Labour Friends of Palestine group, won applause from the audience at JLM’s hustings with an impassioned speech in which she said antisemitism was “different from other forms of racism, it punches up not down”.
She also said: “I believe Jewish people have a right to national self-determination. That makes me a Zionist.”
As well as nominating Ms Nandy for
LEADER
Lisa Nandy 50.9%
Keir Starmer 45.3% Emily Thornberry 1.9% Rebecca Long-Bailey 1.4% Do not nominate 0.5%
DEPUTY LEADER FIRST ROUND
Ian Murray 39.0% Rosena Allin-Khan 35.7% Angela Rayner 18.7% Dawn Butler 2.5% Richard Burgon 1.0% Do not nominate 3.1%
FINAL ROUND
Ian Murray 50.2% Rosena Allin-Khan 49.8%
party leader after the London hustings, JLM members voted for Ian Murray to stand in the deputy leader race at a separate in event in Manchester.
“Both demonstrated at our hustings events that they understand the issues facing the party and the need for radical change, said JLM chair Mike Katz.
“The last few years have been soul destroying for too many Jewish Labour members. We hope that today is the beginning of a healing process.
Ms Nandy tweeted: “Thank you for putting your trust in me... I will not let you down.”
Ms Nandy, who received huge applause for her condemnation of Labour antisemitism, won the votes of more than half JLM members.