Candidate said during meeting
“And that Sunday night[...] we wrote emails to the chief executives asking them, that because we don’t agree with what’s happening, this will cause community problems and tensions, we do not want the Israeli flag flying from the town hall at Nelson, Burnley, Accrington, [...]
“We don’t want any flags flying and we don’t want him to visit or paint blue because it will cause a lot of problems. Because we were able to do that. We stopped that from happening.”
During the same meeting, Mr Ali also claimed that Israel allowed the ‘massacre’ of 1,200 people by Hamas on October 7 to justify the invasion of Gaza. Mr Ali apologised for these ‘false’ comments over the weekend which were published in the Mail on
Sunday.
He said: “I’ve been to Israel. The security is that strict from landing at the airport to your hotel, going into Masjid Al-aqsa or any other towns, if you go in Gaza. I can’t believe, there is no way that... Israel knows there’s a border there, there’s a big buffer zone between Gaza and that. And that these people on paragliders, that they had no intelligence at all.
“The Egyptians are saying that they warned Israel ten days earlier. Two weeks earlier. Americans warned them that something is happening. Netanyahu deliberately, using political trouble, he’s in political trouble.
“He cashed it. They deliberately - I believe that, and I’ll say it publicly, I’ve said it publicly. They deliberately took the security off, they allowed the massacre - and it is a massacre of 1,200 innocent people - they allowed that massacre, and that gives them the green light to do whatever they bloody want.”
In a statement responding to the decision to suspend Mr Ali, the Jewish Representative Council of Greater Manchester and Region said: “We have consistently stated the comments made by Azhar Ali about the 7th October terrorist attacks were reprehensible.
“We have noted the Labour Party has suspended their support for Mr Ali now that further anti-semitic comments have come to light. It has always been our belief there must be zero tolerance towards anti-semitism and as a result we fully support this decision.”
A Labour party spokesperson said: “Following new information about further comments made by Azhar Ali coming to light today, the Labour party has withdrawn its support for Azhar Ali as our candidate in the Rochdale by-election. Keir Starmer has changed Labour so that it is unrecognisable from the party of 2019.
“We understand that these are highly unusual circumstances but it is vital that any candidate put forward by Labour fully represents its aims and values. Given that nominations have now closed Azhar Ali cannot be replaced as the candidate.”
The Observer has asked the Labour Party for further information about the meeting where the comments were made.