Concerns over Plaid Cymru candidate

V THE BOARD of Deputies has distanced itself from a suspended Plaid Cymru member who “dragged” them into a row over alleged antisemitism.

Sahar Al-Faifi, who featured in the party’s election broadcast, was suspended last Sunday over social media posts the party is now investigating.

After she claimed to have received antisemitism training “both formally through the Board of Deputies and informally with Jewish colleagues in order to ensure I never repeat the same mistakes”, a spokesperson for the Board said: “As Sahar Al-Faifi has dragged us in to the row over her candidacy we would like to clarify some facts. We met Sahar Al-Faifi to confront her over concerns we had over antisemitic posts.

“Ms Al-Faifi apologised and made some amendments to her social media output. However, we were clear that the situation still remained unsatisfactory.”

The Board said it had asked her to edit or delete some of her social media posts from 2012 and 2017, but that the amendments had not been made.

She changed a December 2012 Facebook post about Hamas leaders giving a victory salute to say they were greeted by

“cheering crowds”, which the Board said “does little to change the fact that this post is promoting ‘a mighty victory’ for a proscribed terrorist group”. Her 2017 post after the London Bridge atrocity still linked “pro-Zionists” to the attack.

The Board spokesperson said: “After 18 months of waiting for her to delete them, Ms Al-Faifi’s resistance to doing so raises serious questions about her suitability as a candidate.”

A spokesperson for Plaid Cymru said about the suspension: “We will investigate all allegations. Plaid Cymru will not tolerate antisemitism, racism or intolerance in any form.”