LONDON: A British Jewish woman who fell foul of the UK’s Labour Party over her anti-Zionist views is threatening to take legal action against the party.
Diana Neslen, 82, believes that the party unlawfully discriminated against her on the basis of her stance.
She is now being investigated by the party for the third time in three years.
A practicing Jew, Neslen has been accused of antisemitism for critical tweets posted about Israel and Zionism.
Her lawyers have sent a pre-action letter to the Labour Party arguing that its investigation into her is unjustified and disproportionate, as it rests on a single tweet from 2017 which said: “The existence of the state of Israel is a racist endeavour and I am an antiracist Jew.”
They claim anti-Zionism is a protected philosophical belief in UK law, and that Neslen has been “subjected by the party to discrimination and harassment related to her protected philosophical belief.”
She told The Guardian: “I remember thinking at the end of the war, ‘Why didn’t the Germans do anything?’ When there’s injustice done in your name you cannot close your eyes to it. That’s why I feel very strongly.
“The Labour party has no idea in my opinion of what antisemitism is. My son was attacked by a luminary of the BNP (British National party) who was jailed for three years. I remember picking up the phone and being subjected to death threats from the BNP. People who have never experienced antisemitism have no idea what it means, what it means for a Jew to be found guilty of antisemitism.”
Labour has long faced accusations of systemic antisemitism, and in 2018 the party adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which includes as an example: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, eg by claiming that the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavour.”
The election of Sir Keir Starmer in 2020 brought with it a fresh crackdown on alleged antisemitism within the party’s ranks.
Neslen is a member of the group Jewish Voice for Labour, which says it knows of 42 Jewish members of the party, two of whom have since died, who have faced or are facing disciplinary action relating to allegations of antisemitism. The group estimates that more than five times more Jewish than non-Jewish Labour members have faced actioned complaints of antisemitism.
Neslen has said she will sue Labour if it does not apologize and undertake not to pursue further investigations against her in respect of her beliefs.
Labour has not replied to letters from her lawyers and did not respond to a request for comment from The Guardian.