UK: Jew-hate claims at London School of Economics

The Jewish Chronicle reports:

Mr Uddin with Labour leader
Jeremy Corbyn and shadow cabinet
member Diane Abbott

Labour’s investigation into allegations of antisemitism at a leading university has been made aware of similar Jew-hate claims at a second campus, the JC can reveal.

A complaint has been sent to Baroness Royall, who is leading the enquiry, about the actions of a candidate running to lead the London School of Economics’ students’ union.

Rayhan Uddin lobbied another candidate to drop out of the race, claiming that “leading Zionists” were trying to swing the election.  He has since apologised for his remarks, saying he was "deeply sorry to all those who I have angered or offended".

Mr Uddin, who is a vice-chair of the school’s Labour Society, and a Labour Party member, encouraged Samiha Begum to leave the contest to be general secretary of the LSE union.

In a message Mr Uddin [...]  wrote that fellow candidate Harry Maxwell, who is endorsed by LSE’s Jewish and Israel societies, was “running a very slick campaign”.

Mr Uddin wrote: “We discussed the other day how he is backed by Jay Stoll [a former Jewish LSE SU general secretary] and other leading Zionists around the country because they want to win back LSE and make it right wing and Zio again.

“The Zionists at LSE have two priorities this year; getting last year’s LSE Israel society president Josh Seitler to become the new UJS President, and the second is for Harry Maxwell to become Gen Sec.

“The first has already happened. If the second happens too, not only will it be awful for Muslims and pro-Palestine activists at LSE, but for Muslims and pro-Palestine activists across the whole country.

“A combination of Josh and Harry will be really damaging to all the work NUS and others are doing with BDS, Prevent and other things.”  [...]

LSE Jewish Society said it found Mr Uddin’s reported remarks “alarming”. Members had seen comments on Facebook on Tuesday, the group said.

The claims of a Zionist conspiracy were “reminiscent of some of the most dangerous, ugly, yet unfortunately, frequently repeated antisemitic tropes of the past 100 years. It has no place on our campus”.

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