British City Councillor Ousted by Labour Party for ‘Hitler Was Greatest’ Tweets
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
Britain’s Labour Party has suspended a municipal lawmaker over anti-Semitic tweets written before she was elected, including one praising Adolf Hitler as the “greatest man in history.”
Aysegul Gurbuz, 20, a councillor in Luton, located about 30 miles northwest of London, denied that she had written the tweets, saying her sister had posted them on their joint Twitter account, the Daily Mail reported.
The Labour Party said Gurbuz, who is Muslim, would be suspended pending an investigation. She was elected in May, becoming the youngest lawmaker in her district’s history.
Along with the lauding of Hitler, other tweets posted between 2011 and 2014 said Gurbuz hoped Israel would be wiped out by an Iranian nuclear bomb and “The Jews are so powerful in the US it’s disgusting.” Another read: “Ed Miliband is Jewish. He will never become prime minister of Britain.” Miliband is a former foreign minister of Britain.
The account has been deleted.
Labour has seen a string of scandals involving alleged anti-Semitism, leading to the suspension of at least one party activist.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
