Labour’s Byelection Candidate Stayed Quiet on Israel’s Genocide in Gaza
Por Charlotte Reck — Novara Media
The Labour candidate seeking to win former prime minister Keir Starmer’s seat has failed to condemn Israel’s genocide in Gaza but has criticised the recent Green party ‘Zionism is Racism’ motion as “divisive”.
Sagal Abdi-Wali, a Starmer ally and leader of Camden council, is running against Green leader Zack Polanski in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, which is widely considered to be a two-horse race between Labour and the Greens.
Abdi-Wali has not publicly spoken about Israel’s devastation of Gaza at any point between October 2023 and her selection as Labour’s byelection candidate, according to a detailed feature in Tribune magazine.
Abdi-Wali also drawn criticism for dodging questions about Israel’s genocide on the campaign trail.
Camden council, led by Abdi-Wali since May after four years serving as a councillor, has seen its investments in US spytech firm Palantir, which supplies military tech to Israel, soar by over 1,200% since October 2023, according to FOI disclosures first shared with Declassified UK .
The council’s overall holdings in companies complicit in Israel’s apartheid, occupation and genocide of the Palestinian people, including weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, have increased in value by nearly 30% – worth £28m – since June 2024.
The council has repeatedly ignored calls for divestment.
Abdi-Wali also failed to sign the Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s pledge calling on local government candidates to commit to working to end complicity in genocide. It was signed by more than 1,600 councillors from various parties – including 30 Labour party councillors in the neighbouring borough of Islington – ahead of the May local elections.
At a Board of Deputies-organised hustings in late September, she acknowledged the “strength of feeling that the conflict in Palestine and Israel has brought to communities here” and said she wanted to “bring a sense of hope to parliament”.
When candidates were asked “are you a Zionist, yes or no?” , Polanski declared himself an “anti-Zionist”, while Abdi-Wali did not deliver a straight answer, instead saying: “I believe in a two-state solution.”
Labour’s candidate has been more vocal on the Greens’ ‘Zionism is Racism’ motion, passed just days ago with 1,022 member votes to 813 at the party’s conference.
“It has been brought up to me by people literally at the school gates this morning, of how,
like, divisive they found that motion and how worried they are by it,” Abdi-Wali told The Standard . “I think it’s worrying for anyone who believes in a two-state solution,” she added.
Fonte: Novara Media
