It's awkward for Labour that Human Rights Watch—far from the most radical human rights organisation—has concluded that Israel's treatment of the Palestinians amounts to apartheid, a crime against humanity. Labour seems to view the accusation of apartheid as antisemitic. >

In Feb, after Israeli human rights orgs B’Tselem reached the same conclusion, a Labour member proposed a motion to their CLP supporting B’Tselem's call for an end to apartheid. It was ruled out on the grounds that accusing Israel of apartheid runs counter to the IHRA definition.

Apparently, accusing Israel of apartheid is equivalent to saying it's a racist endeavour, one of the examples of antisemitism accompanying the IHRA definition. The matter was passed up from local CLP officers to regional officials to the governance unit. It's what Labour thinks.

This comes after a concerted effort by supporters of Israel to brand use of the word 'apartheid' antisemitic. In 2019, Labour Friends of Israel supported a campaign by Luke Akehurst's organisation We Believe in Israel to ban Israeli Apartheid Week because it's "a vicious slur."

Joan Ryan previously similarly called for Israeli Apartheid Week to be banned on grounds of antisemitism under IHRA. Countless activists using the term 'apartheid' have been called antisemitic. The unhinged reaction of Israel's supporters to the HRW finding comes in this context.

Now that one of the world's foremost human rights orgs has detailed how Israel's actions cross the legal threshold of the crime against humanity of apartheid, will Labour still regard it as antisemitic to say so?

Seems a bit weird if anti-racism means NOT calling out apartheid.