Pro-Israel Labour Candidate Deletes Tweets About ‘Staged’ Gaza Videos, Calling UN Anti-Semitic
Akehurst sits on Labour’s National Executive Committee and previously directed the pro-Israeli campaign group We Believe In Israel. (Screengrab via UCL/YouTube)
Labour candidate Luke Akehurst deleted more than 2,000 of his controversial old tweets that included remarks calling the United Nations “antisemitic” and suggesting Jewish people are “politically Black.”
In the wake of Labour’s move Wednesday to block the candidacy of candidate Faiza Shaheen after she ‘liked’ a tweet featuring U.S. comedian Jon Stewart’s 2014 skit critiquing media class discourse about Israel, Akehurst’s tweets are now under scrutiny.
Labour announced Akehurst’s candidacy on Thursday, one day after dropping Shaheen, drawing the attention of activists who argue Shaheen has been “treated differently” by the Labour Party. The sentiment is exacerbated by the idea on the left that Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is purging the leftist loyalists of his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn in favour of centre-right candidates.
Akehurst, who is running for North Durham and sits on Labour’s National Executive Committee, previously directed the pro-Israeli campaign group We Believe In Israel.
Social media users found that in the week leading up to the announcement of his candidacy, Akehurst deleted over 2,000 old tweets. Since then, pro-Palestine activists and those on the left have flagged some of his deleted tweets as problematic.
One deleted tweet suggested that footage of Gazans under Israeli bombardment at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza in November 2023 was staged, calling the people in the video “actors.” Sharing a screengrab, Tribune editor Karl Hansen accused him of peddling an “Alex Jones-style conspiracy.”
In another, Akehurst explicitly labelled the UN as “antisemitic,” criticising the Security Council’s 2016 reaffirmation that Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory are illegal.
On another occasion, in a further deleted tweet, he asked: “Aren’t Jews politically Black?”
Speaking to Metro, Akehurst spoke in defence of his social media purge. He told the publication: “It’s standard practice for public office candidates to delete tweets to prevent opponents from quoting them out of context.”
Addressing some of his past comments that Jews are “politically Black” he said: “It’s common in discourse about race to consider Blackness as a political concept against racism.”
Akehurst also denied that he was insensitive to Palestinians: “I reject that. I visit the region often, meeting both Israelis and Palestinians. I want the conflict to end and support a two-state solution.”
He stood by his response to a user on X that the UN was antisemitic: “Not everyone in the Labour Party shares this view, but it’s one I’ve expressed in my previous job, and I stand by it.”
