Jon Stewart had some choice words for the Labour Party this week.
The former Daily Show host, who returned to the program last year after stepping away in 2015, expressed outrage on Wednesday after Labour candidate Faiza Shaheen was suspended from her post for “liking” a tweet that linked to a 2014 Daily Show segment about Israel.
“This is the dumbest thing The UK has done since electing Boris Johnson… what the actual fuck,” Stewart wrote Wednesday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, in response to a tweet from Mehdi Hasan.
Advertisement
“Hey @jonstewart,” Hasan’s tweet read, “not sure if you’re following the Jon-Stewart-related news out of the UK but Labour parliamentary candidate and Muslim woman @faizashaheen has just been suspended tonight from the Labour Party for liking on Twitter this old Israel video sketch of yours.”
Shaheen joined Labour in 2015 and became a star of their parliamentary constituency in London’s Chingford and Woodford Green constituency in 2018.
The economist, who hoped to roll back conservative welfare reforms, was endorsed in 2019 by actor Hugh Grant.
Those ambitions stalled on Wednesday when, following weeks of door-to-door campaigning with her newborn baby, Shaheen learned via email that the Labour Party had dropped her, after the Jewish Labour Movement flagged her social media activity as allegedly antisemitic.
Advertisement
The Daily Show clip showed Stewart trying to discuss Israel when his colleagues ― in a parody of furious defenders of Israel and Palestinians alike ― repeatedly shouted him down, accusing him of being a “self-hating Jew,” a “Zionist pig” and various other epithets.
Nicola Tree via Getty Images
Shaheen “liked” a May 12 tweet from Substack writer Philippe Lemoine that linked to the Daily Show clip. In the tweet, Lemoine wrote: “Every time you say something even mildly critical of Israel, you’re immediately assailed by scores of hysterical people who explain to you why you’re completely wrong, how you’re biased against Israel.”
Lemoine’s tweet also suggested that the people who harshly condemn any and all criticism of Israel are “not just random people,” but are “mobilised by professional organisations” ― a claim reminiscent of various antisemitic conspiracy theories, which Shaheen acknowledged on Wednesday during an appearance on BBC Newsnight.
“I know what’s wrong with it, of course ― the line that’s there about the, you know, they’re in ‘professional organisations,’” she told presenter Victoria Derbyshire. “It plays into a trope, and I absolutely don’t agree with that and I’m sorry about that.”
Advertisement
“I’m just in a bit of a state of shock, to be honest,” Shaheen said elsewhere on the program. “I’ve worked that seat for a long time. I just had a baby. I went back, I had a C-section. I was on doors, knocking, six weeks after my baby was born … Suddenly, I’m out campaigning and my phone’s blowing up.”
Last year, Scream star Melissa Barrera was fired from an upcoming installment in the slasher series after making pro-Palestinian statements that drew accusations of antisemitism. Oscar-winning director Jonathan Glazer, who is Jewish, was also the object of widespread condemnation after he criticised Israel’s ongoing bombing campaign in Gaza.
