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Twitterstorm will call on Labour supporters to back the NEC's code of conduct on anti-semitism

SOCIAL media activists have launched an online campaign backing Labour’s definition of anti-semitism, building support for a Twitterstorm on August 20.

The #backthecode campaign supports the Labour national executive’s adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-semitism but with guidance added to the accompanying examples to avoid conflation of political criticism of Israel with anti-semitism.

Campaigners are also calling for Facebook users to post in support of the code from 7pm on August 20.

Jewish Voice for Labour’s David Rosenberg posted on Facebook: “The IHRA definition, which various forces mainly outside the party are trying to bully the Labour Party into adopting, was resurrected from a document that had been dropped by the European Monitoring Agency in 2013 because of its problems and flaws.

“Its author Kenneth Stern publicly stated last year to US Congress his concern that it was being misused to restrict freedom of speech and to label individuals as anti-semites.

“It will be a witch-hunters’ charter for the enemies of the Corbyn project. We need to support Corbyn and the NEC code!”

Over the weekend shopworkers’ union Usdaw general secretary Paddy Lillis became the third union leader to call on Mr Corbyn to bow to critics and adopt all the IHRA accompanying examples yesterday, following Unison’s Dave Prentis and GMB’s Tim Roache.

A Labour Party spokesman said: “The code of conduct adopts the IHRA definition and expands on and contextualises its examples to produce robust, legally sound guidelines that a political party can apply to disciplinary cases.

“The NEC upheld the adoption of the code of conduct on anti-semitism, but in recognition of the serious concerns expressed, agreed to reopen the development of the code, in consultation with Jewish community organisations and groups, in order to better reflect their views.”

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