Israel-Gaza conflict: Sheffield Green councillor accuses LibDem of “abusive, defamatory and discriminatory” comments

Coun Alexi Dimond said that Coun Joe Otten made “defamatory, insulting and unfounded” statements on his views on the Israel-Palestine conflict. He challenged Sheffield City Council group leader Coun Shaffaq Mohammed and national LibDem party leaders Ed Davey and Layla Moran to say whether they agree with Coun Otten’s statements and whether they intend to take action.

He referred to the fact that Coun Otten last week (February 21) spoke at the strategy and resources committee was discussing a call for the council to join Sheffield Palestine Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid.

This was ruled out during the meeting as being outside the council’s legal remit.

The Dore and Totley councillor drew an angry response from the public gallery when he said the coalition’s call for Palestinians to have the right to return to their homes, including in Israel, would be like the UK admitting “say 10 million people who all have been raised and taught at schools that it is good to murder people of Christian heritage and which includes tens of thousands of people who are part of the military organisation set up to pursue that goal”.

Coun Dimond, who represents Gleadless Valley and is a prominent pro-Palestine campaigner, has published an open letter on social media platform X.

Toxicity

In it, Coun Dimond complained about a reply he had received from Coun Otten to an email that he sent to all Sheffield councillors, urging them to read the interim verdict on South Africa’s submission to the International Court of Justice. The court has ruled that it is plausible that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and told Israel to take steps to ensure that this does not happen.

He gave several examples of quotes from Coun Otten’s email, the full text of which is below. These include:

“your preferred solution of the destruction of the state of Israel”

“It is crashingly naïve of you to think that handing power to the people who make a virtue of killing Jews, gays and political opponents”

“if you cared at all about the Palestinian people (rather than just the destruction of Israel)”

“Hope for the destruction of Israel is toxic and you are vector of that toxicity”.

Divisive

In his open letter, Coun Dimond asked whether Coun Otten’s statements are representative of the local or national Liberal Democrat Party and if any disciplinary action or investigation has taken place.

He added: “It is my view that, if you do not take action, this will be seen as Liberal Democrat endorsement of anti-Palestinian racism, defamation and divisive statements that harm community relations in Sheffield. Further, it will demonstrate that the Liberal Democrats have no commitment to Sheffield as an anti-racist city.”

Coun Mohammed said that he had referred the issue to the council’s monitoring officer for investigation, as it involves last week’s meeting. He would not be commenting further until they have undertaken their investigation.

Coun Dimond said he had copied Coun Otten’s email to other councillors and has lodged a complaint with the council. He added that several Labour councillors had also complained.

David Hollis, monitoring officer at the council, said: “In line with council protocol, any complaints must be handled in the strictest confidence and we are not able to comment further.”

A council spokesman indicated that the confidentiality of the process would also apply to the outcome.

Here is the full text of Coun Otten’s email, supplied by Coun Dimond.

“Thanks Alexi,

If this is all true Israel do seem to be in danger of surrendering some of the relative moral high ground they were gifted on October 7.

I still fear your preferred solution of the destruction of the state of Israel would multiply the suffering of innocents in the region by 100 times or more. It is crashingly naïve of you to think that handing power to the people who make a virtue of killing Jews, gays and political opponents wont lead to more of the same, or that you can create a democratic state respecting human rights as if it were a natural default in a region dominated by Iranian proxies determined to oppose democracy and human rights, and having just destroyed the one democracy in the region – the one country where Arabs have more civil rights than they do anywhere else.

It does seem to me that the intention of the 7 October attacks was among other things to kill off the two state solution; to say we will never live in peace alongside you; to say that if you withdraw from the West Bank as you did from Gaza, we will just use that to build another war machine to attack you with, etc, etc. But I confess I am stumped for a complete theory of change behind the Oct 7 attacks. If you understand them do share.

Before Oct 7 I thought Israel was over egging their security concerns, but I was proved wrong, wasn’t I.

But it does seem to me that if you cared at all about the Palestinian people (rather than just the destruction of Israel) you would be just as vocal in condemning Hamas war crimes: the attacks of Oct 7, specifically the nature of the attacks on civilians; the use of indiscriminate weapons (rockets) many of which malfunction and hit the Gaza strip; the brainwashing of children to seek martyrdom; the use of human shields, the refusal to surrender and release hostages to end the war when there is no prospect of a military victory.

As is typical for terrorists, Hamas kill more of the people they claim to represent than of the people they claim to be against.

It may well be that the international community has legislated to make it illegal for any state to impose a military defeat on a terror group that operates as Hamas does. You might not have a problem with that if you support their objectives, but tomorrow it could be a group of West Bank settlers who legally have to be allowed to just keep killing forever. This seems to me a tough problem that your blinkered sanctimony will only make worse.

Because the original Nazis were defeated, and Germany is no longer a country that kills Jews, gays and political opponents, it is clear that such a transformation is possible and so we shouldn’t lose hope of peace. Germany is even a democratic country with freedom of religion, etc, and making no irredentist claims against Poland, though I daresay you are bitterly upset about the German law of return.

But what you are doing, in championing the destruction of Israel, is holding out hope for the destruction of Israel; giving another reason for Palestinian militants to keep fighting and killing and dying generation after generation for nothing. Indeed for less than nothing; losing land to settlements in the West Bank year on year. Hope for the possibility of a good live in peaceful coexistence with Israel is desperately needed. Hope for the destruction of Israel is toxic and you are vector of that toxicity.

If you cared about the Palestinian people half as much as you hate Israel you would change your tune.”