An academic who defended Jeremy Corbyn over the anti-Semitism storm engulfing Labour is herself being investigated over social media posts about Jews and Zionism.
Jane Dipple, a lecturer in media and communication at the University of Winchester, commented online about “a zionist attempt at creating a pure race” and “rampant zionism across the media,” HuffPost UK can reveal.
She also questioned what the Holocaust Remembrance Alliance was about and shared a post by the far right website The Daily Stormer. It had the headline: ‘BBC to Replace Male Jew Political Editor with Female Jew’.
HuffPost understands the University of Winchester and the Labour Party, of which Dipple is a member, are now investigating.
Dipple, who was among 40 of senior academics that signed a letter in the Guardian defending the Labour leader, is also known to be a member of the controversial Palestine Live Facebook page.
Palestine Live is notorious for posts detailing Holocaust denial myths, allegations of Israel’s involvement in the 9/11 and 7/7 terror attacks and the training of Islamic State fighters, and conspiracy theories involving the Rothschild family.
A spokeswoman for the University of Winchester said: “These comments have been made in a personal capacity and were not made on behalf of the university nor do they reflect the university’s views at all.
“We were shocked by the content in these posts and we are investigating further as a matter of urgency.”
The Labour Party said disciplinary action would be taken where evidence of anti-Semitism was found.
A spokesman said: “The Labour Party is committed to challenging and campaigning against antisemitism in all its forms.
“All complaints of antisemitism are taken extremely seriously. These are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken.”
Momentum, of which Dipple is also a member, made a similar statement.
Euan Philipps, spokesman for Labour Against Antisemitism and chairman Tonbridge and Malling Constituency Labour Party, said: “The horrific content posted by Jane Dipple is sadly typical of much of what we have witnessed in our investigations.
“It is also typical of much of the content to be found on pro-Jeremy Corbyn groups on Facebook, some of which have been reported to the police by Lord Sugar and others.
“If this case has not been progressed by Labour’s compliance unit then urgent questions need to be answered as to why that hasn’t happened. Enough is enough.”
HuffPost UK has attempted to contact Dipple but she has not responded to our requests.