PALESTINE rights campaigners have urged Labour to “confront the reality” of Israel’s crime of apartheid rather than to avoid naming it following the party’s decision to censor the terminology.

Labour administrators refused to allow Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PCS) to use the word apartheid in the group’s annual party conference stall or fringe meeting description in the event brochures, the group said today.

PCS said that when it asked why, Labour replied it would not publish content that “we believe to be detrimental to the party.”

PCS director Ben Jamal said that injustice “cannot be tackled unless you are prepared to name it.”

He said: “A Labour government should be fully committed to the upholding of international law and the principle that respect for human rights should be central to all relations with foreign states, including trade relations.

“Such a commitment would mean holding Israel to account for its practice of what amounts to a crime against humanity.”

Mr Jamal said that the fringe event on October 10, entitled Justice for Palestine: End Apartheid, will go ahead regardless of how it is advertised in Labour’s conference brochure.

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan, who will be speaking at the PSC fringe meeting, said: “Solidarity with Palestinians means addressing the reality of the system of apartheid under which they are forced to live.”

Human Rights Watch UK director Yasmine Ahmed said that the group’s findings that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid are “clear.”

“Unless and until governments and political parties acknowledge the systematic and severe discrimination that Palestinians face, then claims of promoting peace will ring hollow,” she said.

When asked about the refusal to use the term, a Labour Party spokesperson told the Star: “[Party leader Sir] Keir Starmer has been clear that this is not the position of the Labour Party.”