Yorkshire remove trustee following fresh racism storm over anti-Semitic rant

A trustee of Yorkshire’s cricket foundation has been removed after he said Israel was guilty of “slavery, murder, rape, ethnic cleansing and apartheid all in the name of Jewish supremacy”.

Amjad Bashir, who was appointed by Yorkshire Cricket Foundation in March, posted a series of statements on X following the Oct 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas.

His posts are hugely embarrassing for a club still reeling from the racism scandal that threatened their existence, which included anti-Semitic comments made by Azeem Rafiq, the player who blew the whistle on it.

Baroness Grey-Thompson, the interim chair of YCF, said in a statement on Wednesday night: “This morning trustees of the Board for the Yorkshire Cricket Foundation (YCF) were made aware of a number of concerning social media comments made by one of its trustees.

“Given the seriousness of the issues raised, an urgent meeting was called with the YCF Board of Trustees in which it was agreed by all that the language used was both discriminatory and abusive.

“Across Yorkshire Cricket, our mission is to provide a welcoming and inclusive environment for everyone – discrimination of any kind cannot be tolerated.

“During the meeting, the Board voted to remove the trustee from their position with immediate effect. As such, this individual is no longer associated with YCF or the wider Yorkshire Cricket family. I apologise on behalf of the YCF for any offence caused by these unacceptable posts.”

Stephen Vaughan, the Yorkshire chief executive, added: “Discrimination has no place in our game, and we are pleased that the YCF board acted quickly.”

Telegraph Sport has approached Bashir for comment.

Bashir, a former Conservative MEP, was suspended by the party while standing as a candidate for the 2019 general election over ­comments he made about Israel in a speech to the European Parliament five years earlier.

He issued an apology after his suspension and said he no longer held those views. He promised to meet Jewish groups, but among his posts on X was one yesterday that stated he had resigned from the Conservative party “as it supports the racist Zionist state of Israel”.

Most of Bashir’s posts were replies to other users, including Foreign Secretary James Cleverly.

In response to one user, he wrote: “Nothing can me [sic] more repugnant than what’s going on [sic] occupied Palestine at the hands of European settlers since 1948. Slavery, murder, rape, ethnic cleansing and apartheid all in the name of Jewish supremacy.”

Bashir denied criticism of Israel was anti-Semitic and also wrote: “Nothing justifies any act of terrorism against the Jew, Christian or Muslim, but even you will have to admit the inhumane actions of the Zionist occupier and oppressor could be responsible for the depraved actions of Hamas.”