Richard Seymour wrote in 2018 that "Palestinian rights have been a growing concern in the British Left since the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre" when "the British trade union movement and the Labour Party began to break with Israel in response". The Labour Committee on Palestine was formed in June 1982 to challenge the Labour Middle East Council, which supported a two-state solution, and to oppose the "Zionist state as racist, exclusivist, expansionist and a direct agency of imperialism". Labour politicians Ken Livingstone of the Greater London Council and Ted Knight of the Lambeth London Borough Council were early supporters; the chair was former British Anti-Zionist Organization (BAZO) activist Tony Greenstein. The new Committee backed a resolution at the 1982 Labour Party Conference to recognise the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people", which passed at the Conference, "embarrassing" the Party leadership.