Jeremy Corbyn refuses to denounce terrorist 'friends' Hamas and Hezbollah while Labour suspends two
50 replies, posted
[URL="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/01/jeremy-corbyn-under-pressure-to-denounce-friends-hamas-and-hezbo/"]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/01/jeremy-corbyn-under-pressure-to-denounce-friends-hamas-and-hezbo/[/URL]
[QUOTE]Jeremy Corbyn has vowed to continue talking to terrorist organisations Hamas and Hezbollah, in comments that threaten to further destabilise his leadership ahead of the local elections.
The Labour leader refused to denounce the groups in the wake of calls from Jewish leaders, the Israeli Ambassador and members of his own party to distance himself from those with anti-Semitic views.
He has previously referred to the organisations as "friends", despite both being declared terrorist groups by the EU and America. [/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]Ambassador Mark Regev said on Sunday: "You’ve had too many people on the progressive side of politics who have embraced Hamas and Hezbollah.
"Both of them are anti-Semitic organisations, you just have to read Hamas’ charter and it’s like chapters straight out of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
"I’d ask the following question: if you’re progressive, you’re embracing an organisation which is homophobic, which is misogynistic, which is openly anti-Semitic, what’s progressive about that?"
Ambassador Regev added that the left is "in denial" about the scale of the problem, while a spokesman for the Board Of Deputies of British Jews said it has been "shocked and dismayed" at a refusal to accept problems of antisemitism in the party and called on Mr Corbyn to display "clarity about people and groups with whom it is not appropriate to share panels."[/QUOTE]
[URL="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-antisemitism-row-suspends-councillor-ilyas-aziz-facebook-posts-israel-us-jeremy-corbyn-a7009771.html"]http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-antisemitism-row-suspends-councillor-ilyas-aziz-facebook-posts-israel-us-jeremy-corbyn-a7009771.html[/URL]
[QUOTE]Labour has acted swiftly to suspend two councillors after social media posts emerged of them suggesting Israel should be relocated to the United States and describing “Zionist Jews” as a “disgrace to humanity”.
Ilyas Aziz, a Nottingham City councillor, has been suspended pending an investigation in the latest row over controversial comments to hit the party. Mr Aziz also appeared to liken the actions of Israel against the Palestinians to those of the Nazis against the Jews.
Shortly after a second councillor for Blackburn, Salim Mulla, became the second elected politician on Monday to be suspended after controversial comments emerged on his Facebook feed.
In a post, from 2014, Mr Mulla shared footage allegedly showing footage of a Palestinian boy being arrested with a comment from the councillor saying: "Apartheid at its best. Zionist Jews are a disgrace to humanity."[/QUOTE]
Labour seems to be showing its true colors now.
What did he actually say? What are the quotes? This is all very heavily biased without any explanation.
Nice sensationalist headline. The article says:
[quote]Mr Corbyn's spokesman issued a statement which read: "Jeremy Corbyn has been a longstanding supporter of Palestinian rights and the pursuit of peace and justice in the Middle East through dialogue and negotiation.
"He has met many people with whom he profoundly disagrees in order to promote peace and reconciliation processes, including in South Africa, Latin American, Ireland and the Middle East.
"He believes it is essential to speak to people with whom there is disagreement, particularly when they have large-scale support or democratic mandates.
"Simply talking to people who agree with you won’t help achieve justice or peace."
[/quote]
What is it you find so egregious about that?
Anyone dumb enough to say something outwardly offensive has been suspended and that sort of rhetoric has been openly condemned - and even that amounts to a truly tiny number of people.
I'm not sure I can believe this is anything but a political scapegoat I'm afraid - especially given the state of anti-Semitism largely ignored in the other political parties.
[QUOTE=Mesothere;50244226]Nice sensationalist headline. The article says:
What is it you find so egregious about that?
Anyone dumb enough to say something outwardly offensive has been suspended and that sort of rhetoric has been openly condemned - and even that amounts to a truly tiny number of people.
I'm not sure I can believe this is anything but a political scapegoat I'm afraid - especially given the state of anti-Semitism largely ignored in the other political parties.[/QUOTE]
Trying to understand Palestinians is anti-Semitic, duh, this is Svinnik you're talking to.
[QUOTE=Mesothere;50244226]Nice sensationalist headline. The article says:
What is it you find so egregious about that?
Anyone dumb enough to say something outwardly offensive has been suspended and that sort of rhetoric has been openly condemned - and even that amounts to a truly tiny number of people.
I'm not sure I can believe this is anything but a political scapegoat I'm afraid - especially given the state of anti-Semitism largely ignored in the other political parties.[/QUOTE]
Pretty much, this is more or less the same shit they were throwing around 30 years ago when people wanted to find a solution with the IRA that wasn't shooting them all.
[QUOTE=Mesothere;50244226]Nice sensationalist headline. The article says:
What is it you find so egregious about that?
Anyone dumb enough to say something outwardly offensive has been suspended and that sort of rhetoric has been openly condemned - and even that amounts to a truly tiny number of people.
I'm not sure I can believe this is anything but a political scapegoat I'm afraid - especially given the state of anti-Semitism largely ignored in the other political parties.[/QUOTE]
[url]https://daviddpaxton.com/2015/07/21/the-diplomat-of-islington-north/[/url]
[QUOTE]As mentioned, only the word ‘friends’ was brought up in the interview and without full context, Corbyn’s explanation has legs. Try this:
[B]“We are gathered here for an important meeting of opposing views. On my right are some friends from the Black Panther Party and on my left are friends from the Ku Klux Klan. Hopefully by coming together as friends we can… etc”
That could get in under the excuse of being ‘diplomatic’.
Now try this:
“It is my pleasure and my honour to host an event where my friends from Stormfront will be speaking. I also invited friends from the Ku Klux Klan to speak but unfortunately the FBI won’t allow them to travel so it will only be friends from Stormfront. The Ku Klux Klan is an organisation dedicated towards the good of American people and bringing about long-term peace and social justice, and political justice.”
How does that sound to you? I don’t believe the latter example would be consistent with Corbyn’s claim “I use it in a collective way saying ‘our friends were prepared to talk'”. It goes well beyond standard diplomatic niceties.[/B]
[URL="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGj1PheWiFQ"]Here[/URL] is a video of the offending speech, see for yourself. He said exactly that about Hamas and Hezbollah and he was being very friendly indeed.
[B]If he profoundly disagrees with them why claim the bit about social and political justice?[/B] Hamas’ form of ‘political justice’ is to execute their political opponents. Hamas’s ‘social justice’ is to murder people for being gay. Hamas’ ‘long-term peace’ includes a Charter clause calling for the destruction of Israel and the divinely ordained killing of Jews. And feeling ‘honoured’ to host holocaust deniers means either A: Corbyn thinks ‘honour’ means something it doesn’t or B: He has some fundamental problems with his morality.
[B]To go as far in his praise as Corbyn does is grotesque and hints far more at outright support than the forced diplomatic nicety, while holding his nose, which one might tolerate or expect. Who would possibly say such a thing if they were not ‘friends’ or did in fact ‘profoundly disagree’?[/B] I think he is being deceptive in the Channel 4 interview and this should be taken into consideration by those so willing to repeat the claim that Corbyn is the straight-shooting candidate of unflinching honesty and integrity.[/QUOTE]
I agree there is anti-Semitism in other parties. However, due to the full, unqualified endorsement of the Palestinians of parts of the left, there has been a massive upsurge in anti-Semitism in Labour at the same time as the Conservatives became more socially liberal and ethnically diverse. This puts a spotlight on this behaviour, particularly when you have a fool for a leader that praises Hamas and Hezbollah either because he is grotesque or an imbecile.
[editline]2nd May 2016[/editline]
You guys are spouting bollocks. Corbyn doesn't seek diplomacy, he (largely) agrees with the position of Hamas and the IRA. He never met with the Orange Order, or with Israeli settlers. Only one side, and the side that hates the West. You would have to be truly naive at this point to think that he is really engaging in diplomacy.
[QUOTE=FlashMarsh;50244311][url]https://daviddpaxton.com/2015/07/21/the-diplomat-of-islington-north/[/url]
I agree there is anti-Semitism in other parties. However, due to the full, unqualified endorsement of the Palestinians of parts of the left, there has been a massive upsurge in anti-Semitism in Labour at the same time as the Conservatives became more socially liberal and ethnically diverse. This puts a spotlight on this behaviour, particularly when you have a fool for a leader that praises Hamas and Hezbollah either because he is grotesque or an imbecile.
[editline]2nd May 2016[/editline]
You guys are spouting bollocks. Corbyn doesn't seek diplomacy, he (largely) agrees with the position of Hamas and the IRA. He never met with the Orange Order, or with Israeli settlers. Only one side, and the side that hates the West. You would have to be truly naive at this point to think that he is really engaging in diplomacy.[/QUOTE]
Doesn't seek diplomacy? There is absolutely no evidence to suggest thus - your posting of a longwinded opinion piece included. Your suggestion is that - because we have an individual who is willing to partake in a discussion with a party who is normally not included, he must literally hate jews. "Spouting bollocks" indeed. If you can share with me some small token of evidence that supports this smear, then go ahead, because I am all ears - but until them I am disinclined to label someone something as foul as "anti-Semitic" just because someone else had a flimsy opinion on the matter.
If you're going to bring up the "friends" dialogue please save yourself the bother - would a more appropriate procedure have been to have invited individuals for peace talks at parliament only to seat them down and refer to them as rancid cunts? There is an expectation in peace talks that you might be civil towards one another.
They're "normally not included" because they are literally terrorists.
[QUOTE=FlashMarsh;50244311][url]https://daviddpaxton.com/2015/07/21/the-diplomat-of-islington-north/[/url]
I agree there is anti-Semitism in other parties. However, due to the full, unqualified endorsement of the Palestinians of parts of the left, there has been a massive upsurge in anti-Semitism in Labour at the same time as the Conservatives became more socially liberal and ethnically diverse. This puts a spotlight on this behaviour, particularly when you have a fool for a leader that praises Hamas and Hezbollah either because he is grotesque or an imbecile.
[editline]2nd May 2016[/editline]
You guys are spouting bollocks. Corbyn doesn't seek diplomacy, he (largely) agrees with the position of Hamas and the IRA. He never met with the Orange Order, or with Israeli settlers. Only one side, and the side that hates the West. You would have to be truly naive at this point to think that he is really engaging in diplomacy.[/QUOTE]
All that isn't a great comparison, as Stormfront/KKK do not represent large military or governmental bodies. It sounds to me like he's only advocating peaceful negotiation to see the perspectives of those involved. You can't stop terroristic ideology simply with more war, as seen from America's middle-eastern interventions.
As to the "our friends" bit of the short paragraph he said, why is it that he cannot have meant that he welcomes the diplomatic members of those groups willing to discuss peace?
This is Hamas we're talking about.
[QUOTE=sgman91;50244457]They're "normally not included" because they are literally terrorists.[/QUOTE]
people don't just become terrorists for the banter but ok
[QUOTE=Mesothere;50244444]Doesn't seek diplomacy? There is absolutely no evidence to suggest thus - your posting of a longwinded opinion piece included. Your suggestion is that - because we have an individual who is willing to partake in a discussion with a party who is normally not included, he must literally hate jews. "Spouting bollocks" indeed. If you can share with me some small token of evidence that supports this smear, then go ahead, because I am all ears - but until them I am disinclined to label someone something as foul as "anti-Semitic" just because someone else had a flimsy opinion on the matter.
If you're going to bring up the "friends" dialogue please save yourself the bother - would a more appropriate procedure have been to have invited individuals for peace talks at parliament only to seat them down and refer to them as rancid cunts? There is an expectation in peace talks that you might be civil towards one another.[/QUOTE]
He wasn't holding peace talks though, nor was he in the position to do so.
[editline]2nd May 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE=codenamecueball;50244596]people don't just become terrorists for the banter but ok[/QUOTE]
Yeah, so? They're terrorists. What's your point?
[QUOTE=codenamecueball;50244596]people don't just become terrorists for the banter but ok[/QUOTE]
Right, they do it because their goal is the destruction of Israel. We don't negotiate with terrorists because their goal is to kill innocent people. You can't compromise with someone like that.
[QUOTE=FlashMarsh;50244598]He wasn't holding peace talks though, nor was he in the position to do so.
[editline]2nd May 2016[/editline]
Yeah, so? They're terrorists. What's your point?[/QUOTE]
Using a different label doesn't really change any of my points. We can call them "peaceful talks" if you want.
[QUOTE=FlashMarsh;50244590]This is Hamas we're talking about.[/QUOTE]
Diplomacy stopped the IRA iirc
It's not the same I know, but just talking to more radical groups isn't inherently bad.
[QUOTE=Erfly;50244723]Diplomacy stopped the IRA iirc
It's not the same I know, but just talking to more radical groups isn't inherently bad.[/QUOTE]
Yes, the government of the United Kingdom made the difficult decision to pursue peace talks with a terrorist group. Jeremy Corbyn, on the other hand, as an individual MP decided to endorse terror groups with no position to pursue said 'peace talks'.
[QUOTE=FlashMarsh;50244822]Yes, the government of the United Kingdom made the difficult decision to pursue peace talks with a terrorist group. Jeremy Corbyn, on the other hand, as an individual MP decided to endorse terror groups with no position to pursue said 'peace talks'.[/QUOTE]
He is a mature individual who took it upon himself to see what the other side had to say. Noone needs a good reason to undertake that sort of opportunity. It doesn't mean shit if he's not officially undertaking peace talks on behalf of the UK.
Calling Hamas friends is somewhere between political showmanship and a symptom of *shock horror* the fact that he had a cooperative and human exchange with a group of people which he set out to understand. You can't walk into a room having come from a nation that the audience considers allies of the enemy and expect to be heard fully without making small concessions and niceties. Find me one scrap of evidence that shows he endorses murder, violence or general terroism from Hamas as a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. You can't. Because that's the exact opposite of what he wants.
Israel has done some utterly disgraceful things in the region that any rational person would condemn all the same as they would for the atrocities of Hamas - the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians has been going on for decades and at this rate will never end. Corbyn rightly understands the fact that cooperation and mutual understanding is the way forward - the fact that at this point Hamas is so morally corrupt there are clauses about destroying Israel or doing atrocities is irrelevant. Only through dialogue is there any hope of easing that sort of rhetoric and thinking and promoting change. Its not going to happen overnight and there are going to be failures, but otherwise, Hamas isn't going to be destroyed, and Israel isn't going to occupy the whole region. Perpetual violence isn't acceptable, especially when this sort of shit just adds more fuel to the fire of terroism in the middle east.
I don't recall him having a look to see what the Israeli settlers thought. He isn't engaging in diplomacy in the slightest. What evidence do you have that these talks were about having peace? What position is he possibly to get it, especially at that point when he was just some random MP? The sad reality is that he was meeting with people he largely agreed with for no reason other than to have a chat with them.
[editline]2nd May 2016[/editline]
Interesting attempt to make Israel and Hamas morally equivalent though. good job.
It's sad that we can look back on Fatah's leadership of the PNA and Yasser Arafat and think "well at least they actually attempted to negotiate peace."
Negotiating with Hamas won't work. I'm all for Palestinian independence and a two-state solution, but so long as the PNA is under Hamas' control, there's next to no chance that diplomacy will be effective. Israel's leadership is too far right to budge, and the Palestinian leadership is far too extremist to even consider a two-state solution.
If the PNI could actually stand half a chance in the Palestinian Legislative Council, I could see peace talks being possible. But two seats isn't even close to enough.
Hey guys, I am your typical right-winger. Today I'm going to meet with my friends from the Ku Klux Klan to discuss immigration. People don't become racists from nowhere, so we need to understand them! After all, they must have some rational grievances and so we should understand their point of view. They are usually not included, I don't know why. They are a force for social justice and for long-term peace.
[editline]2nd May 2016[/editline]
Of [I]course[/I] I'm not endorsing their cause though! Just a friendly meeting to try and improve race relations and discuss immigration.
[QUOTE=FlashMarsh;50245041]Hey guys, I am your typical right-winger. Today I'm going to meet with my friends from the Ku Klux Klan to discuss immigration. People don't become racists from nowhere, so we need to understand them! After all, they must have some rational grievances and so we should understand their point of view. They are usually not included, I don't know why. They are a force for social justice and for long-term peace.
[editline]2nd May 2016[/editline]
Of [I]course[/I] I'm not endorsing their cause though! Just a friendly meeting to try and improve race relations and discuss immigration.[/QUOTE]
Hamas has rational grievances. The Palestinian people have rational grievances. Much of the rest of the Palestinian Authority that isn't Hamas has perfectly reasonable issues with the current situation. Comparing violent conflict that leads to the loss of innocent lives on both sides to the "rational grievances" of the KKK is dumb. Yes, both groups are bad - but the PNA has a way way stronger argument for "hey shit sucks here" than the KKK does.
[QUOTE=FlashMarsh;50245006]I don't recall him having a look to see what the Israeli settlers thought. He isn't engaging in diplomacy in the slightest. What evidence do you have that these talks were about having peace? What position is he possibly to get it, especially at that point when he was just some random MP? The sad reality is that he was meeting with people he largely agreed with for no reason other than to have a chat with them.
[editline]2nd May 2016[/editline]
Interesting attempt to make Israel and Hamas morally equivalent though. good job.[/QUOTE]
You still havent addressed my original request for you to provide even the smallest token of evidence for your hateful accusations. The onus is on you to reinforce your suggestion that these talks were not about peace with some sort of meaningful fact. Until then, we will be forced to apply occams razor in thinking these talks were diplomatic and in aid of lasting peace. How you could even think otherwise baffles me, given your utter failure to present any meaningful argument beyond “it wasn't his remit to talk peace because he's just an mp”. Hundreds of people have devoted their time towards bargaining for peace - one does not need to hold high office to have an effect. Please explain yourself.
[QUOTE=FlashMarsh;50245006]I don't recall him having a look to see what the Israeli settlers thought. He isn't engaging in diplomacy in the slightest. [B]What evidence do you have that these talks were about having peace? [/B]
Interesting attempt to make Israel and Hamas morally equivalent though. good job.[/QUOTE]
Ah gee, maybe the fact that he's been a lifelong pacifist and a vocal member of the Stop the War Coalition?
Maybe the fact that he openly talks about trying to achieve peace process and discussion in this video, and in many other statements?
[media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=79&v=hOZZF5XCDBM[/media]
edit:
[I]"Does it mean I agree with Hamas, and what it does? No.
Does it mean I agree with Hezbollah, and what it does? No."[/I]
Literally right from his mouth in this video.
[quote]What position is he possibly to get it, especially at that point when he was just some random MP?[/quote]
He had a respected political position in one of the world's major powers that had a hardline policy of supporting Israel that had made little to no attempt to understand the other side in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. He doesn't need to represent the UK as an official diplomat seeking peace to visit them and start discussion. Your argument here is pointless and irrelevant.
[quote]The sad reality is that he was meeting with people he largely agreed with for no reason[/quote]
There are very good reasons why the Palestinians are upset. Try prove that he had no reason to agree with them. You can't. You're lying through your teeth.
[quote]Interesting attempt to make Israel and Hamas morally equivalent though. good job. [/quote]
When you give one side the advantage of knowing they're morally superior and in the right there is no chance of effective diplomatic peace process. I haven't actually tried to make them morally equivalent - on balance, Hamas from what I can tell is more committed to violence as a solution than Israel. I have pointed out like others that the situation is not one-sided. No shit, basically.
Even if Israel has a small or large margin of moral superiority, that should not at all completely discount all reason to continue attempts at peaceful process.
[QUOTE=FlashMarsh;50245041]Hey guys, I am your typical right-winger. Today I'm going to meet with my friends from the Ku Klux Klan to discuss immigration. People don't become racists from nowhere, so we need to understand them! After all, they must have some rational grievances and so we should understand their point of view. They are usually not included, I don't know why. They are a force for social justice and for long-term peace.
[editline]2nd May 2016[/editline]
Of [I]course[/I] I'm not endorsing their cause though! Just a friendly meeting to try and improve race relations and discuss immigration.[/QUOTE]
This is lazy and only betrays your obviously poor analysis.
Firstly, the phrase:
[QUOTE] long-term peace and social justice[/QUOTE]
goes far beyond diplomatic niceties.
[url]http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/13/jeremy-corbyn-labour-leadership-foreign-policy-antisemitism[/url]
[url]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11749043/Andrew-Gilligan-Jeremy-Corbyn-friend-to-Hamas-Iran-and-extremists.html[/url]
[QUOTE]Take the fact that Corbyn once described it as his “honour and pleasure” to host “our friends” from Hamas and Hezbollah in parliament. According to Corbyn, he extended his invitation to the aforementioned groups – and spoke of them glowingly – because all sides need to be involved in the peace process.
So far, so reasonable. Yet negotiation is not on Hamas’s agenda, as Corbyn ought to know. In its charter Hamas states: “Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement… There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad.”
It isn’t a peaceful negotiated solution that Hamas wants; it’s the destruction of the Jews. Here is a direct quote from Hamas’s charter: “The prophet, prayer and peace be upon him, said: ‘The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews (and kill them); until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! there is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!’” If this were not bad enough, Corbyn has also:
• Taken tea on the parliamentary terrace with Raed Salah, who he described as “a very honoured citizen” despite that fact that Salah was charged with inciting anti-Jewish racism and violence in January 2008 in Jerusalem and sentenced to eight months in prison. He was found by a British court judge to have used the “blood libel”, the medieval antisemitic canard that Jews use gentile blood for ritual purposes;
• Written a letter defending Stephen Sizer, the vicar disciplined by the Church of England for linking to an article on social media entitled 9/11: Israel Did It;
‘So why are Mr Corbyn’s fellow leadership contenders so unwilling to challenge him on any of this?’
• Presented a call-in programme on Press TV, a propaganda channel of the Iranian government which was banned by Ofcom and which regularly hosts Holocaust deniers;
• Been accused of donating money to self-proclaimed Holocaust denier Paul Eisen, whose Deir Yassin Remembered group has been shunned by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, in the name of refusing to “turn a blind eye to antisemitism”. Corbyn has addressed that claim via his spokesman, who said that “Jeremy Corbyn’s office” had had no contact with Eisen and that Corbyn disassociated himself from his extreme views – a denial that seems neither forceful nor convincing.
And there is more: on 22 August Corbyn is scheduled to share a platform with Carlos Latuff, a cartoonist who regularly uses antisemitic imagery in his cartoons but denies being antisemitic. Middle East Monitor, the group organising the event, has been accused by the Community Security Trust of promoting conspiracy theories and myths about Jews.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]Between 2004 and 2008, the Iranian-backed Mahdi Army militia, led by Muqtada al-Sadr, killed at least 70 British soldiers, not to mention thousands of Iraqi civilians. Last February, the man who might become the next leader of the Labour Party shared a platform with al-Sadr’s British representative.
Jeremy Corbyn was helping Sayyed Hassan al-Sadr celebrate “the all-encompassing revolution,” the 35th anniversary of the ayatollahs’ takeover in Iran. In his talk, entitled “The Case for Iran,” he called for the immediate scrapping of sanctions on the country, which had not then promised to restrict its nuclear programme, attacked its colonial exploitation by British business and called for an end to its “demonisation” by the West.
With Mr Corbyn now topping the constituency nominations for the Labour leadership, and backed by the Unite union, the party’s biggest donor,most attention has focused on the escapist heritage artefact that is his economic policy, complete with tax rises, an end to all cuts and the expropriation of private landlords’ property through a tenant right-to-buy.
But if he does win, Labour will also be in the extraordinary position of having as its leader a man with among the most extensive links in Parliament to terrorists, extremists and hardline regimes."
Mr Corbyn, The Telegraph can reveal, has taken thousands of pounds in gifts from organisations closely linked to the terror group Hamas, whose operatives he once described as “friends”.
He has travelled to Tehran at the expense of a secretive British-Iranian multi-millionaire who has employed a number of other British parliamentarians as consultants to build business links with the country.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE]In February 2013, he and his wife travelled to Gaza thanks to a £2,800 gift from Interpal, a British charity banned by the US government as “part of the funding network of Hamas” and as a terrorist organisation in its own right.
Interpal is allowed to operate in the UK after claiming it has broken its links with Hamas, a claim accepted by the Charity Commission.
However, Interpal’s managing trustee, Essam Mustafa, was pictured eighteen months ago accompanying the Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, on an official visit in Gaza. The two were filmed clapping and singing an anti-Israeli song in praise of Hamas’s military wing, the al-Qassam Brigades, and Hamas “martyrs.”
Dr Mustafa also paid his respects at the shrine for Ahmed Said Khalil, the head of the al-Qassam Brigades killed in an Israeli airstrike. Dr Mustafa is a former member of Hamas’s executive committee.
In 2012, Mr Haniyeh and Dr Mustafa visited the homes of Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, a senior Hamas leader who once promised he would "kill Jews everywhere," and Sheikh Said Seyam, who commanded Hamas's Executive Force, a militia that tortured and murdered Palestinian supporters of Fatah during Hamas's violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2006.
Mr Corbyn has received at least two further free trips, worth £2,450, from the Palestinian Return Centre and its subsidiary the European Campaign to End the Siege on Gaza, based at the PRC office in Crown House, Wembley. The PRC is said by the Israeli government to be “Hamas’s organisational branch in Europe” whose members are “senior Hamas leaders who promote the movement’s agenda in Europe.”
The PRC denies this. However, it takes a strongly pro-Hamas position and has regularly hosted Hamas leaders, including Mr Haniyeh, at its annual conferences.
The Telegraph has obtained evidence from security sources showing that at least one senior PRC leader in Europe has recruited individuals to Hamas. The PRC’s current head of media in the UK, Sameh Habeeb, founded and edited a virulently anti-Semitic website, Palestine Telegraph, which published a video by the former head of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke and numerous conspiracy theories about Jewish control of the world.
Next month, Mr Corbyn is due to speak at a conference organised by Middle East Monitor (MEMO), another group based at Crown House with strong sympathies for Hamas. MEMO’s director, Daud Abdullah, is a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood-linked British Muslim Initiative, set up and run by the Brotherhood activist Anas al-Tikriti and two senior figures in Hamas.
MEMO’s “senior editor”, Ibrahim Hewitt, an extremist who believes that adulterers should be stoned to death, is chairman of Interpal, the Hamas-linked charity. MEMO has organised several meetings featuring Hamas leaders and terrorist sympathisers; its website also repeatedly peddles conspiracy theories about Jews in articles such as “How money from Israeli donors controls Westminster.”
Mr Corbyn and MEMO co-sponsored the visit to Britain and to Parliament of an Israel-based anti-Semitic extremist, Sheikh Raed Saleh, found by a British court to have spread the classic “blood libel” against Jews, the claim that they use the blood of gentile children to make their bread. Mr Saleh, who also describes Jews as “monkeys” and “bacteria,” claims that 9/11 was a Jewish plot and that the Jews employed at the World Trade Center were warned not to come into work that day.
But he was strongly defended by Mr Corbyn, who congratulated him on defeating Government moves to exclude him from Britain, called him “a very honoured citizen who represents his people extremely well” and said he “looked forward to giving you tea on the [House of Commons]terrace.”
Mr Corbyn has met the leadership of Hamas, including Mr Haniyeh, several times, but they are not the only terror group he has had dealings with. He has also praised, and spoken on platforms with, representatives of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, and once shared a platform with the Black September hijacker, Leila Khaled. In November 2012, Mr Corbyn hosted a meeting in Parliament with Mousa Abu Maria, a member of the banned terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.[/QUOTE]
How could anyone possibly think he agreed with Hamas? And after all, he is of course meeting with both Hamas and far-right Israeli nationalists... right...? He is clearly holding his nose here, no agreement at all!
[editline]2nd May 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE]Is Jeremy Corbyn an anti-Semite? No, but his position strongly resembles that of those 1980s far-Right Tory MPs, such as John Carlisle and Harvey Proctor, who strongly sympathised with apartheid and repatriating black people without directly being racists. They were figures on the fringe of their party, largely ignored by the people in charge – as was Corbyn, until this month.[/QUOTE]
A good summary and comparison. You wouldn't make these excuses for the right, so don't make them for the left.
[editline]2nd May 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE]Stop the War Coalition[/QUOTE]
Thanks for that, now I can dump more shit against Corbyn. Stop the War are a disgrace.
[url]https://archive.is/ir6e8[/url] Deleted poem inspired by the supposed killing of Ahmad Saleh Manasra, a 13 year old Palestinian boy who attempted to knife to death a 13 year old Israeli boy during the spree of attacks on Israeli civilians
[url]https://web.archive.org/web/20150924090937/http://stopwar.org.uk/news/the-missing-facts-of-the-1972-munich-olympics-massacre-israelis-weren-t-the-only-victims[/url] 'The goal of the Munich hostage-taking was not to kill them; it was to return the athletes to Israel in return for Israel returning its Palestinian prisoners.'
[url]https://web.archive.org/web/20150929182614/http://stopwar.org.uk/news/why-it-s-not-anti-semitic-to-say-the-state-of-israel-should-not-exist[/url] enough said
[url]http://web.archive.org/web/20140722040605/http://www.stopwar.org.uk/news/time-to-go-to-war-with-israel-as-the-only-path-to-peace-in-the-middle-east[/url] ''Legitimacy war', combining the mobilization of a movement from below with global solidarity, is the best prospect for realizing Palestinian self-determination, says Richard Falk'
Aw gee, how could anyone doubt his pursuit of peace?
So here's what I don't understand about this whole thing Conservatives are willing to condemn Labour MPs for being antisemitic but are prefectly cool with being Islamaphobic themselves. Not saying either is right. Just that Conservatives in this country are better at politics and have better relationships with the press than us left wingy peoples. Which, I know, is completely unrelated, but this entire thing with Corbyn has basically shown how much better the Tories are at having things shifted to fit their narrative then the Labour party.
[QUOTE=Rossy167;50245267]So here's what I don't understand about this whole thing Conservatives are willing to condemn Labour MPs for being antisemitic but are prefectly cool with being Islamaphobic themselves. Not saying either is right. Just that Conservatives in this country are better at politics and have better relationships with the press than us liberals. Which, I know, is completely unrelated, but this entire thing with Corbyn has basically shown how much better the Tories are at having things shifted to fit their narrative then the Labour party.[/QUOTE]
Somewhat agree with that. Although the problem isn't as big as Labour with anti-Semitism, Zac Goldsmith's campaign against Sadiq Khan has been disgraceful.
[editline]2nd May 2016[/editline]
Don't call yourself a 'liberal' though, both major parties are liberal in the broad sense. Liberal doesn't just mean left-wing.
[QUOTE=sgman91;50244612]Right, they do it because their goal is the destruction of Israel. We don't negotiate with terrorists because their goal is to kill innocent people. You can't compromise with someone like that.[/QUOTE]
In Hamas' case, I'd say the majority do because they see no other way to fight back against a West-backed state that's slowly taking their land and treating those within its borders as second-class citizens.
[QUOTE=Morbo!!!;50245693]In Hamas' case, I'd say the majority do because they see no other way to fight back against a West-backed state that's slowly taking their land and treating those within its borders as second-class citizens.[/QUOTE]
Israel took out all settlements in the Gaza Strip, the part of Palestine controlled by Hamas. That was part of the deal. They took out all Israeli presence, let the people elect their own government, and they elected Hamas. The blockades came after Hamas decided to be aggressive, not before.
That was a perfect opportunity for the Palestinians to show that they were serious about making peace if the Israelis left them along, but they instead decided to show the opposite.
I find it disgusting that people are conflating listening to opposing views with open support.
I would be the first to support trying to understand your opposition, regardless of how barbaric or inhumane their actions are. But understanding is a far cry from openly parroting their propaganda and treating them like allies.
We need to understand people like Hamas, because our only options going forward are to understand and address the things that lead them to exist in a humane and just manner, or to crush them through military force, and in doing so create untold misery and the potential for future conflict.
That doesn't mean they will ever be our friends, nor should it.
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