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UK’s Labour ‘secretly suspended 50 members for anti-Semitic, racist comments’
[IsraelTimes] Report comes as Corbyn for first time concedes that party does have problem with anti-Semitism in its ranks, but insists it is ’not huge’Britannia’s Labour party has "secretly suspended" 50 of its members for anti-Semitic and racist comments, a UK paper said Monday. The report came as Labour chairman Jeremy Corbyn conceded for the first time Monday that the party does have a problem with anti-Jewish sentiment, but insisted that it is "not a huge problem." A string of Labour politicians have been publicly suspended recently for making anti-Semitic remarks, among them former London mayor and close Corbyn ally RedKen Livingstone, who said Thursday that Hitler supported Zionism before he "went mad and ended up killing 6 million Jews." Livingstone, who has refused to apologize for the comments, was defending party MP Naz Shah, suspended a day earlier for her own 2014 Facebook post calling for Israel to be dismantled. On Monday, a further three party politicians were suspended for anti-Semitic and anti-Israel remarks. According to the Telegraph, the public suspensions "are said to be just the tip of the iceberg." The report said that Labour’s small compliance unit, which vets new members in order to weed out unsuitable candidates, is struggling to deal with the vast numbers of "hard-left supporters" who have joined in the wake of Corbyn’s September election as leader. But Corbyn said Monday that only a "very small number of people" had made controversial remarks about Jews and Israel. "What there is is a very small number of people that have said things that they should not have done," he told the left-leaning Mirror newspaper. "We have therefore said they will be suspended and investigated." Among those suspended Monday was Shah Hussain, a councilor for the northern town of Burnley, who in July 2014 directed a series of Twitter posts at Israeli soccer player Yossi Benayoun, then coming to the end of his career in the UK, calling him a "complete and utter plonker" and saying he and Israel were "doing the same thing that hitler [sic] did to ur race in ww2." The head of Israel’s Labor Party Isaac Herzog condemned the British Labour members’ comments, saying he was "weighing suspending ties and it would appear that there won’t be any other choice, despite the fact that it’s clear that most party members are friends of Israel and that these statements represent just a small and loud minority within it." Speaking at a May Day event on Sunday, Corbyn rebuffed calls to denounce contacts with terror groups Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, and Hezbollah, while repeating his declaration that the Labour Party is against anti-Semitism. But as Labour attempted to push back against efforts to label it anti-Semitic, it also came under fire for Corbyn’s past contacts with Hamas and Hezbollah, both sworn to Israel’s destruction. A statement from Corbyn’s spokesperson said he would continue to engage such groups, while denying that doing so was tantamount to an endorsement.
Posted by: trailing wife 2016-05-03 |
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