Monday 4 May 2020

Corbyn's legacy: the Labour Party, terrorists, and Anti-Semitism

On Thursday morning, heavily armed German police took part in raids across the country. In Dortmund, Muenster, Bremen and Berlin they hit a number of Mosque associations - their target, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah, writes EUtoday publisher Gary Cartwright.
Hezbollah is now a proscribed organisation in Germany, as it is in the U.S., Israel, and the UK, with both its military and political wings criminalised. The EU remains on the fence somewhat, having proscribed just the military wing, which was also the case with Germany until now.
In February 2019 Britain's House of Commons passed a ban on Hezbollah, albeit without the support of Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party.
An official statement from the party stated that "The Home Office has previously ruled that there was not sufficient evidence that the political wing of Hezbollah fell foul of proscription criteria, a position confirmed by ministers in the House of Commons last year. Ministers have not yet provided any clear evidence to suggest this has changed."
A spokesman for the party also said that because Hezbollah's political wing was part of a democratically elected government, such a ban would "interfere with diplomatic relations".
There have long been calls to ban the whole group with the distinction between the two factions derided as smoke and mirrors. Hezbollah themselves have laughed off the suggestion there is a difference. I've carefully considered the evidence and I'm satisfied they are one and the same with the entire organisation linked to terrorism.
Former UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid
Whilst not supporting the bill, Labour MPs declined to oppose the government on this occasion, and was passed without a vote. Corbyn's decision caused considerable discomfit amongst his backbenchers at the time.
It is now a criminal offence in the UK to show support for Hezbollah, punishable with a 10 year prison sentence.
Corbyn Adams Mc Guinness
Jeremy Corbyn has a history of expressing support for terrorists: photographs show the former Labour leader alongside Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness, both of whom served on the Army Council of the Provisional IRA (PIRA).
The Marxist-oriented terror group killed some 1,800 people, including approximately 600 civilians between 1969 and 1994.
Sickeningly, the above image shows the trio in the House of Commons, just yards from where Airey Neave, Member of Parliament and highly decorated war hero, was murdered by the IRA in March 1979, an act that could only have carried out on the orders of the Army Council. 
After McGuinness' death in 2017 Corbyn expressed his condolences referring to the killer as "a great family man".
Corbyn's support for IRA terrorists - Both Adams and McGuinness have been jailed for their activities - is based on their shared Marxist revolutionary ideals. However, in the case of Hezbollah, the man who was leader of the Labour Party from September 2015 to April 2020 would struggle to disassociate his support from the myriad of antisemitic comments attributed to him.
Corbyn Chavez
Corbyn has also been linked with the late Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, another Marxist, who in a Christmas Eve speech in 2005 said, “The world has enough for everybody, but some minorities, the descendants of the same people that crucified Christ…have taken control of the riches of the world".
In the aftermath of Chavez' inflammatory rhetoric synagogues were ransacked and vandalised, and government-controlled papers published cartoons with grotesque stereotypical caricatures of Jews, reminiscent of the Nazi Der Stürmer.
Suffice to say, when Corbyn's party was investigated by the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission in 2019 it was only the second political party to come under such scrutiny, the other being the far-right British National Party (BNP).
A damning 851 page report issued by the Labour Party itself in March of this year reveals the extent of the problem.
"This document tells an unhappy story. It is important to state that the fundamental issue it highlights is the existence of antisemitic ideas within our society, and the ways in which these have manifested within the Labour Party and on the left of British politics. It cannot be repeated too often that antisemitism has no place in society, nor in any democratic political organisation, least of all one committed to anti-racism and equality for all."
Whilst acknowledging the "existence of antisemitic" ideas within our society which have "manifested within the Labour Party"it does appear to attack the messenger, pointing out that half of all complaints received and evidence supplied came from one person, whilst spreading the blame to "the left of British politics" in general. Indeed, The Campaign Against Anti-Semitismsaid the report was leaked as an attempt to "smear whistleblowers".
Sir Keir Starmer, who recently replaced Corbyn as leader has stated his commitment to stamp out Anti-Semitism in his party.
However, it is also worth noting that he has launched an inquiry into the leaking of the damning report, and according the the Board of Deputies of British Jews two Labour MPs recently part in a conference call which included activists expelled from the party over alleged anti-Semitism, in breach of 10 anti-Semitism pledges that Sir Keir had signed up to during the Labour leadership contest earlier this year.
The extent of the problem the new leader faces is daunting indeed.
The work of the Labour Party’s Governance and Legal Unit in relation to antisemitism, 2014 - 2019 can be accessed Here

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