Harman: Why I’m telling this offensive Jewish joke on TV
HARRIET Harman was under pressure to apologise last night after telling a joke about the Holocaust on live TV.
Labour’s former deputy leader made the gaffe during a debate on the BBC’s This Week show about the limits of acceptable humour.
She suggested that presenter Andrew Neil would find the joke acceptable even though he supports work to raise awareness about the Holocaust.
Miss Harman, who is a champion of political correctness, said: ‘I’ve long been accused of being a humourless feminist and I’ll give you two examples that I protested about because they were offensive and hurtful.
‘So, this was a Guy’s Hospital rag magazine back in the day and people like Andrew say that these things are perfectly all right. Two jokes. One was “How do you get 100 Jews into a Mini? One in the driver’s seat and 99 in the ashtray.” That’s not funny.’
An angry Mr Neil cut her off and insisted he would never approve of such a joke. Miss Harman tried to break back into the debate to justify her decision to repeat the joke, only for Mr Neil to tell her: ‘Be quiet.’
Simon Johnson, chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council, demanded an apology from Miss Harman last night.
‘I cannot recall being so disappointed in a politician,’ he said. ‘Harriet Harman must surely know better than to repeat a vile Holocaust joke, irrespective of the point she was trying to make.
‘She must apologise and do so quickly. It is a staggering error of judgment.’
David Abrahams, a former Labour Party donor, called for Miss Harman to be suspended from the party for her ‘vile comments’.
Mr Abrahams, who has given more than £650,000 to the party, tweeted: ‘Harriet Harman should know that nothing to do with antisemitism is a joke. I have no respect for anyone that makes comments like that.’ On Twitter Mr Neil said that he was ‘appalled and even a little bit upset by what she said’. He added: ‘What was wrong was 1) Even to tell that so-called joke on live TV. 2) Claim I would like the joke. Appalling on both counts.’ Miss Harman, the MP for Camber- well and Peckham, resisted calls to apologise. She was unavailable for comment yesterday.
But in a message on social media she posted a page from her book, A Woman’s Work, in which she related the joke to make a similar point. The book also carries a second vile joke about Pakistanis.
In the book she says she was lambasted by political opponents and the media for criticising offensive jokes.
In an accompanying message, Miss Harman added: ‘Anti-semitic “jokes/banter” perpetuate discrimination and hatred. No laughing
‘Staggering error of judgment’
matter.’ Miss Harman’s remarks in the debate came as Theresa May joined Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a dinner in London to celebrate the centenary of the Balfour Declaration, which helped pave the way for the creation of the state of Israel.
Jeremy Corbyn turned down an invitation to the event. The Labour leader has faced a wave of criticism over his failure to tackle anti-semitism in Labour’s ranks.
The party conference in September included a fringe meeting at which Israel was likened to the Nazis and a panellist questioned whether the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered, had happened.
Following the event, Rebecca Hilsenrath, head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, said Labour needed to ‘do
‘Discrimination and hatred’
more to establish that it was not a racist party’. The Labour council leader in Brighton, where the conference was held, said the party would not be welcome back in the city unless Mr Corbyn acted to stamp out anti-semitism.
Mr Corbyn insists he believes in a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to the issue but has faced criticism over his own stance on Israel.
Earlier this week, the Labour leader was accused of cosying up to a hardline Muslim group accused of anti-semitism.
Mr Corbyn was accused of a ‘slap in the face of Israel and all British Jewish citizens’ after agreeing to speak at a House of Commons meeting staged by the Muslim Engagement and Development group.
Last month Mr Neil was the guest speaker at a fundraising dinner for the Holocaust Educational Trust dinner where he warned of ‘the rise of antisemitism on the far Left’, which he said was ‘ more dangerous than the knuckle-dragging Right’.