Holocaust survivor: I was silenced by Corbyn
Labour leader accused of having Jewish protesters thrown out of event with ‘anti-semitic atmosphere’
JEREMY CORBYN told police to throw Jewish dissenters out of an event in Parliament when they objected to comparisons of Israel to Nazi Germany, a Holocaust survivor has told The Daily Telegraph.
Rubin Katz said the event, held on Holocaust Memorial Day in 2010, took place in an “anti-semitic and anti-israel atmosphere” in which its host, Mr Corbyn, was “ordering people out” if they tried to speak up for Israel.
After reports of the event surfaced on Tuesday, Mr Corbyn admitted that he had “on occasion appeared on platforms with people whose views I completely reject”.
Mr Katz’s account appears to contradict the Labour leader’s version, as he claims Mr Corbyn actively ensured that Jewish attendees could not challenge the views of the speakers. The 86-yearold, who evaded capture as a child in Nazi-occupied Poland, said Mr Corbyn had told him before the start of the meeting that he could have his say, only to refuse him when the time came.
As Mr Corbyn faced a deepening backlash over his handling of antisemitism in his party, John Mann, the MP, said Jewish people felt as if Labour had “declared war” on them.
It emerged yesterday that Mr Corbyn tried to secure a Commons vote calling for Holocaust Memorial Day to be renamed “Genocide Memorial Day” in what critics say was an attempt at “denial and distortion” of the event.
On another occasion, he referred to 1,000 convicted Palestinian terrorists as “brothers”, including one, Abdul Aziz Umar, who was given seven life sentences for aiding the preparation of a suicide bombing that killed seven people in Jerusalem in 2003.
The Telegraph has also learnt that Mr Corbyn wrote an article in the Morning
Star in 2009 in which he equated the Palestinian cause to Spanish resistance against fascism.
Meanwhile, footage of a pro-palestine march in London shows Mr Corbyn comparing the Israeli blockade of Gaza to Stalingrad.
The latest crisis was prompted by the refusal of the party’s governing body to accept in full the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-semitism. One specific example included in the definition, but dropped by Labour, referred to “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis”.
Critics have said that Mr Corbyn could himself have fallen foul of such a definition as a backbench MP. Labour has categorically denied that its refusal to adopt the example is linked to Mr Corbyn’s past public statements.
Speaking to The Telegraph from his home in Israel, Mr Katz said he went to the event hosted by Mr Corbyn in 2010 in the Houses of Parliament titled “Never Again For Anyone – Auschwitz to Gaza” to question the main speaker, Hajo Meyer.
Mr Meyer, a survivor of Auschwitz, went on to become a fierce anti-zionist and said Israelis had become worshippers of “the Holocaust religion”.
Mr Katz said: “Jeremy Corbyn said I would have the chance to speak when the meeting was over. I just wanted the chance to have my say. But when the end of the meeting came I was refused.
“I didn’t think he was an honest person. This was the House of Commons, it was supposed to be an open meeting, and he was ordering people out.
“Mr Corbyn would point to people and the police officer would escort
them out because they were trying to speak or they were heckling. It was an anti-semitic and an anti-israel atmosphere. Mr Corbyn wanted [to make] sure that some people in the audience were removed.”
Asked about Mr Meyer, who died in 2014, Mr Katz added: “For some reason, people like Corbyn made use of him. I don’t think he knew what he was doing. He seemed like a dithering old man.”
Colin Myer, another Jewish attendee at the event, said: “Some pro-israel attendees tried to challenge the speakers but they barely had a chance: they were shouted down by the rest of the room.
“Corbyn called in the police and had the pro-israel folk removed although they hadn’t misbehaved at all.”
A Labour spokesman said the accounts were false, adding: “Three people were removed at different times by the police after shouting at the Holocaust survivor speaking at the event.”
Mr Mann said it was “extraordinary” that Mr Corbyn had held such an event on Holocaust Memorial Day, adding that it went against “normal decency”.
Several months after the event, Mr Corbyn put his name to a motion put forward by John Mcdonnell, now the shadow chancellor, which called for Holocaust Memorial Day to be renamed.
They argued at the time that the alternative title “Genocide Memorial Day” would emphasise that “every life is of value” and that Nazi Germany targeted other groups as well as Jews. Labour insisted last night it had no intention of seeking a name change.
Karen Pollock, chief executive of the Holocaust Educational Trust, claimed that the campaign appeared to a “politically-motivated” attempt to “undermine a national day of remembrance”.
A video posted online shows Mr Corbyn at a pro-palestine march in 2010 at which he described the blockade of Gaza by Israeli forces as a “war crime” which had gone on “as long as the siege of Leningrad and Stalingrad”.
A Labour spokesman said: “Jeremy was not comparing the actions of Nazis and Israelis but the conditions of civilian populations in besieged cities in wartime.”
Mr Corbyn spoke about Palestinian prisoners on the Iranian news channel Press TV in 2012, saying that he was “glad” the men were released by Israel in a prisoner swap and that he had met a number of them during a trip to Qatar. A Labour spokesman said Mr Corbyn had been commenting on prison conditions and had been “in no way” supporting or endorsing the actions of the prisoners.
Mr Mcdonnell appeared to distance himself from his leader yesterday, telling Sky News that the party’s anti-semitism crisis had “shaken us to the core”.
Last night Momentum, the pro-corbyn campaign group, said it had withdrawn support for Peter Willsman, who is seeking re-election to the party’s National Executive Committee.
Mr Willsman had told a meeting of the NEC that Jewish “Trump fanatics” were “making up” allegations of antisemitism.
‘It was an anti-semitic and an anti-israel atmosphere’