On the fringes
One of the key speakers at a Labour Friendsof Palestinepaneleventon Monday was Husam Zomlot, a former Palestinian representative in Britain who has previously accused Israel of “fabricating the story of the Holocaust”.
The academic, who was lauded by Labour MPs, appeared to compare the concept of a Jewish state to the arguments made by the Daesh terror group for an Islamic state.
In 2014 he claimed his remarks about the Shoah in a BBC interview had been taken out of context by an Israeli group in an attempt to label him as a Holocaust denier.
MrCorbynwasmobbedwhenhe spoke at a LFP reception on Monday evening. In comments similar to those he made on Tuesday at the Friends of Israel group event, he said he would not change his position on the Middle East following his election as party leader.
Len McCluskey, general secretary of Key speaker: Husam Zomlot the Unite union, used his conference appearance on Monday to equate the government’s approach to industrial action with Nazi Germany. Speaking about Conservative plans for striking workers to wear armbands on picket lines, he said: “Remember that’s what the Nazis did to trade unionists in the concentration camps at Dachau.”
Party member Sioux Blair-Jordan told the conference that if David Cameron passed a Bill of Rights into legislation, “we might as well walk into the gas chamber today”.
Conservative Justice Minister Dominic Raab said delegates had shown “extraordinarily bad taste” in applauding the remark and called on Mr Corbyn to apologise for embracing her at the end of the speech.
Speaking at a fringe session, LabourKnessetmemberMichal Biran warned that Mr Corbyn’s leadership could be a “disaster” both for Britain’s relationship with Israel and for his party.