Thornberry’s hate warning to Palestinians
EMILY THORNBERRY, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, has reiterated that “the next Labour government will recognise the state of Palestine” but added that it would also seek to end the Palestinian Authority’s “officially sanctioned antisemitic incitement”.
Ms Thornberry, who was speaking at the annual lunch for Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), said her party would, “recognise the state of Palestine, because it is in the interests of Israel, the Palestinians and peace.”
However, she also declared that Labour “will make clear to the Palestinian Authority that officially sanctioned antisemitic incitement, and the glorification of suicide bombers, particularly to children and young people, must come to an end. Because peace can only be built by teaching children on all sides not to hate, but to love.”
Ms Thornberry was joined by the Israeli ambassador, Mark Regev, and Joan Ryan MP, the parliamentary chair of LFI, as speakers at the event. All three referred to the long-standing connection between Israel and Labour, with Ms Ryan noting that the party had publicly declared its support for the Zionist cause three months before the Balfour Declaration. Mr Regev described how “it was the British Labour Movement who called for the fledgling Jewish state to be recognised by the United Kingdom.
Holding up a sheet of paper, he told guests: “I have with me here today a copy of one such motion, from the Manchester section of the constructional engineering union, today better known as Unite”.
The remark was met with laughter from the 300-strong audience, which included more than 60 Labour MPs. Under its current leadership, the Unite union has supported anti-Israel motions and the ambassador warned that a Palestinian state that did not recognise Israel would “only serve as a vehicle to further perpetuate the conflict”.
He urged Labour “to avoid the temptation of rushing towards a quick fix that ignores realities.”
Ms Ryan described how she was “ashamed — and we should all be ashamed — of some of the language we have seen used by members of the Labour Party when discussing Israel… age-old tropes about international conspiracies and Jewish power, the suggestion that Jews are manipulating allegations of antisemitism for their own ends, and, most pernicious of all, the attempt to link Zionism and Nazi Germany.”
She also described the “grotesque spectacle of a speaker at a fringe meeting at Labour Party conference — a fringe meeting that was in the official conference guide — asking the question: ‘Holocaust: yes or no’; leaflets being distributed to delegates quoting the words of Reinhard Heydrich, the architect of the Final Solution, and some supporters of the current leadership taking to the airwaves and refusing to condemn Holocaust denial.”
She continued: “Our party does not have a problem with all forms of racism’. It has a problem with antisemitism.
“And we will never be able to confront it until we acknowledge that fact.”
In her speech, Ms Thornberry sent a message to Labour members who hold anti-Jewish views.
She said: “There can be no place in our party for anyone who holds antisemitic views or who denies the right of Israel to exist, and any people who hold those views must and will be drummed out of our party.”
‘We should all be ashamed of some party members’ language about Israel’