Unite leader forced to Student pleads guilty respond to complaints to racist Twitter posts
THE GENERAL SECRETARY of Britain’s biggest union has written to supporters of Israel to defend comments he made during Operation Pillar of Defence.
Unite had issued a statement signed by Len McCluskey six days into the violence between Israel and Hamas in November. It “unreservedly condemned outrageous Israeli aggression” and accused Israel of “terrorising an entire population”.
The statement claimed the conflict had followed “the illegal Israeli assassination of Palestinian leaders in Gaza”, but made no mention of the thousands of terrorist rockets fired on Israeli civilians in the preceding decade.
The We Believe in Israel advocacy group encouraged supporters to write to Mr McCluskey to complain about the “one-sidedness” of the statement. Around 200 people did so.
In a response sent last week to those who had complained, Mr McCluskey said he had been “taken to task for a variety of what are in reality, imagined or contrived, offences” and said Unite remained “wary” of Hamas, partly due to its expulsion of the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions.
But he followed that with a series of further allegations against Israel dating back to 1967 and c o n c l u d e d : “T h e strength of opinion among British trade unionists is such that they will not stand idly by when the combined weight of IDF weaponry rains down on a largely defenceless and undefended people in Gaza.”
Unite took a lead, he said, from proboycott campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who has accused Israel of apartheid.
A STUDENT who tweeted “just gas themall”toaJewishteenagerhasadmitted sending racially aggravated messages.
Alexander Paul Holloway, 19, sent antisemitic tweets because he “didn’t like what Israel was doing in Palestine”, Chester Magistrates Court has heard.
Alison Warburton, prosecuting, said: “The victim accessed their Twitter accountandnoticedamessagefromthe defendant that said ‘Jews are vile’.”
On December 5, Holloway posted a photograph of a Jewish man with a caption reading “this creature should be gassed.” He then said to “just gas them all” with the victim “in there as well.”
The court heard that Holloway had been drinking with a friend when he posted the messages.
Mrs Warburton said: “Mr Holloway said he had watched history pro- grammes on television and didn’t like what Israel was doing in Palestine.”
Holloway, of Hartford, near Northwich, Cheshire, admitted sending two racially aggravated messages to a Jewish teenager,whocannotbenamedforlegal reasons, on October 5 and December 5, last year.
He was charged with the offence after the victim said they had felt threatened and offended by the messages.
Defending, Becky Hay said Holloway had “no reason to do this and fully accepts that the comments were hurtful and offensive to the victim.”
Holloway was given a 12-month community order on January 2, with a supervision requirement and was ordered to complete the Promoting Human Dignityprogramme— aprogrammeaimed at racially motivated offenders.
Athree-yearrestrainingorderwasalso declared, preventing him from contacting the victim directly or indirectly.