MP hopeful backed violence against Israel
A LABOUR Parliamentary candidate who previously apologised for using antisemitic language appeared on Press TV in 2015 and suggested the BDS movement could be used in tandem with “armed conflict” against Israel.
Ali Milani, 24, who was selected earlier this year to contest Boris Johnson’s Uxbridge seat, appeared on the Iranian propaganda channel to discuss the boycott movement. Mr Milani, who was formerly the president of the students’ union at Brunel University, was introduced as having “successfully led the BDS campaign” at the institution.
‘The Golem’ Twitter account revealed that, when asked whether or not boycotts of Israel are an alternative to “armed struggle”, he replied: “There’s no reason why we need to frame the argument as binary. “It doesn’t have to be either a non-violent
Ali Milani: contesting Boris’s seat economic resistance or an armed resistance. People will see this differently.” When asked to comment, Mr Milani told the JC: “In this 2015 interview, I made it clear that BDS was a peaceful method for people in the UK to advance an end to human rights violations. “My message was specific to what non-violent forms of activism we could engage in here in the UK to further peace, rather than in the region itself. “I support a peaceful resolution to the conflict and reject any attempt to solve it through violence.”
The segment, which aired when Mr Milani was 20, was presented by Press TV anchor Roshan Salih, who last year helped pressure a North London mosque into cancelling an exhibition on Albanian Muslims’ efforts to save Jews from the Nazis because of the exhibit’s links to Yad Vashem, Israel’s Shoah memorial.
Also on the show was Tapash Abu Shaim, introduced by Mr Salih as the executive director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. As revealed in 2017, Mr Shaim shared material on social media claiming Israel was behind the Charlie Hebdo killings, Isis and 9/11.
When asked by Mr Salih whether it was a problem “that some BDS supporters recognise Israel as a state”, Mr Milani answered “no, not at all”, adding that “we’re going to have disagreements. It’s a political discussion, people will have political differences.”
In a recent interview, Mr Milani said his views on Israel’s right to exist had changed, saying his past comments had come from “anger at the injustice that was being faced towards a people and not understanding the political nuance of what was going on there”.
He also said he had recently travelled to Auschwitz Birkenau and suggested: “Every kid in the country should go on that trip.”
Mr Milani has previously apologised for comments he made between 2011 and 2013 on social media.
In an exchange on Twitter in 2012, he wrote: “Nah u won’t mate it will cost you a pound #jew”
Two weeks ago, Mr Milani said he had “unreservedly apologised on every public platform and interview I have ever done for the comments made in my teens.”
LORD MANDELSON has said he feels “dirty” staying in a Labour Party in which “no effective action” is being taken against people holding antisemitic views.
The Labour peer blamed Jeremy Corbyn for allowing thousands of people carrying the “virus” of anti-Jewish racism to join the party and flourish within it.
But he said he intended to stay and “fight to save the Labour Party”, insisting, “that is what I devote energy to, every single day.
“Throughout my life I have never known antisemitism, or ‘anti-Jewish racism’ as I prefer to call it, in the Labour Party but when he became leader there was an influx of thousands of people to the Labour Party membership and, since this time, antisemitism has spread like a virus among Labour Party grassroots, as their use of social media has been exposed.
“It’s a minority but it’s there, present. Not only have we lost the votes of Jewish people, we’ve lost the votes of many ordinary voters, as well as liberal opinion, people who hate racism, people who followed the Labour Party because they thought of the Labour Party as an anti-racist party.”
Speaking to Italian journalist Alain Disgusted with Labour: Mandelson
Elkann, he added: “We now have members who are prepared to use antisemitic language and say things on social media against Israel and against Jews but are tolerated by the leadership, with no effective action taken against them.”
Lord Mandelson added: “Like many people I feel dirty. I feel dirty being in a party that is prepared to tolerate people with such opinions as these. It’s disgusting.”
In an interview with Italian newspaper La Stampa, Lord Mandelson said: “Corbyn is not the leader that Labour needs at this time. He cannot deliver. Even his supporters are realising this.”
It is the first time the former Cabinet minister has publicly called for Mr Corbyn to go.