I’m backing you, Jeremy... but MUST you consort with Holocaust-denying bigots?
A deeply disturbing question to Corbyn– from a leading supporter
I AM backing Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leadership, despite his unsavoury ‘friends’.
Like many others, I face a real dilemma. I’ve known Jeremy Corbyn for over 30 years and love nearly everything he stands for. Yet there are a few important issues on which I profoundly disagree with him. Does this mean he should no longer have my support?
Jeremy is not a saint. He’s never claimed to be. Even the best, most admirable politicians usually get some things wrong. Jeremy is no exception. On a majority of UK and foreign policy issues he’s spot on, with real vision and an inspiring alternative. On a small number of issues he has made lamentable misjudgments. Despite these shortcomings, I’m backing his bid for the Labour leadership because I look at the big picture and judge politicians on their overall record.
He has faced a barrage of accu- sations over his contacts with antiSemites, Holocaust deniers and Islamist extremists.
This puts me in a very difficult position, given my advocacy for human rights. At what point do links with bad people put a politician beyond the pale? How many flawed judgements does it take to cancel out all the good that a MP might have done and espoused?
He says, for example, he was not aware of the Holocaust revisionist views of Paul Eisen when he attended meetings of his Deir Yassin Remembered organisation. I can believe that. Some extremists hide their views and politicians sometimes lend their support to what they genuinely believe to be legitimate campaign groups.
On the basis that Jeremy has his heart in the right place and is not an Islamist, Holocaust denier or antiSemite, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Nevertheless, it is true that he has often been careless in not checking out who he shares platforms with and has been too willing to associate uncritically with the Islamist far Right.
While I’m certain Jeremy doesn’t share their extremist views, he does need to explain in more detail why he has attended and spoken at meetings alongside some pretty unsavoury bigots who advocate human rights abuses – and why he did so without publicly criticising their totalitarian politics.
Jeremy supported, for example, the visit to Parliament of Sheikh Raed Saleh, who has reportedly slurred Jews as ‘monkeys’ and repeated the antiSemitic ‘blood libel’ which claims that Jews used the blood of gentile children to make their bread.
He called Saleh ‘a very honoured citizen who represents his people extremely well’. What? Just because Saleh opposes the Israeli occupation and supports Palestinian self-determination does not make him a good person deserving such praise. While Jeremy is right to dialogue with Hamas and Hezbollah as part of a peace initiative, he was wrong to call them ‘friends’. These are Islamist political parties with poor human rights records that are not consistent with humanitarian – let alone Left-wing values.
Jeremy says he doesn’t agree with their views but I have not been able find any instance, until very recently, where he has publicly criticised either Hezbollah or Hamas, both of which are guilty (alongside Israel) of war crimes and the abuse of their own citizens.
Jeremy was also wrong to call the Islamist extremist Ibrahim Hewitt ‘my very good friend’ and to share platforms with him, given that Hewitt allegedly supports the death penalty for apostates, blasphemers, adulterers and LGBT people. I don’t buy the excuse that Jeremy’s use of the term ‘friends’ was ‘diplomatic’ language to win over extremists and encourage dialogue. He would rightly not accept a similar explanation by an MP who used those words about, and shared a platform with, the BNP, EDL or European fascist parties. Islamists are a religious version of the far Right. They want a clerical dictatorship, without democracy and human rights. They do not merit friendship, praise or uncritical association of any kind.
Jeremy has also made misjudgements on Russia, Ukraine, Syria and Iran. He says he wants dialogue and negotiations, not war. I agree. But this should not include collusion – even if unintentional – with human rightsabusing regimes.
We don’t often hear Jeremy condemning Putin’s oligarchs, show trials and tame media and judiciary. Where is his solidarity with human rights campaigners, civil society organisations and harassed journalists, LGBT advocates and Left-wing activists? Halya Coynash, a respected human rights figures in Ukraine, believes some of Jeremy’s views on Russia and Ukraine echo Putin’s propaganda.
And on Syria, Jeremy seems to have no policies, apart from ‘Don’t Bomb Syria’. I concur. But surely 250,000 dead, 1.5million wounded and 10million refugees merits action? Total inaction aids the survival of Assad and IS.
Like Jeremy, I don’t want war with Iran. But I’ve struggled to find examples of where he has spoken out against Iran’s jailing and torture of trade unionists, students, journalists, lawyers, feminists, human rights defenders and sexual, religious and ethnic minorities. Why the silence? He often criticises Saudi Arabia. Why not Iran?
It is very distressing to see Jeremy appear on the Iranian regime’s propaganda channel Press TV; especially after it defamed protesters, covered up state violence and broadcast forced confessions by human rights defenders who were tortured into admitting false charges and later executed.
Some of Jeremy’s supporters may accuse me of betrayal and of aligning myself with his Right-wing critics. Not so. My criticisms are rooted in a Leftist, human rights politics that is democratic, secular and internationalist. Support for Jeremy does not require suspension of our critical faculties and a knee-jerk unthinking allegiance. As he himself has often said, it is a citizen’s responsibility to hold politicians to account – including those we support. Nobody is entitled to a free pass – not Jeremy, me or anyone.
Peter Tatchell explained why he is backing Jeremy Corbyn for Labour leader – despite his ‘lamentable misjudgments’ – in an article on a Left-wing website. This is an edited version of the article.
Islamists are a version of the far Right who do not merit friendship