An article was written by Jeremy Corbyn in 2011 called on “Western governments” to confront “the Zionist lobby” following the arrest of controversial cleric Raed Salah.
The article appeared in the Morning Star, a hard-left/communist newspaper, on July 1 2011, after the leader of the Islamic Movement was arrested and detained for entering Britain despite a travel ban.
Corbyn defended Salah, saying, “he wishes to remain here long enough to fight for his name,” it says. “The sadness is that his is a voice of Palestinian people that needs to be heard.”
It continues: “It’s time that Western governments stood up to the zionist lobby which seems to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.”
Raed Salah was detained for 21 days during a visit to the UK in 2011 on the orders of Home Secretary Theresa May but later won a partial victory in a claim for damages. The High Court ruled Salah was wrongly detained for two days during which he was not told the reason for his arrest – but that the rest of his detention had not broken rules.
The article was written by Corbyn before he became Labour leader and was discovered by the journalist Iggy Ostanin.
Exclusive: In 2011, Jeremy Corbyn wrote an article defending “blood libel” cleric Raed Salah, ending it with “It’s time that Western governments stood up to the zionist lobby which seems to conflate criticism of Israel with anti-semitism.” pic.twitter.com/mPWo75NGIz
— Iggy Ostanin (@magnitsky) April 2, 2019
Ostanin has unearthed other articles from the Daily Star where Corbyn again repeats his comments about the “zionist lobby”.
“This message fits into a pattern of behavior from Corbyn. He frequently cited the Goldstone Report, until in 2011 Goldstone retracted the claim that Israel deliberately targeted civilians. To Corbyn this was the result of “Zionist lobbyists” of applying “huge pressure””, Ostanin wrote.
In April 2011, Corbyn wrote Goldstone “accused Israel of war crimes and of deliberately targeting civilians — but it now appears he’s changed his mind. There is no doubt that Goldstone was put under huge pressure from zionist lobbyists and has suffered a great deal of abuse.” pic.twitter.com/L4qFcVcayK
— Iggy Ostanin (@magnitsky) April 2, 2019
Jeremy Corbyn infamously invited Raed Salah to tea in Parliament and was pictured with the radical Islamist at a pro-Hamas rally the same year. At that event, Corbyn shared the stage with notorious anti-Semites whilst calling for convicted terrorists to be released and accused Israel’s arresting of terrorists as being “war crimes”.
Salah completed a nine-month prison sentence in Israel in January 2017 for “incitement to violence” and “incitement to racism.” He has had repeated run-ins with Israeli authorities and was previously imprisoned for funnelling money to Hamas, the Islamic militant Palestinian group that rules the Gaza Strip.
Israeli media reported that Salah was arrested for remarks delivered in a speech at the funeral of three Arab-Israeli gunmen who killed two police officers outside the Temple Mount. In the speech, he praised the attackers and exhorted others to follow their example.
Israel’s Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told Israel Radio that Salah is “a danger to the public” for encouraging “radicalism and despicable acts of murder,” while Arab-Israeli lawmakers called for his immediate release.
However, in the video below Corbyn calls Salah “a very honoured citizen” and “far from a dangerous man”. Salah happens to be sitting across from Corbyn, whom he is looking at in the eye, and invites him for tea in parliament.
