Call for Arab parliamentarians to be expelled from Knesset after letter supporting “anti-semite” Corbyn
Deputy Minister for Diplomacy Michael Oren called for a group of Arab MKs from the Joint List to be expelled from the Knesset after they penned a letter of support to the United Kingdom Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn.
Michael Oren Photo by Miri Tzachi/TPS
Corbyn has become embroiled in accusations of antisemitism, most recently after a video emerged in which he said British Zionists “having lived in this country for a very long time…don’t understand English irony”.
“The Kahanists from the Joint List strike again, in a letter of support for anti-Semite Jeremy Corbyn,” Oren said. “There is a law that prevents racial incitement. I call for the immediate application of the law and the removal of this racist group from the Knesset.”
Arab MKs rallied their support behind UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in an open letter to The Guardian on Sunday.
In the letter, written by the Joint List, the party named Corbyn as “a champion of peace and justice.”
Written by MKs Ahmad Tibi, Masud Ganaim, Yousef Jabareen and Jamal Zahalka on behalf the Joint List in the Knesset, the letter says that “While we focus locally, defending what’s left of our ever-diminishing rights, we feel that we must speak out now and register our repugnance at…recent attempts to complete our erasure, by forbidding within the UK Labour party any mention by name of the forces arrayed against the Palestinian cause.
“As long as efforts to curb anti-Jewish sentiment in the UK are focused on combating the disparagement of Jews merely for their membership in a minority group, they have our full support. But when some try to force the Labour party into using as its litmus test a definition of antisemitism that goes far beyond anti-Jewish animus to include anti-Zionism, we must raise our voices and decry these efforts,” the MKs wrote.
They said that they also “commend Jeremy Corbyn for his decades of public service… and for his long standing solidarity with all oppressed peoples around the world, including his unflinching support for the Palestinian people.
“We stand in solidarity with Jeremy Corbyn and we recognise him as a principled leftist leader who aspires for peace and justice and is opposed to all forms of racism, whether directed at Jews, Palestinians, or any other group,” the Joint List said.
Speaking to TPS on Monday, Ganaim added that he thinks it’s legitimate to sign such a letter. “[Jeremy] Corbyn is a man who supports free speech and human rights and the right of the Palestinian people. All these are liberal ideas and he is also in favor of peace.”
Asked about the concerns that Corbyn is antisemitic, he said that “I have never heard him say anything antisemitic. He’s a man who supports human rights in general – I don’t support antisemitism.”
The letter comes after Labour’s refusal to adopt in full the internationally accepted definition of antisemitism of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
Corbyn has been caught up several scandals, from meeting with well-known terrorists, laying a wreath at the graves of the men who killed members of the Israeli Olympic team in 1972, calling Hamas and Hezbollah his friends and making numerous antisemitic remarks.
Sorry Mr Oren in a democracy you cant expel elected parliamentarian for their views, even offensive views.
This is exactly the reason Israel needs the Nation state bill to be enshrined along with the constitution because these 5 th columnist Arabs / Muslims along with left wing progressive Jews are trying to create a Arab Muslim state !
O dear, this is crazy talk Mr Burd and is racist and undemocratic. Haven’t you heard of muliculturalism?