A Labour whip has taken to twitter to accuse the news editor of Jewish News of “killing children” and of “murder”. Graham Jones MP has now removed the tweet and apologised, according to Guido Fawkes.
On Saturday the MP for Hyndburn in Lancashire posted the following message to Justin Cohen: @CohenJust Murder is murder. There’s no justification on either side. You’ve lost any sense of humanity & justice. You’re killing children.– Graham Jones MP (@GrahamJones_MP).
Mr Cohen is British-born and lives in London and therefore could not possibly be involved in any military action in Israel. Also, given the military situation, it is likely to be deeply offensive to claim that actions by the Israeli Defence Force are “murder”.
Later Mr Jones said: “I unreservedly apologise to Justin Cohen. I have now deleted the tweet.” It is unlikely that the tweet came from his staff, as it sent out on a Saturday when parliamentary aides do not generally work.
This is not the first time Labour MPs have made offensive remarks about the actions of the state of Israel. Indeed, as reported on Breitbart London, in February Yasmin Qureshi MP claimed that the country was committing a holocaust in Gaza.
What makes this significant is the way a Jewish journalist was accused despite having no real connection to Israel beyond his religion. Meaning that any Jewish person would be blamed for any action in a country they may never have even visited.
Cohen has a similar background to the Labour leader Ed Miliband, who also defines himself as Jewish and was born in London.
The Hyndburn constituency in Lancashire covers the town of Accrington which is famous for its football team and for being one of the first places that large numbers of Pakistani migrants moved to after the second world war.