Jeremy Corbyn had been branded “deeply anti-Semitic” after implying “Zionists” born in the UK are different for other Brits, and saying they need to be taught “lessons, which we could perhaps help them with”.
The hard left Labour leader accused British “Zionists” of having “no sense of English irony despite having lived here all their lives” in footage recorded in 2013 and obtained by the Mail Online.
He made the incendiary speech standing before Islamic extremists at a conference promoted by Hamas’ military wing online. He has previously admitted meeting numerous times with anti-Semitic Hamas terror leaders.
Maajid Nawaz, the counter-extremism campaigner and former government adviser, said “brave Labour MP Margaret Hodge was right” after she accused her leader of being an anti-Semite.
He blasted on Twitter: “She was right all along. Far-left wing-nut [Mr Corbyn] isn’t just ‘soft on anti-semitism’. He. Is. An. Anti-Semite. And he is friends with Hamas jihadist-terror supporting anti-semites.”
In the footage, Mr Corbyn rants: “[British Zionists] clearly have two problems. One is they don’t want to study history, and secondly, having lived in this country for a very long time, probably all their lives, they don’t understand English irony either.”
He adds: “They needed two lessons, which we could perhaps help them with.”
Describing an exchange between some “Zionists” and the Palestinian representative Manuel Hassassian after he gave a speech in Parliament, Mr Corbyn said:
“[Hassassian’s speech] was dutifully recorded by the thankfully silent Zionists who were in the audience on that occasion, and then came up and berated him afterwards for what he’d said.”
Mr Corbyn made the comments at the Friends House conference in Euston. It was advertised online by the Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades, a designated a terrorist group in the UK, European Union, US and other nations.
Many of the speakers were known anti-Semites and Islamists, as detailed by the Mail Online, and some have called for attacks on Western and British forces.
One of Corbyn’s fellow speaker, Alan Hart, a 9/11 conspiracy theorist, has said “Zionism” is a “cancer at the heart of international affairs” and “monster” comparable to Nazi Germany.
Stephen Pollard, the editor of the Jewish Chronicle, wrote that Mr comments are “a classic piece of middle/upper class English antisemitism. Not the skinhead thug antisemitism, but that traditional English sort that holds that Jews aren’t really English.”
He said the comments must be taken “in the context of almost three years of non-stop revelations about Mr Corbyn, of the near total inaction of his Labour Party in dealing with antisemitism, and of the party’s wilful and entirely conscious decision to stick two fingers up to the Jewish community over the definition of anti-Semitism.”
Jonathan Sacerdoti, who was a founding trustee of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, said: “The idea that British Jews somehow haven’t absorbed British values is outrageous.
“To doubt our Britishness because we disagree with your controversial views on Palestine, when you are the one fraternising with extremists, is deeply anti-Semitic. British Jews are right to be scared.”
Mr Pollard added: “Barely a day goes by when we do not learn another example of his consorting with or honouring terrorists or praising a Jew-killer.
“Barely a day goes by when the JC does not report another example of Mr Corbyn’s willingness to treat the Jewish community with contempt.”
Mr Corbyn has previously welcomed “friends” from Hezbollah and Hama – an antiemetic Islamism terror group – into parliament and recently admitted attending conferences with Hamas members and a wreath laying at the graves antiemetic terrorist plotter.
Footage has also surfaced of him comparing the state of Israel to Nazi Germany – a commonly recognised example of anti-Semitism.
Meanwhile, under his leadership, alleged anti-Semites have spoken alongside him at top party meetings and he has refused to accept the internationally recognised definition of anti-Semitism in Labour’s manifesto.
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