Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of comparing Israel’s actions in the West Bank to Nazi occupations in Europe after another video emerged from his days as a backbench campaigner.
The question of whether it is antisemitic to compare Israeli government policy to Nazi Germany has become an especially controversial part of Labour’s row over whether to accept the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism.
Speaking to the Palestinian Return Centre in 2013, Mr Corbyn said: “The West Bank is under occupation of the very sort that is recognisable by many people in Europe who suffered occupation during the Second World War with the endless roadblocks, imprisonment, irrational behaviour by the military and the police.”
Jennifer Gerber, the director of Labour Friends of Israel, said the statement was “appalling”. “Earlier this week, we discovered that Jeremy Corbyn engaged in wild conspiracy theories questioning Israel’s right to exist,” she said. “Now it is revealed he drew comparisons between conditions in the West Bank and the Nazi occupation of Europe. It is increasingly clear that his opposition to adopting the IHRA definition in full appears to be overwhelmingly driven by his own appalling past statements. The Labour Party’s once proud record on fighting racism and the protection of British Jews from antisemitism is being sacrificed to protect Jeremy Corbyn’s reputation.”
EXCLUSIVE – In 2013 @JeremyCorbyn spoke at an event hosted by the Palestinian Return Centre in which he made a direct comparison between Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and the Nazi occupation of Europe during WW2. Watch until the end… pic.twitter.com/POMfsX5APq
— The Golem (@TheGolem_) August 10, 2018
Read the article by Henry Zeffman (The Times) in The Australian.