The “Friends of al Aqsa” event was not the only gathering with extremists at last month’s Labour conference in Manchester.
Here is a picture of Michael White of the Guardian and Sir Gerald Kaufman, Labour MP for Manchester Gorton, at another meeting.
The meeting was organised by Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East and Middle East Monitor (MEMO).
MEMO is the pro-Hamas propagandas operation of Daud Abdullah. He is the former deputy secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, a signatory of the infamous Istanbul Declaration (pdf), and a fanatical Israel hater. Abdullah’s deputy at MEMO is Ibrahim Hewitt, chairman of Interpal, another British charity that serves Hamas.
On MEMO’s pages you will find work such as this foul accusation of dual loyalty against the British ambassador to Israel, support for blood libel tales, and piece after piece by Abdel Bari Atwan, the journalist who has said he would “dance in Trafalgar Square” if Israel were annihilated by Iran in a nuclear strike.
What kind of company is this to keep?
If the Guardian and Kaufman are not aware of this record, they are incompetent. If instead they are, their decision to attend a MEMO event is nauseating.
So what did Kaufman do at the meeting? Speak up for Hamas. This has to be one of the stupidest lines I’ve ever read from the “pro-Palestinian” British left:
I’ve been lead to believe that Hamas are going to be ruffians, illiterate…but if you were to meet the democratically elected Hamas leader…[they] were ‘elegant, beautifully dressed, beautifully spoken’
Yes, those mafia dons, for example, they do steal and kill people, but oh those natty pinstriped suits.
What an idiot.
Indeed, here he is meeting Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza. Oh how happy he is in his keffiyeh.
And Kaufman does have a taste of his own for the finer things in life. He is the MP who tried to get taxpayers to pay for his £8,865 Bang & Olufsen television.
Kaufman did add this:
…although he emphasised this did not make up for what Hamas had done in the past
Still, he’s on message:
He went on to emphasise that there would be ‘utterly no way of making peace between Israel and the Palestinians if you exclude Hamas’
Will someone please tell Hamas? Here’s the latest from Palestinian news agency Ma’an:
Hamas said Saturday it considered the PLO Executive Committee’s decision to stop direct negotiations with Israel over settlement construction a step toward national reconciliation with the Islamist movement, applauding the move.
Senior Hamas leader Salah Al-Bardawil told reporters Saturday that “Hamas hopes Fatah will take a decision to stop negotiations”
Hamas has also mounted attacks on Israeli civilians in a bid to torpedo the talks.
So when will the Labour party decide that hosting racist haters who support terrorism is no longer acceptable?
I’m not holding my breath.
