Sarah Colborne is a leading figure in the self-styled Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).
Have a look at her here in this clip, flatly denying that Raed Salah has made hateful statements.
It [Salah’s arrest] was a complete shock given the fact that he has said all of these allegations are completely without any basis and moreover he condemns all forms of racism, including antisemitism, Islamophobia, and racism against his own people, the Palestinians. I was truly horrified to find that this had happened late last night.
Extraordinary. Yes, for example, what could possibly be antisemitic about saying that Jews didn’t go to work at the World Trade Center on 9/11?
Raed Salah wrote in Saut Al-Haqq Wa-Al-Hurriyya, “A suitable way was found to warn the 4,000 Jews who work every day at the Twin Towers to be absent from their work on September 11, 2001, and this is really what happened! Were 4,000 Jewish clerks absent [from their jobs] by chance, or was there another reason? At the same time, no such warning reached the 2,000 Muslims who worked every day in the Twin Towers, and therefore there were hundreds of Muslim victims.”
Or saying that the Israeli state is determined to destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and build a Jewish temple in its place? Salah did just that at Conway Hall on Monday night, at an event where he had Colborne for company on the stage:
This insane and incendiary lie about the state of Israel is one of Mr Salah’s favourite themes.
In fact, just this week the Turkish Islamist charity IHH published his speech at a meeting about Al-Aqsa in Istanbul in April 2009. Salah is close to IHH, which is one of the world’s biggest and most enthusiastic funders and promoters of Hamas. This is what he said at the conference:
4. Israeli occupiers plan to isolate Masjid al-Aqsa with the project Judaization of al-Quds. Isolation of Masjid al-Aqsa, on the other hand, is a requisite step needed to be taken for absolute Israeli sovereignty over the shrine. In this way, any Islamic structure aiming to establish control over Masjid al-Aqsa will be eliminated and the legendary temple will be erected on the land.
…
7. One should also stay clear of the misconception that the assault on Masjid al-Aqsa comes from only a group of radical Jews as it is claimed. On the contrary, it is the state mechanism of Israel that perpetuates this assault.8. It is the state bodies that have occupied Masjid al-Aqsa and al-Quds so far. And these are the ones that devise and execute all plans for destruction in order to Judaize al-Quds and occupy its land, buildings, sanctities and institutions.
Have a look at the web home page for that conference. It shows a Jew burrowing under Al-Aqsa.
Here is the Istanbul conference logo. Once again, the message is that the state of Israel is determined to destroy Al-Aqsa.
The notorious antisemite Israel Shamir and IHH officials also spoke alongside Salah at the Istanbul conference.
This is Salah’s racist and extremist world. There’s much more in his record that demonstrates how thoroughly nasty he is.
So what does the PSC do? Whitewash him. That is why the PSC is toxic.
On Wednesday night the PSC went ahead with a meeting in Parliament that was supposed to feature Salah. In attendance were Labour MPs Richard Burden, Jeremy Corbyn,and Yasmin Qureshi, former Labour MP Martin Linton, Labour peer Alf Dubs, and Liberal Democrat peer Jenny Tonge.
In future, it is to be hoped that politicians who oppose extremism and racism will start work right at home, in Westminster, by barracking the PSC and its inveterate allies. It should be as welcome in Parliament as a band of sickening apologists for the BNP.
