Ed Miliband will be the guest of honour, at the Labour Friends of Palestine & the Middle East (LFPME) gala dinner, with Manuel Hassassian.
This is in addition to Miliband’s message to LFPME this year, where he said:
I’d like to congratulate LFPME on the work they do to promote the cause of peace and justice in the Middle East, both within the Labour Party and the Labour movement more broadly.
And also, in addition to his appearance at LFPME’s Annual Parliamentary Reception, last year, where Miliband said of Richard Burden and Martin Linton:
I want to pay tribute to Simon Danczuk, to Andy Slaughter, and to Richard Burden, first of all, as well as Martin Linton, who is here, for the work they do.
Hassassian has recently given anti-Israel conspiracist Jenny Tonge an award for her work:
Palestinian Ambassador to the UK, Manuel Hassassian, praising the Baroness, said, “Mere words cannot express the great debt we owe to Jenny and she, Clare Short and many other MPs are in the vanguard in championing Palestinian cause.” He added that people like the Baroness have “to keep on struggling” and “honouring them is like a drop in the ocean.”
The Ambassador said she has been “our inspiration and our mentor for Palestinian struggle.”
This is after Ed Miliband called for Nick Clegg to demand an apology from Jenny Tonge for her statement envisaging Israel’s destruction – an apology which Tonge refused to give.
Surely this award to Tonge, goes far beyond the diplomatic duty to which Hassassian is assigned.
Here is Hassassian justifying firing rockets into Israel:
Hassassian praising Hezbollah as the “saviours of Arabs”:
Hassassian claims:
“When Taliban was in power, there was safety in Afghanistan. The modus operandi was okay in Afghanistan”:
I can understand the need to meet diplomats, however unpleasant their politics or the politics of the regime they represent.
Hassassian goes far beyond the acceptable limits for a diplomat.
This does not deter Labour MPs from lining up to get their photo with him.
This does not appear to be a setting where Miliband can challenge Hassassian’s expressed extremism.
