This is a guest post by Bob a Jobbik:
Alex Salmond celebrated Holocaust Memorial Day by expressing middle-class distaste that the country with the largest population of Survivors and relatives of the victims of the Holocaust should be insufficiently praiseworthy of a national government which promotes Holocaust Denial. At the same time this week, a gaggle delegation of Parliamentarians did so by posing with the former head of the board of trustees for the Palestine Return Centre, Zehar Birawi.
Yes, that Hamas-linked Palestine Return Centre which employed Daud “you sunk my navy and Jews, Jews, Jews behind the orange juice” Abdullah as researcher, as well as Sameeh “Norman Frankstineine (sic is a bit too Jewish for my liking” Habeeb.
It should be noted that Birawi denies any links to Hamas in the linked article. If he considers this a slur on his character he, no doubt, will reject all the stuff about gharqad trees and pursuing Jews worldwide.
One of the accompanying MPs, SNP’s Tommy Sheppard – who would have us believe he is a passionate and well-informed campaigner on Middle East issues – insists he did not know of Birawi’s past “in any great details at all”. Now, where have I heard that before from people who ally themselves with groups which hold less than savoury attitudes towards Jews?
In answer to the title question, if he knew their past in great details, Sheppard may well not have. The PRC certainly could have.
The delegation also included MPs who, as Marcus Dysch of the Jewish Chronicle points out, Gerald Kaufman who peddled out-and-out Strasserism regarding the malign influence of “Jewish money” (a comment so outrageous than even Jeremy Corbyn rebuked him); and Paul Monaghan who has declared that the “proud Jewish race” has forgotten their suffering in persecuting the “people of Gaza”:
What a delegation… One says Jews persecute Gazans, another says Jewish money influences Tories. https://t.co/EzuvCFQVCi
— Marcus Dysch (@MarcusDysch) January 25, 2016
What a delegation indeed. Monaghan’s deference towards the Jordanian Royal Family can be seen:
This is in marked contrast towards his views on the British Royal Family.
So excited was he at sitting at the high tables of diplomacy that he Tweeted pictures of Jordanian newspapers:
Note one of those who ‘likes’ this. You would have thought that an Arabic speaker would have pointed out the articles appear more interested in the snow and the Swedish aspect of the delegation.
Fortunately, he found otherwise desperate refugees who spoke flawless English and agreed with everything this wide-eyed Anglo said, instead of saying “who the hell are you?”.
Nothing at all like a archetypal “bloody foreigner” who sees local inhabitants as being there for his own aggrandizement as he takes cheap holidays in other people’s misery.
Perhaps they shared similar views on the founders of ISIS as Maxn from Syria did when he sought him out within minutes of the Syria vote (top right):
Or rushed to placate this fairly unambiguous traditional antisemite after his previous visit to the region just two months ago:
When still a constituent of Charles Kennedy, Monaghan was involved in the online targeting of him which claimed non-attendance at Parliament. Kennedy’s excuse was, in addition to his own inner demons, the loss of his mother (his father died in the final weeks of the General Election campaign) and serious illness of his brother. For any constituent asking #WheresPaul , he is gallivanting across the world.
In the original article, former schoolmate of Monaghan’s, Murdo Fraser MSP said “I’m sure the constituents of these MPs would rather they worked for the good of their area, rather than travelling thousands of miles to enjoy some extremely questionable company”. Of late, the only achievement of note for the constituency according to his Twitter feed has been securing a new ATM.
