UK: Corbyn op-ed from 2009 deplores Israel's establishment, accuses Israel of controlling US

Via Jewish Chronicle:

Jeremy Corbyn accepted an all-expenses paid trip to Syria where he thanked dictator Bashar Al-Assad for housing hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees.

According to the report in the Times, the 2009 trip was organised by the Palestinian Return Centre, an organisation which has hosted events in Parliament where antisemitic rhetoric has been used, most recently one hosted last week by Baroness Tonge.

Following that meeting Baroness Tonge was suspended by the Liberal Democrats and almost simultaneously resigned from the party.

She was also on the 2009 cross-party trip to Syria, which included Conservative peer Lord Sheikh and then-MSPs Jim Tolson and Jim Hume, both Liberal Democrats. The group met President Assad.

Mr Corbyn later wrote about his trip for the Morning Star newspaper. He described meeting a group of Palestinians on the anniversary of the date “when Arthur Balfour gave his infamous declaration of support for a Jewish state of Israel".

In the same article, Mr Corbyn wrote of an apparent decision by the then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to drop demands to halt new “settlements” in the West Bank, saying “once again, the Israeli tail wags the US dog".

A spokesperson for the Labour leader said: “Jeremy has consistently spoken out against all forms of antisemitism. 

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