Tariq Ali, a prominent British political activist and public intellectual known for his strong far-left views on international and domestic politics, linked Israel to the killing of George Floyd during a webinar with former UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn on Sunday, according to a Daily Express report.
The debate was hosted by the Stop the War Coalition, a British anti-war group established initially to oppose the Iraq War, and later British involvement in Libya and Syria, which is also known for their highly critical views of Israel's relations with its neighbors and the Palestinians.
Discussing the ongoing protests in the United States, Ali said that American and "right-wing countries in South American" are sending their police forced to Israel for training, adding that evidence can be found in photos of IDF soldiers detaining Palestinians.
“You can find lots of photos of Israelis when these people are brave enough to take photographs with their knees on the neck of Palestinians,” Ali said.
He continued by adding that “this is another subject which has virtually been downgraded compared to even five or six years ago because people have got frightened about this campaign which alleges everyone is antisemitic except those who support Israel."
"That’s basically the campaign that was waged by Israeli embassies everywhere of which one of the central targets was Jeremy Corbyn. But this has been waged in many other parts of the world."
On the role of American Jews, Ali said that "interestingly young Americans of Jewish origin are resisting it better than almost any other country in the world and especially Europe.”
Corbyn did not respond or make reference to Ali's claim regarding Israel, but noted that “what I observe in the USA is a sense of anger about the killing of George Floyd, a sense of anger about the wholly disproportionate number of black people who have died in New York, Chicago, California, all across the USA because of coronavirus."
"The levels of poverty, inequality, lack of access to health care, poor quality of food, etc. It is interesting into how this is going to develop in USA, but also means those opposed to Trump need to be serious about offering an alternative,” Corbyn said.
Corbyn added: "Let’s get it clear, antisemitism is wrong, it’s evil and it should never be condoned in any circumstances. I never would you, never would, in any way and we must all be united against racism of any sort - antisemitism, Islamophobia or racism in the USA following the murder of our friend in Minnesota.”
Other organization have also linked Israel to the killing of George Floyd in recent days, with the US Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR), a pro-Palestinian group, claiming that the IDF trains American police offers in tactics that lead to human rights violations.