‘Stand up to Zionist lobby’ said Corbyn in defense of blood-libel sheikh

Leader of the UK Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn wrote in 2011 that Western governments should stand up to “the Zionist lobby” which he accused of conspiring to deport Israeli-Arab hate preacher Raed Salah from the UK.Salah – the notorious extremist leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel – visited the UK in 2011 and was scheduled to attend a Palestine Solidarity Campaign meeting in the House of Commons where Corbyn was also to be in attendance, but was arrested and detained due to his prior extremist comments and activities.However, Salah’s appeal against a deportation order by then UK home secretary and current Prime Minister Theresa May was eventually successful. Writing in the Communist newspaper The Morning Star three days after Salah’s arrest, Corbyn wrote that “despite the best efforts” of several newspapers he deemed to be “the right-wing press,” including The Jewish Chronicle, Salah had successfully been allowed in to the country, but protested against his arrest.“The sadness is that his is a voice of Palestinian people that needs to be heard,” wrote Corbyn in the article, uncovered by UK-based freelance journalist Iggy Ostanin.“It’s time that Western governments stood up to the Zionist lobby, which seems to conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism.”In 2007, Salah gave a speech in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz in which he said that he and other Muslims never made their Ramadan bread with the blood of children, adding, “Whoever wants a more comprehensive explanation, should ask what happened to some of the European children whose blood was mixed with flour for use in holy bread.”Salah was eventually convicted on charges of racist incitement for this speech in 2014.Salah had previously been jailed for two years between 2003 and 2005 for channeling money to Hamas.He has also implied that Jews or the State of Israel was behind the September 11 attacks, writing three weeks after the 9/11 attacks against the World Trade Center in 2001 “Were 4,000 Jewish clerks absent by chance, or was there another reason?”Salah has also made comments against homosexuals, stating in 2001 that it is “a great crime.”A Labour Party spokesperson said in response simply that “There was widespread criticism of the attempt to deport Raed Salah, including from Jews for Justice for Palestinians, and his appeal against deportation succeeded on all grounds.”