Bennett condemns Joint List MKs for support of Corbyn

The letter to Corbyn praised him for "his long-standing solidarity with oppressed peoples around the world."

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018 09:07

Updated: SEPTEMBER 5, 2018 03:34

Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett arrives to the weekly cabinet meeting at the prime minister office in Jerusalem January 8, 2017. (photo credit: ABIR SULTAN / REUTERS) — Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett arrives to the weekly cabinet meeting at the prime minister office in Jerusalem January 8, 2017.

(photo credit: ABIR SULTAN / REUTERS)

Minister of Education Naftali Bennett has called for the censure of two Joint List MKs who expressed support in The Guardian newspaper for UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who has been embroiled in controversy for his antisemitic statements.

“There is no greater hypocrisy than that of [Ahmad] Tibi, [Jamal] Zahalka, and their supporters,” Bennett said in a statement released Tuesday morning.

Their letter stated that the Joint List “stands in solidarity with Jeremy Corbyn” and “recognizes him as a principled leftist leader who aspires for peace and justice.”

“Indeed, they have shown their true colors by going out of their way to voice unanimous support for a man who has been labeled an existential threat to the British Jewish community. They have chosen to stand up for a man who honored the planners of the Munich massacre. So let’s be clear. Today the Joint Arab List Members of Knesset have made clear they are supporters of antisemitism and terrorism,” Bennett wrote.

The Joint List MKs wrote their letter on Sunday, several days before their planned visit to the European Union parliament in Brussels, where they plan on seeking condemnation of the Jewish Nation-State Law. Zahalka stated that they “are traveling to Brussels to ask the Europeans to be loyal to their values of protecting human rights.”

Similarly, the letter to Corbyn praised him for “his long-standing solidarity with oppressed peoples around the world.”

These statements received heavy backlash from the Israeli public. Bennett heatedly mentioned that the Joint List “sit in the comfort of Israel’s democracy, living off Israeli taxpayers, while they spend their time... writing letters to the international media in support of antisemites and supporters of terror.”

Former British PM Gordon Brown on Anti-Semitism: "this wrong must and can be righted", September 2, 2018 (Reuters)

Bennett ended the statement with the “call on the Speaker of the Knesset to censure in the strongest terms the activity of these MKs.”

Hadas Labrisch and Gil Hoffman contributed to this report.