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JEZZA'S ISRAEL RANT
Jeremy Corbyn questioned Israel’s foundation and branded Balfour Declaration ‘bizarre’ during Iraqi TV interview
JEREMY Corbyn questioned Israel’s very foundation in a bombshell TV interview four years ago, The Sun can reveal.
In the rant to Iraqi TV in 2014 he also attacked Britain’s historic role in the Balfour Declaration.
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Interviewed by Hassan Alkatib for the Aletejah TV channel, he made the comments unprompted while discussing the history of the Middle East.
Describing the historic agreement issued in 1917 as “bizarre” - he suggested that giving Jews their own state as well as the status quo was “mutually impossible”.
He explained to the interviewer: “Britain then signed the Balfour Declaration which bizarrely offered a homeland to Jewish people at the same time as continuation for the Palestinian people, the two things were mutually impossible.
“And eventually the state of Israel was founded and the Palestinian people were driven out of that part of Palestine into exile.”
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Labour MP John Mann blasted: “If this was a history GCSE exam answer it would get marked as a fail.”
Fellow backbencher Ian Austin added: “The best advice anyone could give Jeremy Corbyn is that when you are in a hole, you should stop digging. He should listen to the Jewish community and apologise for the huge offence and distress the party has caused under his leadership.
"Then he should adopt the full IHRA definition and all its examples, respond properly to the reasonable requests made by by the JLC and the BoD and third, act much more quickly to boot racists out of the party. Boot them out.”
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The Labour leader even went on to say that some Jews didn't want a Jewish stateLater in the interview, Corbyn went on to say that many Jews didn’t actually want a Jewish state.
He added: “Post war there was an obvious guilt about the treatment of Jewish people and whilst a number of Jewish people did manage to flee Nazi Germany and settle in the United States or here in Britain or in other countries, a lot didn’t.
“This then married up with a much earlier Zionist demand for the establishment of a Jewish state, which was actually opposed by quite a lot of Jewish people who didn’t want a Jewish state, they wanted Jewish identity and they wanted their right to Jewish identity in London or Moscow or Berlin or anywhere else and that state was established.”
A Labour spokesman said: “Jeremy stated the following facts: Britain made promises to both Jews and Arabs during and at the end of the First World War, some of which cut across each other; the founding of the State of Israel led to the forced exile of part of the Palestinian population; there was always opposition to the idea of a Jewish state by some Jews.”
The Balfour Declaration was issued during World War One to announce support for the establishment of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine.
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The declaration was made in a letter from the UK’s then Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Walter Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community.
It was drafted by Conservative MP Leo Amery, who was then Cabinet Secretary.
It stated: “His Majesty’s government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”
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It was the first expression of public support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine by a major political power and became a pivotal moment in the movement.
Last year the Labour leader was criticised for turning down an invitation to join Theresa May and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu at a dinner in London to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration.
Shadow Foreign secretary Emily Thornberry attended in his place.
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