Jeremy Corbyn paid tribute to a disgraced ex-UN official who ‘blamed Boston bombings on Israel’
Labour leader sat on a Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) panel at an event honouring Professor Richard Falk in 2013
JEREMY Corbyn paid tribute to a disgraced former UN official who blamed the Boston bombings on Israel, The Sun can reveal.
The Labour leader sat on a Palestinian Return Centre (PRC) panel at an event honouring Professor Richard Falk in 2013.
The American worked as a special rapporteur with the UN Human Rights Council, and claimed that US foreign policy - including Israel - was to blame for the Boston Marathon bombing.
Professor Falk, who also said America was behind an “apparent cover up” of 9/11, wrote in a 2013 blog post after the attack that left three dead, that the “American global domination project is bound to generate all kinds of resistance”.
He went on to say in his post on the “marathon murders”: “As long as Tel Aviv has the compliant ear of the American political establishment, those who wish for peace and justice in the world should not rest easy.”
And he claimed that “in some respects the United States has been fortunate not to experience worse blowbacks.”
In an official account of the event Corbyn attended as a panellist, the evening is described as a “tribute” to Professor Falk “for the tremendous service and commitment over the years for the just cause of the Palestinians.”
At the function, Professor Falk claimed that Israel had a policy of “ethnically cleansing” Palestinians.
The PRC described Professor Falk as a “moral authority” and claimed that they were “extremely proud to have hosted such an event”.
Professor Falk courted controversy in 2011 when he posted an anti-Semitic cartoon on his personal blog, showing a dog wearing a Jewish skullcap and urinating on a figure of justice and a bloody skeleton.
It led to the then-PM David Cameron instructing the UK’s Permanent Representative in Geneva to raise concerns with the UN Human Rights council over Professor Falk’s position.
The disgraced ex-UN chief has argued that the blockade of Gaza was a “Holocaust in the making”, which lead to his deportation from Israel in 2008.
He also claimed that Hamas is not a terror organisation - and has been denounced by Britain on three separate occasions for anti-Semitism.
The professor has also said the George W. Bush administration was complicit in the 9/11 attacks.
While in 2012, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office condemned Professor Falk for giving a cover endorsement to an anti-semitic book that described Jews as Nazis and which asked if “Hitler might have been right after all”.
And just last year he was revealed to be part of a controversial Facebook group, The Shoah, which shared anti-Semitic images and posts.
He was also blocked from making speeches at Middlesex University and the University of East London after co-authoring a report calling Israel an “apartheid regime”.
Gideon Falter of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism said today that the revelation was “chilling”.
He said: “Whilst Britain has taken a principled stand and condemned Richard Falk numerous times, he is revered by anti-Semites and associates of terrorists.
“It is chilling to think that foremost amongst those applauding this repugnant man is Jeremy Corbyn, the potential next Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
“It is little wonder that Mr Corbyn has inspired such fear in British Jews such that many are now asking whether there is a future for Jews in this country.”
And Euan Philipps, spokesperson for Labour Against Antisemitism said when Mr Corbyn attended the event Professor Falk had already been known to have made a string of offensive statements.
“It is therefore another damning indictment of Mr Corbyn’s record on antisemitism that he felt Professor Falk was an appropriate figure to honour."
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He went on: “We have been told that during his career Mr Corbyn has on occasion been a reluctant associate of those promoting hatred, but this event shows him publicly celebrating a hugely troubling figure.
“It makes a nonsense of claims that Mr Corbyn has spent his career opposing antisemitism, when in this instance he appears to be honouring one of its most notorious recent proponents.’
A Labour Party spokesperson said: “At the time of the event, Richard A. Falk was a high level UN official responsible for monitoring abuses of Human Rights of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.”