Source: RNS
Lauren Markoe has been a national reporter for RNS since 2011. Previously she covered government and politics as a daily reporter at the Charlotte Observer and The State (Columbia, S.C.)
(RNS) The event hosted by Baroness Jenny Tonge in the British Parliament, live-streamed on Facebook, included a speaker who compared Israel to the Islamic State and blamed the Jews for the Holocaust.
“If anybody is anti-Semitic it’s the Israelis themselves,” the speaker also said.
His remarks were met with applause at the meeting, organized by the Palestinian Return Center, a group that is trying to get Britain to apologize for the 1917 Balfour Declaration, which expressed the nation’s support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The PRC considers Israel “a rogue state.”
In response to Tuesday’s meeting, the Liberal Democrats Thursday (Sept. 27) suspended Tonge from their party, which she then quit. She later said the offending speaker was conducting a “rant,” that she wasn’t sure what he was saying and felt it best to thank him and move on.
Tonge, a supporter of Palestinian rights and outspoken critic of Israel, served in Britain’s House of Commons, an elected body with the power to legislate, from 1997 to 2005. She was her party’s whip, but stepped down after she was criticized for saying that that Israel “will not last forever.”
She then gained a title and became a member of Parliament’s upper House of Lords.
Israeli officials in London called the meeting “shameful” and said it “gave voice to racist tropes against Jews and Israelis alike.”
Categories: Anti-Semitism, Europe, Israel, Jews, Middle East, The Muslim Times, UK
There are many Palestinians who are supportive of the Jewish State. During World War 2 the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem – the religious leader of Muslims there – was reportedly a close associate of Hitler, and toured the Concentration Camps with Hitler and reportedly expressed the intention to build more death camps for Jews in Palestine. That alone is sufficient reason for Muslims to be supportive of the idea of a Jewish State in the original Jewish homeland, after suffering two thousand years of persecution, including torture and massacres in the diaspora. Although successive generations of Jews have lived in Israel since time immemorial, many fled abroad at various times over the centuries to escape persecution and massacres by successive invading forces. With regard to Islamic rule, although at times Jews had fared well, subjected under Islam, at other times, many Jews fled abroad when there was forced conversion under the threat of death – which was in breach of Islamic law. It is well known that for two thousand years, Jews the world over have faced
Jerusalem in prayer, whereas Muslims face Mecca. The Prophet Muhammad, PBUH, originally instructed Muslims to face Jerusalem in prayer, however, during the Night of Ascent (the Mir’aj),
he experienced the presence of earlier Prophets (revered by both Jews and Muslims) and he changed the quibla (the direction Muslims face in prayer) from Jerusalem to Mecca which became the new spiritual capital city for Muslims. This is obviously very significant and reflects the Koran’s
endorsement of the Covenant with the Jewish people which encompasses Israel as Jews’ Promised Land. With regard to the modern Jewish State which was resurrected from the ashes of the Holocaust, Jews always wanted to live side by side in peace with Muslims living there. In fact, one can see an old photograph of an early Jewish settler – dressed in full Islamic attire – standing side by side with his counterpart, a Muslim village leader. Doubtless Muhammad, PBUH, – one of his wives was Jewish – would be horrified to think that Muslims, who own and live in 99% of the Middle East,
lacked compassion to facilitate the accommodation of Jews escaping the horrifically cruel Holocaust,
in their own historic homeland. Instead, there has been continuing terrorism against Jews in Israel
over the decades – thousands have been murdered by Palestinians – and so Jews have had to defend themselves by setting up checkpoints and building defensive barriers. Yet, as mentioned at the beginning, many Muslims, Palestinians, are happy to be living in the Jewish State where there is complete religious freedom – Muslims are free to choose to live as they wish: a conservative Muslim lifestyle, for example, with hijab and nikab, or as liberals. The original plan for the region, following the end of the Ottoman Empire – which itself had designated space for Jews in Palestine – was for
all the land east of the River Jordan to be predominantly for Muslims, Transjordan – today’s Jordan – and for the much smaller region West of the River Jordan to become the Jewish State, in which any Muslims who wished to remain there, could do so, living their traditional lifestyle, peacefully alongside Jewish communities: a very fair concept, particularly considering how Israel today, even with its current borders is only about the size of Wales in Britain, or the State of New Jersey in the
U.S. and there needs to be space for natural growth of the Jewish people (again, Muslims own and live in 99% of the Middle East). Who thinks Jews in Israel should shrink into an even smaller area of land – another ghetto. No.