- The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism
Hamas Thanks Corbyn for Implicit Call to Destroy Israel
![Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, UK, by Chatham House [CC BY 2.0] via Wikimedia](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/599529_e307631799604f0a9618bf40ed8ac7d4~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_147,h_97,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/599529_e307631799604f0a9618bf40ed8ac7d4~mv2.jpg)
Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn, Leader of the Labour Party, UK, by Chatham House [CC BY 2.0] via Wikimedia
On May 11, 2019, a demonstration and rally were held in central London to mark the Palestinian Nakba Day. The events were organized by several anti-Israeli organizations operating in Britain, whose objective is to demonize Israel and promote the BDS campaign.
The Nakba Day events in London were attended by between 3,000 and 4,000 demonstrators. At the head of the demonstrators marched Ahed Tamimi, a young Palestinian woman from the village of Nabi Salih (near Ramallah), a serial provocateur who customarily clashes with IDF soldiers.
Among the speakers was Zaher Birawi, a Hamas — and Muslim Brotherhood — affiliated operative who participates in organizing marches and flotillas to the Gaza Strip, and a member of the committee that prepared the return marches. Another speaker was Husam Zomlot, the Palestinian Authority (PA) representative in Britain. The demonstrators carried signs and chanted slogans calling for the [so-called] “right of return” of the Palestinians, which means, according to Palestinian perception, the destruction of the nature of the State of Israel as a Jewish state.
Operatives like Zaher Birawi have also been involved in Hamas activities in the Gaza Strip, such as the return marches, which ignite violence and terrorism.
While the number of participants at the event was not large, the Nakba Day demonstration illustrated yet again that Britain continues to serve as a prominent European center for the anti-Israeli activists and organizations — some affiliated with Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood.
They carry out extensive anti-Israeli activities: smearing Israel and spreading toxic propaganda against it (at the Nakba Day events demonstrators chanted “Israel is a terrorist state”); carrying out activities encouraging boycotts of Israel as part of the BDS campaign; initiatives to send flotillas and marches to the Gaza Strip; and promoting the Palestinian demand for the [so-called] “right of return” of the Palestinian refugees and their descendants to the State of Israel (as a way of changing the nature of the State of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people).
At the Nakba Day events in London members of the Labour Party participated. The demonstration was supported by anti-Israeli Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who posted a message in support of Nakba Day demonstrators on his Facebook page. The post condemned “the ongoing human rights abuses by Israeli forces, including the shooting of hundreds of unarmed Palestinian demonstrators in Gaza” — a biased and distorted description of the situation in the Gaza Strip, where IDF soldiers use extreme caution in dealing with rioters who throw IEDs at them, attempt to cross into Israeli territory and repeatedly carry out provocative acts towards the State of Israel.
In addition, the Palestinian Forum in Britain posted a picture showing Jeremy Corbyn holding a sign used by participants in the Nakba Day events. It showed a key, the Palestinian symbol of the “right of return” which means the destruction of the State of Israel. That was illustrated by the "Free Palestine" signs carried by demonstrators whose chants made its meaning clear: "From the river to the sea Palestine will be free."
Jeremy Corbyn’s support for the Nakba Day events was welcomed by Hamas, the terrorist organization that controls the Gaza Strip and is behind the terrorist attacks against Israel carried out from it.
In an open letter to Corbyn issued by Hamas in the name of the “Palestinian National Factions” (i.e., the terrorist organizations operating in the Gaza Strip), his condemnation of IDF soldiers was quoted, claiming “they shoot at unarmed Palestinians.” Hamas also said that “peace cannot be achieved with the continued illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories” — a term which, for Hamas, means all the territory of the State of Israel. The full Hamas open letter can be read on its site here.
The anti-Israeli organizations in Britain that supported the Nakba Day events included: Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Friends of al-Aqsa (FOA), and The Muslim Association of Britain (MAB). For more information on these organizations and the prominent Palestinian figures who participated in events, view the appendices in the full ITIC article here.
This article is reprinted with permission of the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC). ITIC was established in 2002. It is part of the Israel Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center (IICC), a national site dedicated to the memory of the fallen of the Israeli intelligence community. The ITIC is located near Gelilot, north of Tel Aviv, and is directed by (Col. Ret.) Dr. Reuven Erlich. The objective of the ITIC is to collect, study, and disseminate information mainly about terrorism and intelligence.
