Badenoch: ‘I’m pro-Israel and pro-British Jews but unclear what being proud Zionist means’
Interviewed by Robert Peston for ITV, Badenoch said: 'I'm appalled by what the Green Party did at their conference.'
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Kemi Badenoch has questioned the meaning of the term “proud Zionist” and has instead declared herself to be “certainly pro the state of Israel” and also “very pro-British Jews.”
Interviewed by ITV political editor Robert Peston at the Conservative Party conference, the Tory leader was asked: “Are you a proud Zionist?”
She replied: “Well, I don’t know. I don’t know what people mean by that, but I’m certainly pro the state of Israel. They have a right to exist.”
Badenoch added: “I am very pro-British Jews. I think that they are under threat in this country. We need to protect them. I see huge antisemitism or a huge increase in antisemitism in this country.”
She also said she was “appalled” by the Green Party’s decision to pass a Zionism is racism motion at their conference in Brighton last weekend. Ahead of giving her own leaders’ speech in Birmingham, Badenoch said: “I’m appalled by what the Green Party did at their conference.”
“Throwing around words like Zionist, you know, people like to use these labels; I’m not sure exactly what those people mean by that, but if you mean supporting the state of Israel and its right to self-determination, yes, I do believe in that.
I do believe in a two-state solution, and I think that anyone who talks about there not being a state of Israel is actually talking about wiping them off the face of the Earth. I think that’s completely wrong and I will do everything I can to fight against that.”
Asked by Peston how she would respond to now being called a “racist” for her support of Israel by the Greens, Badenoch said: “Well, I think that the Green Party is full of a lot of people who are antisemites and are quite frankly not okay. This is disgusting.
“These are not people whose opinions we should be respecting. These are people who we should be calling out as being shameful. I’m embarrassed that a political party in this country would actually do something like that.”