Chris Williamson shares platform with expelled anti-Zionist Tony Greenstein
Left-wing politician attends event hosted by ‘Labour Against the Witchhunt’ where the antisemitism row is compared to McCarthyism
Labour MP Chris Williamson shared a platform with expelled anti-Zionist activist Tony Greenstein, during an event where the antisemitism row was compared to ‘McCarthyism’.
The Derby North politician was pictured at an event hosted by ‘Labour Against the Witchhunt’, who oppose disciplinary action against members accused of antisemitism, claiming it’s a smear campaign to remove Jeremy Corbyn.
The event, which was not part of the conference, featured comedian Alexei Sayle, Jo Bird of Jewish Voice for Labour and other guests – with Williamson being the keynote speaker.
According to reports on social media and from Greenstein, Williamson said the Labour antisemitism row was similar to “McCarthyism” and compared the ‘withchunt’ against members accused of antisemitism to George Orwell’s 1984, where “good is bad, black is white and we had the Ministry of Truth and all the rest of it.”
In Greenstein’s blog after the event, he claimed Williamson was “ridiculing the witchhunt” and “received a standing ovation”.
Labour made it clear that MPs should not share platforms with expelled or suspended members, and confirmed that Greenstein, who was expelled in February does not have a conference pass.
He was booted out of the Party for three breaches of the it’s regulations, including “offensive comments online; offensive posts and comments on his blog; and an email in which he mocked the phrase ‘final solution”.
This comes after the Jewish Labour Movement wrote to Labour’s chief whip last August, urging him to suspend Chris Williamson MP for remaining silent at an event as an audience member reportedly accused Jews of being “foot-soldiers” for Israel.
Williamson was also pictured with Israeli-born anti-Zionist activist Miko Peled. At last year’s conference during an event by ‘Free Speech On Israel, Peled, refused to call Israel “Israel”, but rather “Palestine”, and concluded his remarks by saying “We can speak about the Holocaust, yes or no?” He also repeatedly called Israel an “apartheid” state, saying it was “a racist and colonialist project” whose edifice, he had seen on recent visits, was “crumbling”.
After the meeting, Williamson tweeted “It was a genuine privilege to meet you Miko.”
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