Far-left activist who refused to denounce Hamas elected as local councillor in Preston
Michael Lavalette, an academic and member of the Socialist Workers Party, added 'the Palestinians have always been heroic in their right to resist'
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
A Trotskyist candidate who said Hamas had the “right to resist” Israel in Gaza has been elected as a councillor in the Lancashire seat of Preston Central East.
Michael Lavalette, an academic and member of the Socialist Workers Party, had been asked at a hustings event last year ahead of the general election if he would “denounce Hamas as a terrorist organisation regardless of your views” on the war in Gaza.
He reportedly responded:”“No… I think when your land is occupied, and when it has been for 76 years, people have the right to resist.
“They had the right to resist in the Second World War, the French resistance, the Yugoslavian resistance, the Italian resistance, the Greek resistance. And the Palestinians have the right to fight against their own disposition.”
In an online video seen by Jewish News Lavalette said that while he did not support any one group himself “the Palestinians have always been heroic in their right to resist the colonialisation of the their lands.”
The Palestinians had the “right to resist” under international law, he said, saying it was up to them to choose what form of resistance they used.
He said being a “socialist activist” the “main enemy” was British and American colonialism.
Lavalette triumphed in Thursday’s local elections in Preston Central East, where he ran as part of a Preston Independents group in Lancashire with with 1782 votes.
Labour candidate Frank De Molfetta came second with 884 votes.
Lavalette also previously falsely claimed he had been assaulted by a “Zionist” but police failed to act on his complaint after the person alleged to have carried out the attack showed them evidence that had been filmed.
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