Emily Thornberry speaks at Islington synagogue
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BLOG – Israel at war; Hamas hostages: Day 56

Israel-Hamas ceasefire extended for 24 hours; at least 8 hostages expected to be released on Thursday

October 23, 2023, 1:41 pm Edit
Hostages released since the truce: Eitan Yahalomi with his mother and Emily Hand with her father
Hostages released since the truce: Eitan Yahalomi with his mother and Emily Hand with her father
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1:41 pm

Emily Thornberry speaks at Islington synagogue

On a visit to a synagogue at the weekend, Islington South MP Emily Thornberry said that when the borough lost 12 people to terrorism in the 7/7 bombings in 2005, it expected “the whole world to stand with us”, writes Beatrice Sayers.

The shadow attorney general also told the congregation at the Chabad shul that while it was vital to speak out against terrorism, it was also important for politicians to be even-handed.

Thornberry was attending a Q&A session following the Shabbat morning service at the only synagogue in her constituency, at the invitation of its rabbi, Mendy Korer.

“I’ve always done my absolute utmost personally to be as even-handed as I possibly can and have never, I hope, fallen for the siren voices who say on issues like this, ‘Pick a side,’” the MP said. “I don’t want to pick a side.”

She was asked by the rabbi about community members saying they felt unsafe as a result of the protests and chants on London’s streets over the past two weeks. Thornberry said: “I suspect that the vast majority of the people who chant ‘Free Gaza’ would expect there to be a two-state solution, and they’re not one-stateists and not people who wish Israelis to be pushed into the sea.”

A community member in the neighbouring constituency of Islington North, represented by Jeremy Corbyn (now an independent MP), said she was concerned that he had not deleted his tweet, whose contents are generally agreed to be false: “Israeli airstrikes have hit Al Ahli hospital in Gaza. More than 500 people – patients, doctors & those sheltering – have been killed.”

Thornberry commented that Corbyn showed double standards and had a “clarity” on waiting for evidence in some instances but not in others. For example, when it came to the Salisbury poisonings in 2018, he did not condemn them immediately as being the Russians and wanted there to be evidence: “How is that consistent if he takes the view he does in relation to the hospital?”