British Labour Party councillor Ilyas Aziz from Nottingham has joined MP Naz Shah and former London mayor Ken Livingstone on the anti-Semite “time-out” bench.
It appears that with practice, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is becoming more adept at stifling his distaste for suspending members who pose a political risk to the party’s future.
This suspension came in record time: “Ilyas Aziz has been suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation,” said a party spokesperson quoted by the Guido Fawkes political website at 11:24 am Monday (May 2.)
In an exclusive post at 9:30 am the same morning, the same website had ‘outed’ several 2014 anti-Israel posts on Facebook by Aziz, in a manner similar to the posts that ‘outed’ Shah just a few days earlier.
Aziz had posted a Facebook response to the “relocate the Jews to America” graphic that got MP Shah suspended last week. “Tell you one thing, Naj, Jews and Muslims lived together in the Middle East, in peace pre 1948. Perhaps it would have been wiser to create Israel in America it’s big enough. They could relocate even now,” he wrote on July 19, 2014.
‘God did not give you the Land – the UK did ILLEGALLY’ proclaimed one of the graphics posted on November 6, 2014, with the text overlaid on the Israeli flag.
Another graphic was posted by Aziz during Israel’s counter terror war in summer 2014. This one urged Facebook users to “Stop drinking GAZA BLOOD (using the familiar Coca Cola-appearing bottles of cola) – Share a Message with … Baji, Bhai, Mama, Papa, Friends, Family …”
Another post posted five days earlier, during the conflict, declared, “A reminder of the treatment and suffering of Jews in Nazi Germany. ARE THERE ANY SIMILARITIES TO HOW ISRAEL IS TREATING PALESTINIANS.” Below was a link to an article on the UK-based ‘History Learning Site’ entitled: “Jews in Nazi Germany – Was there any form of filth or crime … without at least one Jew involved in it.”
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, meanwhile, allegedly launched an internal investigation into the rising expressions of anti-Semitism within the party. However, that did not stop Corbyn from expressing his own anti-Israel views, and his personal support for Israel’s enemies whose charters are devoted to the annihilation of Israel and her Jewish citizens.
Corbyn has in the past previously referred to Hamas and Hezbollah, both bona fide terrorist groups backed by Iran, as “friends.” This week he again refused to denounce either. A spokesperson for Corbyn issued a long-winded statement quoted by The Telegraph which said the Labour leader supported “Palestinian rights” and that he believes in speaking to people “with whom there is disagreement, particularly with they have large-scale support or democratic mandates.” It’s not clear how Hamas or Hezbollah meet the criteria for either.
“Jeremy Corbyn has been a longstanding supporter of Palestinian rights and the pursuit of peace and justice in the Middle East through dialogue and negotiation. He has met many people with whom he profoundly disagrees in order to promote peace and reconciliation processes, including in South Africa, Latin American, Ireland and the Middle East. He believes it is essential to speak to people with whom there is disagreement, particularly when they have large-scale support or democratic mandates. Simply talking to people who agree with you won’t help achieve justice or peace,” the statement said.