On Tuesday night in Parliament I asked Manuel Hassassian, the unofficial Palestinian ambassador to the UK, why in the speech he had just delivered in which he accused Israel of “war crimes” he made no mention of Palestinian violence, specifically the recent murders by two Palestinians of four Rabbis and a Druze policeman at a west Jerusalem synagogue.
He answered me directly but when he said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had condemned the killings I reminded him, as you can see in the clip below, that Abbas had incited the murders in the first place with his violent rhetoric including imploring Palestinians to use “all means” to stop Jews visiting the Temple Mount. Here is our confrontation:
Meanwhile, a woman had just told the room that the Palestinians were suffering a fate worse than that of Anne Frank.
What she said was bad enough but the most chilling aspect was the warm applause she received from both Hassassian and ex-Labour MP Martin Linton, now chairperson of Labour Friends of Palestine, as well as from the others present.
Here’s the clip of her mocking the memory of Anne Frank who was murdered by the Nazis at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp at the age of 15:
The actual event at Parliament was about that recent vote to recognise a Palestinian state at some time in the future. Although it was held under the auspices of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Third World Solidarity it was for all intents and purposes another sickening Labour Party anti-Israel event.
As well as Linton current Labour MP Khalid Mahmood spoke. Labour MP Richard Burden and Labour’s Lord Ahmed were also due to speak but were both absent.
Mahmood replied to my question on the role of Hamas in the conflict by accusing Israel of bombing the Palestinian Authority out of Gaza so leaving the road clear for a Hamas takeover.
Hamas had fought a bloody civil war against the PA but Mahmood’s response shows the serious level of misinformation gladly assumed by many British politicians. Here is Mahmood expressing his pure ignorance of events:
Finally there was Linton, now notorious for invoking anti-Jewish Nazi imagery when he once referred to “the tentacles of Israel” interfering in Britain’s political system.
At Tuesday night’s event while he mentioned that Mohammed Abu Khedair was murdered by Israelis he never mentioned that Israeli teenagers Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel were murdered by Palestinians. According to Linton the latter had been merely “kidnapped”. I interrupted to remind him of their fate as you can see here from 2 mins 40 secs:
Remarkably there were only 25 people present at the event with swathes of empty seats. Those present finally convened for a group photo, see below, and with numbers short I offered to help out with taking photos for those who wanted a memento of the sour night.
Group photo! Linton front 2nd from right, Hassassian front 3rd from right.
RichardMillett's Blog 
The reality is that these people are just a bunch of losers who have no influence on anyone. So not to worry.
Same relentless racist comparisons with Nazis, even when the victims are Jews.
The whole ‘Palestine’ industry is based on projection, lies and theft of Jewish history.
Welcome back Richard. We’ve missed you.
200,000 dead in Syria. Some beheaded, as seen on posted videos.
Hamass fascists dragging the bodies of suspected informers through the streets of gaza – as a warning to others.
abbass’ “condemnation” is window dressing, a sham – that only a credulous fool would believe.
Considering that more Germans than Brits died in WW2, does that make the Brits the aggressors in WW2? Same applies to the palestinian human shield dead of the Summer war against Hamass rocket attacks.
so England gave up Christianity for this
Excuse me Richard for being so ignorant about the workings of the British political system. Let me get this straight. Is this a caucus imbedded in your parliament? What exactly is “Labour friends of Palestine?” And they talk about Israeli “tentacles?” What on earth is going on over there?
Jeff, it’s a bunch of bigots abusing their privileges by inviting other bigots to a shindig in the Parliament that my taxes keep lit and heated. It has nil political meaning. A bit like the fictitious ‘ambassador’ of the fictitious ‘Palestine’.
Brilliant as always Richard . Your vignettes shine a light on the lies and base propaganda which passes for Palestinian advocacy . You need to make sure your fine body of work is not just archived but passed to other organisations who can learn and get a better understanding of this hate filled phenomenon which seeks to delegitimise Israel . In time your important body of work will be seen to be highly significant in understanding the insidious rise of anti Zionist fascism
why are you publicising these peoples’ one sided and misinformed opinions? I cannot see that you had any victory over them,,,,,,,
Maybe you are right. Should I not record the anti semitism and anti Zionism that is spreading throughout our universities, parliament and charity sectors, for example?
Of course you should . In years to come it will be seen as an important commentary on our times and how the far left Islamofascist fusion came to subvert truth and context scapegoating Israel for all the ills of the Arab Palestine world.
Seconded.
I still have a problem with calling them ‘the left’ just because they claim to be the left.
Leah, they call themselves “the left”, like ISIS call themselves Islamic.
They define themselves.
Any person of “the left” should have no affinity for “the left” any more as “the left” has abandoned them by taking sides with some very non-progressive people..
I don’t have a problem with the claim of people to be “left”. I have a problem with “left” meaning “good, young and beautiful”. When they associate with nutcase haters, they just won’t have my support.
This is, as usual, a semantic problem, ascribing wrong meanings to terms and a Manichean vision to the real world.They made “right”, “Zionist” and “Israel” sound bad and “left”, “anti-Zionist” sound good, while minimising “antisemitism”. Playing their game is a mistake.
Why the ” ? Palestine is a legitime state, that you like it or not. I hope you will be still alive when ALL Palestine will return to their legitime arab owners.
In fact, Palestine has never been a state in history. So when did it become so, except on some UN paper?
If all Palestine returns to the legitimate owners, that will mean Jews and will include a lot of land now occupied by Arabs.
Put down the crack pipe nagasaki.
Jews were in Israel thousands of years before muhammed or “palestine” was concocted by arafat and his fellow terrorists.
Chant this:
From the River to the Sea,
palestine Will NEVER BE!