BICOM

Jeremy Corbyn in 2010 compared Israeli actions in Gaza to military action by Nazi Germany at Stalingrad.

According to a report in the Times today, Corbyn spoke at a rally outside the Israeli Embassy and said: “I was in Gaza three months ago. I saw… the psychological damage to a whole generation, who’ve been imprisoned for as long as the siege of Leningrad and Stalingrad took place.”

A Labour spokesman defended the 2010 speech suggesting that: “Jeremy was not comparing the actions of Nazis and Israelis but the conditions of civilian populations in besieged cities in wartime.”

The Times has also revealed that Jeremy Corbyn appeared on Press TV in 2012 and questioned whether there was a “serious case” against any of the 1000 Hamas members involved in terrorist attacks that killed more than 600 Israelis and who were released as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner swap deal. Corbyn repeatedly referred to the released Hamas members as ‘brothers’ on the Press TV show, Remember Palestine.

Corbyn also said: “You have to ask the question why they’re in prison in the first place… you just realise that this mass imprisonment of Palestinians is actually part of a much bigger political game. Corporal Shalit apparently equals the lives of a very, very large number of Palestinian people. Well I’m glad that those that were released, were released, and I hope they’re now in safe places.”

Joan Ryan, Labour MP and Chair of Labour Friends of Israel, has demanded an investigation into Corbyn’s comments, stating: “It is beyond abhorrent that the leader of the Labour party would ever welcome the release of such depraved terrorists.”