Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) caused outrage recently by issuing a ‘victim-blaming’ statement in response to the massacre of around sixty Palestinians by Israeli soldiers.
Three Labour MPs distanced themselves from the group after the statement, asking for their names to be removed from LFI’s list of supporters – two even claimed that their names had been added without their consent, although in one case it seems that was incorrect.
Now several Labour MPs and a Labour peer have, astonishingly, taken a trip to Israel – from where LFI has posted tourist-type photos of the group visiting Jerusalem landmarks:
LFI has described the visit as a ‘parliamentary delegation’, but it appears to include only LFI members.
Comment:
LFI has also tweeted pictures of the group in the Knesset, the Israeli parliament – where they met Israeli Labor leader and advocate of disengaging with and fencing off Palestinians, Isaac Herzog – and of a meeting with a Palestinian authority minister in Ramallah.
But the overwhelming response on social media to the visit has been one of outrage, with one user making the point clearly by posting a photoshopped version of one of the Jerusalem pictures, showing the group instead against a backdrop of Israeli tear-gas bombs falling on protesters:
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