Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott raised the issue of Jewish people living under threat in Yemen and urged government to help. Tories later killed off the move and declined to offer help
In 2010, Jews still living in Yemen were under severe threat and were suffering serious persecution. Orthodox Jews living in then-back bencher Diane Abbott’s London constituency approached her and fellow back bencher Jeremy Corbyn for help.
In response, Abbott and Corbyn co-sponsored a parliamentary motion that February demanding that the government – then still Gordon Brown’s Labour government – take urgent steps to help the threatened Yemeni community:
Of the thirty-one MPs who signed the motion, only one was a Tory.
Unforgivably, the Tories then ignored the motion after winning the 2010 general election and no action was taken.
More than seven years later, the plight of Jewish Yemenis was even worse – as a result of the civil war that has devastated the country since 2015. An MP put a written parliamentary question to the government to ask what measures the Tories were putting in place to help Jews living in the war-torn country,
The government’s answer was basically – nothing:
Then-immigration minister – and soon to be Tory party chairman – Brandon Lewis’ response made clear that there would be no help for the beleaguered community, essentially stating that they were on their own unless they could manage to get themselves to safety and even then would not be entitled to claim asylum:
There are safe and legal routes for people to come to the UK should they wish to join family members here, work or study. They would need to meet the requirements of the relevant Immigration Rule under which they were applying to qualify for a visa. Details about the criteria and how to apply are available on the GOV.UK website at: http://www.gov.uk/apply-uk-visa.
However, there is no provision in the Immigration Rules for people to be allowed to travel to the UK to seek asylum. Those who need international protection should claim in the first safe country they reach – that is the fastest route to safety.
Those who have left Yemen and been recognised as refugees by UNHCR may be eligible for resettlement under one of our discretionary resettlement schemes: Gateway, Mandate or the Vulnerable Children’s Resettlement Scheme which resettles at-risk children and their families living in Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan or Lebanon.
SKWAWKBOX comment:
Yet more evidence of Jeremy Corbyn and his top team’s consistent efforts to help Jewish people – and of the Tories’ callousness and the racism of their immigration policies introduced by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary.
Yet the media portrayal of the relative merits of the two parties and their leaders has become an inversion of the situation the longstanding evidence represents.
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Why post this story.We don’t need to prove Corbyn is a decent man,and that the lies coming from the Zionist scum and their opportunist supporters on the far right of the LP are just that,lies.What we want is to attack to strike back.
This is the sort of ammunition we need to strike back with. I collect these stories so that when someone calls Corbyn an anti Semite in my hearing I can have a happy half hour refutation rant.
No we don’t make defensive responses like the above, we demand that the lying scum provide proof to back up their accusations.
I think you’re both right.
But the problem is media access. As we see day after day, the selection of interviewees, the interviewers and their questions are incredibly biased. You would never know, if you didn’t have alternative sources of knowledge and information, that the accepted narrative is entirely able to be challenged – not just by assertion, but by factual analysis.
You only have to look at the Chris Williamson and McDonagh incidents to vividly see how fantastic that whole narrative has become : a straightforward defence has become ‘antisemitic’ by assertion and a totally ludicrous linking of two concepts becomes accepted as worthy of discussion.
I have said before and I will say again,Corbyn and McDonnell etc need to take an aggressive stance against these liars,provide the leadership we need.They also need to cut out the PLP and appeal directly to the members.Corbyn is full of rhetoric about how important the members are,yet he allows the PLP to dominate the discussion.We have a PLP,large parts of which are completely at odds with the membership.Corbyn needs to appeal outside the Westminster bubble.His support is out in the membership he must use it before it is too late.
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There is a meeting this Saturday 9th March at the Quaker Friends Meeting House, School Lane, Liverpool at 5.30pm.
Speaking will be Sundus Azza a young woman from Hebron, Palestine whose brother was recently framed and jailed by the Israelis for carrying a knife but freed after it was shown that the knife had been planted by a soldier. She will relate the atrocious conditions she and her family are living in at the hands of the illegal Israeli settlers.
Also speaking will be Jackie Walker to talk about how she came to be suspended and give her thought and opinions on the current false accusations of anti-Semitism against Jeremy Corbyn and members of the Labour Party.
The event is free and all are welcome.
I think that this type of event is one way forward. I have little hope that the real narrative will significantly penetrate the MSM – but the more people that can be made aware of the actuality – the better.
Thinking about it, I don’t recall much coverage at all about the Quakers dis-investing from Israel getting much coverage at all – which shows how the standard narrative is wary of taking on morally unimpeachable sources.
Constantly getting the message out there in small ways is important in shaping a counter-narrative where the MSM isw looked at with scepticism by more and more people.
There is probably a secret Group (Balir, Mandelson and others?) directing Take Down JC – part 5 (they think) the final act.
They probably have a wall chart outlining their plan with key Right Wingers ready to follow instructions to play their bit in maintaining Neo-Liberalism.
‘The Crumbs for Working People and Cushy Careers for Us in the Limelight Brigade.’ (?)
What they want is to really get back to a cosy Parliamentary Club without those pesky socialists!
They now seem to be going for JC’s inner circle and those MPs close to him to thus try to isolate their real target.
But it has always been a case of a few lions at the top – JC etc. surrounded by predominantly PLP donkeys who are surrounded by a rank and file of predominantly lions.
So if you are reading this Right Wing Neo-Liberal Barbarians well stick this on your flip chart under your threats heading:
. We are devoid of ideas.
. The public could be pissed off with careerist elites like us – seeing us as all being the same.
. The public may actually ignore us and take a shine to JC.
. Labour under JC did enormously well in the last general election despite our best efforts to undermine him!
. We may be overplaying some cards and the diverse public especially those who are really suffering from Tory policies may start asking why we aren’t putting as much effort into fighting for them!
. People may not believe our propaganda.
. They (the rank and file) are the many and we are the few.
Ends.
Solidarity with Real Socialists!