Hundreds – possibly thousands – turned out to hear Jeremy Corbyn speak in Newcastle, but it seems Chronicle readers are split over the left winger’s Labour leadership bid.
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Arab European League, then headed by Abou Jahjah, published on its website a cartoon showing Anne Frank in bed with Hitler and the caption “Write this in your diary, Anne”. The editorial was triggered by a report that Corbyn wrote a letter of support to Rev. Stephen Sizer, who has blamed Israel for the 9/11 attacks and was banned by the Anglican Church for six months for his antisemitic ideas.
In a statement, Mr Corbyn said: “My staff have researched this and tell me that I did meet this man in 2009 but I have no recollection of him”.
“I think the remark has been taken quite seriously out of context by a lot of people”. “Because I meet them, it does not mean I share their views or endorse their views”.
That they shared a platform was “beyond any doubt and is documented and resulted in my ban to enter the UK”.
Abou Jahjah also told LBC Radio: “We had, I think, two times lunch or breakfast together so I can not say that Mr Corbyn is a personal friend but he is absolutely a political friend”.
Photographs emerged that appeared to show Mr Corbyn with Dyab Abou Jahjah, a Lebanese extremist, who is reported to have told a Flemish magazine in 2004 that he considered “every dead American, British and Dutch soldier a victory”. We still witness the repercussions of that awful crime until this day. After Labour’s worst election defeat since 1987, four contenders are battling in a selection process characterised by Labour’s most successful leader, Tony Blair, as a tug of war between the party’s head and its heart. However, rejoicing the death of people, even enemy soldiers, is not something that I would do.
But the Islington North MP strenuously denied knowing the controversial figure.
“I’ve spent my life opposing racism. Until my dying day I will be opposed to racism in any form”. And I am catching a tiny bit of that stench right now.
Pressed to explain why he had called Palestinian militant group Hamas “friends” during a meeting in Parliament, Mr Corbyn said he had been trying to start a dialogue to help bring about peace in the Middle East.
He added: “I want someone who can actually address the world of tomorrow, rather than taking us back to old Labour or for that matter New Labour in the 90s because we’re addressing an entirely different world”.
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“Labour cannot advance in Scotland if we do not reconnect with the Scottish people and we cannot win a general election without speaking to Scotland”.
