Labour’s Member of Parliament for Easington in the north of England has provoked outrage today after insinuating that the Israeli flag in some way had a link to Nazism.
Grahame Morris, who was elected to the northern seat in 2010, has been tweeting aggressively anti-Israel statements for a while now, and today appeared to jump the shark from baseless criticism into overt anti-Semitism. “Nazis in my village,” he tweeted, “do you see that flag they fly[?]” implying some link between the two.
The European Forum on Anti-Semitism’s Working Definition states that, “Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” falls under the banner of anti-Semitism.
Morris, whose countries of interest include “Palestine” and “Cuba” on the UK Parliament website, was recently on the receiving end of criticism by Labour Party activists for tweeting a picture of the entirety of Israel and the Palestinian territories with the slogan, “Keep Calm and Free Palestine”. Morris had to be reminded that the Labour Party’s position was for a negotiated two-state solution. He also tweeted at pro-Israel activists, “Why don’t all you Zionist trolls have a day off[?]”
Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard described Morris’s tweet below as “astonishing”, before stating, “Yes, agreed it could be fascists demonstrating and holding the Israeli flag. But if that’s so it’s so badly put it’s jaw dropping.”
Indeed the rally that Morris blurrily captured could well be that of neo-fascists, however their use and abuse of the Israeli flag, should not be used by a Member of Parliament to launch into anti-Semitic attacks.
Critics have also pointed out how those who Morris supports have hung actualNazi flags over Israeli villages.
UPDATE (Monday 1pm): Morris has now deleted the offending tweet, though he has not yet issued an apology. Trending Central has written to his office seeking clarification.
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