The controversial leader of the British Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, has called on the British government to freeze arms sales to Israel after a United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) commission of inquiry said that the Israeli Defense Forces allegedly committed war crimes on the Gaza border, The Jerusalem Post reported Saturday.
Corbyn posted a tweet on his account Friday, saying, “The UN says Israel’s killings of demonstrators in Gaza – including children, paramedics and journalists – may constitute ‘war crimes or crimes against humanity.’” He added, “The UK government must unequivocally condemn the killings and freeze arms sales to Israel.” Last year, the Labour Party approved a motion that called for an arms embargo to Israel.
The UNHRC investigation has widely been condemned as corrupt and distorted. Jason Greenblatt, the United States Special Representative for International Negotiations, slammed the report in a series of tweets.
“This [commission of inquiry] report is another manifestation of the UNHRC’s clear bias against Israel, which remains the only country that the Council dedicates an entire standing agenda item to targeting. When will the HRC speak the truth?” he wrote.
“Hamas behaved with reckless irresponsibility [and] disregard for human life when it incited VIOLENT (not ‘civilian’) protests, breaches [and] attacks at the Gaza fence-line,” Greenblatt observed. “Hamas is directly responsible for the miserable situation of the people of Gaza.”
NGO Monitor, a watchdog group that exposes the bias of anti-Israel NGOs, said the commission gathered testimony from Palestinian sources, including those with ties to Hamas and other terror groups, and accepted the premise that Israel was operating in a “law enforcement,” not combat, capacity.
They also charged that the testimonies were anonymous and unverifiable. When asked how the COI selected the 325 witnesses whose testimony was used or whether it interviewed the witnesses directly, the chairman had no answer and said that he’d provide the details at an unspecified later date.
The information, in many cases, was “a near copy-paste” from NGO submissions to the commission, the watchdog added. The COI’s list of children killed by the IDF came from the NGO Defense of Children International – Palestine, which has ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist group.
Corbyn has long been accused of harboring sympathy for the Hamas terrorist organization, which exercises complete political and military control over Gaza (deleted comma) and orchestrated the violent riots along the border. In an infamous 2009 speech, Corbyn described Hamas and Hezbollah as his “friends.”
Last week, The Tower reported that Corbyn’s senior aide, Seamus Milne, has links to terrorist organizations committed to the destruction of Israel. Milne, together with Corbyn, visited Hamas terror leaders during a 2010 trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories. Corbyn broke British parliamentary rules by failing to disclose the trip and later gushed over having had “a takeaway dinner” with Hamas chief Khaled Mashal in the parliament building in Gaza.
[Photo: Daily Mail / YouTube ]