She says she 'wholeheartedly agrees' with the Jewish state's existence, as her revitalised party seeks voters put off by Labour antisemitism
September 18, 2019 12:04
Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson has reaffirmed her support for two-state solution and called on all states “which have not yet recognised Israel to do so”.
Ms Swinson said she favoured “a negotiated peace settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict”.
Echoing the commitment in the party’s 2017 General Election manifesto, Ms Swinson said she backed a two-state solution but also condemned the use of “disproportionate force used by all sides.”
The 39-year-old MP for East Dunbartonshire added: “I wholeheartedly agree with the existence of the state of Israel.”
She also attacked the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement’s tactics as a means of aiding the Palestinian cause, saying: “It is counter-productive and simply adds fuel to a confrontational and aggressive narrative that those who do not want peace wish to build.”
In communications with Liberal Democrat Friends of Israel (LDFI) group ahead of this week’s party conference in Bournemouth, Ms Swinson said she would level equal criticism of Hamas over their targeting of Israeli citizens as she would of the IDF over any excessive use of force at times of conflict.
But she believed “the time is now right for the British government to recognise the State of Palestine”.
Ms Swinson also questioned Jeremy Corbyn’s commitment to eradicating antisemitism in Labour and suggested that the recent BBC Panorama documentary on the crisis only served to highlight the seriousness of the problem.
“Instead of saying he would root out the antisemitism and going to war with antisemitism, he goes to war with the BBC and impugns the reputations of those former staffers,” she said.
“I do find that really troubling. Does he care about antisemitism? That is the genuine question you are left asking.”
Lib Dem Peer peer Lord Monroe Palmer, honourary president of LDFI, told the JC on Monday evening that he “trusts the instincts” of Ms Swinson.
He added: “She is very, very supportive of Israel, but recognises that the time has come to recognise the State of Palestine. She is also very wary of going down the antisemitism path like the Labour Party, and has said she does not see the Lib Dems in coalition with a Corbyn-led Labour Party.”
In his speech on Monday at the Lib Dem conference, Chuka Umunna, the party’s new foreign affairs spokesman who quit Labour in February, attacked Mr Corbyn’s core beliefs and his record on antisemitism.
He said: “You cannot be a champion of liberalism if you are currently subject to a formal investigation by the Equality and Human Rights Commission for institutional racism against Jewish people.
“You cannot be a champion of liberalism when your leader’s supporters think it is acceptable to abuse, vilify and deselect anyone who dares to question the leader.”
On the Labour leader’s foreign policy positions, Mr Umunna said he was “acting as an apologist for a hard-right Russian government that thinks it can poison people on British soil, lauding authoritarian regimes in Venezuela and Iran, failing to support the proscription of Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation”.
In her keynote speech at the party conference in Bournemouth, Siobhan Benita, who is bidding to be the first Lib Dem and first female mayor of London at next year’s election, accused Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan of “continuing to prop up a Labour party that has failed to drive out antisemitism”.
Ms Benita said: “Sadiq Khan has announced that he will stand again. But what exactly does he stand for? He has failed to tackle knife crime, he has failed to clean London’s toxic air.
"And, unlike Chuka [Umunna] and Luciana [Berger], he continues to prop up a Brexit-facilitating, deeply divided Labour party, that has failed to drive out antisemitism.
“It’s no surprise, therefore, that recent polling shows he has negative satisfaction ratings.”
