If you wish to lobby Parliamentarians on Israel/Palestine, be wary of “the slur of antisemitism”.

So said Baroness Jenny Tonge in a presentation reported by the Israeli Committee Against House Demol-itions’s May newsletter.

Tonge claimed that MPs were terrified of being accused of antisemitism. Many Labour MPs were supporters of Israel, and the Board of Deputies used its influence wherever it sees it as necessary, she said. 

This is the same Tonge who told a pro-Palestinian lobby in 2004: “If I had to live in that situation — and I say that advisedly — I might just consider becoming [a suicide bomber] myself.”

After the speech, she was sacked from the front bench — presum-ably because of those pesky pro-Israel MPs and meddling Board.