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Corbyn boasted about 'takeaway dinner' with Hamas chief

The Labour leader used column in Morning Star newspaper to confirm 'long meeting' with Khaled Mashal

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JEREMY Corbyn wrote that he enjoyed “a takeaway dinner” with Hamas chief Khaled Mashal in the parliament building in Gaza.

The Labour leader claimed he talked politics with Hamas political leader Khaled Mashal over a meal in the bombed out wreck of the Parliament building in Gaza where they discussed working together to fight for Palestine.

Confirming that the dinner had taken place a Labour spokesperson was reportedly unable to explain how Mr Corbyn had met the Hamas chief in Gaza in 2010 when Mashal was still in exile from the city - and did not return until 2012.

Writing for the Morning Star newspaper, Mr Corbyn claimed to have held a “long meeting” with Mashal in January 2010.

In a speech in 2012, the Hamas political chief said: “Palestine from the river to the sea, from the north to the south, is our land and we will never give up one inch or any part of it.”

He later praised Palestinians attacking with knives and cars in the West Bank and Jerusalem, glorifying their martyrdom and saying: "By God, they are the most exalted and the noblest of people." Mash'al further said: "After the knives used by the people of the West Bank and Jerusalem - can anyone possibly have an excuse to abandon the path of Jihad?"

Last year Mr Corbyn said he was wrong to call Hamas members he had met up with his “friends.”

A Labour spokesperson told the Sun: “Jeremy has a long and principled record of solidarity with the Palestinian people and engaging with actors in the conflict to support peace and justice in the Middle East. That is the right thing to do.”

Meanwhile a poll commissioned by the Sun showed nearly half of adults think the Labour Party has a serious problem with antisemitism, with 31 per cent believing that Mr Corbyn personally condones the prejudice.

And 27 per cent of voters thinks that Jeremy Corbyn is personally antisemitic after accusations of anti-Jewish hatred have dogged the opposition boss since 201.6 However 35 per cent said they did not believe he was personally hostile to Jewish people.

OnePoll survered 1000 voters on August 16 from a nationally representative sample.

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